•This paper builds an integrative framework for ‘truly special gifts’.•It looks at informants’ accounts of ‘best gifts ever’ and work on ‘perfect gifts’.•‘Best gifts ever’ are often experiential, ...memorable and life-changing.•We contrast these with scholarship on the more utopian ‘perfect gifts’.•‘Best gifts ever’ share defining characteristics with ‘perfect gifts’.
Scholars and practitioners often consider the ‘perfect gift’ to understand the qualities of the most cherished gifts or to encourage givers to choose such gifts. Whilst useful, this represents a utopian view of gift-giving. This study explores the concept of ‘best gift ever’ through 35 in-depth interviews in order to understand the properties of significant gifts as defined by givers and receivers. Findings reveal that the ‘best gifts ever’ are often associated with unforgettable and life-changing experiences. These properties are compared with those of the ‘perfect gift’ to produce an integrative framework for truly special gifts. Specifically, this paper: 1) identifies the properties of ‘best gifts ever’ as distinct from ‘perfect gifts’; 2) uncovers insights into the ‘perfect gift’ beyond the existing conceptualization; and, 3) integrates the ‘best gift ever’ and the ‘perfect gift’ into a unified framework capturing what makes a gift successful.
Gift giving has long intrigued and perplexed consumers and scholars alike. Of particular interest is when and why givers bestow gifts that miss the mark with recipients. The current meta‐analysis ...quantitatively investigates giver–recipient mismatches by empirically examining 153 unique effects from 114 studies across 29 papers. Results suggest that characteristics of the gifts, characteristics of the occasion, and characteristics of the giver/receiver in the gift exchange presented in the original studies affect the degree to which giver–recipient asymmetries are more/less pronounced. This research confirms a persistent disconnect between evaluations gift givers and recipients make about the exchanges in which they participate. This “Gift Gap” is exacerbated when the gift exchanged is sentimental in value, consumed privately, and when the exchange occurs between friends. These results provide some support for various theoretical perspectives hypothesized to explain these asymmetric evaluations. Finally, this research reveals the dearth of research focused on familial gift exchange, cultural differences in gift exchange, and gift exchange for unpleasant occasions or occasions unrelated to birthdays and holidays.
•Viewer engagement is positively associated with gift-giving decisions.•Socialization motive has a high correlation with gift-giving behavior.•The relationship between a giver and a streamer affect ...the amount of gifts.•Gift purchase behaviors were different depending on user gender and content genres.•Previous experience of purchasing items affect gift purchase behaviors.
This study investigates the effect of viewer engagement on gifting items to a streamer in a live video streaming. Data were collected from AfreecaTV, a leading live video streaming platform in South Korea, to examine viewer engagement and gift-giving behavior. After analyzing 2,294,837 viewers over a three-month period, the empirical results provide evidence that viewer engagement is positively associated with gift-giving decisions. However, the impact of viewer engagement on the amount of gifts purchased is different depending on how the engagement is measured (i.e., by stream or by channel). This study empirically proves that the motive for socialization has a high correlation with gift-giving behavior, which is considered as commoditization of a viewer’s social interaction while consuming media. The study concludes with a discussion on practical implications for live video streaming services and suggestions for future research.
While gift‐givers typically wrap gifts prior to presenting them, little is known about the effect of how the gift is wrapped on recipients’ expectations and attitudes toward the gift inside. We ...propose that when recipients open a gift from a friend, they like it less when the giver has wrapped it neatly as opposed to sloppily and we draw on expectation disconfirmation theory to explain the effect. Specifically, recipients set higher (lower) expectations for neatly (sloppily)‐wrapped gifts, making it harder (easier) for the gifts to meet these expectations, resulting in contrast effects that lead to less (more) positive attitudes toward the gifts once unwrapped. However, when the gift‐giver is an acquaintance, there is ambiguity in the relationship status and wrapping neatness serves as a cue about the relationship rather than the gift itself. This leads to assimilation effects where the recipient likes the gift more when neatly wrapped. We assess these effects across three studies and find that they hold for desirable, neutral, and undesirable gifts, as well as with both hypothetical and real gifts.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the differential effects of the type of gift (material vs experiential) offered on Snapchat and Instagram (Study 1) and how the impacts of gift type and message ...type (informational vs emotional) vary by the two different image-sharing social media platform in a business-to-consumer (B2C) gift-giving context (Study 2).
