Matteo Corciolani

Gift-giving, sharing and commodity exchange at Bookcrossing.com: new insights from a qualitative analysis

Purpose – Through an empirical analysis of a consumption community, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the theories of gift-giving, sharing and commodity exchange should not be kept separated but integrated into a unifying model. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides new evidence about Bookcrossing.com, whose members share and give books as gifts; that is, physical goods rather than digital ones as in most of the communities considered in the literature. This community is analysed with qualitative tools, such as netnography, personal interviews and participant observation. Findings – The main result of the analysis of Bookcrossing is that gift-giving is not the only process responsible for value creation and distribution in consumption communities: sharing and commodity exchange also play a role. Furthermore, the paper provides new evidence about aspects of gift-giving and sharing that have received limited attention in the literature: collective reciprocity and anonymous sharing....

How do authenticity dramas develop? An analysis of Afterhours fans’ responses to the band’s participation in the Sanremo music festival

Building on Giesler’s ((2008) ‘Conflict and Compromise: Drama in Marketplace Evolution’, Journal of Consumer Research 34(6), 739–53) concept of marketplace drama, I introduce the idea of an authenticity drama. I view an authenticity drama as a sequential process through which, owing to an object’s authenticity being undermined as a result of external market forces acting upon the object, or due to internal changes in the object itself, opposing groups of subjects (e.g. consumers and producers) interact dialectically in order to negotiate and transform their contradictory views of authenticity and inauthenticity over time. Specifically, I focus on popular music and use netnography and in-depth interviews to investigate consumers’ reactions to an independent band’s decision to participate in a commercial, mainstream festival. The findings show that consumers play an important role in both the deconstruction and reconstruction of the band’s authenticity. However, I also provide evidence that brand (in this case, the band) narratives play a fundamental role in orienting this process. I also discuss the theoretical implications of the findings.

The interaction effect between brand identification and personal crisis relevance on consumers’ emotional reactions to a fashion brand crisis

ABSTRACT An organizational crisis is an event perceived by managers and stakeholders as highly salient, unexpected, and potentially disruptive; it can also threaten an organization’s goals and have profound implications for its relationships with stakeholders. In this article, we consider an actual crisis that recently struck an important brand in the fashion sector – Moncler. The crisis endured by Moncler was complex, involving several aspects of its activity. Notably, our study was conducted at the beginning of November 2014, in the 2 weeks after the crisis event. In particular, to collect data on consumers’ reactions to Moncler crisis, we created a questionnaire and ran a web survey through Survey Monkey. Then, through a moderated mediation model, we show that the impact of brand identification on the attitude toward the company and purchase intention is significantly mediated by anger for high levels of personal crisis relevance (PCR) and by sympathy for average and low PCR levels. These results are in accordance with some research concerning the role of emotions, which can perform different functions; the function of emotions such as anger and sympathy is to support the individual’s commitment and relate to moral decisions and judgements.

I consumatori alla ricerca di autenticità nell'esperienza di consumo. Teorie, evidenze empiriche e implicazioni operative

The article aims at analysing meanings, which are attached to authenticity on the part of consumers. For this purpose, it presents two empirical studies, whereof one is qualitative and the other is quantitative, which have been both carried out in a contest in which authenticity is particularly important: that of the consumption of pop music. Findings reveal how authenticity should necessarily be considered a multidimensional construct, and how, besides indexicality and iconicity, which have been previously discussed by the literature, two other important dimensions would emerge: the individual experiential and the social experiential ones. Thus, by also highlighting the relevance of individuals consumption experience in the perception of authenticity, the study enables to obtain a few useful managerial implications and some suggestions for future research.

Exploring the palm oil crisis through the lens of different social media: an analysis of facebook, youtube and twitter contents

This article contributes to the current debate about the co-creation of brand meanings through social media. In particular, we focus on the construction and dissemination of negative meanings about brands. Through a content analysis of usergenerated contents published on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, we explore how consumers criticize companies’ use of palm oil. Specifically, we analyze the various topics that the palm oil issue is associated with (e.g., health problems, environmental issues) on the three social media platforms. Moreover, we investigate how the platforms differ in the language style (i.e., level of self-reference, cognitive complexity, detailed information and emotional references) used in the discussion about this topic. Our results have important implications for all companies facing brand crises through social media. Particularly, we show that, depending on the social media platform, companies should emphasize different topics and use diverse communication styles while responding to the crisis.

Consumers’ responses to ethical brand crises on social media platforms

Ethical brand crises are a breach in the core values held by a brand and a violation of the relationship between the brand and its stakeholders, and social networks provide consumers with a platform upon which they can discuss these crises and their meanings in detail. Through a qualitative content analysis and an interpretive approach, here we investigate the reaction of the social media audience to an apology released by a company after an ethical brand crisis. The emerging findings suggest that consumers engage in consumer identity work according to different strategies: they sublimate or minimize the crisis (defence of the brand) or focus on the ideological structure of marketing (criticism). In both cases, consumers offer the company an opportunity to assess and improve the ethical dimension of their marketing practices.