This study examines how digital transformation contributes to competitive advantage in the fast fashion industry through a comparative analysis of Zara and SHEIN. Although both companies have emerged as industry leaders, they pursue distinct digital transformation strategies to achieve competitive advantage. Zara relies on a vertically integrated supply chain, omnichannel retailing, and operational control to respond rapidly to changing consumer preferences, whereas SHEIN employs a digital-first business model supported by artificial intelligence, real-time data analytics, and flexible supplier networks. This study evaluates the external environment, industry dynamics, competitive positioning, internal capabilities, and the strategic alignment of both firms using established strategic management frameworks. The findings suggest that digital transformation has become a critical driver of competitiveness in the fast fashion industry by enhancing supply chain agility, market responsiveness, and customer engagement. The comparative analysis reveals that Zara’s competitive advantage is rooted in operational integration and brand recognition, while SHEIN’s advantage stems from digital agility and data-driven decision making. However, both firms face challenges related to sustainability, supply chain resilience, and regulatory pressures. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that firms can achieve competitive advantage in fast fashion through different digital transformation pathways, provided that digital capabilities are effectively aligned with strategic objectives, consumer expectations, and evolving market conditions.
Universities invest heavily in distinct academic and athletic logos, assuming that these visual signals communicate different institutional value propositions to prospective students. Drawing on signaling theory, this study asks whether viewers’ dispositional traits shape their attitudes toward a university, and whether the type of logo encountered moderates those relationships. Using a fictitious university and AI-generated academic and athletic logos, we surveyed 387 respondents, each evaluating one logo, and modeled the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The traits of task/goal orientation, need for learning, and need for social resources each predicted more favorable attitudes toward the institution, with need for social resources the strongest predictor, whereas need for competition did not contribute independently. Critically, a multigroup analysis found no significant difference in any relationship between the academic-logo and athletic-logo conditions, indicating that viewer dispositions, rather than logo type, drove institutional attitudes. These results qualify the common assumption that academic and athletic logos function as sharply distinct signals and suggest that who is viewing matters more than which logo is shown.
This paper provides a systematic descriptive/scoping review of fifty years of research on consumer bank selection. The review includes not only studies focusing on the United States and Canada, but globally. The authors conducted a descriptive and scoping review of available peer-reviewed literature on conventional retail banking customer choice criteria. There have been numerous studies evaluating consumer bank selection criteria over the 50 years since the publication of the seminal paper. As retail banking has evolved in the intervening decades, so have the determinant attributes of bank choice. While the initial work by Anderson et al. (1976) focused on the United States, subsequent studies have evaluated consumer choice across five continents. Previous studies have identified more than 35 attributes that researchers hypothesize consumers use when choosing a bank or banks to patronize. Additionally, many of the studies analyze bank choice or selection criteria across various demographic groups. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive literature review of the criteria for customer choice in conventional retail banking.
Online consumer ratings play an important role in purchase decisions, yet most research examines products consumed over a short period. In contrast, durable goods are used over many years, allowing consumers to learn about product attributes gradually through ownership and use. This paper investigates whether product age—defined as the time elapsed between a product’s market introduction and the posting of an online rating—systematically affects both rating valence and the way consumers weight product attributes in their evaluations. Focusing on owner-generated online ratings of automobiles, we analyze 21,328 ratings across 1,008 brand–model–year combinations introduced between 2001 and 2008. Using a Bayesian ordinal logit model, we examine whether ratings decline as products age and whether the relative importance of design and quality evolves over time. The analysis controls for known dynamics of online ratings—including order effects, temporal effects, macro-temporal trends, and social influence—as well as heterogeneity across vehicle models and individual reviewers. The results show that ratings decline with product age, even after accounting for established rating dynamics. More importantly, the roles of product attributes evolve systematically: design exerts a stronger influence on ratings early in a product’s life cycle, whereas quality becomes increasingly influential as products age. These findings demonstrate that online ratings reflect not only social and temporal dynamics but also consumer learning from accumulated usage experience.
Vulnerable road users’ fatalities and injuries have been on the rise, resulting from the risky behaviors of vulnerable road users and motorists alike. The safety of active transportation modes (i.e., walking and biking) is critical in creating safe and active communities. Message framing is an essential component of creating effective communication messaging strategies that aim at promoting adaptive safe behaviors and enhancing the safety of vulnerable road users. This research employed an experimental design to investigate the effect of different message framings, based on the Regulatory Focus Theory (prevention- vs. promotion-focused framing) and its interaction effect with the individual level of perceived control on traffic safety message persuasiveness. Additionally, the sequential mediating role of perceived message persuasiveness and message response efficacy in explicating the relationship between the prevention- vs. promotion-focused message and behavioral intentions is investigated. The results of this research provide transportation decision-makers with valuable insights for designing effective traffic safety messages to alter the behavior of vulnerable road users and motorists, creating safer active communities.
