Purpose Drawing upon the service-dominant logic (S-D logic) and elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this paper provides an integrative model to investigate how argument quality and source credibility of CSR communication affects customer value co-creation behavior, resulting in increased brand trust. Additionally, it unveils how brand trust and the perception of COVID-19 risk influence both brand love and subjective well-being. Design/methodology/approach The data of this study were collected through survey questionnaire from 304 coffee shop customers using convenience sampling and tested using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to validate its model. Findings The research findings confirm the positive association between source credibility and customer value co-creation (i.e. customer participation and citizenship behavior). By contrast, argument quality is revealed to have a significantly positive effect on customer citizenship behavior (CCB) but a non-significant effect on customer participation behavior (CPB). Additionally, the study identifies that customer value co-creation behavior significantly promotes brand trust. Finally, findings indicate that brand trust and the perception of COVID-19 risk significantly influence brand love and subjective well-being. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on CSR communication and S-D logic and provides new insights for marketers and advertisers to manage brands in the post-pandemic scenario through CSR communications. Furthermore, this study theoretically extends the ELM model to the CSR communication research. Finally, this study expands the relevant literature by clarifying the relationships between the perception of COVID-19 risk, brand love and subjective well-being.

We conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to explore whether providing tourists with information about the weather conditions in the destination country has a positive impact on their satisfaction level. We show that providing accurate weather information enables tourists to form more correct expectations i.e. closer to the actual weather conditions in the destination country - which in turn improves their satisfaction and makes them more likely to recommend relatives and friends to make the same trip. These findings reveal the role of information provision in improving tourists' satisfaction. Finally, our study encourages the application of the RCT approach as it addresses interesting questions in tourism research.

Viral marketing campaigns are often negatively affected by overexposure. Overexposure occurs when users become less likely to favor a promoted product after receiving information about the product from too large a fraction of their friends. Yet, existing influence diffusion models do not take overexposure into account, effectively overestimating the number of users who favor the product and diffuse information about it. In this work, we propose the first influence diffusionmodel that captures overexposure. In our model, Latency Aware Independent Cascade Model with Overexposure (LAICO), the activation probability of a node representing a user is multiplied (discounted) by an overexposure score, which is calculated based on the ratio between the estimated and the maximum possible number of attempts performed to activate the node. We also study the influence maximization problem under LAICO. Since the spread function in LAICO is non-submodular, algorithms for submodular maximization are not appropriate to address the problem. Therefore, we develop an approximation algorithm that exploits monotone submodular upper and lower bound functions of spread, and a heuristic that aims to maximize a proxy function of spread iteratively. Our experiments show the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithms.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of continuous brand-customer relationship via company-hosted social networking sites (SNSs). Factors that influence fans to continue using fast-fashion brands’ Facebook fan pages and to maintain the brand-customer relationship are discussed first. Subsequently, the predictors of fans’ engagement and affective commitment to a fast-fashion brand are examined with the aim to explore the key elements that nurture the brand-customer relationship via brands’ SNSs. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research was conducted and the structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 202 fast-fashion Facebook fan page users in Taiwan. Findings The results demonstrate that engagement, affective commitment and continued intention to use are predominantly influenced by, in turn, social interaction tie, content value and affective commitment. Research limitations/implications The study is limited because it investigated the fast-fashion fan page users in an Asian country, so the findings cannot be generalised to other contexts. Practical implications The findings suggest that fan page managers’ initiation and involvement in conversations, frequent responses, listening to fans’ opinions and improving fans’ experiential value may facilitate them to engage in the brand’s activities at a higher level. Originality/value The findings of this integrated model suggest managerial guidelines for brand managers in this industry regarding how to maintain the brand-customer relationship through social media strategy and how they contribute to theory building in continuance intention of SNSs.

