This study adopts a multidimensional 'between-within' perspective of credibility to investigate the impact of celebrity credibility on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) and the mediating role of brand credibility in this relationship, with each construct conceptualized and operationalized as multidimensional. To do so, this study surveys 338 young consumers of carbonated soft drinks, a low involvement setting, and analyzes the data using covariance-based structural equation modeling with a bias-corrected bootstrap. The results show that celebrity credibility improves CBBE mainly through a direct route, with brand credibility carrying a smaller yet significant indirect share of the effect, a pattern of complementary partial mediation that the elaboration likelihood model predicts for low involvement consumption. These findings extend theory by showing that celebrity credibility operates mainly directly in this low involvement setting, which, read against evidence from high involvement settings, points to involvement as a boundary condition on when the effect runs directly and when it runs through the brand. Given that the direct route carried most of the effect while brand credibility carried a smaller significant share, managers in low involvement settings are best served by leading with a credible endorser and sustaining brand credibility as a supporting signal.

Despite rapidly advancing scholarship on consumer engagement and climate change as individual domains, understanding of their theoretical interface remains underdeveloped, revealing a key gap in the literature. Addressing this gap, this article and Special Issue advance insight into the interdisciplinary topic area of fostering consumers’ climate (change) engagement by taking a self-determination theory perspective. Specifically, drawing on the theory, we suggest that consumers are likely to internalize or adopt initially extrinsic financial, social, and recognition rewards through their latent cogno-emotional, socio-emotional, and socio-cognitive engagement, respectively. These are, in turn, proposed to drive the development of autonomous, relatedness-based, and competence-oriented climate (change) engagement behaviors, respectively, as summarized in the proposed conceptual model and an associated set of propositions. We next introduce the articles featured in this Special Issue, which are linked to the proposed model, followed by the development of a future research agenda that emerges from this pioneering interdisciplinary Issue.

Despite the exponential growth of innovations that leverage artificial intelligence (AI), the understanding of how different firm stakeholders engage with these innovations lags behind, exposing an important gap in the literature. Bridging this gap, this interdisciplinary Special Issue explores the growing role that AI-leveraging innovations play in cultivating stakeholders' engagement, as elucidated in nine articles featured in this Issue. To theoretically ground the articles, we develop an organizing framework that integrates the investment model's notions of intrinsic and extrinsic (resource) investments and resource investment-based stakeholder engagement . We conceptualize stakeholders' (a) intrinsic engagement as their (e.g., cognitive/emotional) resource investment in their interactions with AI-leveraging innovations, and (b) extrinsic engagement as their resource investment in maintaining or growing the result(s) of their prior interactions with these innovations, taking a more relational perspective. The framework also assesses the predicted differential effect of thinking (vs. feeling) AI-leveraging innovations on the association of stakeholders' (a) intrinsic (extrinsic) engagement with AI-leveraging innovations and their perceived innovation value, and (b) their perceived innovation value and trust in the innovation, as formalized in a set of propositions. We conclude by linking the featured articles to the propositions, and outlining research priorities in this emerging interdisciplinary topic area.

Despite the growth of travel vloggers, little is known about how they cultivate sustained follower relationships. Grounded in social capital theory, this article examines how followers' behavioral engagement with travel vloggers' content contributes to vloggers' social capital (trust, social interaction ties, and shared values) and followers' vlogger commitment. Data from 527 travel vlogger followers were analyzed using consistent partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLSc-SEM). We find that followers' behavioral engagement enhances social capital, boosting followers' vlogger commitment. Moreover, homophily (i.e., followers' perceived similarity to the vlogger) amplifies the effect of behavioral engagement on their trust in and shared values with the vlogger. Conversely, heterophily (i.e., followers' admiration of vloggers who have traits they lack and idealize or desire) only strengthens the effect of followers' behavioral engagement on trust, indicating that followers' aspirational dissimilarity from travel vloggers can likewise bolster trust. Consequently, both relatability and aspiration reinforce travel vloggers' influence albeit through distinct psychological routes.

