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Social media has emerged as a prominent platform for marketers and brands to disseminate brand-related information. This study aims to investigate the impact of color congruence between themes and background on marketing effectiveness, focusing specifically on Instagram.

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate how color congruence between themes and background in brand posts influences flow and aesthetic experience, subsequently affecting marketing communication parameters such as brand attitude, visit intention, and eWOM on Instagram. Moreover, Adidas Originals was selected as the focal brand, and blue and white color was chosen as the primary color palette for the experimental material.

This study demonstrates that color congruence, regardless of brand layout or post, significantly influences flow and aesthetic experience, subsequently affecting marketing effectiveness.

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of congruence theory and social media marketing, providing valuable insights for brands to enhance their communication through photographs and effectively manage their official Instagram accounts.

This study aims to explore and extend the consumer–brand relationship literature by integrating the relatively new construct of brand coolness with a growing body of work on gratitude. Specifically, gratitude is explored alongside emotional brand attachment as an additional mechanism affecting the relationship between cool brands and the loyalty outcome of repurchase intention. Consumption context is examined as a boundary condition to the effect of gratitude.

Data was collected from an online survey of a Qualtrics panel of 356 US consumers. A moderated mediation model is used to explain the effects of brand coolness on repurchase intention via emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude in the moderating presence of consumption context.

Brand coolness significantly increases repurchase intention. Furthermore, emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude are established as parallel mediators of the relationship between brand coolness and repurchase intention, with brand gratitude exhibiting a significantly stronger mediated effect. The impact of brand coolness on brand gratitude is moderated by social visibility, with publicly consumed cool brands stimulating greater brand gratitude than their privately consumed counterparts.

Brand gratitude is shown to influence repurchase intention independent of the impact exerted by consumers’ emotional brand attachment. Cognitive appraisal theory is used to distinguish brand gratitude from other mediators studied in consumer–brand relationships. Findings establish the moderating influence of the social visibility of the brand on the relationship between brand coolness and gratitude.

The study aims to address a critical gap in existing healthcare payment schemes and care service pricing by recognizing the influential role of patients' decisions on self-management efforts. These decisions not only impact health outcomes but also shape the demand for care, subsequently influencing care costs. Despite the significance of this interplay, current payment schemes often overlook these dynamics. The research focuses on investigating the implications of a novel behavior-based payment scheme, designed to align incentives and establish a direct connection between patients' decisions and care costs. The primary objective is to comprehensively understand whether and how this innovative payment scheme structure influences key stakeholders, including patients, care providers, insurers and overall social welfare.

In this paper, we propose a game-theoretical model to incorporate the performance of self-management with the demand for healthcare service, compare the patient's effort decision for self-management and provider's price decision for healthcare service under a behavior-based scheme with that under two implemented widely payment schemes, that is, co-payment scheme and co-insurance scheme.

Our findings confirm that the behavior-based scheme incentives patient self-management more than current schemes while reducing their possibility of seeking healthcare service, which indirectly induces the provider to lower the price of the service. The stakeholders' utility under various payment schemes is sensitive to the cost of treatment and the perceived health utility of patients. Especially, patient health awareness is not always benefited provider profit, as it motivates patient self-management while diminishing the demand for care.

We provide a novel framework for characterizing behavior-based payment schemes. Our results confirm the need for modification of the current payment scheme to incentivize patient self-management.

As innovations introduce novel benefits to customers, they would need to be positioned in a way that sets them apart in the market. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel approach for the positioning of innovations with the use of the customer imagination and, specifically, mental movies.

Using the schema approach as this study’s theoretical framework, the author proposes that innovations could be positioned using moving pictures (i.e. mental movies) instead of mental pictures (the approach traditionally taken).

A new conceptual framework for the positioning of innovations using mental movies is presented. In the framework, this study outlines how innovations can be positioned with the use of mental movies, and why such an approach would be beneficial. The framework outlines mixed reality, i.e. augmented reality, augmented virtuality and virtuality, as well as the metaverse and gaming as avenues for positioning innovations using mental movies. On the benefit side, the framework identifies successful market introductions, engagement and stickiness, memorability and positive emotions, uniqueness and differentiation and market share as the concrete benefits that can be achieved with this type of positioning.