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 used a two (social media: Snapchat vs Instagram) by two (gift type: material vs experiential) between-subject factorial design, whereas Study 2 used a two (social media: Snapchat vs Instagram) by two (gift type: material vs experiential) by two (message type: informational vs emotional) between-subject factorial design. A series of analyses of covariance was conducted to test the suggested hypotheses.
Findings
Study 1 demonstrated that the promotion of material gifts was more effective on Snapchat than on Instagram, while the promotion of experiential gifts was more effective on Instagram than on Snapchat. Study 2 showed that the impacts of gift type and message type varied by social media platform. The promotion of an experiential gift with an emotional ad appeal was found to be more effective on Instagram than on Snapchat, while the promotion of a material gift using an informational ad appeal was found to be more effective on Snapchat than on Instagram.
Research limitations/implications
This research used a college student sample for the experiments. However, to extend the generalizability of the results, it is recommended that future experiments be conducted with nonstudent samples. Also, the current research manipulated the two different social media conditions, Snapchat vs Instagram, by enforcing participants to use their social media and then provided experimental stimuli in a different screen from their social media account. If the stimuli were distributed through participants’ real social media account, the external validity of this research could be enhanced. Finally, future research should apply this framework to other countries with different social media platforms to confirm the generalizability of the study’s findings.
Practical implications
This research can thus contribute to the development of new guidelines for planning social media marketing in the business gift-giving context. By leveraging findings that the fit effect of gift types and advertising appeals differs based on social media platform, practitioners can create a more effective social media plan for their advertising campaigns. Given that copywriting and media plans are among the most important and difficult work in the business of advertising, this study’s findings would assist advertising practitioners in planning and executing the most effective advertising campaigns.
Originality/value
The findings of this study provide valuable insights for the development of effective brand promotion strategies for B2C gift-giving via social media.
This study examines factors influencing gift sharing on social media. An online survey gathered data from American adults. It investigates how motivations for social media content posting, gift ...attributes, giver characteristics, and recipient reactions affect gift-sharing behavior. Findings show self-expression motives in content posting drive sharing, while social interaction motives do not. Gifts perceived as experiential and expensive are more likely to be shared. Recipient-centric gifts positively influence gift sharing, while giver-centric gifts hinder sharing. Attitude towards the gift predicts sharing, while appreciation does not. The study enhances understanding of gift sharing on social media and offers marketing insights for leveraging this behavior.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine coping approaches used by receivers to deal with failed gift experiences, thereby dealing with misperceptions between givers and receivers that could affect their ...relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a sequential, multimethod methodology using background questionnaires, online diary method and 27 semi-structured interviews.
Findings
Receivers cope with failed gift experiences through concealing, disclosing or re-evaluating the gift experience. These approaches encompass several coping strategies, allowing receivers to deal with their experiences in ways that help them manage their relationships with givers.
Research limitations/implications
Informants described gift experiences in their own terms without being prompted to talk about coping, thus some insights of coping with failed gifts may have been missed. Multiple data collection methods were used to minimise this limitation, and the research findings suggest new avenues for future research.
Practical implications
The present research helps retailers and brands to minimise gift failure by promoting gifts that emphasise aspects of the giver–receiver relationship, assists givers in their learning from gift failure by making them aware of the receiver’s preferences and reduces the cost of gift failure by offering further opportunities to dispose of unwanted gifts.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the emerging topic of consumer coping by providing a novel and rounded understanding of coping in the context of failed gift events, identifying new reasons for gift failure, highlighting receivers’ ethical considerations when responding to failed gifts and proposing new insights for the coping literature.
While the circular economy invites us to realize the potential of the so-called ‘waste-based commodity frontiers’, reintegration into capitalist value chains is not the only way for discards to be ...resurrected. In this article, we examine the ways in which the collective of dumpster divers is organized in relation to giving, receiving and reciprocating of various waste-gifts. Our intention is not only to expand existing theorizations of the gift to new domains but also to critically interrogate them, identify their limitations and explore what dumpster diving can teach us about the gift. In particular, the analysis foregrounds the heterogeneity of gift practices. Arguing against universal notions of the gift, the article proposes that waste assumes four main forms of gifts and relations among dumpster divers: givenness (parasitic relation); solidarity-based giving (relation of reciprocity); free giving (asymmetrical relation); and non-giving, as a withdrawal from returning the discards to nature conceived as an Other (the relation of non-relation).
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