Communicating the luxury dream: The moderating role of brand prominence on the effect of abstract versus concrete language on consumer responses

The present research considers the effect of using relatively more abstract versus concrete language on consumers' attitudes toward a luxury product and their willingness to buy it. More specifically, the present research investigates the moderating role of brand prominence on the effect of using abstract versus concrete language on consumers' responses. The results of two experiments demonstrate that abstract language leads to higher product attitude and willingness to buy compared to concrete language when brand prominence is low but not when it is high. Implications of this research for theory and practice as well as its limitations are discussed.

Customer-driven supply chains: Trends and practices in leading Italian companies

This paper aims at understanding whether and to what extent companies are facing the challenge of improving their supply chains according to a customer-driven approach. Although the most recent supply chain management literature developed theoretical reflections and conceptualizations on the need for customer centricity in supply chain management, companies' practice does not seem to follow these prescriptions and the empirical research highlighted a frequent misalignment between market strategy and supply chain management processes. The aim of this paper is to bridge these two perspectives by answering two research questions. First, how are companies revising their supply chains, that is, what is the nature of the most recent projects concerning supply chain improvements? Second, to what extent are companies that invest in such projects prioritizing those specific projects that make a concrete alignment between market orientation and supply chain operating conditions possible? The paper reports and discusses the findings of an empirical investigation conducted among leading Italian companies or Italian subsidiaries of multinational companies. In particular, a two-step research was conducted, consisting of ten indepth interviews and a survey. According to our study, Italian companies are revising their supply chains to provide prompt availability of the product in different (but coordinated) distribution channels. This led to the launch of projects related to Demand Forecasting and to Omnichannel strategy adoption. However, in most cases, the managerial and technological readiness of companies is not in line with the relevance of the challenges. Another area of improvement concerns projects aimed at adopting up-to-date technologies, mostly connected to the Industry 4.0 paradigm, to improve operational performance. In this case the major opportunities perceived by the companies relate to the adoption of Big Data Analytics in order to better understand market trends

Communication practices in the diffusion of social-business innovation: Insights from B-Corporations

Companies innovate the value proposition by integrating social and business issues to balance value across multiple actors, thus ensuring the creation of socialbusiness value. Social-business innovation requires that multiple actors come together to align perceptions and expectations and create shared meaning for the development and diffusion of innovation. The debate on the diffusion of social-business innovation is still in its infancy. This paper focuses on the communication practices of social-business innovation, aiming to analyse this participative process through three main issues: 1) the actors to be involved; 2) the goals to be achieved; 3) the actions to be performed. Specifically, we investigate the efforts of B-Corps to address social challenges by adopting a practice-based approach.

How to choose the endorser: An experimental analysis on the effects of fit and notoriety

The present study is focused on the endorser topic following two different paths: firstly, proposing an extension of the theoretical match-up model, enlarge it through two other potential types of consistency: the typicality fit and the imagery fit. Secondly, the present study aims verifies the applicability of the same framework to the emerging situation with a brand linked to a not well-known endorser (internal as the founder or external as a web influencer). An experimental 3*2 (fit typology*high/low notoriety) between subject analysis was conducted in the food service domain. It showed some interesting considerations. From a theoretical point of view, the first relevant finding is that endorsement might be assimilated to a co-branding strategy, confirming the match-up model as an effective theoretical framework in this domain as well, with significant differences among the three fit typologies investigated. The typicality fit reveals to be the less effective in increasing attitude and other behavioural effects on consumers in spite of the large adoption of this kind of fit by companies. Instead, the imagery fit, seems to be the most impactful in terms of positive word of mouth activation and viral communication activities, at the same level at the categorical one. Moreover, the categorical fit induces the wider range of positive effect on the dependent variables (attitudes, willingness to pay and willingness to buy). Another interesting contribution is that the presence of an appropriate fit (in particular the categorical one) is able to compensate the absence of endorser notoriety and, on the average, the usage of a very popular endorser from the same domain of the brand is not necessary more effective in comparison with a not well-known endorser form the same domain. This result is the peak of the present research from a managerial point of view, as it leads to consider the opportunity to support the emerging practices by which companies turn to not well-known people (disclosing the founder, or presenting some workers, or adopting a common consumer as an influencer). The endorser not well-known, but presented with an adequate story-telling might be the best choice: less onerous and more effective than a big unrelated celebrity.

Measuring Tourists' Emotional Experiences in a cultural site

The study explores emotions and the engagement with local community as the keys of satisfactory tourists' experience by investigating visitors of an Italian mine village, in which eco-museum and tourist facilities are offered. The methodology is based on a quantitative approach and the main method is a survey analysis, through a questionnaire administrated in situ. The study provides a confirmatory factor analysis in order to test the validity and reliability of the Destination Emotional Scale and the Memorable Tourism Experience Scale. Differently from other implementations, the main findings show that DES does not fit in this sample. However, this study shows the importance of emotions and feelings in the visitors' experience, particularly in the hedonistic and place attachment variables within a specific cultural site.

The influence of servicescape and perceived authenticity on winery visitors' satisfaction and their behavioural intentions

Wine tourism destinations are growing in popularity not only for wine tasting experiences but also for the wineries' aesthetic and authentic rural appeal, which are increasingly valued and sought-after by a wider range of wine tourist markets. This study suggests and tests an empirical model where both various servicescape dimensions (i.e. physical environment, facilities, and personnel interaction) and perceived level of authenticity (i.e. object-based authenticity and existential authenticity) are considered as determinants of wine tourists' satisfaction and different types of behavioural intentions.Specifically, multiple regression analysis was conducted on a sample of 267 valid questionnaires collected from winery visitors in the region of Sardinia in 2015. Theoretical and managerial contributions on how to design and manage wine tourism experiences for wine tourist markets are discussed, and suggestions for future research are given.

Understanding the customer experience-loyalty link: A moderated mediation model

Multiple studies have focused on Customer Experience and its relationship with Customer Loyalty. Despite such attention, two research gaps are still open with reference to the Experience-Loyalty link: the mediating role of Customer Satisfaction and the moderating role of consumer characteristics. This study employs a moderated mediation analysis of the relationship between Customer Experience and CustomerLoyalty by including Customer Satisfaction as a mediator and Shopping Enjoyment as a moderator. An online survey on almost three thousand consumers is run with reference to grocery retailing. Results show the role of Customer Satisfaction as a mediator. Shopping Enjoyment interacts with the Negative Affective Customer Experience dimension in its relationship with Customer Satisfaction.