In this research, we conceptualized brand anthropomorphism as a property of branded products in regards to the extent to which these objects are perceived as if they were actual human beings. Then, we developed a scale of brand anthropomorphism that captures the multidimensional nature of the construct. The proposed scale is composed of three dimensions, two of which assess the extent to which the external appearance of a branded product resembles the lineaments of a human body and the physiognomy of a human face, and a third dimension, which assesses the extent to which such a product reflects how consumers perceive themselves. Results across two empirical studies showed that the scale is robust, as it passed several validity tests, and demonstrated its predictive power over brand personality and brand loyalty. Our scale is the first proposed in brand anthropomorphism research to receive empirical validation, thus offering theoretical and operational implications.

This research investigated how the use of a prominent versus subtle branding strategy and status consumption affect consumers’ intention to buy luxury products across emerging and mature markets. To this end, an experimental study with consumers in India (emerging market) and the United States (mature market) was conducted. The results suggest that Indian (but not U.S.) consumers with a higher status consumption tendency are more willing to purchase prominently branded luxury products than subtly branded ones. On the other hand, U.S. (but not Indian) consumers with a lower status consumption tendency are more willing to purchase subtly branded luxury products than prominently branded ones. The paper discusses these findings, highlights their contribution to luxury research, and illustrates their practical value for luxury companies interested in targeting mature and emerging markets.

Consumers often give advice by recommending products and services to one another. The present research explores the idea that advice giving sometimes reflects a self-serving desire to compensate for a loss of control. Four experiments provide convergent evidence for a phenomenon we term compensatory word of mouth, whereby consumers' communications contain advice fueled by their own need to restore control. Experiment 1 explores the potential practical relevance of this idea by showing that advertising messages can threaten consumers' sense of control and increase advice giving in word-of-mouth communications. Experiment 2 uses a different paradigm and further demonstrates that a threat to consumers' sense of control increases advice giving. As additional evidence of a compensatory account, Experiment 3 finds that threatened individuals' propensity to give advice is attenuated when they are first given an alternative means to restore a sense of control. Finally, Experiment 4 demonstrates that advice giving can serve a compensatory function by instilling a greater sense of competence that enhances consumers' feelings of control.

Consumer satisfaction is one of the most widely investigated topics in marketing research. Yet, despite the huge research efforts invested in this area, what satisfaction really is, how it can be measured and improved, and how it impacts consumer behavior and firm performances remain unclear. This book presents the state-of-the-art in consumer satisfaction research and reports an empirical application of a new model, the Knowledge-Hope Model by Guido (2010), which promises to make a substantial contribution to the field. The application has been structured in two connected studies, following a procedure that is easily implementable by researchers, managers, and practitioners.

Sustainability is a central issue for people’s well-being, but companies often fail in communicating and selling “green” products. This paper shows that using negative frames in communications activates a sense of shame in consumers, which in turn leads them to choose green products and develop pro-environmental attitudes.

This paper deals with older consumers’ cognitive age (i.e., the age they feel), which is self-assessed as systematically lower than their chronological age (i.e., their actual age). Such a tendency would lead older consumers to display attitudes and purchasing behaviors which are not typical of people of their real age. Two studies show that cognitive age is not an immutable construct but varies according to its context of reference, so that the same individual may feel different ages under different circumstances. Results demonstrate that the declared cognitive age is affected by the physical environment, the social references, and the product categories which the consumer is using when self-assessing it. Furthermore, the tendency of older consumers to feel younger is stronger when these consumers are pursuing in these contexts hedonic rather than utilitarian goals. These findings provide novel inputs for the development of appropriate ways to measure cognitive age and to deal with it when targeting senior consumers and positioning hedonic vs. utilitarian goods.

The present research is aimed at establishing how farmers can be encouraged to adopt irrigation water saving measures. By developing and implementing an extended version of the well-known Theory of Planned Behavior, we considered farmers’ propensity to adopt innovations and their water footprints. In a sample of 150 Italian farmers, we found that favorable attitudes towards water saving measures, and the orientations of environmental associations and public bodies favorably influence farmers’ intentions to adopt water saving measures. Farmers’ innovativeness and water footprints also exert a significant influence on their adoption intentions. The paper also discusses the contribution of these results to the previous literature and highlights practical implications for policy makers interested in promoting the adoption of irrigation water saving measures.

