This study builds and tests a model of AI-generated educational video adoption for children's safety clothing. The model proposes perceived value and perceived quality as key antecedents, attitude, and self-efficacy as mediating variables, and a sense of safety as a direct predictor of adoption. The model highlights how perceived value and quality are linked to adoption through attitude, self-efficacy, and sense of safety. Using survey data collected from 300 kindergarten and elementary school teachers in the Republic of Korea and analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the findings show that both perceived value and perceived quality positively influence attitude toward AI-generated safety educational video and self-efficacy. In turn, attitude and self-efficacy positively influence the sense of safety which strongly drives the adoption of AI-generated safety educational videos. This study makes contributions to the body of knowledge in the researches on consumer behavior related to the AI generated safety educational video by identifying the unique roles of attitude, self-efficacy, and sense of safety as key variables in explaining the adoption of AI-generated educational video for children's safety clothing.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate factors influencing consumer engagement (CE) on social media platforms from the perspective of the firm. Affordance theory and information processing explain user response to brand posts on social media platforms; additionally, literature on brand origin and product type provide further theoretical underpinning. Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents and tests a conceptual framework, which depicts the drivers of CE (i.e. likes, comments) on social media from the perspective of the firm. Specifically, this paper tests the effect of social media (low affordance [LASM; operationalized by Twitter] versus high affordance [HASM; operationalized by Instagram) and brand origin (local vs global) on CE. The moderating effect of product type (hedonic vs utilitarian) is also tested. Data (i.e. more than one million posts) on 85 brands that posted content on both Twitter and Instagram was used to test the conceptual model. FindingsThis paper uses zero inflated mixed-effects regression approach to test the conceptual model. The findings uncover that firms’ brand posts on HASM generate more consumer engagement than those on LASM. In addition, this effect is more pronounced for firms’ brand posts related to hedonic (vs utilitarian) products. In addition, this paper finds that firms’ brand posts for local (vs global) brands create higher CE, but for global brands, this effect is more significant in the context of utilitarian products (vs hedonic ones). Finally, there is a significant positive quadratic coefficient for comments (i.e. follower comments follow a U-shaped curve), but not for likes. Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical results show that utilitarian products elicit low CE on rich and HASM (i.e. Instagram), and hedonic products receive increased CE, with an even larger effect on HASM (i.e. Instagram). The findings also show that global brands are inclined to receive lesser CE (for both Likes and Comments) when compared to local brands and that these negative effects are less pronounced for utilitarian products. Practical implicationsResults imply that overly frequent brand posting by firms is less likely to contribute to more consumers clicking the “like” button. Originality/valueIn recent years, firms have undergone significant shifts in their approach to managing social media platforms, transitioning from a passive stance, such as monitoring, to a more proactive approach, involving active interactions, in the context of consumer engagement (CE: likes and comments). There is little prior research on factors influencing CE on social media platforms from the perspective of the firm.

This study examines how safety concern influences consumer behavioral intentions toward AI-generated children's safety clothing (in terms of recommending, buying, and wearing the clothing), with an emphasis on the mediating roles of aesthetic and safety attributes. Unlike traditional approaches that rely on designers' intuition, AI systems integrate data-driven pattern recognition and generative algorithms to produce optimized designs that balance aesthetic and safety features. Using a sample of teachers - credible evaluators of children's safety needs - the study employs partial least squares structural equation modeling to uncover relationships among the variables. Results indicate that aesthetic attributes not only enhance consumers' recommendation intention but also strengthen their intention to wear the clothing, underscoring the role of appealing design in shaping favorable behavioral responses. Safety attributes, in contrast, primarily reinforce recommendation intention, highlighting their role in validating product credibility. Importantly, the study investigates the moderating effect of traditional versus non-traditional safety clothing colors, providing evidence that safety clothing colors can influence how safety clothing is perceived. By integrating perspectives on aesthetics, safety, and color symbolism, this research extends the literature on AI-generated products and offers practical implications for designers, marketers, and policymakers that can enhance and promote children's safety.