Promoting sustainable consumption behavior (SCB) is key among the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals. However, due to inconsistent findings, understanding of how to promote these behaviors at the individual level lags behind, revealing an important gap. To address this gap, we adopt a multi-method approach. We first review the literature to identify and test key individual-level drivers of sustainable consumption behavior using bibliometrics (R-studio) with thematic mapping and three field plots (study 1). Extending study 1, study 2 draws on value-belief-norm theory to test the effect of religiosity, climate change anxiety, and pro-environmental knowledge on SCB, alongside the moderating role of psychological ownership (n = 294). To analyze the data, we adopt partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA). The SEM findings indicate a positive effect of religiosity, climate change anxiety, and pro-environmental knowledge on SCB. The results also suggest that psychological ownership positively moderates the impact of pro-environmental knowledge on SCB. The NCA results suggest that climate change anxiety is a progressively binding constraint, whereas religiosity and pro-environmental knowledge are also necessary conditions but function as baseline enablers in shaping SCB. Overall, this research offers novel understanding of how specific cognitive and moral factors contribute to SCB, raising pertinent implications for marketers and policymakers.

Recent luxury research highlights the key role of sustainability in meeting consumers' expectations. Although many brands in the champagne industry adopt environmental initiatives, their effectiveness remains mixed, yielding an important literature-based tension. Relatedly, understanding of the importance consumers attribute to the environmental actions of brands (vs. key luxury attributes of the product) also lags behind. Addressing these gaps, this research examines how the environmental actions of brands, heritage, and perceived quality influence customer satisfaction. Drawing on a sample of 790 French consumers, our structural equation modeling findings indicate that brand quality exerts the strongest positive impact on customer satisfaction, followed by brand heritage. However, the brand's environmental actions do not have a significant direct effect on customer satisfaction. Although consumer engagement positively mediates the effects of the brand's environmental actions and brand quality on customer satisfaction, it does not mediate the effect of brand heritage on customer satisfaction. Environmental concerns positively moderate these effects. Overall, this research offers novel theoretical insights and practical guidance for managers seeking to integrate authentic environmental initiatives without compromising the core identity of luxury brands.

While studies have examined corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA) from multiple perspectives, research has not yet examined how different CSA types shape consumer-level brand outcomes or when those effects strengthen or weaken. Addressing that gap, this research examines how CSA types expressed through brand communication influence consumer brand engagement (CBE) and consumer-based brand equity (CBBE), considering need for cognition (NFC) as a boundary condition. Building on three pretests, four quasi-experiments show that servant activism, which is high in moral intensity and low in business relatedness, generates the most favorable brand outcomes, whereas citizen activism also outperforms low-moral-intensity forms. Study 2 shows that CBE mediates the positive effect of servant activism on CBBE. Study 3 shows this indirect effect is stronger among high-NFC consumers. Across studies, moral intensity appears more influential than business relatedness under the conditions tested. These findings offer guidance for advertisers and marketers designing brand communication that builds engagement and equity without inviting skepticism.

Losing a loved one is a profound life event, and recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have contributed to the emergence of "grieftech," a new class of technologies designed to simulate interactivity with deceased loved ones. While interest in grieftech is growing, the psychological, temporal, and ethical conditions shaping bereaved individuals' receptivity to such technologies remain underexplored. This study examines bereaved individuals' pre-adoption evaluations of grieftech by investigating how attitudes toward grieftech drive usage intentions through continuing bond, and how this process is influenced by time since loss, engagement, and perceived ethicality. Across two empirical studies, we identify three primary theoretical contributions. Study 1 (n =197) shows that continuing bond serves as a key mechanism linking positive attitudes toward grieftech to stronger intention to use it. We further identify a "window of adoption receptivity," such that intention to use grieftech is greater within the earlier years following loss, and this relationship is strengthened by technologyfacilitated engagement. Study 2 (n = 200) extends these findings by showing that perceived ethicality functions as an important boundary condition: in emotionally vulnerable settings, ethical perceptions regarding the dignity and consent of the deceased strengthen the translation of favorable attitudes into intention to use grieftech. Overall, the findings suggest that bereaved individuals' receptivity to grieftech is not uniform, but depends on relational, temporal, and ethical conditions. The study contributes to emerging grieftech research by positioning adoption as a context-sensitive evaluative process rather than as a simple response to technological novelty.