This study analyzes the impact of ethical motivations, food safety and health-related concerns on purchasing intentions of habitual and less frequent consumers of organic food. A sample of 291 subjects was surveyed through a paper-and-pencil questionnaire and classified either as “regular” or “occasional” purchasers of organic food according to their buying frequency. Results show different determinants of intention for the two groups of subjects: ethical motivations affect the purchase intentions of regular consumers, whereas food safety concerns influence the purchase intentions of occasional consumers. Implications are discussed.

Implementing Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) in residential buildings is one of the most effective ways of decreasing household energy consumption. The present research adopts an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior e which includes attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and environmental concern e to investigate the antecedents of households’ intention to adopt and willingness to pay for EEMs. The research was conducted in a Southern Italian region that has intensively promoted the adoption of renewable and energy-saving technologies. The results show that attitude is the main determinant of households’ intention to adopt and willingness to pay for EEMs. However, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and environmental concern have their own positive effects based on the income level, education, and age of household subgroups. The results have practical implications for companies and policy-makers interested in promoting EEM adoption and encouraging sustainable development.

WOM is the consequence of consumer judgments associated with product experiences, both direct and indirect. We explore the effect of the experience level, i.e., whether the consumer’s interaction with the product is direct or indirect, and the judgment valence on WOM. Results show that when the experience is direct consumers are more willing to spread WOM for positive judgments, whereas when the experience is indirect consumers are more willing to spread WOM for negative judgments. Product involvement moderates this effect. Highly involved consumers are more willing than lowly involved consumers to engage in WOM for negative judgements and direct experiences.

People undertake various brand-related activities on social media that differ in levels of engagement. Companies, however, want to know how to motivate consumers to become involved in the relatively more engaging activities, as such activities are more likely to lead to increased sales. In this article, we focus on activities that are highly engaging (such as writing product reviews) or moderately engaging (such as rating products). Based on self-determination theory, the present research identifies different motivations for engaging in different brand-related activities on social media. We provide evidence indicating that the motivations of self-expression and socializing play primary roles in leading people to participate in highly engaging activities (i.e. creating one's own content online) and in moderately engaging activities (i.e. collaborating with others to contribute to content). These findings have implications for both theory and practice insofar as they specify how to stimulate consumers to perform relatively more engaging brand-related activities on social media.

Gli strumenti di Home Equity Conversion (HEC) permettono ai proprietari di casa di trasformare la ricchezza immobiliare in flussi di cassa senza dover rinunciare all’uso dell’immobile. L’invecchiamento della popolazione e le crescenti difficoltà di intervento dello stato sociale rendono tali strumenti una modalità interessante di riequilibrio finanziario e di soddisfacimento dei bisogni delle famiglie. In questo lavoro, si indaga la relazione esistente fra comportamenti di utilizzo del credito, gli atteggiamenti verso il credito e verso l’essere indebitato e l’interesse verso i prodotti di HEC. Il risultato principale evidenzia come gli atteggiamenti personali verso il ricorso al credito e di personalità, ad oggi scarsamente indagate in letteratura in relazione ai prodotti di HEC, risultino essere determinanti significative dell’interesse verso tali prodotti. Gli individui che hanno maggiore familiarità con il credito al consumo, un quadro cognitivo e decisionale favorevole al ricorso al credito e la presenza di un Locus of Control interno manifestano un maggiore interesse verso forme di finanziarizzazione della ricchezza.

Marketing researchers employ the Five-Factor Model to describe branded products through attributes used for human personality. Marker attributes used to elicit brand personality dimensions can also influence consumers’ intention to purchase. Two connected studies, carried out on two samples of 91 and 557 subjects, respectively, show that brand personality-marker attributes predict intention to purchase, but only to the extent that such attributes are vivid and, in particular, when they elicit emotional responses (i.e., when they are emotionally interesting). These findings have several implications for people involved in developing strategies for persuasive communication.

In the present chapter, we briefly discuss how knowledge generation in marketing can be accomplished. In particular, we argue that generalizations offered by meta-analyses are very useful for managers in their decision making. To support this argument, we perform an empirical study on subjective estimations of price elasticities, advertising elasticities, and price promotion elasticities, showing that actual and future managers (i.e., master and PhD students) usually underestimate the effects of price changes, overestimate the impact of advertising, and heavily underestimate that of price promotions. We also demonstrate that subjective estimations improve after being confronted with the outcomes of meta-analyses.

