Rather than a generalized appreciation of leader humor, we argue that leader humor may not always be effective, even when it is positive in nature. Drawing on theories of meta-accuracy, self-other rating agreement, and social identification, we explore how leaders' lack of meta-accuracy regarding their own humor is associated with subordinates' negative affect toward the leader and their sense of group identification. We operationalize a lack of meta-accuracy as a misalignment between leaders' and subordinates' perceptions of leader positive humor. Our study found that when leaders lacked meta-accuracy in assessing their own humor, subordinates experienced increased negative affect, which in turn negatively influenced group identification. Our research highlights the importance of leaders' meta-accuracy in their use of humor. Deficiencies in this area can lead to either excessive or insufficient instances of leader humor, which become negative events for subordinates. Furthermore, our findings suggest that, from the subordinates' perspective, it is not the content of leader humor that holds importance, but rather its quantity relative to the expectations of the subordinates.

The paper investigates the challenges for effectively communicating corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives on social media. As stakeholder expectations regarding ESG transparency increase, it has become critical to communicate these efforts to various stakeholders, including investors, consumers, employees, and regulators. The study emphasises the challenge of finding the right balance in corporate sustainability communication, as under and over-communication can have negative consequences. Over-communication can lead to accusations of greenwashing, while under-communication can create perceptions of negligence. This research uses a multiple case study approach to analyse the ESG communication practices of top global brands listed in the 2024 Global RepTrak® 100, employing Leximancer, a content analysis tool, to identify key themes and insights. The findings highlight successful communication strategies for promoting stakeholder engagement and upholding corporate reputation in an increasingly digital and interconnected environment. The study contributes to the literature on sustainability communication by offering updated strategies for effective ESG communication, aiding companies in navigating the challenges posed by the digital age.

Our world, and our workplace, has undergone a disruptive step change. It has transformed the way universities operate, what industry demands, how we teach and the way our students learn. That is why this special issue, and particularly this paper, takes three important steps to bring insight and innovation to marketing communication education. In our first step, we examine the impact of COVID on student learning. This leads us to where we are now and a visualization the experiential world of students, using a customer experience framework. The next step is to use this framework to reinvent the Biggs 3P Model into an integrated learning experience, showing student innovation, acceptance and adaption to change. This takes us to Step 3 and our agenda for research.

PurposeExtant research indicates that fear of missing out (FoMO) caused by the negative influence of media and word-of-mouth (WOM) leads to panic buying and generates a negative impact on consumer well-being. However, the mechanism that can minimise or abort this impact remains understudied. Therefore, in this study, we examine how consumer self-regulation functions as a brake mechanism to intervene with the negative influences of media and WOM on FoMO.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a representative sample in Australia. Hypotheses were tested by applying generalised structural equation modelling (GSEM), and analysis was conducted using the statistical software Stata 17.FindingsSelf-regulation is negatively influenced by media channels and WOM but is positively influenced by media content. Consumer self-regulation acts as a brake mechanism for FoMO. Panic buying, which is triggered by FoMO, has a significant impact on negative emotional well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the study are associated with the survey data collection.Practical implicationsWe extend the knowledge of how self-regulation works as a brake mechanism for the complex FoMO construct consisting of a perception of missing out accompanied by irrational behaviours. Self-regulation emerges as a brake mechanism for FoMO. Hence, if self-regulation is practiced at the inception of the media and WOM exposure, it can counteract FoMO and potentially abort its' impact on panic buying.Social implicationsFrom a practical perspective, policymakers could help emotionally vulnerable individuals better engage in self-control practices through support programmes and workshops aimed at assisting the public in coping with overwhelming and intense adverse emotions experienced during and following various crises. Vulnerable cohorts, particularly the younger generation who are arguably more susceptible to FoMO, need to be studied more thoroughly in the marketing domain.Originality/valueThe role of self-regulation has been studied thinly in marketing literature, particularly in relation to offsetting irrational consumer behaviours. The originality of our study is that it extends and broadens the understanding of the role of self-regulation in the context of pandemics and addresses the inconclusive evidence of the impact of self-regulation on FoMO.