The framework provides a novel approach for the positioning of innovations. It departs from existing literature by proposing that innovations can be positioned using mental movies. The framework also identifies why this approach would be beneficial for marketers and managers and provides concrete guidelines for how such a positioning can be achieved in the market.

Building on stimulus organism response theory, the current study examines the influence of channel integration quality dimensions (channel service configuration and integrated interactions) on the omnichannel retail store's shoppers' satisfaction, trust and commitment, subsequently leading to customer citizenship behavior (CCB). It examines the relationships proposed against boundary conditions, the number of channels used during the purchase and gender.

The research is descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional investigation. It was conducted using data from 451 Indian omnichannel shoppers using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The proposed conceptual model was tested using PLS-SEM and PLS-MGA.

The results indicate that channel service configuration positively impact the dimensions of relationship quality of the omnichannel shoppers. However, integrated interactions influence trust and commitment directly but affect satisfaction indirectly through trust. Subsequently, relationship quality significantly explains CCB. The model results show r2 = 0.402 for CCB; that is, 40.2% of CCB is explained by channel integration and relationship quality. The moderating effect of the number of purchase channels used and gender on all proposed relationships were tested. PLS-MGA results revealed channel service configuration led to shopper commitment, subsequently impacting CCB. The effect was more among shoppers who used more than 2 channels. The impact of channel service configuration on commitment was seen more among female shoppers. Male and female shoppers exhibited satisfaction-driven and trust-driven citizenship behavior, respectively.

The study is carried out in the Indian population, where omnichannel retailing is still in the nascent stage.

This is the first study to demonstrate channel integration quality may influence customer citizenship behavior through relationship quality dimensions, tested against boundary conditions, the number of channels used during the purchase and gender. The findings from this research would help retail store managers design their omnichannel operations to encourage firm-beneficial value co-creation behaviors among omnichannel shoppers.

Nowadays, star athletes are global brand personalities. The increased popularity of the professional sport has contributed to elevating exceptional athletes to international star status. This empirical study aims to assess the impact of athlete performance and brand social value on product involvement with the mediation effect of celebrity athlete endorsement.

A quantitative survey was conducted with 399 Chinese participants. PLS-SEM is adopted to examine the associated paths and the mediating effect of celebrity endorsement.

The results demonstrate the significant impact of athlete performance and brand social value on product involvement. Celebrity endorsement partially mediates the effects of athlete performance and brand social value on product involvement.

This study extends understanding of celebrity athlete endorsement and provides insight into the strategic implications for Chinese social media-based marketing initiatives in the context of the recent Olympic Game in Tokyo 2021.

Designing and developing responsible business practices can create various tensions for service organizations. The purpose of this research is to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between customer engagement (CE) and responsible business practices (e.g. environmental, social and/or governance [ESG], corporate social responsibility [CSR] and diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI]) and explore customer engagement tensions that service organizations may face.

This research develops a list of CE-related responsible business practice tensions and empirically explores their relevance through in-depth interviews with nine ESG professionals.

This paper makes three important contributions. First, we find support for nine distinct but related tensions with implications for CE that organizations must navigate when pursuing responsible business practices. Second, interview participants provide some suggestions for tackling these tensions, which we support with relevant theories. Finally, we develop a conceptual framework that may stimulate future service research and inform the implementation of ESG strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to conceptualize and empirically explore the tensions that emerge between responsible business practices and CE. The authors develop a novel analysis of the CE-related tensions that emerge when pursuing an ESG strategy.

The findings are based on a small sample of ESG professionals. Future research may take a quantitative approach to further evaluate the role that these tensions play in engaging customers.

This research provides a conceptual framework that may guide ESG professionals in understanding, framing and navigating CE-related tensions when pursuing responsible business practices.

A social benefit may be found when service organizations are better able to successfully navigate CE-related tensions when pursuing responsible business practices.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the metaverse platform in a social context to better understand the future of this tool in tourism cities and how this can help to improve the well-being of residents in both digital and physical scenarios.

In this paper, the current and probable developments in the metaverse, and its use in tourism cities and companies have been investigated. Moreover, this study develops, collects and examines the main metaverse definitions by expert authors and organizations as a methodology to ensure the transparency and credibility of the metaverse analysis.