ABSTRACT While customer journey research is proliferating, acumen of the broader stakeholder journey (SJ), which addresses any stakeholder's (e.g., an employee's, supplier's, or customer's) journey with the firm, remains more nascent. In particular, understanding of the role of psychological mechanisms in shaping collective or grouped stakeholders’ journeys , aggregated stakeholders' shared trajectory of role‐related touchpoints and activities, enacted through their joint engagement, which shape their shared experience with the firm (e.g., the shared journeys of employee unions or teams, customer advocacy groups, supplier collectives, competitors' organizations, or industry associations), lags behind. To bridge this gap, we adopt group‐centric dynamic social impact theory (DSIT) to examine the effect of dynamic social impact (social influence) on grouped stakeholders' journey with the firm. Drawing on the 7C framework, we develop a set of propositions that explore the effect of grouped stakeholders' DSIT tenets of stakeholder consolidation, clustering, correlation, and continuing diversity on their joint engagement and experience through their journey with the firm, offering novel insight. We conclude by deriving key theoretical (e.g., by inviting future empirical testing of the propositions) and practical implications from our analysis (e.g., by proposing strategies to facilitate constructive stakeholder interactions).

To reduce their fear-of-missing-out, social media users may be lured into binge-scrolling short-form videos (e.g., reels). While platforms may cultivate users’ binge-scrolling behavior (e.g., to raise revenue), understanding of the impact of binge-scrolling on user wellbeing lags behind, exposing an important gap. Drawing on the Zeigarnik effect and dual-process theory, we propose user mindfulness as an antidote to FOMO-driven binge-scrolling by enabling users to better regulate their digital impulses. To explore these issues, we adopt a mixed-methods design. Study 1 employs qualitative interviews and a focus group to capture the psychological, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of binge-scrolling to develop a conceptual model. Study 2 empirically tests the model using survey data. The CB-SEM findings underscore the paradoxical role of FOMO in fueling binge-scrolling behavior on the one hand, while fostering loneliness and reducing eudaimonic well-being on the other. Importantly, user mindfulness emerges as a significant moderating factor that can disrupt this vicious cycle, creating healthier scrolling behavior. Overall, this research contributes novel insight to the dark side of binge-scrolling and offers actionable insights for scholars, policymakers, and platform designers seeking to balance the commercial benefits of scrolling and user well-being.

This research investigates the effect of perceived social media agility (P-SMA) on customers’ influencing behavior, a theoretical subset of engagement behavior, with brand trust acting as a mediator and gender (male/female) as a moderator. It also explores how these relationships differ across age groups. Two online surveys were conducted: Study 1 with 165 younger participants and Study 2 with 178 adults. Using PROCESS Macro Models 4 and 7, we tested direct, mediated, and moderated mediation effects. Both studies found that P-SMA enhances brand trust, which subsequently mediates its influence on customer behavior. Study 2 confirmed these results, showing that gender moderates the relationship between P-SMA and both brand trust and influencing behavior, with stronger effects observed among females (vs. males) in both samples. The findings highlight the importance of tailoring social media strategies to gender-based engagement patterns. Crafting content and interaction styles that foster trust can improve influence and advocacy, especially when agility is a key element of the brand’s digital presence. This research integrates P-SMA, brand trust, and customer influence behavior within a moderated mediation model. Using two age-diverse samples, it shows gender shapes reactions to brand agility, while age differences remain non-significant across both datasets.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) holds transformative potential for the tourism industry, though its effects on brand performance, a critical driver of competitive advantage, remain underexplored. This study investigates the impact of GAI on brand performance in tourism, drawing on service-dominant (S-D) logic, social exchange theory, and uncanny valley theory as theoretical lenses and employing a mixed-methods approach involving interviews and surveys. Qualitative themes include GAI service design, GAI service expectation, tourist engagement, and brand performance, which collectively provide a comprehensive view of GAI’s role in tourism. Quantitative results further reveal that GAI positively influences brand performance, which evidences its impact in tourism, and that anthropomorphism moderates tourist engagement, such that GAI with greater humanlike attributes engages tourists more effectively. In turn, these insights enrich the tourism literature and offer practical guidance for tourism managers in developing future strategies involving GAI.

