Type of the article: Research Article AbstractSustainable cosmetic packaging is increasingly important as consumers use packaging-related cues to evaluate the environmental attributes and value of products. However, empirical evidence on consumer responses to different sustainable packaging configurations and communication cues remains limited in Central and Eastern Europe. This study examines perceived environmental sustainability, purchase intention and price acceptance across cosmetic packaging configurations featuring conventional plastic, biodegradable plastic and glass, as well as consumer evaluations of Vegan and Cruelty-Free labels and QR-code cues. A quantitative within-subject study was conducted among 204 adult Slovak consumers using an online questionnaire with nine visual stimuli. Data were analyzed using the Friedman test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Significant differences were identified across packaging configurations in perceived sustainability (χ²(2) = 8.21, p = 0.016), purchase intention (χ²(2) = 16.09, p < 0.001) and price acceptance at the premium price level (χ²(2) = 28.48, p < 0.001). Perceived sustainability was strongly and positively associated with purchase intention (ρ = 0.686, p < 0.001). Configurations featuring biodegradable plastic and glass received higher perceived sustainability evaluations than those featuring conventional plastic, while no significant difference was detected between biodegradable plastic and glass configurations. Biodegradable plastic and glass configurations generated higher purchase intentions than conventional plastic. At the premium price level, the glass configuration received higher price acceptance evaluations than both conventional and biodegradable plastic configurations. No statistically significant differences in perceived sustainability were detected between the Vegan or Cruelty-Free labels and the QR-code cue. The findings provide empirical evidence on consumer responses to sustainable cosmetic packaging configurations and offer practical insights for packaging design and sustainability communication strategies. AcknowledgmentsThe authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic under Grant KEGA 041PU-4/2026 – Innovation of the course consumer behavior in the context of neuromarketing principles and tools and Grant VEGA 1/0673/26 – Research on aspects of consumer behavior in e-commerce with emphasis on neuromarketing approaches.
Type of the article: Research Article AbstractDigital trust is widely modeled as the mechanism through which influencer credibility, e-WoM, and social media interaction shape the decisions of Generation Z consumers, yet studies rarely verify that trust is empirically distinct from the outcome it mediates. Using survey data from 255 Indonesian Generation Z respondents, this study tests whether digital trust and purchase decision-making are empirically distinct constructs, and whether indirect effects are correctly derived from the model’s own structural coefficients rather than a differently specified equation. Influencer credibility, e-WoM, and social media interaction all positively predicted digital trust (β = 0.307, 0.323, 0.291), and trust strongly predicted purchase decision-making (β = 0.908, R² = 0.825). Applying the Fornell-Larcker criterion, HTMT, and a nested chi-square difference test, trust and the outcome show weak discriminant validity (HTMT = 0.904, above the conventional ceiling) despite a Chi-square test rejecting their full merger, a disagreement that a single criterion would not reveal. Correctly specified mediation finds all three sources produce significant, similarly sized indirect effects (0.264–0.293), preserving their direct-effect ranking; a separately computed reduced-form regression bypassing trust produces a starkly different pattern (0.503, 0.302, 0.077) that is not a trust-mediated effect but an artifact of multicollinearity among the three sources. These results show that overall model fit and an unverified validity claim are insufficient for mediation claims, and that Generation Z trust-formation studies require multi-criterion construct verification before accepting indirect-effect claims. AcknowledgmentsNo external funding was received for this study. The authors declare no acknowledgements.
Type of the article: Research Article AbstractSustainability transitions are a strategic imperative for SMEs in emerging economies, where institutional and resource constraints limit the direct translation of environmental strategies into performance outcomes. This study explores how green marketing and eco-innovation are associated with business performance through competitive advantage. Data were collected through a quantitative cross-sectional survey, yielding 474 valid questionnaires from owners, managers, and specialists of Vietnamese SMEs in the consumer goods sector. Environmental regulation strengthens the green marketing–competitive advantage relationship, and customer green awareness and market dynamics positively moderate the competitive advantage–performance relationship. The findings showed positive associations of eco-innovation (β = .597, p < .001) and green marketing (β = .230, p < .001) with competitive advantage, which was positively associated with business performance (β = .461, p < .001). The corresponding indirect effects through competitive advantage were significant (β = .275 and .106, respectively; both p < .001), while environmental regulation (β = .164), customer green awareness (β = .083), and market dynamics (β = .091) showed positive moderating effects. The cross-sectional design, non-probability sampling, and industry-specific focus may limit this study’s scope and generalizability in broader contexts. This study advances the sustainability and strategic management literature by providing a mechanism-based account of how environmental strategy, when extended from the Natural Resource-Based View and translated into competitive positioning, generates economic gains for SMEs in resource-constrained emerging economies. AcknowledgmentsThis article was developed from a university-level scientific research project conducted in 2026 at Ho Chi Minh City University of Law.
