Search results

The performance of behavioral targeting (BT) mainly relies on the effectiveness of user classification since advertisers always want to target their advertisements to the most relevant users. In this paper, the authors frame the BT as a user classification problem and describe a machine learning–based approach for solving it.

To perform such a study, two major research questions are investigated: the first question is how to represent a user’s online behavior. A good representation strategy should be able to effectively classify users based on their online activities. The second question is how different representation strategies affect the targeting performance. The authors propose three user behavior representation methods and compare them empirically using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) as a performance measure.

The experimental results indicate that ad campaign effectiveness can be significantly improved by combining user search queries, clicked URLs and clicked ads as a user profile. In addition, the authors also explore the temporal aspect of user behavior history by investigating the effect of history length on targeting performance. The authors note that an improvement of approximately 6.5% in AUC is achieved when user history is extended from 1 day to 14 days, which is substantial in targeting performance.

This paper confirms the effectiveness of BT on user classification and provides a validation of BT for Internet advertising.

“Idol pilgrimage tour” is a popular trend among young Chinese fans who travel for idol-related purposes, engage in interactive events and have co-created experiences at destinations. With the growing market size of fan economy, fan tourists generate significant revenue for the local. However, many destinations have not fully utilised this opportunity, and there is a lack of research on this niche form of tourism. This research was undertaken to address this research gap.

This study adopted an idol worship–motivation–co-created experience–tour satisfaction–destination loyalty framework in the context of idol pilgrimage tours. In addition, this study investigated the direct influence of idol worship on the other four constructs. Data were collected from 354 Chinese fans who had such experience through online questionnaires. The partial least squares–structural equation modelling technique was used to examine the research model.

It was demonstrated that idol worship has a direct influence on motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty and that there is a positive relationship between motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty. The results advance the brand sacralisation literature by studying worship in a tourism context and contribute to interactive marketing literature by clarifying the interactive mechanism between relationships among the idol, fans and destinations. The study suggests some practical implications for destination management organisations attempting to target tourist fans.

This is the first study introducing the concept of the idol pilgrimage tour. Empirical results of this study reveal the underlying mechanism of how idols influence fans' travel-related psychology and behaviour.

Through an analysis of data from depth interviews with modern American consumers, we examine whether and how individuals quest for life's meaning through consumption. Our analysis identifies three worldviews that are differently related to the experience of transcendence through consumption. A rationalist worldview is revealed as being unrelated to such a pursuit. It contrasts two magical worldviews held by most informants in which consumption objects are infused with supernatural and metaphysical beliefs that animate life's meaning for them. Our discussion highlights how recognition of magical worldviews contributes to consumer theory, methods, and concepts of investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate universal banks as an important source of external funding and their effects on borrowing firms’ innovation outputs.

The authors employ regression analyses including a difference-in-difference approach and a two-sided matching method to ensure the robustness of the findings. The authors further explore some potential channels and boundary conditions for the main findings.

The authors find that borrowing from universal banks is negatively associated with the quantity of firm innovation, but not the quality of firm innovation. The authors document that borrowing firms reduce their R&D expenditures and rely more on external partners to produce innovation outputs after loan originations from universal banks. The negative relation between universal bank lending and the quantity of firm innovation is more prominent for unrelated innovation and for financially constrained firms.

The evidence reveals that universal banks may use their informational advantage and market power to limit their corporate borrowers’ investment in innovation activities.

The paper extends the line of research on the source of financing and firm innovation, and establishes a robust relationship between capital market and product market.

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.

Initial public offering (IPO) underpricing remains a puzzle after decades of investigation. The stock markets in emerging economies are attractive to international investors but their unique characteristics need to be examined. Chinese stock markets experienced much more significant IPO underpricing than most other stock markets in the world. This paper offers a two-period wealth maximum model to explain the strategic IPO underpricing by state owners. Given the fact that the entire IPO procedure, including IPO price, is regulated and controlled by state owners, we argue that state owners strategically underprice the IPO, because they care less about the IPO proceeds but more about the wealth gain after IPO. The empirical finding of a positive relationship between IPO underpricing and state ownership in Chinese stock market is consistent with the wealth maximization hypothesis of IPO pricing. The paper offers better understanding for IPO procedure of state-owned enterprises in emerging markets.

While it is essential to further research the growing diversity in western metropolitan cities, little is currently known about how the members of various ethnic communities acculturate to multicultural societies. The purpose of this paper is to explore immigrants’ cosmopolitanism and acculturation strategies through an analysis of the food consumption behaviour of ethnic consumers in multicultural London.

The study was set within the socio-cultural context of London. A number of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, observation and photographs were used to assess consumers’ acculturation strategies in a multicultural environment and how that is influenced by consumer cosmopolitanism.