While strategy research emphasizes the importance of product differentiation, research on advertising effectiveness has paid limited attention to whether advertising communicates a clear point of brand difference. This study examines the role of brand-differentiating messages (BDMs) in advertising effectiveness across the brand funnel. Using ten years of Super Bowl advertising, we analyze 280 brand-level advertising events and 17,080 daily observations of ad awareness, brand liking, brand consideration, brand purchase intention, and brand purchase. The findings show that BDM has direct positive effects on the earlier stages of the brand funnel, particularly ad awareness and brand liking. In addition, ad liking strengthens the effects of BDM on ad awareness, brand liking, and brand consideration, indicating that positive affect toward the ad amplifies the impact of communicated differentiation. Finally, BDM strengthens the relationships between consideration and purchase intention and between purchase intention and purchase, suggesting that communicated differentiation facilitates conversion across later funnel stages. These results clarify the role of ad liking in advertising effectiveness, identify BDM as an important form of diagnostic advertising content, and show how communicated differentiation influences both level and transition effects across the brand funnel.

While the impact of digitally retouched images of models in advertisements on ad effectiveness has been widely investigated, findings remain inconclusive. Across two experimental studies, we find that the provision of a retouching disclaimer is associated with consumers having a lower attitude toward the brand and purchase intention at high levels of retouching. Our findings are also supportive of similarity-attraction theory in that we demonstrate that retouching levels and perceived homophily affect advertisement evaluations based on the viewer's physical attractiveness and relatability with the model. In essence, the extent to which individuals are similar to the spokesperson is related to the effectiveness of retouching disclaimers. Our findings provide insights for practitioners and policymakers who are interested in providing retouching disclaimers to better inform consumers.

In this essay, I comment on the contributions of the six authors who have critically reflected on my notion of a ‘Catholic Modernity’ from their own perspectives. Selecting particular issues from these authors to comment on was challenging due to the richness of each contribution. I comment, among others, on the crucial question of religious violence and intolerance in our world and the related issue of how to deal with pluralism among and within religions: we can no longer identify a particular religion with “its” civilization or nation, be it in the form of Christendom, Islamicate, or religious nationalism.

Once consumers become highly loyal to a brand, research has shown that they are less receptive to negative information conveyed online or via other media. This important concept, resistance to negative information (RNI), has been under-researched despite being an essential contributor to brand health. This study explores the role of brand respect and attitudes in building consumer resistance to negative information across two studies. Social identity and appraisal theories illuminate the critical drivers of consumers' RNI. A total of 364 and 312 responses (respectively) were received from online questionnaires distributed to shoppers in two retail contexts: quality and value brands, one local and the other global. Structural equation modelling results for both brands underscore the importance of building brand respect to develop resistance to negative information, suggesting that stimulating brand respect should be a priority for brand managers. Three ways to strengthen RNI were identified: directly via brand respect and attitudes and indirectly via the moderating role of self-brand connection. Further, resistance to negative information is a mediator between brand respect and purchase intention for the quality brand and between brand attitude and purchase intention for the value brand.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) enable constant connectivity at work, and employees are challenged to manage the boundaries between work and their personal lives. Drawing on boundary-setting theory and regulatory focus theory, we examine how health-related advertising appeals can influence employees' ability to manage work-life boundaries. Two studies among employees (n = 494, n = 440) provide evidence that health-related advertising can increase boundary-setting intention, but that the effects depend on the message appeal. Overall, gain-framed appeals appear to be more effective than loss-framed appeals. The effectiveness of both appeal types increases under fit conditions, but only when regulatory focus is induced (Study 2), not with a chronic regulatory focus (Study 1). The effect of regulatory fit is particularly pronounced among employees lacking boundary-setting habits. Implications for practitioners and policy makers are discussed.

Generating positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become a goal of many advertisers, including many brands in the growing global market for luxury brands. To better understand factors related to the generation of eWOM in this market, a cross-cultural study investigating the factors associated with eWOM is conducted. Data was collected from two nations, Iran and the U.S. through an online questionnaire to examine whether consumers’ level of self-identification with global consumer culture (along with other factors) plays a key role in generating eWOM. Findings of this research are supportive of global consumer culture theory in that they suggest that there is a cross-national segment of luxury consumers who are influenced by similar factors both within the two countries and across the pooled sample from both countries. Specifically, we find that in addition to being exposed to global culture eWOM, materialistic and cosmopolitan, self-brand expression is important to this group and contributes to eWOM generation. Our findings suggest that appeals consistent with global consumer culture, can allow global luxury brands to enhance eWOM in a way such that these consumers help to promote their brands.

