Does Economic Growth and Inflation Impact Consumer Confidence during a Pandemic? An Empirical Analysis in EU Countries

The study investigates the capacity of European Union member states to face the effects of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Namely, by means of a panel data analysis, the study reports on the impact of economic growth (proxied by gross domestic product) and inflation rates (proxied by harmonized indices of consumer prices) on the overall confidence indicator corresponding to 27 EU countries for the period fourth quarter 2019–third quarter 2020. Results showed that inflation had a negative influence on the confidence indicator during the pandemic crisis, while economic growth had no impact. The negative effect triggered by inflation uncovered the impact of monetary policies and fiscal policies on the staggering level of public debt. The study emphasizes that inflation plays a significant role in the market economy, reason for which governments should monitor this factor when trying to stimulate the economy and set appropriate policies for eliminating negative consequences of potential future recession periods.

Is the Transition to Bioeconomy a Sustainable Solution in Fast-fashion Industry, Considering the Overconsumption? - Premises for Future Research

The main objective of the paper is to inquire if bioeconomy is a “saving” sustainable solution to major problems caused by fast-fashion industry - consumption of non-renewable and scarce natural resources, waste generation, pollution - in the actual conditions of overconsumption and consumption intensification due to accelerated increase of global population. A closer look reveals that not only that fast-fashion industry is not bridging the gap to sustainability, but also that its transit to bioeconomy (which is the main alternative proposed by global organisms to increase sustainability) may deepen the global issues wanted to be solved, if the current business models are maintained. Insides evidence that individual overconsumption outpaces the fast-fashion industry’s efforts to create a sustainable bio-economic system, thus is imperative to redesign the business models to use less important natural resources and to reduce the environmental impact, while in parallel discourage the overconsumption. Consequently, fast-fashion business models need to have a sustainable holistic approach and incorporate sustainable measures, which are able to shift the consumer behaviour from overconsumption to sustainable choices, in their marketing objectives, strategies and actions. Based on the findings, premises for future research were proposed.

Experiential Marketing: Effects on Brand, Customer and Market Experience, and Industrial Applications with Perspectives from Nigeria

The purpose of this study is to provide comprehensive review of experiential marketing with focus on its effects and industrial applications. We report that experiential marketing has effect on brand, consumers and the market. Experiential marketing provides a lively brand experience that give consumers the chance to engage with the brand. It promotes brand experience effects more in the Generation Y than in Generation X. Experiential marketing focuses on customer experiences. The future would be about customer relationship management (CRM), due to the fact that CRM strategy helps the company to know more about the customers. Markets are changing faster than marketing. Experiential marketing has beneficial impact on the marketing mix. Experiential marketing finds application in different businesses or industries such as hospitality and tourism, retail, health care, airline, automotive, real estate, banking, FMCG and others, in emerging markets, because it motivates customers to make faster and more positive purchasing decisions. In Nigeria, experiential marketing has become so vital to brands to cut through the media clutter.

Projected Destination Image: A Content Analysis of Promotional Videos for City-level Tourism Destination

The current paper used content analysis to examine 50 commercials featuring the most internationally visited cities in the world as of 2019. It analyzed the components, scenes, and frames used to create the projected image of an attractive tourism destination, appealing to tourists from all walks of life. Regardless of the region to which the city belongs, most promotional videos used items from all the significant dimensions identified: natural resources; atmosphere of the place; culture, history, art; tourist infrastructure; entertainment resources; shopping resources; social environment; other resources. Overall, the most common frames identified were outdoor sports activities, historical and archeological buildings, and restaurants, and fine dining. In contrast, the least common frames were tourist information center, smart city aspects, and awards and distinctions. The analysis shows that most Asia and the Pacific, and European cities choose frames depicting historical and archeological buildings, while cities in the Americas, and the Middle East and Africa go for frames depicting outdoor sports activities. From an affective perspective, the atmosphere of the place depicted for Asia and the Pacific, and American cities emphasizes inclusivity, European cities are relaxing, and for the Middle East and Africa is vibrancy. As a subcategory, inclusivity defined as racial, age, sexual and gender, religious, and disability related diversity, had the best representation for racial diversity in all the regions, sexual and gender, and age-related diversity were polarized by region, while religious diversity and disability-related diversity were the least visible.