"Encyclopedia of tourism management and marketing." Journal of Marketing Communications, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), p. 1

Departing from the dyadic paradigm of students versus business schools in marketing and business education, this article utilizes a pluralistic perspective to account for and investigate various stakeholder groups’ value expectations and roles as we develop and examine a value co-creation ecosystem framework for marketing and business education. Service-Dominant Logic and Authority Theory are used as theoretical lenses along with a mixed-method approach to conduct three studies: (a) a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), (b) a qualitative conceptual mapping content analysis, and (c) a three-round quantitative Delphi study. The results provide insights into the differing elements of value and level of authority expected by various stakeholders in marketing education. This research significantly contributes to the pluralist perspective, gaining ground in business education research by extending previous work. In addition, the article contributes to the Service-Dominant Logic and Authority Theory literature by integrating the two to improve the explanatory power of value co-creation ecosystems to an expertise-led service such as marketing education. Theoretically, integrating Service-Dominant Logic and Authority Theory generates fruitful avenues to uncover what matters to business school education stakeholders.

Purpose - Via the lens of the ego-depletion phenomenon (Baumeister et al., 1998) and Higgins' (1998) regulatory focus theory, this paper seeks to explain why current controlled communications are failing to achieve coherence between people's free will and their actions pursuing sustainable goals in a society. This paper explains how ego-depletion triggered by controlled communications can lead to confusion and decision fatigue in a society, thus potentially sabotaging people's participation in sustainable behaviour. Design/methodology/approach - The authors applied Jaakkola's (2020) theory synthesis approach to integrate concepts from previously unconnected disciplines in order to generate novel insights in the area of controlled communication management. Findings- The authors develop a theoretical framework and present research propositions that can help advance research and the discourse at the intersection of controlled communication and self-regulation theories. Research limitations/implications - This paper possesses the limitations associated with conceptual papers, e.g. the lack of empirical support of the study's conceptual arguments. Practical implications - This paper generates novel insights to assist communication practitioners and policymakers to improve vehicles and mechanisms of controlled communication with the public regarding sustainable goals pursuit. Originality/value - To the best of authors' knowledge, this is one of the first papers that has merged the domains of self-regulation, ego-depletion, and controlled communication in an integrative framework in order to explain the mechanisms of how to enhance the effectiveness of controlled communication associated with sustainable goals pursuit.

"Handbook of Research in Ethnic and Intracultural Marketing." Journal of Marketing Communications, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), p. 1

The best companies and enterprises react swiftly to abrupt marketplace and environmental change. Technology played a major role in one of the biggest changes, encouraging firms to move to conducting business online. However, creating a great online shopping experience was a huge challenge, especially for luxury companies whose customers expect not only high-end products but also personalized and distinctive experiences. Luxury jewelry businesses utilize several web atmospheric cues to maintain the luxury element while delivering the desired experience in an online setting. From a research perspective, it is important to know how these companies assess various cues and how that assessment affects utilization to comprehend how they organize the online experience to best suit client requirements and preferences. Thus, semi-structured interviews were conducted with executives from eight different luxury jewelry brand firms. Recorded interviews were transcribed, and NVivo was utilized to analyze findings and identify emerging themes. According to the findings, information, navigation, visual design, and layout are crucial cues employed to provide the intended online experience, whereas music is far less significant.

