Purpose This study aims to examine how product framing influences consumers’ information sharing on digital platforms and highlight the role of online review valence and brand experience in shaping this effect. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the experience recommendation literature, the research combines an observational study of 13,946 Amazon product listings with three experimental studies (n = 851). It examines the effects of product framing and review valence and tests the mediating roles of emotional and cognitive brand experience. Findings The research suggests that experiential product framing increases consumers’ information sharing. Positive review strengthens this effect, while emotional brand experience mediates the relationship between experiential framing and consumers’ information sharing. Originality/value The study identifies experiential framing as an effective brand communication strategy for stimulating consumer information sharing, shows that its effectiveness depends on review valence and establishes emotional brand experience as the underlying mechanism.
Purpose Brand forgiveness reflects consumers’ willingness to maintain or restore relationships with brands following service failures, ethical controversies and marketplace transgressions. The purpose of this study is to conduct a scoping review of the theoretical development, conceptual foundations and future directions of brand forgiveness research. Design/methodology/approach The review synthesizes 80 studies published between 2009 and 2025 using scoping review guidelines and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses reporting procedures. The analysis examines theoretical foundations, methodological approaches, antecedents, mediators, moderators and outcomes. Findings Brand forgiveness literature is grounded in coping, attribution and justice-based theories of post-transgression evaluation, while relational and identity-based processes remain less developed. The literature identifies firm-, consumer- and brand/communication-related antecedents, along with cognitive, emotional and social mechanisms shaping forgiveness. Methodologically, the field relies largely on experiments and cross-sectional surveys, limiting understanding of forgiveness as a dynamic process. Research limitations/implications The review identifies theoretical, methodological and contextual gaps and proposes directions for advancing brand forgiveness research. Originality/value This review synthesizes fragmented brand forgiveness research and conceptualizes forgiveness as a process involving cognitive interpretation, emotional regulation, moral evaluation and relationship repair.
Purpose Prior research on awe in relation to virtual reality (VR) has treated awe as a response to technological stimuli, leaving the consumer appraisals through which awe arises underexplored. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this paper aims to address this gap by investigating whether aesthetic, sensory and content appraisals of a VR brand experience predict awe and whether awe mediates the relationships between these appraisals and emotional brand attachment. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via a survey of 334 Generation Z participants who experienced an in-person brand encounter via a VR headset and were analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling in LISREL. Findings Aesthetic, sensory and content appraisals positively predict awe, which, in turn, predicts emotional brand attachment. Awe also mediates the relationships between each of the three appraisal and emotional brand attachment. Originality/value At the intersection of the cognitive psychology of VR and emotional branding, this paper reframes the origins of awe in VR brand experiences, shifting from a stimulus-centred to an appraisal-centred account. It also identifies aesthetic, sensory and content appraisals as the experiential predictors of awe and extends emotional branding to self-transcendent emotions by showing how awe translates experiential appraisals into emotional brand attachment.
Purpose This study aims to use processing fluency as an integrative lens to examine why placement prominence does not yield a stable persuasive advantage and how contextual influences shape explicit and implicit placement effectiveness in narrative media. Design/methodology/approach Four between-subjects experiments (2 × 2 factorial designs) were conducted using authentic Korean drama clips. Each study examined one potential disruption source: product category, brand familiarity, endorser image valence or parasocial interaction, comparing explicit and implicit placement with purchase intention as the dependent variable (n = 616). Findings Results were consistent with a processing-fluency explanation. Product category and parasocial interaction (PSI) each interacted with placement mode (ps < 0.001): explicit placement favored search goods and low-PSI characters, whereas implicit placement favored experience goods and high-PSI characters. Brand familiarity moderated effects (p = 0.039), with a larger implicit-placement advantage for unfamiliar brands. The endorser-valence study showed main effects only. Practical implications Managers should tailor placement modes to contextual conditions rather than maximize visibility, reducing potential disruption to viewing experiences and enhancing purchase intentions. Originality/value This research uses contextual processing demands to interpret crossover, asymmetric and additive placement effects beyond specific forms of fit and congruence. The framework complements persuasion-knowledge accounts by considering narrative disruption alongside resistance to persuasive intent. This integrative explanation of prominence’s variable persuasive value requires direct tests of the underlying processes.
Purpose This study aims to address the limited understanding of how unfamiliar non-followers respond to virtual versus human influencers encountered through algorithmically curated feeds. This study tests whether disclosure that a seemingly human influencer is AI-generated lowers perceived authenticity, producing negative expectation disconfirmation that reduces engagement and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach Two between-subjects online experiments with US non-followers (n = 303 and n = 316) were conducted through CloudResearch Connect. Measurement validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis in SmartPLS 4, and hypotheses were tested using PROCESS serial mediation analyses with bootstrapping. Findings Across both studies, virtual influencer disclosure significantly lowered perceived authenticity, which generated more negative expectation disconfirmation and reduced engagement intentions. In Study 2, this serial process extended to lower purchase intentions. The hypothesized serial indirect effects were significant. Practical implications Brands using human-presenting virtual influencers with unfamiliar audiences should treat disclosure as expectation management by clearly identifying the influencer as AI-generated or virtual from initial exposure. Managers should also recognize that disclosure may lower perceived authenticity, engagement and purchase intentions. Originality/value This study examines an underexplored stage of virtual influencer exposure involving unfamiliar non-followers. This study broadens the expectation–performance comparison process of expectation disconfirmation theory by showing that, during initial encounters, the comparison standard can derive from category-based expectations formed without prior experience with the focal influencer. Perceived authenticity serves as the evaluative mechanism linking newly revealed information to disconfirmation.
