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Government policy mandates information disclosure in financial communications to protect consumer welfare. Unfortunately, low readability can hamper information disclosures’ meaningful benefits to financial decision making. Thus, this experiment tests the product evaluation and decision satisfaction of Korean consumers with less or more subjective knowledge and with or without personal finance education.

A between-subjects experiment examined responses of a nationally representative sample of 400 Korean consumers toward a Korean-language credit card advertisement.

Financial knowledge improves financial product evaluation and decision satisfaction. More readable disclosures improved evaluation and satisfaction among less knowledgeable consumers. Less readable disclosures did not. Consumers without financial education exhibited lower evaluations and decision satisfaction regardless of readability. More knowledgeable consumers and those with financial education performed equally well regardless of disclosure readability.

Financial service providers seeking more accurate evaluations and better decision satisfaction among their customers should use easier-to-read disclosures when targeting consumers with less prior financial knowledge.

One-size-fits-all financial communications are unlikely to achieve public policy or consumer well-being goals. Government-mandated information should be complemented by augmenting financial knowledge and providing personal finance training.

Although almost a quarter of the world’s population lives in East Asia, this is the first examination of readability in disclosures written in East Asian characters rather than a Western alphabet. Previous readability research on Asian-originating financial disclosures has been conducted on English-language texts. This study extends knowledge of readability effects to growing East Asian markets.

The economic downturn and financial meltdown in the changing retirement savings and pension landscape in the US placed individual investors and financial companies at risk. Recognizing the need for more financial literacy among investors, the US financial services companies for retirement plans and investment options (i.e. the retirement financial services providers (RFSPs)) have stepped up consumer marketing, particularly through creation of corporate websites. Seeing their potential for increasing literacy and aiding consumer financial decisions, a majority of RFSPs are promoting websites and a large number of consumers use them. With this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to examine the use of these websites and their conformity to existing regulations regarding design and structure.

The present study used a quantitative content analysis to examine the types of disclosure information presented on the corporate websites of RFSPs during 2013-2015. It also examined the adherence to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) clear and conspicuous standards (CCS) disclosure guidelines over the three-year period. Finally, this study examined the levels of financial literacy activities employed on 164 RFSPs’ websites over the three-year period.

This study shows that RFSPs are increasingly providing disclosure information for target consumers via their websites. Although problems still exist with the presentation of that material in terms of the FTC’s suggestions for prominence, there have been some improvements in compliance with proximity of disclosures. In addition, just under one-fourth of the RFSPs were providing tactics and features on their websites to potentially aid in the creation and maintenance of critical financial literacy and acumen.

The key point emerging from this analysis is that financial services providers, regulators, advocacy groups, and policymakers should continue to address varying levels of financial literacy activities to promote the deliberation and discussion of the retirement issues and topics across media while facilitating the provision and dissemination of financial information and data in a clear and conspicuous manner.

This is the first study to explore the content of RFSPs’ websites with regard to disclosure information, adherence to FTC CCS disclosure guidelines, and the use of techniques related to various levels of financial literacy from 2013-2015.

This research aims to examine the effects of financial services advertising disclosures by pairing a content analysis documenting how mandatory financial disclosures are presented in mutual fund advertisements with a between-subjects experiment assessing whether inclusion of the disclosures influences consumer responses to advertisement, brand and company evaluations.

This research examines the effects of financial services advertising disclosures by pairing a content analysis documenting how mandatory financial disclosures are presented in mutual fund advertisements with a between-subjects experiment assessing whether the inclusion of the disclosures influences consumer responses to the ad, brand and company.

The findings show more positive consumer responses for perceived advertising responsibility, recall, and cognitive response as well as higher risk perception when consumers are exposed to the financial disclosures in mutual fund advertisements. Also, the results indicate a mediating role of positive cognitive responses on attitude toward the mutual fund company only when consumers are exposed to advertising disclosures.

The paper extends knowledge of whether and how required information disclosures pertaining to mutual funds influence investors ' psychological responses in mutual fund advertising contexts. From a managerial perspective, it has implications for financial services advertising and other social marketing campaigns by uncovering the effects of advertising-as-information in financial decision-making. From a public policy standpoint, the paper is among the first to make explicit claims regarding the role of advertising disclosure in retail investment circumstances.

The purpose of this research is to examine US and Korean college student consumers' attitudes towards product placements in three different media (films, TV shows, and songs), and product placement acceptability based on media genre and product type.

The current study employed a self‐administered online survey of 471 college students in the USA and South Korea.

Korean young adult consumers express greater ethical concerns about product placement, particularly in TV shows, and more strongly support governmental regulation than their American counterparts. In contrast, American young adults respond more favorably to product placement's enhancement of setting realism than Korean consumers. Findings also reveal cultural differences in product placement acceptability across a range of media genres and product/service types.

Only two countries were used as a proxy to characterize their respective cultural values and levels of contextuality. In addition, respondents are limited geographically to southwestern and southeastern regions in the USA, and to Korea's capital, Seoul.

Despite the widespread use of standardized product placement practices in different cultural settings, it is recommended, from the findings of this study, that managers should take caution when considering TV for placement in Korea when targeting young adults given their relatively strong concerns regarding the practice. Specific and usable information regarding appropriateness of genre and product type is also provided.

This exploratory cross‐cultural study builds upon and contributes to previous work by serving as a quantitative comparison of attitudinal responses to product placement across three media in the USA and Korea.

This paper aims to investigate how the US financial services organizations (FSOs) provided marketing information and the way they strategically used various appeals through their advertising before and during the current financial crisis.

This takes the form of a content analysis examining a total of 2,480 financial services ads (FSA) in print magazines within two periods – the two years before the crisis (2005 to 2006) and the two years during the crisis (2007 to 2008).

This study showed three significant findings: because of the economic struggle, there was a significant decline across the two periods in the total number of yearly FSA; the economic crisis led to a significant increase in the use of informational message strategies across all FSOs; and financial value and atmospherics appeals were predominant after the crisis. However, each FSO used appeals in a different way.

This study focused on only print media. A future research project aimed at other traditional media such as television and new media such as the internet or weblogs could provide additional analysis of financial advertising strategies.

The findings of this study suggest that FSOs may rely much more heavily on informational than on transformational approaches during an economic crisis. The findings may provide further valuable implications for non‐profit institutions and international marketers.

This study contributes in several ways to understanding of the strategic communicative reactions of FSOs during the crisis.

This paper aims to examine the effect of procedural justice on affective commitment, through the mediating of organizational trust and job satisfaction.

Data were collected from 305 executives working in eight large cement organizations through a standardized questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling and mediation analysis were performed to examine the relationship.

Procedural justice significantly influenced job satisfaction and organizational trust directly. Organizational trust and job satisfaction are partially mediated by organizational justice and affective commitment. Interestingly, procedural justice does not influence affective commitment directly.

Procedural justice and affective commitment are crucial aspects of an organization. Limited research has been conducted linking procedural justice, organizational trust, job satisfaction and affective commitment. This study was conducted in the South Asian country of India, where power-distance prevails