Although the number of female entrepreneurs has grown worldwide (Brush and Cooper 2012; Kelley et al. 2013), female self-employment rate in Japan is quite low and there is still a significant gap of entrepreneurship participation between men and women (Welsh et al. 2014). One of the possible reasons why Japanese women are not willing to get self-employed is a Japanese cultural norm, which regards business as the masculine activity and housework as the women’s responsibility (Kimoto 2000; Kondo 2001). This strong gender-role perception still affects females’ behaviours. For instance, they tend to keep a distance from social capital/relationships and prefer kinship (Brush et al. 2009; Marlow 1997). The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting Japanese female entrepreneurship, specifically to find out the impacts of gender stereotypical perception and online social capital obtained via social media on entrepreneurial intention in Japan. The analysis was based on 426 Japanese entrepreneurs consisting of 243 business owners and 183 nascent entrepreneurs. To test the hypotheses and moderating effects of gender and age on entrepreneurial intention, Structural Equation Modelling and Independent Samples t-test were conducted. Results show that gender stereotypes, which referred to business as males’ activity and housework as females’ responsibility, would still exist in Japan and it decreased women’s intention to start their own business. However, the effectiveness of social media to increase females’ access to online social capital was also identified. Moreover, gender and age were found to be significant moderators for all hypothesized relationships. These findings can help policymakers understand women entrepreneurial intentions in Japan and take measures to extend their business opportunities. Lastly, this study provides the theoretical implications and extends the entrepreneurship literature.References available upon request.

A segmentation approach is presented using both traditional demographics segmentation bases (age, social class/occupation and working status) and a segmentation by benefits sought. The benefits sought is in this case are utilitarian and informational reinforcement, variables developed from the Behavioral Perspective Model (the BPM). Using data from 1847 consumers and a total of 76,682 individual purchases brand choice and price and reinforcement responsiveness was assessed for each segment across the UK cookie (biscuits) market. Building on previous work the results suggest that the segmentation of brand choice using benefits sought is useful. This is especially the case alongside demographic variables. This paper provides a theoretical and practical segmentation approach to both the behavioral psychology literature and the wider marketing segmentation literature.

A segmentation approach is presented using both traditional demographic segmentation bases (age, social class/occupation, and working status) and a segmentation by benefits sought. The benefits sought in this case are utilitarian and informational reinforcement, variables developed from the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM). Using data from 1,847 consumers and from a total of 76,682 individual purchases, brand choice and price and reinforcement responsiveness were assessed for each segment across the UK cookie (biscuits) market. Building on previous work, the results suggest that the segmentation of brand choice using benefits sought is useful. This is especially the case alongside demographic variables. This article provides a theoretical and practical segmentation approach to both the behavioral psychology literature and the wider marketing segmentation literature.

This article presents a comprehensive examination of panel data for 1,847 consumers and 2,209 brands of “biscuits” (a total of 76,682 records) in which matching analysis is employed to define brand substitutability and potential product clusters within the overall category. The results indicate that, while brands performed as expected as perfect substitutes for one another, five subcategories of biscuits into which the brands were divided (chocolate biscuit countlines, chocolate-coated biscuits, filled biscuits, plain sweet biscuits, and savory biscuits) generally performed as separate products. Matching provided a graded measure of substitutability/nonsubstitutability of brands and products, and thereby contributed to their definition.

The relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance was investigated across 15 product categories in Brazil and the UK. Brand equity was conceptualized as related to the level of social benefit offered by each brand and was measured with a simple questionnaire that asked consumers to rate brands with respect to their familiarity and quality levels. These measures were then related to brand market share and revenue. Results showed that the relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance varies across product categories, indicating that products differ with respect to their level of brandability and suggesting ways to measure it.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of service quality and corporate image on students’ loyalty of boarding schools in the UK. Valid responses obtained from Chinese students in British boarding schools (n =300) were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results of the empirical research on Chinese students reveal how students’ loyalty relies on the level of service quality and corporate image. Additionally, corporate image mediates the relationship between service quality and students’ loyalty. Different from previous studies that investigated service quality in the higher education sector, this study extends the extant literature by examining the importance of corporate image on boarding schools. The results also corroborate the applicability of the five dimensions of SERVQUAL model to the boarding school sector.