Findings suggest that the fusion of the metaverse and tourism cities must create residents’ services and experiences in the new MetaTourPolis to help interact and connect citizens with the city’s institutions and companies, as well as make tourism cities more attractive, innovative, environmentally friendly and healthier places to live. Metaverse will bring new changes for residents and tourists, in fact, this virtual platform is already changing and improving the residents’ quality of life and people with disabilities in tourism cities. For instance, the metaverse platform has been implemented in Seoul, Santa Monica and Dubai MetaTourPolis to interact with their residents, including people with disabilities, to resolve bureaucratic and administrative problems, avoiding this group and the rest of the residents travelling by bus or car to the city’s institutions. In addition, several metaverse applications based on softbot tutors or metaverse virtual social centres have been developed to improve blind and impaired people, and elderly people’ quality of life, respectively.

A new concept called “MetaTourPolis” has been included to stage the relationship between tourism cities and the metaverse platform, where the fusion of metaverse and the new tourism polis of the 21st century will be at the service of citizens, tourists and companies, to create more sustainable, efficient, quantitative and environmental tourism cities.

This study aimed to compare the performance of sustainable shoes made with bacterial cellulosic composite and commercial leather shoes using an experimental research design. The two specific research objectives were: (1) to examine the basic material properties of multi-layered bacterial cellulosic materials (MBC), which include green tea-based cellulosic (GBC) mats, hemp fabrics, and denim fabrics, in comparison with those of two-layered leathers (MCP) consisting of calf-skin and pig-skin – commonly used in shoe manufacturing; and (2) to explore wearers’ performance in the two types of shoes by assessing quantitative kinematic and kinetic parameters of lower body movements.

This study focused on assessing the basic materials testing and performance of sustainable shoes through a biomechanical approach, in contrast to commercially available leather shoes, through human wear trials. In this study, green tea-based cellulosic (GBC) mats were developed using the optimal combination of ingredients for cellulose growth. Subsequently, the GBC, denim fabric (100% cotton), and 100% hemp fabric were combined to create multi-layered bacterial cellulosic materials (MBC) as an alternative to leather. Additionally, calf-skin and pig-skin leathers were utilized to produce a commercially available two-layered leather (MCP), commonly employed in shoe manufacturing. 37 of the 42 human subjects who participated in wear testing were collected. A paired t-test was conducted to determine whether significant mean differences existed between the two shoe types, a paired t-test was conducted.

To develop a biodegradable and compostable material that could be used as a leather alternative for the footwear industry, we proposed MBC and examined its properties compared with those of MCP, a product often used when making shoes. These findings confirmed the similar properties of MBC and MCP from the material testing and the possibility of using a men’s sustainable shoe prototype as a leather alternative, in terms of kinematics and kinetics.

The new multi-layered bacterial cellulosic materials (MBC) could be an alternative to commercial leathers such as innovative sustainable material construction, advanced design, and advanced techniques to optimize the overall performance of sustainable footwear.

Investigating the integration of smart textile technologies, ergonomic design principles, and personalized customization will contribute to developing MBC and making sustainable shoes using MBC compared with commercial leather shoes. This study provides valuable insights into further refinement and innovation in the sustainable footwear industry.

This study aims to identify research trends and technological evolution in the polymer three-dimensional (3D) printing process that can effectively identify the direction of technological advancement and progress of acceptance in both society and key manufacturing industries.

The Scopus database was used to collect data on polymer 3D printing papers. This study uses bibliometric approach along with network analytic techniques to identify and discuss the most important countries and their scientific collaboration, compares income groups and analyses keyword trends.

It was found that top research production results from heavy investments in research and development. The USA has the highest number of papers among the high-income countries. However, scientific production in the other two income groups is strongly dominated by China and India. Keyword analysis shows that countries with lower incomes in certain areas, such as composite and bioprinting, have fallen behind other groups over time. International collaborations were suggested as mechanisms for those countries to catch up with the current research trends. The evolution of the research field, which started with a focus on 3D printing processes and shifted to printed part designs and their applications, was discussed. The advancement of the research topic suggests that translational research on polymer 3D printing has been led mainly by research production from higher-income countries and countries with large research and development investments.

Previous studies have conducted performance analysis, science mapping and network analysis in the field of 3D printing, but none have focused on global research trends classified by country income. This study has conducted a bibliometric analysis and compared the outputs according to various income levels according to the World Bank classification.