Nina Michaelidou

Shopping motives as antecedents of e-satisfaction and e-loyalty

Abstract Customer loyalty is fundamental to the profitability and survival of e-tailers. Yet research on antecedents of e-loyalty is relatively limited. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of motives for online shopping on e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. A structural equations model is developed and tested through data from an online survey involving 797 customers of two UK-based e-tailers focussing on hedonic products. The results suggest that convenience, variety seeking, and social interaction help predict e-satisfaction, and that social interaction is the only shopping motive examined with a direct relationship to e-loyalty. Data also show that e-satisfaction is a strong determinant of e-loyalty. These findings are discussed in the light of previous research and avenues of future research are proposed.

Cross-national differences in e-WOM influence

Purpose: This paper aims to present a cross-national study that investigates changes in purchase intentions of UK versus Chinese consumers following exposure to successive e-WOM comments in the form of positive and negative user reviews for experience versus search products. Design/methodology/approach: A 2(e-WOM valence and order: negative versus positive most recent)×2(product type: experience versus search)×3(purchase intentions at t 1, t 2, t 3) repeated-measures factorial design is used to test a set of hypotheses developed from the literature. Findings: Chinese consumers are susceptible to recent e-WOM comments regardless of their valence, while UK consumers anchor on negative information regardless of the order in which it is acquired. This holds particularly for experience products. Originality/value: This cross-national study contributes to the scarce literature on the impact of e-WOM on consumer purchase decisions by comparing UK and Chinese consumers. The authors suggest that culture moderates the development of product evaluations following exposure to e-WOM.

Do Marketers Use Visual Representations of Destinations That Tourists Value? Comparing Visitors’ Image of a Destination with Marketer-Controlled Images Online

The study explores visitors’ image of a destination using online visitor-generated photography and compares the findings with images of the same destination that marketers create and control on the Internet. The two studies are conducted with Taiwan as the context-destination. Online visitor-generated photography yielded more than 100 photographs from visitors to Taiwan, and indicates that visitors’ holistic image encompasses notions of Taiwanese uniqueness, ancientness, and authenticity through their perceptions of the natural landscapes, traditional local cuisine, and culture. The second study yielded 1,526 visual image representations of Taiwan collected from a variety of website sources, and findings highlight the disparities between the holistic image construed by visitors to Taiwan and the image created by marketers on the Internet. The findings yield important implications for the effective positioning and promotion of tourism destinations as managers should consider visitors’ holistic images in their attempt to create destination images through online visual representations.

Antecedents of attitude and intention towards counterfeit symbolic and experiential products

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of price consciousness, perceived risk, and ethical obligation on attitude and intention towards counterfeit products. Data were collected from a sample of 200 respondents via an online questionnaire. A conceptual model was derived and tested via structural equation modelling in the contexts of symbolic and experiential counterfeit products. Findings show differences in the factors (and weight thereof) impacting attitude and purchase intention in the two product contexts. Specifically, ethical obligation and perceived risk are found to be significant predictors of attitude towards both symbolic and counterfeit products, while price consciousness is found to predict only attitude towards experiential products, but not purchase intention in either counterfeit product context.

The use of Facebook to promote drinking among young consumers

Abstract New media platforms including social networking sites (SNS) have changed the media landscape and enabled many-to-many communication practices that have increased youth exposure to pro-alcohol consumption messages exponentially, blurring the lines between content generated by alcohol brands, nightclubs and consumers. This study uses qualitative methods to explore the use of Facebook to promote drinking among young consumers. Focus groups with a sample of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, and a netnographic study investigating alcohol brands, alcohol groups and nightclubs on Facebook were conducted. Findings indicate that alcohol brands and nightclubs use Facebook as a tool to communicate, co-produce and generate alcohol-related content with young adults, which encourages drinking. Findings suggest that SNS such as Facebook are changing the roles of, and inter-relationships between, advertisers and how consumers process media content, including drinking-related marketing communications.

A typology of internet users based on comparative affective states: evidence from eight countries

Purpose – The role of affective states in consumer behaviour is well established. However, no study to date has examined online affective states empirically as a basis for constructing typologies of internet users and for assessing the invariance of clusters across national cultures. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – Four focus groups were carried out with internet users to adapt a set of affective states identified from the literature to the online environment. An online survey was then designed to collect data from internet users in four Western and four East Asian countries.Findings – Based on a cluster analysis, six cross‐national market segments are identified and labelled “Positive Online Affectivists”, “Offline Affectivists”, “On/Off‐line Negative Affectivists”, “Online Affectivists”, “Indistinguishable Affectivists”, and “Negative Offline Affectivists”. The resulting clusters discriminate on the basis of national culture, gender, working status and perceptions tow...