Purpose This paper develops and empirically tests a new motivational model explaining consumers' intentions to continue sharing used goods via online platforms as a form of pro-environmental behaviour. Specifically, it introduces and conceptualizes consumers' product sharing for reuse engagement (PSRE) as an intrinsic motivational factor and examines how it interacts with extrinsic motivation in the form of economic benefits, as well as with enjoyment derived from using a sharing platform. Design/methodology/approach The proposed model is tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on survey data collected from consumers who are experienced in sharing used apparel products through a specialized online sharing platform. Findings The results show that intrinsic motivation, operationalized as product sharing for reuse engagement, and extrinsic motivation, represented by economic benefits, exert comparable direct effects on intentions to continue sharing used goods. In addition, PSRE exerts an indirect effect through the enjoyment of the sharing process. Most importantly, the findings reveal a motivational substitution effect: as PSRE increases, the influence of extrinsic economic benefits on sharing intentions weakens, indicating that highly engaged consumers rely less on financial incentives. Originality/value Building on sustainability and consumer engagement literature, this study introduces the novel concept of product sharing for reuse engagement in the context of pro-environmental consumption. Its primary contribution lies in the uncovering of the motivational mechanism that suggests a distinct form of interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in shaping sharing intentions. By demonstrating a negative moderating effect of PSRE on the impact of extrinsic motivation on intentions, the findings extend existing motivational theories. Furthermore, by highlighting the role of enjoyment in sustaining sharing behaviour, the study provides insights for sustainability-oriented consumer practices that use online platforms.

Academic Summary: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a key strategy to achieving (e.g., environmental) sustainability. While many studies report a positive effect of CSR on firm value, growing evidence suggests practice often fails to unlock such effect. This equivocality may arise from conflicting theoretical perspectives, insufficient consideration of granular CSR activities, and/or neglecting the role of new product development (NPD). We address this equivocality through a theoretically unprejudiced exploration of the effects of a comprehensive set of CSR activities on firm value and by investigating the underexplored moderating role of NPD alongside that of marketing moderators. Econometric analysis of 3,107 firms across industries unveils that the largely overlooked CSR activities addressing social concern avoidance (e.g., by protecting stakeholders from environmental hazards) account for the greatest number of significant effects on firm value. Second, all significant effects of CSR activities on firm value are negative. Third, while all significant interaction effects of CSR activities and NPD on firm value are positive, most interactions with marketing instruments are negative. Overall, the findings highlight the critical role of NPD in potentially unlocking a positive effect of CSR on firm value. Even more so, they suggest treating CSR and firm value as separate strategic goals-akin to sustainability's people, planet, and profit objectives. Managerial Summary: While many firms invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives not only to advance sustainability but also to drive firm value, this research shows that only a subset of CSR activities has a significant effect on firm value and that these effects are predominantly negative. Many of the CSR activities with significant effects relate to avoiding social or environmental harm, but their impact varies markedly across stakeholders, rendering aggregate CSR strategies misleading for managerial decision-making. Further, whether CSR activities undermine or support firm value depends critically on how they are implemented. For innovation and R&D managers, the findings suggest that CSR activities are most effective when embedded in new product development. For marketing managers, the findings urge caution, as heavy reliance on branding and other marketing tools to advance the firm's CSR objectives can amplify negative effects on firm value. For senior executives, the results suggest a need to treat CSR and firm value as distinct strategic goals and carefully balancing specific CSR activities rather than assuming uniform financial payoffs. For policy makers and regulators, the findings indicate that markets may penalize sustainability efforts, at least in the short term, underscoring the need for targeted regulatory support and incentives.

