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The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of parents (via family communication patterns) on teenagers’ electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions, via a serial mediation by internet usage and self-esteem, along with the moderating effect of online impression.

A conceptual model was developed based on the nature vs nurture perspective and theory of consumer socialization. Structural equation modeling was applied to investigate the interplay among proposed variables, using a sample of 797 teenage respondents in India.

The findings indicate that family communication, internet usage, and self-esteem are significant antecedents to eWOM intents of teenagers. Also, online impression is a strong moderator which influences whether teenagers would engage in eWOM activities or not.

This study presents actionable items for marketers interested in teenage consumers in an emerging economy. Marketers can benefit by tailoring their online communication to influence parent’s attitude toward the internet and to enhance online impression of teenagers to substantially increase eWOM dispersion.

This study provides original insights about how parents and individual characteristics act as antecedents and impact teenagers’ eWOM intentions including the moderating effect of online impression.

The purpose of this paper is to study the affective outcome of ambivalent nostalgia through use of executional variables, develop a framework linking nostalgia (through affect) and consumers’ cognitive processing, and explain the relationship of nostalgia with self-brand connection (SBC) and willingness to pay a premium (WTPP) through a mediator, cognitive processing.

This research is based on two experiments. In study 1, students were shown a nostalgic ad paired with a vignette to manipulate “past–present contrast.” In study 2, positive and negative moods were induced and an informative nostalgic ad was shown to measure processing styles and SBC and WTPP; this was followed by mediation analysis.

The findings are as follows: first, “Past–present contrast” can reduce the negative affect in nostalgia, making it less ambivalent; second, positive (negative) affect leads to top-down (bottom-up) processing; third, SBC and WTPP are higher when top-down processing is used; and, fourth, processing style is a mediator between affect and SBC/WTPP.

Managers may use the “good past, good present” scenario to mitigate negative affect in nostalgia. Nostalgic ads may be used by brands that want consumers to pay a price premium, have a strong SBC and when they want consumers to use top-down processing.

This paper demonstrates how to reduce ambivalence and associate brands with positive affect in nostalgia, and gain SBC and WTPP; the mediating role of cognitive processing in the relationship of nostalgia with SBC and WTPP is delineated.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of culture-specific socialization factors such as antecedents to technology readiness index (TRI) scale to understand the adoption of cutting-edge technologies among teenagers.

The conceptual model was empirically tested using survey data from 381 teenagers. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Parent–child communication, peers, media and self-construal have varying influence on technology readiness of teenagers. The effects of parent–child interactions are mediated by self-construal, which reaffirms the importance of identity during adolescence.

The culture-specific characteristics are critical antecedents to teenagers’ TRI. Moreover, the TRI 2.0 scale needs minor refinement to address culturally diverse marketplace where people are less familiar with the technical terms used in developed countries and display low levels of technology awareness.

Marketers need to tailor their communication strategies to have a strong presence on digital media to engage with teenagers. Firms should utilize media for providing information and develop content that should resonate with teens and potentially enhances their online impression to increase the adoption of technology.

This is the first study to investigate the antecedents of technology readiness of teenagers in an emerging market. The study uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine culture-dependent factors using theories from marketing literature (consumer socialization theory) and developmental psychology (self-construal).

This paper aims to develop a conceptual model to understand how different gamification designs (hedonic and utilitarian) evoke different emotions and impact subsequent patronage intentions for online consumers in different mindsets.

The authors first conducted a content analysis study and then tested the model with two online experiments [both 2 × 2 factorial designs – gamification (hedonic/utilitarian) and mindset (implemental/deliberative), with different utilitarian and hedonic products].

Gamification with hedonic benefits influences website patronage intentions by evoking promotion emotions, while gamification with utilitarian benefits does so by evoking prevention emotions. Gamification with hedonic benefits has a stronger impact on consumers shopping with deliberative mindsets, while gamification with utilitarian benefits works better for those with implemental mindsets.