Culture, Privacy, and Trust in E-commerce

The aim of the study is to investigate trust and privacy in a web store. Two hundred and thirty-seven persons (from the Netherlands and from Romania) participated in an experimental survey. They were presented with two variations of a wardrobe offer in a fictional web store. In one web store condition, the privacy notice was absent. In the other web store condition, the privacy notice was present. The findings show that including a privacy policy notice did not directly influence consumers’ purchase intention. Meanwhile, there was an indirect effect of the privacy policy notice, via trust, on purchase intention. In addition, there was supporting evidence that privacy concerns remain dormant until triggered by the privacy notice. Differences between men and women, as well as between different uncertainty avoidant cultures, were not found. In contrast, regarding age, young consumers (in particular, the Romanian ones) were less affected by the privacy notice than older consumers (for trust and purchase intentions). This study provides an original contribution to global e-commerce. Cultural groups are categorised through self-identification. In combination with differences in uncertainty avoidance, this categorisation provides better insight into the consumer dynamics in societies. The findings emphasise the need for fine-tuning web store atmospherics. An optimal and effective shopping environment can be trusted and guarantees privacy. This outcome implies that a privacy policy notice in a web store is perceived as a privacy guarantee, not as a privacy warning.

Does Emotional Value Play a Role in the Relationship between Risk and Loyalty?

Although perceived value is considered essential in any marketing activity, the role it plays regarding the relationship between perceived risk and loyalty in the context of organizational markets is not thoroughly considered. Therefore, this paper addresses the aforementioned issues in the context of the small and medium size enterprise market in Romania. From a sample of 229 entities, data were collected and analysed using structural equation modelling techniques. Results confirmed that different relationships are established between functional or financial risk and emotional value on the one hand, and emotional value and loyalty on the other hand. Discussions of the results integrate main findings with other studies that partially or tangentially study the connections between emotional value, risk and loyalty. The paper end with a brief limitations and avenues for future research.

Investigation of the Attitudes Towards Celebrities Endorsed Advertisements – Audience Groups Comparison

The use of celebrities for endorsement activities is a well established part of the marketing communication strategy. Yet, the communication “playground” is changing as we witness significant changes in the channels used for information transmission (as digital dominate the traditional) and in the audience (as generations change, growing up in a digital world). More, removing the communications’ constraints of space and time, the Internet led to the emergence of a new type of celebrity that seems to surpass the traditional ones. In this context, research in the celebrities’ endorsement area is still of significant relevance. Although many studies focused on investigating the effect of celebrity endorsement over consumer attitudes and behaviour, only few examined how audience factors influence these relationships. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to establish the variations in attitudes towards celebrities endorsed advertisements, considering the consumers’ age, gender, income and celebrity-product fit importance. The findings revealed significant differences in attitudes based on consumers’ age, income and product-celebrity fit importance, yet no distinctiveness in case of gender.

The Effect of Online Unpaid Reviews made by Renowned Vloggers: the Case of Smartphones

The main aim of the study is to establish the effects of online unpaid reviews posted by internet celebrities (renowned vloggers) on audience’s purchase intention, product recommendation and engagement on the platform. The empirical research conducted for this purpose revealed that audience’s attitude towards the vlogger is positively affected by the perceived attributes of the vlogger - trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness. Further, the attitudes towards the vlogger reflect on the attitudes towards the reviewed product, and both have positive effects on the purchase intention, product recommendations and actions on Youtube. Despite being influenced by the attitudes towards the vlogger and the product, the attitudes towards the video content don’t have a significant impact on audience’s intentions. Additional multi-group analysis showed significant differences based on audience’s gender and their familiarity with the vlogger.

Revitalizing Rural Tourism through Creative Tourism: the Role and Importance of the Local Community

Creative tourism is a current topic, yet most of the research is focused on the urban context, with few articles focusing on how creativity can be used and developed in the setting of rural tourism. Furthermore, the theoretical elements identified in this article can become checkpoints through which better strategies for sustainable rural tourism can be developed in the future. Although rich in culture, Romanian villages have not developed their rural tourism offer to its full potential, partly because of the lack of involvement of the local community in long-term tourism planning and development, but also due to the changes in what tourists want from their tourism experience. In response to shifting patterns in consumer behavior, creative tourism has emerged as a better form of cultural tourism, but mostly in urban areas, which has led to a proliferation of creative industries and people within that specific context. The study proposes that most Romanian rural communities in areas pertaining to tourism already have local individuals with some of the characteristics of the creative people necessary for the development of creative tourism. By involving the entire local community in tourism planning, and not just the local actors with direct ties to it, Romanian rural tourism can be revitalized.

Local Citizens Influence on the Company’s CSR Communication

According to Stakeholders Theory, we believe that the companies’ will to communicate about their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) actions, can be fed by their stakeholders’ influence. Hence, we aim through this study to know the extent to which the local citizens of Annaba, as external stakeholders, influence Fertial’s CSR communication. To fulfil this purpose, we have used an online survey in order to collect quantitative data from residents of Annaba. Results show that locals have high expectations regarding Fertial’s environmental and social information. Nevertheless, they do not have serious influence on Fertial’s CSR communication, because they do not exert impactful pressures to incite this company to communicate more about its CSR engagements.