Type of the article: Research Article AbstractOmnichannel research emphasizes channel integration but gives limited attention to how customers maintain experiential continuity across digital and physical touchpoints. This study examines hybrid-experience fluency as a customer-side mechanism linking omnichannel system conditions to customer outcomes. Data from 575 consumers in Indonesia who recently completed a shopping episode involving the same retailer’s digital platform and physical store were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The sample covered grocery, fashion, electronics, and home goods. Channel transition smoothness (β = 0.311), cognitive load management (β = 0.281), and temporal synchronicity (β = 0.370) positively influenced hybrid-experience fluency, whereas technological friction negatively influenced it (β = −0.227; all p < 0.001). Hybrid-experience fluency positively influenced customer satisfaction (β = 0.408), behavioral intentions (β = 0.670), and brand loyalty (β = 0.638; all p < 0.001). Shopping involvement weakened the relationship between hybrid-experience fluency and customer satisfaction (β = −0.145, p < 0.001), but strengthened its relationships with behavioral intentions (β = 0.052, p = 0.006) and brand loyalty (β = 0.061, p = 0.007). These findings position hybrid-experience fluency as an experiential mechanism connecting omnichannel system conditions with customer responses and demonstrate that shopping involvement shapes these relationships differently. The study extends omnichannel research beyond structural integration by highlighting customers’ capacity to sustain experiential continuity within hybrid shopping episodes. For retailers, the findings emphasize smoother channel transitions, reduced cognitive demands and technological friction, and synchronized interactions across digital and physical channels to improve customer satisfaction, behavioral intentions, and brand loyalty. AcknowledgmentThe authors express gratitude to the Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Pelita Harapan Tangerang, Indonesia, for supporting this research.
Type of the article: Research Article Abstract The growing pressure on tourism systems caused by overtourism, environmental degradation, and uneven spatial distribu-tion of tourist flows highlights the need for adaptive and sustainability-oriented management approaches. This study develops and tests an AI-driven eco-routing and tourist behavior modelling framework (ER-TBM) as a choice-architecture tool for sustainable destination marketing. The framework combines a fixed graph representation of a synthetic destination, Markov decision states, tabular Q-learning, and congestion-sensitive recommendations. To address reproducibility, the benchmark specifies ten points of interest, 22 undirected edges, all edge attributes, tourist preference and fatigue distributions, Poisson arrivals, recommendation compliance, congestion and emission functions, training settings, stopping rules, and random seeds. Five baselines and ER-TBM were evaluated under normal, peak, and event-demand conditions using 30 paired independent runs per scenario with 120, 180, and 240 agents, respectively. Relative to Dijkstra routing, ER-TBM reduced mean congestion exposure by 5.1-5.3% and increased tourist utility by 0.6-0.7%, while mean CO2 remained statistically indistinguishable and monetary route cost was 9.4-9.8% higher. The simulation-based Tourism Sustainability Index ranged from 0.712 to 0.732 for ER-TBM and did not show practically meaningful superiority over optimized baselines. The findings indicate that behavior-aware eco-routing can redistribute simulated visitor flows without a statistically significant increase in emissions, although this benefit is accompanied by higher monetary route costs. From a sustainable destination marketing perspective, the proposed framework represents a computational choice-architecture proposition. Its potential to influence actual tourist behavior, recommendation acceptance, destination image, satisfaction, and revisit intention requires further field-based validation. AcknowledgmentThe research was conducted within the framework of the prospective development plan for the scientific field “Social Sci-ences” No. BF/25-2026 on the topic “Formation of a Competitive Development Model for the Ukrainian Economy: Human Capital, Financial Stability, and the Development of Innovative Industries amid War-Related Challenges and the Emergence of the Sixth Technological Paradigm”.
