From a Literature Review to a Conceptual Framework for Customer-To-Customer Value Co-Creation

Albeit customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) is something inevitable in a socially dense interaction-rich service setup, there has not been any review in this area of literature. However, a considerable amount of extant research has highlighted the importance of inter-customer encounters during a service encounter. Customer-to-customer value co-creation during collective consumption is gaining relevance in the field of contemporary services marketing research. This review deals with searching articles through the Scopus database and systematically reviewing 115 articles related to customer-to-customer value co-creation and CCI. While highlighting their contribution to the services marketing literature and various theories, methodologies followed by the authors, it paves the way for developing the proposed conceptual framework for the process of customer-to-customer value co-creation. This way, the article adds up to the extant multi-approach research area revolving around customer-to-customer interactions/relationships, customer engagement, and value co-creation among the customers during a service encounter. The study recommends practitioners analyze and monitor the aspects proposed through a practical implication.

Music Streaming Characteristics and Consumption Emotion as Determinants of Consumer Satisfaction and Purchase Intention

The present study analyzes consumers perceptions of music streaming and how such perceptions might influence customers brand loyalty and purchase intent. The competitive advantages of music streaming, widely known for its cost-saving measures, ease of use, and worldwide accessibility, are carefully reviewed herein. The S-O-R Theory commonly employed in psychology studies is applied in this study to explain the relationship between the product characteristics of streaming music (e.g., price, content quality, functionality, convenience, and design) and consumer behavior as seen by consumption emotions. This relationship is viewed as either positive or negative in consumer satisfaction and purchase intention. The data were collected through an online web-based survey questionnaire. One thousand seven (1007) subjects from Indonesia completed the survey. The Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationship among product attributes, consumer satisfaction, and purchase intention. Our study findings revealed a strong association between emotion and particular product characteristics, whereby a positive emotion exists across all product characteristics in music streaming services. The design variable is the most popular function of all music streaming services product attributes. Our findings suggest that either positive or negative emotions may predict the functionality constructions in comparison with previous research results. On the other hand, the findings of the present study suggest that only positive emotions can influence the satisfaction level of consumers and, in turn, affect the consumers purchasing intent

Earnings Quality and Foreign Investors in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

This study aims to measure the earnings quality (EQ) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using a sample of 1827 firm-year observations from 2008 to 2016 by using nine EQ measures. These measures are persistence, predictability, value relevance, earnings response coefficient (ERC), smoothness, earnings surprise, accrual quality, loss recognition timeliness and conservatism. The study also examines the effect of these nine EQ measures on attracting foreign investors. Data are collected from Capital IQ database, and some other data are calculated manually from the capital markets and firms in each country. In this quantitative research, the sample is analysed by using descriptive statistics, correlation, and generalized least squares (GLS) regression to verify the hypotheses and analyse the effect of EQ measures on attracting foreign investors. Findings show distinct effects on attracting foreign investors in different countries. Persistence, predictability, ERC, and accrual quality have a positive effect in Oman, whereas value relevance and ERC have a positive effect in Kuwait. Predictability, accrual quality, ERC, and conservatism negatively affect the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Finally, loss recognition timeliness, smoothness, and earnings surprise do not have any effect in all GCC countries.

A Model of the Threats that Disreputable Behavior Present to Esports Sponsors

Both esports sponsors and academia are not aware of how disreputable behavior in the esports scene can negatively affect their brands. Hence, this research aimed at identifying which types of disreputable behavior in competitive gaming present the biggest threats to esports sponsors. In this quantitative and exploratory research, a non-probability, purposive, and heterogeneous sampling method was employed to gather a sample of 1,592 esports fans who filled a closed-ended online survey. Results showed that illegal and unregulated gambling was a high-risk threat to esports sponsors; toxic behavior, match-fixing, and cheating were labeled as medium-risk threats; and sexism, cyberattacks, and doping were found to be low-risk threats. Besides being one of the first studies on esports sponsorships, which serves as a basis for future research in this market, the findings contribute to the sustainability of the esports industry and its sponsors. Managerial implications are also discussed.

Using Visual Art in Product Design and Consumer Responses: The Moderating Role of Product Type

This paper aims to determine the effects of using visual art in designing non-luxury products on consumers’ luxury perceptions, quality perceptions, and product evaluations. An experimental design was conducted to test these effects. Differences according to the product types (convenience vs. shopping) were also evaluated. The research sample consisted of young consumers. The data was collected from 400 university students via a face-to-face survey and analyzed by using two-way MANCOVA. Results demonstrate that using visual art in the non-luxury product design affects perceived quality, luxury perception, and product evaluation both independently and interacting with the product type. Besides, using visual art in the convenience product without technical details increases consumers’ positive evaluations. In this context, product type has a moderating role in the effects of using visual art on product evaluation. Accordingly, art infusion increases positive product evaluation for convenience products but decreases it for shopping products.

Exploring the Impacts of Sharing Economy Drivers on Consumers’ Usage Intention

In recent years, people have begun to use sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb and Uber. The rapid development of such sharing economy platforms has thus become an important topic. Studies regarding the sharing economy have discussed resource providers but not users. Therefore, this study constructs a model to measure the components of sharing economy drivers and the correlation between those drivers and usage intention, in addition to exploring the differences in the composition of drivers and usage intention between Airbnb and Uber. The survey method was an online questionnaire. The sample analysis uses partial least squares regression to verify the hypothesis and analyze the components that form the sharing economy for drivers. According to the results, sharing economy drivers─Societal drivers, Economic drivers, Technological drivers, affect usage intention, and different combinations of sharing economy components, such as enjoyment, network externalities, perceived quality, cost saving, and efficiency, exist in Airbnb and Uber. For the reference of relevant academic research and practical operation in the future.

Strategic Entrepreneurial Storytelling: An Applied Framework for Better Pitches

Entrepreneurs are responsible for bringing innovative products and services to market. However, in order to bring new value to consumers, most entrepreneurs must secure funding. An integral component in the process of resource acquisition is the entrepreneur’s story. Very little research has dealt with the storytelling structure that a good pitch should use. Stories are a fundamental part of the way human beings understand themselves and the world around them. This paper synthesizes the current state of entrepreneurial storytelling and builds a parsimonious framework for strategic entrepreneurial storytelling (SES) through qualitative analysis of actual pitches. Our framework will help entrepreneurs build intentional and compelling stories for their investment pitch through the concepts of SES context, content, and execution.