It is important to understand the drivers of green consumption, because of growing concern for the health of the planet. In this paper, the assumption that a virtue-green product relationship exists ...is tested. The objective is to understand how product morality (versus that of the person using it) can influence the valuation of green products. Relying on virtue theory and positive spillover as conceptual bases, the research implicitly and explicitly tests and confirms green (versus conventional) product virtue. The results demonstrate that perceived green product virtue leads to positive emotions, which explain heightened purchase intentions. In line with the conceptualization, I show that the effect is moderated by the importance consumers place on their own morality (i.e., cultivating personal virtue). Importantly, explicitly framing green products as virtuous activates positive spillover (i.e., prosocial behavior) by consumers; when green products are branded with a virtue cue, they encourage consumers to be more virtuous. Beyond being perceived as better people, when consumers interact with green products they effectively engage in more moral acts, such as making donations. The results confirm the perception of green products as moral agents and provide marketers with insights into the marketing value of virtue cues in green product consumption.
How and when should retailers use 360-virtual reality (VR) versus other media? What role does haptic sensory information play in VR and can consumers actually imagine touch? The aim of this research ...is to answer these questions by evaluating how presence induced by media (360-VR versus video) leads to heightened attitudes and purchase intentions and how this effect depends on consumer’s knowledge of the product category as well as haptic information. Specifically, 360-VR (versus low presence media) elicits more favorable evaluations (study 1). Yet, in-store, 360-VR results in less favorable responses (study 2). We show that when consumers have high product knowledge, 360-VR decreases consumer responses toward the brand. Alternatively, when consumers have low product knowledge 360-VR enhances consumer responses toward the brand (study 3). Introduction of haptic instructions attenuates the unilateral negative effect of product knowledge (study 4). Importantly, mental imagery underpins these relationships (studies 3 and 4).
Although extensive research has explored aspects of sustainable consumption, such as specific sustainable behaviors and motivations for participating in sustainable activities, little research has ...examined the role of national culture and how pragmatism influences sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumption can encompass both sustainable attitudes and sustainable behaviors, and in this research, two types of social norms related to sustainable consumption (normative and self-enhancing) are also included and examined across three nations (France, Japan, and US). The findings suggest that differences in consumption are explained, in part, by the country's level of pragmatism, a cultural value (Hofstede, 1991). Building off the theory of reasoned action, findings also show that sustainable attitudes mediate the relationship between the level of pragmatism of a respondent's nation and sustainable behaviors.
Prior works discuss servicescapes as a stable environment but abstain from examining servicescapes in crisis situations and how they impact frontline employees (FLEs). This paper investigates ...servicescapes as something other than static and planned, and it accounts for the uncertainty often present in servicescapes. Specifically, we conceptualize servicescapes in crisis situations on a continuum that takes into account the landscape’s (in)stability and the processes’ (un)predictability. In so doing, we provide a more nuanced understanding of FLE experience and job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes, such as humanitarian contexts. Our research on these rarely surveyed but highly important service-providing circumstances identifies how FLEs need to reconcile the dynamic contextual facets and the variables likely to influence their job satisfaction. Across two studies of humanitarian aid contexts, including one with the United Nations, we show that servicescape processes and/or landscapes are often dynamic. We further show that organizational value’s congruence, pleasantness, and convenience have a positive impact on FLE job satisfaction in crisis servicescapes by decreasing their perceived level of uncertainty.
Ambient Temperature in Online Service environments (ATOS) is a sensory cue not directly accessible in current online servicescape technology, but inferred from secondary cues, particularly visual ...ones. This study integrates research on cross-modal inferences with a situated cognitions framework and the stereotype content model to show that ATOS enhances judgment of service provider warmth, in turn influencing important service outcomes. A pilot study explores the linkages between consumer online and offline experiences, providing evidence for online service environments’ capacity (especially ATOS) to shape customer judgment and behavior. Study 1 examines a tropical island holiday resort to show that online representations of the environment evoke situated cognitions and preferences consistent with high ambient temperature. Study 2 uses virtual tours of cafés to demonstrate that ATOS, through judgment of service provider warmth, positively influences purchase intention and other managerially important service outcomes. Study 3 employs 12 service contexts to replicate ATOS effects, mediated through warmth, and to show that effects are stronger in contexts where service provision is directed more at objects (vs. people). Given that ambient temperature is ubiquitous in all types of service settings and easily adjusted by practitioners, managerial implications outline how service marketers can more effectively employ ATOS.
