Antecedents of Brazilian consumers’ intentions towards virtual grocery shopping

The introduction of new consumer technologies has renewed research focus on their acceptance. This paper’s goal is to empirically examine several antecedents of behavioural intentions towards a new grocery shopping innovation through an online survey of Brazilian consumers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling are used to verify the proposed research model. The findings support consumers’ Shopping Motivation, Technology Orientation as significant antecedents of Behavioural Intentions mediated by the Perceptions of Technology. These antecedents are affected by the consumer’s gender and age. Technology Orientation also has a direct effect on Behavioural Intentions. The research expands our understanding of the antecedents of behavioural intentions and finds support for the mediating role of the Perceptions of Technology.

Too scared to shop: The role of apatephobia, trust, risk, and suspicion in market exchanges

According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in 2018 there were over 1.4 million reports of fraud resulting in an estimated loss to consumers of $1.48 billion (Federal Trade Commission, 2019). A natural reaction to the prevalence of fraudulent transactions is apatephobia, or a fear of intentional deception leading to less desirable outcomes in a market exchange. The current paper relates apatephobia to the literature on trust, risk, suspicion, defensive processing, emotions, and counterfactual thinking and offers 15 propositions related to these constructs. Further, a nomological network is proposed which relates these constructs together, identifies the conditions under which apatephobia will result in a consumer declining to engage in an exchange, and the feedback mechanism by which being deceived strengthens the motivation to avoid any future reoccurrence. Little academic attention has been paid to a fear of being deceived, thus I expect the current work to be of interest to researchers in the area of trust, risk, and deception.

Understanding the roles of risk and trust in the context of collaborative consumption: A test of competing models

Based on a survey of 266 ridesharing consumers in the United States, the study investigates relative impacts of trust and risk on intentions to continue using the service by comparing three alternative models via SEM analysis. We examine specific trust and risk sub-dimensions that are salient in the online-to-offline environment and identify a mechanism of their joint effects on consumer decision-making. Our findings show that risk does not directly affect intentions in this collaborative consumption context but is mediated by consumer trust. The results highlight the importance of trust-building efforts for ridesharing service providers.

“I got this!” A comprehensive framework for customer behaviour during a pandemic crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone’s lives in various ways. The current qualitative exploratory study is conducted to shed light on how the pandemic has impacted people’s lives. By analysing the results of fifteen in-depth interviews, we offer a coherent conceptual framework which explains the negative emotions that people are dealing with at the time of a pandemic crisis. Self-affirmation theory is used to show how individuals feel at the time of a crisis and how they make different behavioural and emotional decisions to sustain their perceived self-integrity. The framework also demonstrates the different routes people take to sail through those hardships and conquer negativities. Specifically, the presented model shows that people deal with negativities such as denial, uncertainty, anxiety, and concerns and try to overcome these through changes in priorities, hope, taking control and being in charge, and self-awareness.

Antecedents of satisfaction with Facebook in the context of user involvement, privacy, and trust

Social media networks such as Facebook serve as effective channels for the distribution of marketing information and news. Constructs such as privacy, trust, and involvement may impact user satisfaction which impacts advertising revenue earned by Facebook. A survey was given to 400 Facebook users using scales developed from existing literature. Questions on Facebook use, elements related to privacy, trust, involvement, satisfaction, and demographic data were collected from survey questions. Using the theoretical lens of Expectation-Confirmation Theory, the constructs of involvement, privacy, and trust were found to be significant determinants of satisfaction with Facebook. Gender, employment, and education tests showed interesting, though mixed, results, which are detailed in the study. Generational differences among Facebook users are also reported, which shows the trust construct being lowest rated. Given the dominance of the Facebook platform, the major contributions of this study include implications of developing involvement, privacy, and trust among Facebook users with the objective of increasing satisfaction, as part of marketing strategy.