Despite the rapid growth of virtual content purchases in online games, understanding of how to measure gamers' motivations to purchase such in-game content lags behind to date, exposing an important gap in the literature. Addressing this gap, we take a self-determination theory perspective to conceptualize in-game content purchase motivations (IGCPMs) as a player's drive for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in online games that leads the individual to purchase in-game virtual content. Following established scale development procedures, we conceptualize, develop, and validate an eight-dimensional, 30-item IGCPM scale. As a formative higher-order construct, IGCPMs comprise three second-order factors (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness motivations), which are each composed of particular facets: (i) players' autonomy motivation comprises creativity, choice, and uniqueness, (ii) their competence motivation includes dominance, achievement, and skillfulness, and (iii) their relatedness motivation comprises social interaction and social affiliation. The findings generate pertinent implications for gaming researchers (e.g., by applying the proposed scale) and developers, manufacturers, and marketers (e.g., by allowing them to deduce players' key IGCPMs).

While customer journey (CJ) research proliferates, prior studies have adopted different CJ conceptualisations, theoretical perspectives, and methods, fostering fragmentation in CJ research. Addressing this literature-based tension or gap, we systematically map the corpus of CJ literature to uncover its intellectual structure, reducing the rising fragmentation observed in this topic area. Specifically, we chart the CJ literature's evolutionary path and central themes in the period of 2001-2023. Using bibliometric- and thematic analysis, we identify six main CJ themes, including the CJ-based customer experience, CJ-based customer behaviour, CJbased design, CJ-based smart technology, CJ-based social media, and CJ mapping, which collectively depict the CJ's intellectual structure in the study period. We also develop a conceptual framework of the CJ, which includes the focal concept and its key antecedents, mediators, moderators, and consequences. We conclude by outlining important theoretical and practical implications that arise from our analyses, and by offering an agenda for further CJ research.

While insight into visitor engagement proliferates, understanding the effect of engagement on visitors' intention to revisit cultural heritage sites across physical, technology-enhanced, and virtual formats remains limited, leaving a significant gap in the literature. Addressing this gap, this research investigates how visitors' cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement affect their traditional physical (RI), technology-enhanced on-site (T-RI), and purely virtual (V-RI) revisit intentions. In collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii (Italy), we surveyed international visitors and obtained 572 valid responses. Structural equation modelling (SEM) results reveal that emotional engagement consistently predicts all three revisit intentions, cognitive engagement significantly influences physical revisit intention, and behavioural engagement primarily drives virtual revisit intention. This research advances theoretical insight into the differential predictive role of engagement dimensions across distinct forms of revisit intention, while informing cultural heritage sites evaluating or expanding visitation formats.

Purpose Masstige (mass-produced and affordable luxury) goods are receiving increasing literature-based attention. However, despite existing advances, insight into how different cultural backgrounds shape consumer perceptions, attitudes and behaviors toward masstige goods remains tenuous. Correspondingly, this study aims to examine the association of masstige luxury with customers’ love for and brand engagement with masstige products across cultures. Design/methodology/approach This study used a sample comprising 342 Indian and 354 Canadian masstige customers. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings The results corroborate brand prestige and identification as key antecedents to customers’ love for masstige brands, which in turn impact their brand engagement. Surprisingly, the authors find that the effects of brand prestige and brand identification on brand love and customer brand engagement do not significantly differ between Indian and Canadian customers. However, the positive effect of brand identification and brand love on customer brand engagement is stronger for Indian customers than for Canadian customers. Research limitations/implications This study addresses an important literature-based gap in understanding how cultural backgrounds shape consumer perceptions of masstige brands. It offers key theoretical and practical implications for masstige marketing. Practical implications Identifying differential effects among Indian and Canadian customers provides a foundation for tailoring marketing approaches in the masstige sector. Originality/value This study addresses a critical literature-based gap in understanding how cultural backgrounds shape consumer perceptions of masstige brands, offering key theoretical and practical implications for masstige marketing.

Drawing on transformative service research (TSR) and social exchange theory, we conducted a study that examines the service failure and recovery dynamics among consumers who experience vulnerability. An empirical study was conducted in the service failure context with deaf and hard-of-hearing (HoH) customers and their service provider. The results show the primary importance of customer-oriented, prosocial service for these customers during service failure. Finally, customers' self-attribution was found to positively influence their attitude toward the service, boosting their intent to continue the relationship. Overall, the findings offer pertinent strategic insight to inform firms' service recovery strategies.