Innovation Resistance

Innovation resistance has become a subject of increasing concern to academics and practitioners in recent years. Dealing with innovation resistance appropriately plays a very important role for companies. In this chapter, innovation resistance is examined in the context of consumerism. Innovation resistance concept and innovation resistance models are explored thoroughly and the relationship with innovation resistance and perceived risk is emphasized in the context of consumerism. Then, overcoming innovation resistance and the ways how to deal with barriers are explained and finally this chapter concludes with a summary of the chapter and managerial implications.

Ethical Consumerism in Tourism

The chapter focuses on responsible tourism as a form of ethical consumption, based on conscious travel choices and behavior. There is a growing demand for responsible tourism, although it seems to be characterized by some inconsistencies, both between tourists' intention and concrete behavior and between these behaviors and the official definitions promoted by the industry and institutions. Starting from the analysis of a recent survey about responsible tourism on the Italian market, the chapter then tries to investigate and explain these gaps, by applying the perspective of social studies and of researches on consumer tribes and new consumers' communities. The findings of the survey discussed in the chapter seem to confirm that consumers have their own perception of responsible tourism and that the meaning is discursively constructed within and outside responsible tourists' communities. Therefore, the intention-behavior gap and the difference between tourists' account of responsible tourism and “institutional” definitions cannot be categorized as true inconsistencies.

Consumer Behaviour Towards Purchasing Counterfeit Products

This chapter analysed factors affecting the consumer purchase behaviour towards counterfeit products, and attitudes effect on the purchase intention of consumers. The considered variables are brand image, social influence, price-quality inferences, novelty seeking, and intention towards counterfeit products. A survey was conducted on university and college students in Lebanon. This research employed a structured questionnaire to measure the attitude of consumers using a Likert scale. Variables were measured using chi-square testing to identify their relationship. Results found that customer behaviour towards counterfeit products has a positive relationship with brand image, social influence, novelty seeking, intention, and price-quality inferences.

Emotional Intelligence Towards Customer Relationship Marketing

The chapter adopts a theoretical approach to exploring the existing literature on emotional intelligence models and customer relationship marketing concept with the aim of proposing a ‘new' conceptual model interlinking emotional intelligence (EI) and customer relationship marketing (CRM). The proposed conceptual model will then be re-developed on the basis of the findings that will emerge from a qualitative case study research carried out in the Lebanese retail banking sector. The fact that the focus of this study is on the Lebanese market could potentially ‘fuel' the topic with more controversy due to the impact of the Lebanese culture affecting both the banks' organisational culture and the front-line employee behaviour. Based on an extensive search of literature, one can conclude that EI significantly affects the retail banking sector. The research study aims at interlinking EI theory with frontline employee behavior in the context of CRM through combing existing models, theoretical research and secondary data.

Ethical Consumption

This chapter focuses on ethical consumption, analyzing the mechanisms behind the purchase preferences for fair trade apparel products through an investigation of the role of emotions. The results of an experimental study show that consumer preference for a fair-trade clothing item is driven by the recall of an unethical action and the emotional state aroused by it. The authors hypothesize that recalling an unethical action would trigger a negative emotional reaction in consumers, which, in turn, would increase their preference for a product carrying the fair-trade certification versus a product carrying a more traditional quality certification. Contrition has emerged as the negative emotion that mediates the effect of recalling an unethical action on product choice. The results shed light on a compensatory mechanism whereby consumers alleviate negative emotions arising from recalling an unethical behavior they had engaged in by making an ethical purchase.

Social Media and Consumer Behaviour Towards Luxury Brands

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in social media (SM). SM has ushered a new era of communication between organizations and key stakeholders and has forced brands to change dramatically the way they interact with their target markets. Luxury brand marketers have recently turned their attention to customer-driven SM devoted to their brands recognizing the role SM plays in their marketing strategies. Key consumer behavior concepts such as motivation, interaction, and SM provide the theoretical foundation. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the relationship between SM and consumer behavior towards luxury brands. Empirical data was collected from 110 Cypriot SM users who look for information on SM about luxury brands. The aim was to explore whether SM influences consumer behavior of both male and female Cypriot consumers and whether there are any distinct behavioral differences between the two genders. This study provides recommendations to luxury brands to understand the nature of consumer behavior and brand-customer relationship in using SM.

An Integrated, Multi-Agency, Consumer-focused, Safety Management Approach in the Sports Industry

Over the past decades, European football went through a large number of tragedies, mainly due to the absence of an integrated framework that could enable every involved agency to operate under specific safety procedures and laws. It is commonly perceived that disorder behaviour has adverse effects on football, minimising potential revenues and obliterating the consumer's experience. Football's unique structures involve a large number of agencies that need to constantly adopt specific safety approaches in order to create a sustainable environment and provide entertainment and pleasure to the consumers. The purpose of this chapter is to theoretically recognise the generic football safety management guidelines introduced by the European institutions over the years in order to minimise the problem and create a safe atmosphere for the consumers. In addition, the research will identify and decode the key actions taken by the authorities in Cyprus as a response to the problem in order to draw critical lessons both for and from the case study.

Are Businesses Washing Consumerism With Green Ideology?

This chapter reviews the literature on green marketing from the sustainable marketing phase to the latest paradigm of green marketing based on the concept of consumer empowerment and customer-initiated innovation process. In particular, the authors delve into the evolution of green marketing in order to highlight critical contrasts including product-based vs. service-based green marketing approach; top-down (business-initiated) vs. bottom-up (customer-initiated) green-based innovation; physical vs. online distribution of green products/services; positioning and advertising vs. brand co-creation; passive vs. active/empowered role of consumers and focus on customers vs. focus on multiple stakeholders. This chapter illustrates, through a series of cases and consumer insights, the contradictions, and controversies of green marketing. The chapter shows how customer participation and value co-creation, have changed the way green products are consumed and developed, and have forced organizations to adopt completely new business models.

Ethical Consumerism and Effectiveness From a Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) Perspective

There is a growing public awareness of ethical issues along with rising disposable income and increase in education and knowledge. This is triggering the ethical conscience of consumers and leading them to ethical consumerism. Ethical consumerism has grown out of the consumer interest and concern on issues and the practical application of marketing ethics to their purchase behaviors. Consumers are gradually accepting this phenomenon of ethical consumption as part of the lifestyle. In order to bring a change in the attitude of consumers towards ethical consumerism, corporates have started taking an initiative by incorporating a new method of marketing activity and tool called cause-related marketing (CRM). Ethical consumerism based on CRM campaign needs to be effective to build a corporate image. This study is an attempt to understand ethical consumerism and its effectiveness from the perspective of CRM and how it benefits the businesses.

CSV Activities in the Japanese Retail Sector

In Michael Porter's creating shared value (CSV) framework, the enterprise will solve the social challenges that confront regions or communities through its business activities, thus earning a profit while creating value for both the company and the region. In this chapter, a case study is presented on a retailer's CSV activities in Japan, wherein the author addresses how the retailer contributes to the community through shopping support services in “food deserts” that supply fresh food to improve consumers' health and wellness. The empirical results indicate that consumers have a preference for real store shopping experiences among these services, whereas online grocery services do not meet consumers' needs for shopping. The results suggest that these shopping support activities will bring enough profit for both sides, namely, consumers and retailers. The author also discusses the role of the public sector in assisting these activities.