“Misurare la soddisfazione” è la sfida di approfondite ricerche e l’obiettivo di molte strategie di marketing. L’assunto di base è che un consumatore soddisfatto tende a reiterare i suoi comportamenti d’acquisto, a parità di ogni altra condizione o vincolo. Tradizionalmente, la soddisfazione è stata misurata come l’esito di un raffronto positivo tra le attese sviluppate prima dell’acquisto e i risultati ottenuti con l’utilizzo del bene acquistato. Tuttavia, nelle società di oggi, con la prevalenza dei consumi simbolici su quelli materiali, la frammentazione delle richieste del mercato, la vicinanza in tempo reale alle comunità di clienti, il rapporto instaurato coi beni acquistati non è quasi mai solo razionale, ma assume i connotati di un’esperienza totalitaria, emotiva e coinvolgente. Questo lavoro parte dall’assunto che la soddisfazione derivi, piuttosto che dalla specifica performance del prodotto, dalla valutazione dell’intera esperienza di consumo, dal momento in cui il prodotto è scelto a quello in cui ci si disfa. Sulla base di un innovativo approccio, il Modello conoscenze-speranze, essa è vista come un incremento dello stock di benessere soggettivo, esito di un raffronto con quanto razionalmente atteso ed emotivamente sperato. In quest’ottica, la soddisfazione risulta connessa con gli aspetti delle esperienze legati alla curiosità, alla divergenza, alla capacità di comportarsi e relazionarsi e, al contempo, con gli aspetti più propriamente sensoriali, simbolici ed estetici del consumo, che fanno appello alle emozioni più profonde ed agli affetti delle persone. Il volume è articolato in quattro parti – a vantaggio di quanti, studiosi e operatori, desiderino misurare con validità scientifica e rigore la soddisfazione nei diversi ambiti di consumo. Nella prima, sono passati in rassegna i principali studi sulla soddisfazione, come base per una revisione critica del paradigma tradizionale realizzata con la proposizione del nuovo modello interpretativo. Nella seconda parte, è sviluppata la scala di soddisfazione derivante dalle esperienze di consumo, rispettivamente, in rapporto ai prodotti shopping, convenience, specialty e ai servizi. Nella terza parte, sono presentate delle applicazioni della scala in campo bancario, assicurativo e distributivo, oltre che in relazione ad un costrutto alternativo collegato, la customer delight, concludendo con una rassegna sistematica degli effetti comportamentali, positivi o negativi, e delle conseguenti strategie di marketing da parte delle imprese. La quarta parte, infine, fornisce una vasta appendice didattica contenente tutti i passaggi statistici, gli output e i comandi del software SPSS-PASW, per condurre le analisi contenute nel volume.

This research advances current knowledge about art infusion, which is the ability of art to favorably influence the assessment of consumer products. In particular, the research investigates the effectiveness of artworks that evoke their creators’ most recognizable style in luxury advertising. The research encompasses three studies – two conducted online and one in a real consumption situation. The first study explores the effect that a recognizable vs. non-recognizable painter’s style has on consumers’ judgments about luxury products. The second and third studies explore the moderating roles of desire to signal status and desire for distinction, respectively, which are relevant to advertisers interested in targeting these individual differences. Advertisements that incorporate artworks that evoke a painter’s most recognizable style enhance the advertised products’ perceived luxuriousness. Consumers with a higher desire to signal status exhibit greater purchasing intention in response to recognizable artworks. By contrast, consumers with a higher desire for distinction exhibit greater purchasing intention when the painter’s style in the featured artwork is less recognizable. The results provide marketers with suggestions on how to select and incorporate visual artworks into luxury brand communication: They could focus on recognizable vs. non-recognizable artworks based on whether their main goal is to communicate status or distinctiveness. This research offers novel insights into the practical value of art infusion by showing when and for whom the beneficial effects of pairing art with luxury products are more likely to occur.

