Journal of Consumer Behaviour最新文献

Recent technological advances have allowed businesses to adopt emojis when interacting with consumers. To gain in-depth theoretical and managerial insight into this trend, five pre-registered studies (1 field observation and four controlled experiments) indicate that emojis in digital communication work as heuristic cues that might have a differential effect depending on elaboration likelihood and outcome valence. Drawing on the Heuristic Information Processing and elaboration likelihood model, this research reveals that emojis can systematically influence consumers' elaboration. Findings indicate that low elaboration in positive encounters results in a positive heuristic cue boost (emojis improve customer evaluation). In turn, high elaboration on negative service outcomes makes the heuristic content relevant, such that positive (vs. negative) emojis will bring attention to and reinforce the interaction's positive (vs. negative) aspects. This research contributes to emerging studies on the role of emojis in digital communication.

Individuals are increasingly sharing their consumption activities on social media platforms. However, the inferences people draw from consumption posts are understudied. Three studies showed that observers infer more self-presentational motives and less self-expressive motives when they see others post their luxury (vs. nonluxury) consumption on social media. The attributions of more self-presentational motives and less self-expressive motives lead observers to perceive the poster as inauthentic and undermine the observers' interpersonal interest in the poster. The negative effects of posting luxury consumption are attenuated when the post content emphasizes competencies (vs. wealth). This work contributes theoretically to the research on self, signaling, and social inferences. The current findings have practical implications for social media users and marketers of luxury products.

Social media influencers (SMIs) have gained critical standing due to their capability to generate trust and alter behaviors. Trust in the influencer has further encouraged the followers to value the relationship equally and sometimes more than family and friends. In a mixed-method approach, the study investigates the role played by SMIs as change agents by generating trust. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to assess the measurement and structural models. Findings reveal that influencer characteristics—interactivity and informativeness—significantly impact the followers' social, physical, and emotional self-concept. Trust fully mediated the relationship between interactivity and emotional self-concept, and partially mediated the relationship between interactivity and social & physical self-concept. However, informativeness was not significant in building trust leading to self-concept. The findings imply that SMIs must engage in more consistent, meaningful, and real conversations with their followers to create an effective communication strategy. The current study based on the findings develops a conceptual model to demonstrate the impact of SMI characteristics on self-concept, by generating trust.

Researchers have long been interested in understanding young consumers, but they have had inadequate methods for studying their consumption-related thoughts and actions at early stages of life and how these develop and change during formative years. Recent theoretical and methodological advances in behavioral and social science have contributed to the development of a research approach, known as “life course paradigm.” This approach has helped replace and integrate previously used theories and methods by offering researchers an over-arching multi-theoretical framework for studying a wide variety of phenomena; and it has rapidly diffused across disciplines, and is increasingly used internationally. This article shows how consumer researchers could benefit from applying this conceptual research framework to improve existing models and study youths' consumer behavior in an innovative way.

Multi-method research was conducted in South Africa to explore the personal values that shape millennial men's clothing retail store choices when purchasing semi-formal/smart workwear for themselves. The qualitative phase comprised in-depth, personal interviews with 25 participants, implementing soft laddering to elicit the preferred attributes and desired consequences that drive clothing retail store choices. These ‘easier to communicate’ properties formed the crux of the phase 2 measuring instrument. The online quantitative questionnaire, an interactive version of the established Association Pattern Technique (APT), was completed by 408 millennial men as part of the means-end chain (MEC) procedure. The stepwise process produced a series of hierarchical value maps (HVMs), disclosing two prominent underlying personal values that drive millennial men's clothing store choices. ‘Pleasure’ emerged as the most prominent personal value, signalling millennials' high regard for enjoyable shopping experiences. The importance of a sense of ‘security’ should also be noted. Accordingly, the underlying forces that drive this financially lucrative cohort's clothing retail store choices extend beyond the marketing principles taught in business schools. Retailers will, therefore, have to delve deeper to understand their target markets' needs to prosper in a highly competitive marketplace.