Recent research has acknowledged that a large and growing number of consumers worldwide have adopted a minimalistic philosophy and engaged in minimalistic consumption. However, extant research has generally grouped all minimalists together, thus limiting the theoretical and practical relevance of minimalism to the field of marketing. In delving deeper into prior work, it can be posited that minimalism, despite its overall focus on simplification, takes various forms driven by different motivations. We critically analyze prior conceptualizations of minimalism using a multi-method approach to develop and validate a scale that captures different types of motivations driving minimalistic consumption. The scale enables researchers and practitioners to better understand minimalism, measure minimalistic consumption for each unique minimalistic consumption motivation, and tailor their approaches to appeal to different types of minimalistic consumers.

The rotation of ad copywriting, involving the spatial orientation of product information, is a frequent practice in advertising and product packaging. This research demonstrates a novel effect, by which spatially rotating text (left or right) in advertising or on packaging impacts consumer product preference. Across four studies and one pilot study, this research consistently demonstrates that right-rotated text leads to increased product preference compared with left-rotated text when a larger magnitude of salient product attributes is desirable. This effect is theoretically explained by right rotation increasing the magnitude perception of salient product attributes, consequently increasing product preference. Furthermore, this research identifies dieting goals as an important moderator of the effect; the effect of text rotation occurs for consumers with a dieting goal for a healthy product but is reversed for an unhealthy product.

While prior work on information communicated on signage has explored the effectiveness of different types of messages on in-store signs, relatively few studies have examined the impact of signage (posters) promoting charitable organizations. Moreover, while past research has focused on the characteristics of donors and donation recipients, little is known about how the features of the donation campaign influence charitable behavior. In this research, variance in consumer response to the content of posters that promote charitable giving is based on whether they have been created by humans versus artificial intelligence (AI). Through two experiments, we demonstrate that consumers are more likely to donate—and donate more—when the campaign is attributed to a human rather than to an AI. This effect occurs because human-authored campaigns elicit greater emotional resonance, making the message feel more emotionally authentic and personally meaningful. These findings document consumer skepticism towards the content of signage focused on charitable giving when it is generated by artificial intelligence. Practical implications for the design of emotionally persuasive signage in nonprofit and other contexts are discussed.

Prior research has focused on societal and regulatory issues related to digital advertising, yet there is a gap in understanding the unique consumer welfare implications of different types of digital ad targeting. This paper outlines key benefits, unintended risks, and potential for manipulation across the three major types of targeting: demographic/psychographic, behavioral, and geographic with the goal of understanding how to maximize the benefits of targeted digital advertising while minimizing harm to consumer welfare. Because regulatory issues are complex as digital ad targeting practices continue to evolve, we consider similarities and differences across ad targeting types. We also make suggestions for future research to address pressing issues of relevancy, transparency, consent, autonomy, and vulnerability in digital ad targeting, by examining intricacies in the collection and dissemination of demographic/psychographic, behavioral, and geographic consumer data. This research provides a framework to protect consumers in the digital age by informing industry and public policy regulatory practices.

Blurred imagery is a commonly employed tactic by luxury marketers. Yet, there has been little research on how blurred imagery in advertising is processed by consumers and whether it yields positive results. To address this gap, we look at whether the effect of the use of blurred imagery depends on the type of luxury goods being promoted and on the degree to which an individual consumer is motivated by social influence motives. We first conduct an image-analytics study to examine whether the level of blurring in a luxury-goods images influences the liking of images. Using a theoretical framework based on perceptual fit, two additional studies examine the impact of blurred imagery on ad and brand attitudes. The results show that for luxury products consumed privately and among consumers with low conspicuity, there is a stronger perceptual fit for blurred imagery in an advertisement, thereby resulting in more positive attitudes toward the ad and the brand.