Characteristics of marketing channels: a theoretical framework

In this paper we focus on the notion of channel characteristics. The discussion presented is based on the idea that proliferation of non-store channels (catalogues, direct mail, Internet, etc) and interest in home shopping generates a need to examine the impact of channels on consumer choice behavior. The limited research that does exist in this domain indicates that aspects such as risk aversion, self-confidence, variety seeking, convenience orientation, flexibility, demographics, etc. all differ measurably and significantly between shopping modes. The practical and theoretical implications are extensive. However, no conceptual models exist that attempt to identify channel characteristics or to link them to behavioral outcomes. This paper proposes and explores the concept of channel characteristics and suggests ways of modelling channel attributes. Its goal is to begin filling this research gap and to open a discussion on the possible impact of channel characteristics on consumer behavior.

New advances in attitude and behavioural decision-making models

The seminal contributions of Fishbein and Ajzen remain prominent in consumer research particularly in the areas of attitudes and decision-making. Fishbein and Ajzen separately and jointly worked in these areas and have developed some of the most highly cited articles in consumer research. Works including the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1985, 1991) have amassed thousands of citations. The TPB is an expectancy value model, which states that human behaviour is a consequence of one’s behavioural intention (the cognitive representation of the individual’s motivation to enact the behaviour in question), which is in turn explained by one’s attitude (the individual’s positive or negative evaluation of performing the behaviour), subjective norm (the individual’s perceived social/peer pressure in undertaking the behaviour) and perceived behavioural control (the individuals perception of the ease or difficulty in enacting the behaviour). The TPB is an extension of the TRA, which does not include perceived behavioural control and thus is not designed to explain behaviours out with an individual’s volitional control. A large number of reviews and meta-analyses have concluded favourably on the ability of the TRA/TPB to explain intention and behaviour across a wide spectrum of contexts (e.g. Albarracin, Johnson, Fishbein, & Muellerleile, 2001; Armitage & Conner, 2001; Conner & Armitage, 1998; Godin & Kok, 1996; Hagger, Chatzisarantis, & Biddle, 2002; Sheeran, 2002; Sheeran & Taylor, 1999; Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988; Trafimow, Sheeran, Conner, & Finlay, 2002; Webb & Sheeran, 2006). Since their inception in 1975 and 1991, respectively, the TRA and TPB have evolved to include additional constructs not within the original conceptualisation of the theory, including among others self-identity, ethical obligation and past behaviour (e.g. Bagozzi et al., 2000; Shaw & Shiu, 2013), and they have provided the conceptual platform for other theories and models to emerge, including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM and TAM2) (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000) and the Model of Goal-Directed Behaviour (MGB) by Perugini and Bagozzi (2001). These theories have been extended also through combining the TRA/ TPB with other theories such as social identity theory (Fielding, Terry, Masser, & Hogg, 2008), personality (Rhodes & Courneya, 2003) and human values (Hrubes, Ajzen, & Daigle, 2001). Others have extended the TRA/TPB by exploring potential moderating and mediating relationships (e.g. Churchill, Jessop, & Sparks, 2008; Mathur, 1998; Muhamad & Mizerski, 2013; Norman & Conner, 2005), decomposed the TRA/TPB constructs (e.g. Kidwell & Jewell, 2008; Rodgers, Journal of Marketing Management, 2014 Vol. 30, Nos. 5–6, 519–528, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2014.884368

The effect of health, cosmetic and social antismoking information themes on adolescents' beliefs about smoking

The paper examines the effect of long-term health-related and short-term social and physical antismoking information on adolescents’ beliefs about smoking. Findings from a UK school-based study indicate that antismoking information about the short-term effects of smoking, such as cosmetic (e.g. yellow teeth and fingernails and smelly clothes) and fitness, have a greater impact on beliefs than long-term health-related information. The implications for the design of antismoking campaigns are explored.

Are innovative consumers emotional and prestigiously sensitive to price

Abstract Understanding the consumer’s tendency to adopt new products is an ever-present essential for successful marketing campaigns. This paper presents the findings from two empirical studies that investigate the relationship between consumer innovativeness, price-prestige sensitivity, and need for emotion. A questionnaire survey was used to collect data in both studies from a sample of 668 respondents in two cities in England. The findings show that consumer innovativeness is determined by an individual’s sensitivity to price and their need for emotion. While innovative consumers are sensitive in relating price to prestige, this dispositional relationship varies across products. Furthermore, the findings suggest that enjoyment, which facilitates emotional openness and receptivity, influences innovative consumers to take the emotional route, besides the price-prestige route, to the adoption of new products. These findings have a number of important implications for marketers, particularly for the success of marketing campaigns targeted at innovative consumers who find enjoyment in using new products and are prestigiously sensitive to price.