This issue publishes five papers – all relating to marketing communications, and with a very wide dimensionality of subject matter. Four papers stemming from the USA, and one from India. The first paper by Segijn et al. focuses upon new personalization technologies to deliver ostensible personalized messages to consumer relative to ‘synced advertising’. The effects of such advertising are analysed in detail. The discovery of downsides – both in terms of critical attitudes and a level of perceived surveillance. Evidently more work of an educational nature is needed in order to increase consumer confidence in such advertising. The paper by Song and Ferguson relates to the perennial matter of stakeholder support relative to CSR programs in an important domain of facilitating donations to specific societal causes and generating or maintaining towards corporation or businesses engaged in CSR. Personal belief-based altruistic motivations work well in conjunction with the perceived social corporate motive. Both need to be analysed, understood, and carefully planned for relative to profit and not-for-profit sectors. Michelle Seelig’s paper addresses a topic of growing importance to all readers of ‘green’ issues in connection with marketing and corporate communications, i.e., the emphasis on green attributes, imagery, and credentials in attempts to market qualities of the natural world. Naturally now, as a result of widespread exposure of greening for the sake of rhetoric, greenwashing, etc, consumer confidence is low, skepticism is high, and distrust is the order of the day. Clearly, as Seelig strongly recommends, environmental stewardship has to be continuous, believable, and worthy of trust. Customer engagement is now a topic worthy of marketing attention and research as Gligor et al. assert. The outcomes of their research differ by gender relative to purchases, influence, knowledge etc but not necessarily customer referrals. Perceived brand fairness (as explained), however, mediates gender impactfulness on customer engagement. The final paper by Dogra and Kaushal considers the effectiveness of digital financial advertising relative to creating favorable consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. The much-favored and cited TAM model is augmented and confirmed by this paper, which will be benefit to aid marketers, planners, and managers in developing and implementing new policies.

In Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), the power of synergy has been demonstrated across disciplines, media types, multi-platforms and multi-tasking and across the customer journey. However, this paper uses synergy to demonstrate how collaborative thinking can produce even greater value for IMC. Bringing together the insights of IMC leaders from the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, plus the collaboration of IMC academics in a thought-provoking ideation session, we harness the power of synergy to reimagine and reinvestigate IMC education. With all the changes in technology, business and consumers, it was felt that IMC needs to find a new direction and greater clarity of purpose. And perhaps this purpose is greater than communication alone. Maybe it is a management discipline. Or a fundamental part of university education as a core unit. Our vision for IMC was driven by its technology focus and customer-centricity. IMC is integrated, people-focused, and purposeful communication, based on management practice, and evidenced in academic research. Or as one participant described it, 'IMC rises from the ashes of other disciplines'.

We welcome the six papers in this current issue, one derived from Germany, four from the USA, and one from Palestine. The abstract of this issue and many previous issues reveal the wide diversity and huge expansion in marketing communications topics deemed worthy of research endeavor and investigation. As we proceed further into the 21 century (barring some catastrophe of epic proportions), it seems evident that marketing communications and promotion i.e., the driving force of marketing exchanges will continue to accelerate. Yet, also, there is a sense that we – as marketing and marketing communications academics – may be missing some important issues worthy of investigation. For example: why are we not seeing many more papers tackling the ‘received wisdom’ of current marcoms models and practices? Where are the replication studies -so which seem be so few and far between. If these studies do not take place, the field will continue to atrophy through usage of outworn and outdated past studies and models which may not be suited to modern-day contexts. For example, the elaboration likelihood model comes to mind. Further, the swelling tsunami of mass and micro communications through every media modality has not been well addressed and may even be ignored. Is this something of value to consumers? Or is it seen perhaps as a nuisance, an invasion into media spaces where spam and advertising avoidance filters are not only needed, but vitally necessary? What is the consumer reaction to this burgeoning phenomena? Another example, where there are regrettably so few studies, concern after sales services. Often the focus of attention is focused upon attention, awareness, desire action – the usual trips through hierarchy of effects models . . . i.e., pre-sale, and during sales. What happens afterwards when problems arise remains a black hole at the edge of marketing. Finally the above are by no means a complete list An other inexorable trend in modern marketing is to direct consumer to ubiquitous websites where the answers to all consumer questions will be found (Not!). Are websites and the directive and usually almost useless quasi-AI telephony, more of a firewall to keep customers away from talking to real people in real time about issues that are important to them? This mass avoidance by companies in the private and public sector must be a major source of annoyance and stress to many customers and users of services. `So, on the one hand, it is a pleasure to welcome well-written papers on diverse, current and interesting subjects. But, let’s not forget other elements especially around the need for replication studies, and also the growing concern that issues that are important to consumers and users are not left aside. JOURNAL OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 2023, VOL. 29, NO. 7, 635–636 https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2023.2267303