Incidental curiosity and consumer intention to obtain unknown information: Implications for new product adoption and self-tracking behaviour

Curiosity has a powerful influence on consumer behaviour, and previous research has tended to focus on how curiosity affects the desire to obtain curiosity-relevant, unknown information. Yet an interesting question, which was the focus of the present research, concerns the effect of incidental curiosity on intention to obtain curiosity-irrelevant, unknown information. A set of three experiments provided systematic support for the hypotheses that incidental curiosity will increase the intention to obtain curiosity-irrelevant, unknown information (both product-related and self-related) in a way that is serially mediated by the perceived value of curiosity-relevant, unknown information and the perceived value of curiosity-irrelevant, unknown information. As such, this research offers important theoretical contributions to the literatures on curiosity and information ignorance, and it has implications for new product adoption and self-tracking behaviour.

Emotional user experience of innovative human-computer interactions: A multi-component approach

Emotions are a relevant indicator of users’ acceptance of technologies. Despite users’ subjective feeling being traditionally examined with categorical labels, the Component Process Model suggests that the cognitive and motivational component can also be examined in User Experience studies. This study focuses on emotions using innovative non-tactile Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to perform different tasks. Results revealed that cognitive and motivational components of emotions are decisive to confirm or to infirm the self-reported subjective feeling. More precisely, non-tactile controllers triggered significantly higher cognitive appraisals than the tactile controller. These non-tactile controllers also trigger significantly higher readiness to approach and to avoid than the tactile controller, depending on the type of controller used, and on its application. The innovativeness of the controller does not necessarily involve positive emotions and needs to be situated in a specific context of use. This analysis show how User Experience testing for product development could gain in investigating the additional components of users’ emotional experience.

A critical inquiry of the Internal Marketing discourse and a future research agenda

Echoing the fragmented knowledge in the internal marketing (IM) domain and the changing reality for service employees’ role in global marketplaces, this article aspires to provide a critical inquiry into the past, present, and future of the IM domain. This work delivers a critical overview of the grounds of IM work, to provide insights into the advantages and limitations of contemporaneous IM knowledge, and to present a research agenda for the future of IM. This conceptual paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the concept and the scope of IM and presents some potential avenues for investigation for service researchers.

Does perceived social responsibility affect consumer attitudes towards global brands? Lessons from the Nescafé Case in Turkey

This study builds on consumer culture theory, signalling theory and the associative network memory model to investigate the impact of consumers' perceptions of global brands' social responsibility on consumers' attitudes towards brands. A survey was conducted in Turkey using Nescafé as an example of a global brand. Data from 243 fully completed questionnaires were analysed using SmartPLS. The results from the structural equation modelling indicate that for Turkish consumers, the perceived globalness of the brand contributes to the brand's perceived credibility but has a negative direct relationship on the perception of the brand's social responsibility. In addition, the local icon value of the brand has positive and significant relationships with the brand's perceived credibility and the brand's perceived social responsibility. This later has a positive relationship on consumers' attitudes towards the brand. The perceived globalness of the brand is important to develop the perceived credibility of the brand. The paper provides some guidelines for global brands when communicating their social responsibility activities to consumers in emerging markets.

Investigating loyalty through CSR: The mediating role of brand image and brand trust

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on brand image, brand trust, brand loyalty, and purchase intention, based on consumers' perceptions in the context of the retail hypermarkets industry within the Egyptian market. To address the objectives of the study, a quantitative research methodology was used; the data were collected through a questionnaire, resulting in 403 valid responses from customers. The collected data were analysed using SPSS 23 and structural equation modelling on AMOS. The study found that CSR activities influence directly brand image and brand trust and indirectly brand loyalty and purchase intentions through the mediating role of brand image and brand trust. There was no significant direct relationship between CSR and brand loyalty as well as between CSR and purchase intentions. The effect of brand image is stronger than brand trust on both brand loyalty and purchase intention. The effects of brand image and brand trust are stronger in brand loyalty than in purchase intention. The paper adds to the understanding of the pivotal role of CSR activities as well as brand image and trust in affecting a consumer's intention to purchase decision, which has not been studied extensively in the Egyptian business to customer relationship markets in the retail industry. The study emphasises the importance of consumers' perceptions of CSR in achieving the main outcomes of relationship marketing (brand image, brand trust, brand loyalty and purchase intention). Retailers are progressively anxious to contribute to social and environmental domestic and international markets. Marketers should develop more consistent and effective social responsibility programmes to close any gaps between the retailer and the consumer perspective on CSR initiatives, and enhance the coordination between CSR activities incorporated into retailers' corporate strategic plans and their consumers' perceptions of these activities.