Future research may extend the present work by considering other types of gamification.

Managerially, e-tailers may use gamification with hedonic aspects for consumers in deliberative mindsets and utilitarian aspects for those in implemental mindsets.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to draw a link between mindsets and gamification. This research is also the first to operationalize gamification as hedonic and utilitarian based on their design characteristics and to establish emotional consequences as an important link between gamification and user behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate returns to search (getting a better product and/or a lower price as a result of search) when consumers use/do not use recommendation agents (RAs). Specifically, it studies the effect of RAs/no RAs on decision quality, decision confidence and decision satisfaction taking into account subjective knowledge (SK) and involvement.

This paper employed two between-subjects factorial experimental designs with subjects searching for digital cameras in a simulated online digital camera store. The experiment was conducted with graduate students in Chennai, Bengaluru and Mysore in India.

Results of two online experiments showed that when consumers used RAs, low search led to better decision quality, whereas when consumers did not use RAs, medium search led to optimum decision quality. When consumers use RAs, SK had a U-shaped influence on the decision quality indicating that decision quality was the lowest for those with medium SK. When consumers did not use RAs, the effect of SK on decision quality was an inverted U-shape, indicating optimum decision quality for medium SK consumers. When consumers did not use RAs, subjects with high involvement made better choices, whereas when consumers used RAs, low involvement subjects made better choices. However, subjects who searched more had higher decision confidence and decision satisfaction even if their choices were not better.

The effect of RA vs no RA in conjunction with relevant consumer characteristics influencing decision quality of the consumer is demonstrated in this study. The findings have important managerial, consumer and theoretical contributions to make.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of nostalgic advertising in Indian television and its execution with reference to extent of information disclosure, level of involvement, type of products and stages in product life cycle (PLC).

This research uses a content analysis of 700 TV advertisements aired between January-December 2013 from top five Indian TV channels based on their rank according to Gross Viewership in Thousands.

Humour/happiness was the most commonly used emotional appeal and nostalgic ads constituted 12 per cent of the emotional ads in Indian television. “References to past family experiences” was the most commonly used nostalgic element. As hypothesised, nostalgic ads use low information disclosure strategy (vis-à-vis high/medium information disclosure strategy) and are more commonly used for low involvement products (vis-à-vis high involvement products), experience products (vis-à-vis search products), and non-durables (vis-à-vis durables). Also, nostalgic appeals are more commonly used at maturity stage of PLC (vis-à-vis introduction stage).

This is the first research to analyse the content and execution of nostalgic advertising in India. This study is also one of the first to provide a comprehensive framework on nostalgic advertising. The interrelationships among variables such as product category, process of emotional appeal, degree of information disclosure and stage in PLC has not been investigated earlier, in the context of nostalgic advertising. Moreover, this study is the first attempt to present a snapshot of TV ads in India.

Many online review sites, such as TripAdivisor.com, encourage review posters to upload a profile photo to improve the perceived reliability of online reviews. This study aims to examine the roles of reviewer profile photos in the online review generation and consumption processes.

Data were collected via Amazon MTurk. Two experimental studies were conducted. Study 1 had a sample size of 106 respondents. In Study 1, this paper examined the role of a reviewer profile photo in the online review generation process. Study 2 had a sample size of 482 respondents. In Study 2, this paper examined the role of a reviewer profile photo in the online review consumption process under two different circumstances, namely, comprehensive and incomprehensive review text.

The findings show that reviewer profile photos play different roles when consumers generate online reviews versus when they consume reviews. In the review generation process, reviewers are more likely to upload a profile photo to improve the credibility of their reviews. On the other hand, in the review consumption process, reviewer profile photos do not contribute to an increase in the perceived review helpfulness.

If the readers have difficulty processing the review content, review profile photos play a critical role in determining perceived review helpfulness. This study provides both theoretical and managerial implications by indicating how reviewer profile photos play different roles in online review posting and consuming behavior.