Ethnic consumers’ food consumption behaviour reflects their acculturation strategies, which can be classified into four groups: rebellion, rarefaction, resonance and refrainment. This classification demonstrates ethnic consumers’ multi-directional acculturation strategies, which are also determined by their level of cosmopolitanism.

The taxonomy presented in this paper advances current acculturation scholarship by suggesting a multi-directional model for acculturation strategies as opposed to the existing uni-directional and bi-directional perspectives and explicates the role of consumer cosmopolitanism in consumer acculturation. The paper did not engage host communities and there is hence a need for future research on how and to what extent host communities are acculturated to the multicultural environment.

The findings have direct implications for the choice of standardisation vs adaptation as a marketing strategy within multicultural cities. Whilst the rebellion group are more likely to respond to standardisation, increasing adaptation of goods and service can ideally target members of the resistance and resonance groups and more fusion products should be exclusively earmarked for the resonance group.

The paper makes original contribution by introducing a multi-directional perspective to acculturation by delineating four-group taxonomy (rebellion, rarefaction, resonance and refrainment). This paper also presents a dynamic model that captures how consumer cosmopolitanism impinges upon the process and outcome of multi-directional acculturation strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine children's consumption experiences within families in order to investigate the role that different family environments play in the consumer socialisation of children.

Key consumer socialisation literature is reviewed and family communication patterns and parental socialisation style studies are introduced. Such studies argue for the homogenous and shared nature of the family environment for children. A three‐stage qualitative study of six families is reported, incorporating existential phenomenological interviews. The voices of children and their parents are captured, and the transcribed interview texts are analyzed on two levels (within and across family cases) using a hermeneutical process.

The findings of the study point towards the differential treatment of children within the family environment by both parents and siblings. It is proposed that children inhabit a unique position, or micro‐environment, within their family setting. Consumer micro‐environments are introduced; these have important implications in terms of children's consumption behaviour and, more importantly, their consumer socialisation process within the family setting.

Consumer micro‐environments have potentially important implications in any re‐evaluation of the literature on consumer socialisation, and it is suggested that children may not have equal access to socialisation advice and support offered by family members. A limited number of families and family types are recruited in this exploratory study, and scope exists to explore family micro‐environments across a greater variety of family forms.

A series of micro‐environments, which have implications for the consumer socialisation of children, will be developed on a theoretical level. Existing consumer research views the family environment in homogenous terms, with suggestions that children are socialised by their parents in a similar manner (inhabiting a shared family environment). These findings problematise such a view and also offer insights into the role played by siblings in the consumer socialisation process.

The present study aims at contributing to the knowledge of organizational communication and cross‐cultural female leadership by examining conflict management strategies between Taiwanese female presidents and their American counterparts in Rotary Clubs.

Data were collected through field observations and 25 in‐depth interviews with 14 Taiwanese female presidents and 11 American female presidents in Rotary Clubs. Theme analysis of the interpretive method was used in this research.

This study revealed that the female presidents in both cultures applied obliging and integrating strategies to handle management conflicts. Yet, due to the interference of past presidents, the Taiwanese women leaders are more likely to follow the traditional norms whereas women leaders in the United States tend to employ new approaches and adopt new conflict management strategies in different situations.

This study has focused on exploring the conflict management strategies of only the female presidents in the Rotary Clubs in Taiwan and the USA rather than male presidents. There may be differences in conflict management between genders.

The application of conflict management strategies may be determined by the factors of face, in‐group relationships, and roles of the invited third party for Taiwanese subjects whereas American subjects usually adopt appropriate strategies according to the nature of the conflicts. That is, the Taiwanese female leaders would endeavor to keep relationships positive or/and keep positive relationships with their members while the American female leaders would strive do things right or/and do the right things for their conflict strategy application.

As the first study of its kind, this study fills a research gap by expanding female conflict management studies to cross‐cultural contexts, thus contributing to the body of human knowledge of cross‐cultural leadership in non‐profit organizations.

The tagasalo concept is a unique Filipino personality, indigenous to its culture and relevant within the family system. Carandang (1987) based this concept from her in-depth clinical practice and observation of Filipino family dynamics. The tagasalo is the family member who “catches” or “saves” the family and feels inordinately responsible for the care and welfare of other members of the family. Udarbe (2001) conducted further research and identified dynamics of the tagasalo personality. In the current study, the authors have extended the framework by exploring other dimensions aside from the compulsive and non-compulsive dimensions. The tagasalo also exhibits internalizing behaviors, an implicit tendency to be sensitive to other people, struggling with internal anxiety and stress; and externalizing behaviors by acting out explicitly to alleviate these anxieties. This chapter provides an in-depth theoretical-historical development of the tagasalo personality construct, locates it in broader psychological literature, and extends its potential by identifying multiple dimensions, supported with case illustrations and a composite case analysis.