Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness

Social Influencer or Celebrity Endorser, To Whom Do Multicultural Consumers Pay Attention in Instagram? Comparing Medium- and High-Involvement Products Across Ethnic Groups

Sindy Chapa, Talalah Khan — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500

This study investigates the influence of social media influencers and celebrity endorsements on attitudes and intentions to purchase high and medium-involvement products on Instagram. A multimethod research design was used, with a national sample of 799 Instagram users. Results show that celebrity endorsements are more impactful than social media influencers for High and medium-involvement products. However, social media influencers influence more males, but attitudes remain consistent across genders. Celebrity endorsements and influencers have the highest impact on Millennials. The study reveals that celebrities are more influential than celebrity endorsements for medium-involvement products. There are significant gender and age differences but no ethnic differences. Males are more influenced by celebrities and influencers on Instagram, but their attitude toward influencers remains consistent. Celebrity endorsement and influencers have the highest impact on Millennials, followed by Gen X, baby boomers, and Gen Z, with no significant difference between Gen Z and baby boomers.

The American Dream: Starting and Growing a Business as an Immigrant Case Study: Maria Empanada

Rebecca L. Prater, Cynthia L. Sutton — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500

This case details Lorena Cantarovici’s experiences with starting and growing her award-winning restaurant: Maria Empanada. While visiting a friend in Colorado, Lorena (an Argentinian immigrant) fell in love with the mountains and stayed. Homesick for her childhood empanadas, she made empanadas and sold them to her friends. To meet increasing demand, she opened several restaurants. Lorena addressed the pandemic by closing some restaurants and changing her business model. The case provides insights into issues immigrants might encounter when starting and growing businesses in dynamic environments while maintaining the values of their homeland cultures. Much of the following is based on our interview with Lorena Cantarovici and Victor Arango.

Disentangling Administration Errors From Scale Development Errors in Survey Research

Dan Friesner, Carl S. Bozman, Matthew McPherson — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500

In a recent manuscript, Friesner, et al. (2023) used the concept of information entropy to assess the quantity of information in survey responses. They demonstrate how assessments of the quantity of information can be used to identify possible errors in a survey’s administration. A major limitation of their methodology is that it assumes the survey items used to elicit consumer preferences were created appropriately and contained a meaningful quantity of information. The current study addresses this limitation by incorporating a methodology developed by Friesner et al. (2021) into the Friesner et al. (2023) methodology. The combined methodology is applied to the same data studied in both Friesner et al. (2021) and Friesner et al. (2023), which allows for a direct comparison of the quantity of information gained/lost from survey administration versus scale development. The results indicate that the survey used in the empirical application exhibits flaws in both scale design and survey administration.

Examining Loyalty and Situational Value in Green Retail and Service Establishments

Arjun Chaudhuri, Camelia C. Micu, Iman Naderi — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500

This research sheds light on how loyalty and situational value can enhance consumers ’ willingness to pay a higher price (WTPHP) for green products. While loyalty is a function of the individual characteristics of a certain Consumer, which match the characteristics of an Object, “situational” value is a function of a certain Consumer, a certain Object, and a certain Situation. Across two studies, we show that (1) loyalty has an effect on WTPHP that is mediated by reason and (2) situational value has an effect on WTPHP mediated by both emotion and reason. We conclude with discussions and managerial implications.

Predicting Retail Company Bankruptcies in the Era of COVID

Annhenrie Campbell, David H. Lindsay, Gökçe Soydemir, Kim B. Tan — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Trade journals and the popular press have suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a second “retail apocalypse.” The current study tests whether pre-pandemic data can be used to predict COVID-19 retail firm bankruptcies using a chaos-based model. This study successfully uses a chaos statistic calculated from stock market time-series returns for pair-match retail firms prior to the pandemic to predict bankruptcies occurring shortly afterwards.

Conceptualizing a Framework to Study Consumer Experience of Artistic Entertainment During Live Sport Events

Hannah H. Bo, James J. Zhang — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0400

This study aimed to develop a conceptual framework based on the Stimulus – Organism – Response (S-O-R) paradigm to facilitate the understanding of sports consumers’ artistic entertainment experiences during live sporting events. Based on a comprehensive literature review, artistic activities and programs in sporting events were recognized in three categories, including game-induced, atmosphere-induced, and event-induced artistic entertainments. Further analyses revealed how sport artistic entertainments (SAE), as an external stimulus at a sporting event, could interact with people’s intrinsic emotional, entertainment, and aesthetic needs and function together to affect spectators' cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. Discussions are centered on the theoretical and practical implications, providing directions for future studies when adopting the framework to conduct empirical investigations.

Marketing Strategy Teaching Collaboration

Nathan Kirkpatrick, C. Clifton Eason — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Many business schools offer courses of a similar theme in both their undergraduate and graduate programs. Being common for recent graduates of a school to matriculate into a graduate program of the same school, there is a need to ensure that undergraduate and graduate courses that share a similar theme complement one another. Yet content and assignment overlap must be minimized while providing greater rigor at the graduate level. Using the experiences of faculty from one university’s approach to address this situation, this paper a) explicates the philosophy behind the creation of Marketing Strategy courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and b) describes the process of developing/redeveloping and differentiating the courses.

Authentically Growing an Influencer’s Following

Juliann Allen, Sabinah Wanjugu — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Marketers increasingly employ influencer marketing tactics to promote brands via social media, and consumer perceptions of influencers remain important—the way a consumer perceives an influencer can affect the way a consumer receives influencer messages. The study explores consumer perceptions of influencer authenticity based on how an influencer asks for a consumer to follow him or her. Using an experiment, the study examines the attitudes and intentions of consumers based on whether an influencer wants to increase follower count to either achieve a certain number of followers or to benefit followers with the content the influencer shares. The results reveal that an influencer who encourages a consumer to follow based on the benefits the consumer will receive is perceived as more authentic and is more likely to be followed by the consumer. On the other hand, an influencer who encourages a consumer to follow so that the influencer can achieve a higher number of followers is perceived as less authentic.

Marketing for Small Business Escape Rooms and the Importance of Experiential Learning

Ken Brubaker, René Rawraway, Abigail G. McMaster — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0400

A semi-rural Ohio escape room collaborated with a local university for an experiential learning initiative, aiming to attract more college students, retain current customers, and enhance marketing strategies. Two questionnaires were employed: one targeting college students and the other existing customers. Findings revealed a higher attendance of upperclassmen students at the escape room and email as the preferred mode of communication. Moreover, a significant correlation between escape room experience, games, food, drinks, and overall satisfaction was observed. The customer-focused survey indicated the primary demographic as individuals aged eighteen to twenty-nine, with a high satisfaction rate of ninety-seven and a half percent. Additionally, sixty-three percent expressed interest in returning for a new escape room design.

Consumption of Scientific Information on Television and Internet

Silvia Domínguez Gutiérrez — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

This paper consists of a brief overview of studies related to the consumption of scientific information both on television and on the Internet by the general public, as well as by young people in particular. The preferences of the Internet are clear nowadays, even though television continues to have a place in multiple media. Particular cases are presented to follow a line over time and observe how the consumption of scientific information has been transforming, and how television has adapted to the new forms of production, dissemination, and consumption brought about by innovations, specifically information and communication technologies.