This issue publishes five papers with a wide range of contributors from the USA, Australia, Poland, New Zealand and Japan. The abstracts summarise the paper contents well in subjects ranging from mobile payments, podcast effects, country tourism advertising, to nonprofit donation requests, and how promotional products enhance ad impact. We are now approaching 2025 and almost a quarter century has passed by since the inauguration of the new millenium. In that short time period, we have witnessed huge expansion and accelerating diversity in all media forms and promotional opportunities. Not all of these are digital or even online. Yes, digital is important and has taken its rightful place in the pantheon of media choices. But, digital does not stand alone . . . and nor will it for the foreseeable future! The whole range of traditional media and promotional options are still operational, valuable and usable. One form does not supersede or dominate the other. At least, not yet. Hence, to our authors and contributors, we welcome papers drawing on every diverse digital and traditional modus operandi and the necessary interactions between them in developing, implementing and evaluating marketing and corporate communications campaigns and strategies. Hence, critical papers addressing the interactions between traditional and digital would be welcome. It would be also great to see critical papers addressing the many consumer issues evident in today’s media-saturated societies. For example:

This issue publishes five papers. The first paper by Hedli and Zourigg compares and contrasts – somewhat confrontationally, two models relating to attitudinal change and persuasion – the much-cited Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Unimodel. Both – alas – suffer from conceptual and empirical limitations. The question of whether attitudinal change is better explained by a dual or single process is tackled via a robust, detailed and though-provoking polemic. In the end, the authors conclude in favor of the ELM as the major contribution in the field. That said, I and indeed the literature await a robust defense of the elaboration likelihood model, and specifically one that underpins empirically the notion of a dual explanation as to how persuasion does occur in a modern context. Watch this space. Phua and Lim focus on the somewhat dubious modern practice of advertising electronic cigarette brands via social media leading to apparently ‘reduced risk’, ‘heathier and regular’ and ‘quit smoking using e-cigarettes’ via a well-developed series of experimental situations. Use of warning labels together with celebrity endorsements via social media seems to ameliorate to some degree the potential effects of positive advertising claims. As with the first paper, the door of future research is left well open in terms of the role of regulatory agencies and their role. It would be interesting for some future authors to tackle the subject of whether these points are mooted somewhat in the face of ongoing huge revenues to government in terms of tax returns. Thus, an outright ban on smoking either of traditional or e-cigarettes is most unlikely despite significant health care costs for smokers in later life. The paper by Amirkhizi, Pouralebi and Anzabi tackles a fairly unusual subject in marketing communication terms – that of visual form – to help designers and analysts design products to suit user formal preferences in different cultural contexts. As may well be anticipated different cultures produce differing feelings and reactions with regard to product forms and would appear to offer significant promise for designers to take consumer or user perceptions into considering when designing products and indeed packaging. Whether this is economically feasible or not remains to be seen. It would be interesting to see examples of product manufacturers and indeed package makers to experiment with form relative to product purchase. Yoon, Kim and Choi tackle tackle one of what used to be an almost unmentionable subject in marketing and marketing communication terms, in terms of how to educate adults who are infected with HPV to seek out prevention and treatment, rather than suffering with an illness, or worse – infecting others. Vaccination is the easiest, but many citizens in today’s world remain unvaccinated. As is evidenced her humor, STD JOURNAL OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 2023, VOL. 29, NO. 5, 431–432 https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2023.2223808