When shopping online, it is difficult to estimate size from visual cues in the form of product images. While package shape and color have been discussed as factors influencing perceptions of product size, this research focuses on the influence of visual cues, such as the number of dimensions of the product image (i.e., two-dimensional image vs. three-dimensional image) on perceptions of product size. This study involved three surveys whose results revealed that three-dimensional product images are perceived as larger products than two-dimensional product images. Moreover, three-dimensional product images positively influenced perceived product weight, suggesting a downstream effect from perceived weight on willingness to pay (WTP, Study 3). The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of how consumers perceive product size from product images in online retailing. Specifically, the results of this study extend our understanding of the mechanisms behind product size perception by including the influential factor of product image dimensionality in size perception bias. In addition, these findings have practical implications. In recent years, food packaging has become smaller, but consumers may react negatively to smaller packages, even when the volume of the contents remains unchanged. For these practical concerns, it may be possible to mitigate the negative effects of downsizing by presenting product images in a three-dimensional format.

Businesses of the 21st century are utilizing technology in developing offerings for the growth of their businesses. From taking a minor role in formulating business decisions, technologies now have a larger stake. Disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, robotics, blockchain, 3D printing, 5G, Internet-of-Things, digital twins and augmented reality are changing how marketing strategies are developed and consumer behaviour is shaped. Our special issue contributes to enhancing the academic and industry-relevant knowledge of such new-age technologies and their marketing implications. The papers in this issue focus on the changing consumer behaviour in sectors like healthcare, apparel, footwear to highlight the critical role played by disruptive tech in shaping the modern world marketing and business plans.

Millions of charities compete for charitable donations, yet the underlying factors influencing individuals' preferences for specific causes remain relatively poorly understood. Building upon the ongoing scholarly debate about whether charitable behaviors are more altruistically or egoistically motivated, this study employs a self and other orientation framework to explore the preferences captured in a community survey (N = 987) to identify the various motivations relevant to donors' decision-making processes. Our study contributes significantly to our understanding of charitable cause selection. First, it uncovers diverse motives directly endorsed by donors, offering insight into the multifaceted factors influencing preferences. Second, it unveils distinctive constellations of motives related to self and other orientations, shedding light on the underlying drivers of charitable actions. Third, it delineates the impact of various identity motives on charitable preferences. Specifically, we find that self-oriented motives are associated with preferences for environmental and research causes, while other-oriented motives exhibit a strong link with preferences for housing and development causes. Additionally, a combination of self and other motives shapes preferences for health, social services, emergency, and international causes. This complex interplay highlights that prosocial behavior is susceptible to a plurality of motives and cannot be solely understood through a binary distinction of altruism versus egoism. The study also contributes to the broader understanding of the psychology of charitable giving and has implications for fundraising design in a competitive market.

The prevalence of social media influencer (SMI) marketing has compelled businesses to adjust to the changing landscape of the digital age. This adjustment is driven by the substantial influence that social media influencers (SMIs) wield over consumer decision-making; however, prior research often treated SMI strategy, content, and credibility as separate elements, leaving a knowledge gap on how these elements intersect and collectively influence SMI and consumer behavior. This study aimed to bridge this research gap by synthesizing existing literature on SMIs and consumer decision making, with a focus on SMI strategy, content, and credibility. It employed a systematic literature review with a hybrid domain-based approach, integrating the strengths of various review types while addressing their limitations. This study employed a constructivist qualitative methodology with a reflexive thematic analysis approach. It focused on synthesizing and analyzing literature from EBSCO databases on social media influencer marketing and consumer behavior, following carefully designed inclusion and exclusion criteria. The findings revealed that SMI Strategy, SMI Content, and SMI Credibility are interconnected components of SMI marketing, and even subtle modifications to these elements can significantly influence consumer decision-making. This study provides a holistic understanding of SMI marketing, emphasizing the interplay of SMI strategy, content, and credibility in shaping consumer choices. It offers valuable insights for businesses navigating the dynamic landscape of SMI marketing increasing their comprehension of the phenomenon.

Previous studies showed that optimistic bias is an important concept to influence individuals' health-related behaviors. The current web-based experimental study proposes that perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, proximity and perceived control are factors that influence one's optimistic bias. Optimistic bias was reduced when participants perceived high susceptibility because their perceived control decreased. Further, moderated moderated-mediation analysis revealed the moderating role of (1) perceived severity between perceived susceptibility and perceived control and (2) proximity between perceived control and optimistic bias. The analyses of interaction effects empirically demonstrated that the effect of perceived susceptibility and perceived control on optimistic bias are contingent upon perceived severity and proximity. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.