This study integrates Kaplan and Kaplan’s framework on informational variables (mystery, complexity, legibility, and coherence) with construal level theory to examine how managers can use the visual ...design of virtual servicescapes to achieve a sense of telepresence (the subjective experience of being in a computer-mediated environment, even when one is physically elsewhere). Three studies using mixed methods and diverse samples show that informational variables vary in their capacity to evoke telepresence and thus in their impact on consumer behavioral intention. Study 1, a content analysis, uses expert judges and a global pool of virtual servicescapes to provide initial evidence that informational variables impact telepresence. Study 2, a commercial survey, shows that telepresence mediates effects of mystery and complexity (sensorially richer variables) on consumer intentions to approach. Study 3 uses a consumer sample to replicate the mediating role of telepresence and to show that a person’s visual processing style moderates effects of mystery and complexity. The effects are robust in the presence of an alternative process path through aesthetics and occur regardless of consumers’ familiarity with the servicescape, category knowledge, and involvement. Managerial implications focus on how to increase mystery and complexity for higher telepresence.
Virtual tours are distinct from videos and other online communication tools in various ways. First, they require consumer-controlled interactions and input (e.g. clicking a mouse), rather than ...passive viewing. Second, virtual tours offer users a unique perspective – the consumer experiences the product in a quasi-realistic sense. Third, virtual tours may allow for an immersive state, or telepresence. This research examines how in virtual tours, user-driven interaction results in telepresence, leading to augmented attitudes towards the object. Studies 1 and 2 show that the relationship between online virtual tours and attitudes towards the objects are mediated by telepresence with user-driven interactivity as an antecedent. Study 3 finds cognitive load to be a moderator of the sequential mediation. This research provides insights into the process mechanisms that occur in virtual tours, contributing to research on online interactivity and the influence of consumer-driven online interactions on consumer perceptions and behavior.
We investigate how family and non-family small-and-medium size enterprises (SMEs) differ in their preference for patenting over secrecy as a means to protect value of intellectual property, and how ...proactive orientation moderates this relationship. Because secrecy carries more risks for spillover than patenting, we propose and provide evidence to suggest that family SMEs are more likely to use patents than secrecy relative to non-family SMEs as a mechanism to protect value. However, proactive orientation can weaken this relationship, since SMEs with a proactive orientation will avoid the disclosure of information required for patenting. Using a sample of 300 SMEs from four countries in the wine industry, we find support for our hypotheses and contribute to both the intellectual property (IP) and SME literatures by explaining how family SMEs relative to non-family SMEs protect the value of IP.
All beverages are consumed with the help of a vessel (i.e., glass, mug, or cup), yet research focusing on glassware is scarce despite this cue being ubiquitous in the consumption experience. Through ...four studies, including a field study, we examine the associative semantic schema deduced from wider (versus narrower) glassware rim and how the “bigger is better” bias influences consumer purchase behavior (i.e., choice, consumption, purchase intentions, and willingness to pay). The findings show that consumers are more likely to value beverages when the glass rim is wider; this effect is mediated by perceived subjective pleasure. Wider glass rims signal a “bigger experience,” inciting consumers to purchase more expensive beverages, to consume a greater volume of beverage, and to express higher intentions to purchase when presented with wider rim glasses. This effect is shown to be significant for those high on synesthesia (i.e., cross-activation of sensory-perceptual experiences).
While most brands belong to individual enterprises, some brands are collective and based in a single territory. This paper, based on qualitative research, examines the characteristics of these ...territorial brands using the case study of the wines of Champagne in France. Employing a series of primary data sets and past studies the paper first explores the nature of the territorial brand (including its overarching nature and emergent development), then develops an analysis of the preconditions for strong territorial brands. The proposition is that these include a specific type of brand manager, a definite willingness to co-operate, a common mythology and local engagement. The paper considers goods that are inseparable from their origin whereas prior literature focuses only on services of this type. This paper also provides insights for marketers of territorial products in terms of how to ensure their success both in local and global markets as well as how to leverage the origin appropriately.
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