Previous research on word of mouth (WOM) has presented inconsistent evidence on whether consumers are more inclined to share positive or negative information about products and services. Some findings suggest that consumers are more inclined to engage in positive WOM, whereas others suggest that consumers are more inclined to engage in negative WOM. The present research offers a theoretical perspective that provides a means to resolve these seemingly contradictory findings. Specifically, the authors compare the generation of WOM (i.e., consumers sharing information about their own experiences) with the transmission of WOM (i.e., consumers passing on information about experiences they heard occurred to others). They suggest that a basic human motive to self-enhance leads consumers to generate positive WOM (i.e., share information about their own positive consumption experiences) but transmit negative WOM (i.e., pass on information they heard about others’ negative consumption experiences). The authors present evidence for self-enhancement motives playing out in opposite ways for WOM generation versus WOM transmission across four experiments.

This paper aims to assess the extent to which the perceived images and personalities of places mirror their prevalent production orientations, or “vocations”. It also investigates the factors that shape the expectations and desires of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets, as well as these users’ overall place experience. Six hundred questionnaires containing both closed-ended and open-ended questions were administered in four local territorial systems (LTSs) of a Southern Italian province. Data were analyzed by using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Results showed that place image mirrors the respective productive orientation for only one of the examined LTSs. Meanwhile, for all four LTSs, place image was congruent with place personality. The generalizability of the results is limited, as the research focused on LTSs located in a specific geographical area. The paper provides suggestions regarding the formulation of marketing policies aimed at improving the willingness of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets to use the products/services/resources of the studied LTSs. Communication and branding strategies that leverage the personality traits of the examined LTSs are also illustrated in the paper. By examining the coherence among place image, personality, and prevalent vocation, this research addresses a neglected area of investigation. This study is one of the few that provides empirical evidence of misperceptions of the actual production orientation of places.

La presente ricerca, articolata in due studi sperimentali, fornisce un contributo alla letteratura che indaga gli effetti che i contesti di fruizione possono esercitare sulla valutazione soggettiva di esperienze complesse, ossia composte da sequenze di atti (o episodi). I due studi – uno condotto online e l’altro sul campo – dimostrano l’esistenza di un’interazione significativa tra il tipo di sequenza di tali atti (in ordine crescente vs. decrescente di attrattività) e la presenza (vs. assenza) di un vincolo temporale. In assenza di un vincolo temporale, le esperienze presentate secondo una sequenza di attrattività crescente ricevono valutazioni complessive migliori (in termini di gradimento e intenzione di reiterare l’esperienza) rispetto a quando le stesse sono presentate secondo una sequenza decrescente. Tale pattern di valutazione si inverte completamente quando viene introdotto un vincolo temporale.

The present article conceptualizes morally controversial innovations as a category of innovations that raise ethical issues due to their potentially undesirable long-term consequences on society or the natural environment. Then, it analyzes the case of biofuel crops by applying an extended version of the theory of planned behavior, which includes moral norm (i.e. the personal convictions of what is wrong or right for society) and ethical self-identity (i.e. the extent to which one perceives himself/herself as an ethical person). The obtained results show that attitude and subjective norms are positively related to farmers' intention to grow biofuel crops. Yet the intention of those farmers with a higher ethical self-identity is also influenced by perceived behavioral control and moral norm. In particular, moral norm negatively affects their intention to grow biofuel crops, thus restraining the adoption of this innovation. Implications for theory, as well as for policymakers interested in promoting the diffusion of morally controversial innovations, are discussed.

This study aimed at identifying the factors that likely favor or hinder the development of cruise tourism in an emerging Southern Italian tourist destination. We conducted semi-structured interviews with key players in this business, showing that the following are relevant enablers of cruise tourism development: the accessibility of tourist resources, the supply of integrated services to cruise lines and their passengers, cooperative relationships among private and public operators, and the creation of a distinctive image. However, cruise tourism development can be inhibited by poor professionalism on the part of tourist firms, the lack of a clear tourist regulatory framework, the fragmentation of the shore-based offer, and the risk of environmental degradation. The study thus contributes to the research on cruise tourism development, which is still in its infancy, and provides policymakers and practitioners with suggestions for facilitating the emergence of the cruise industry.

This study adds to the research on disgust by proposing a theoretical framework encompassing contamination-based, moral, and structural disgust dimensions. The study empirically assesses the impact of these three dimensions on consumers’ purchase intentions for different product categories. The study investigates consumer reaction to disgusting stimuli related to attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness products by means of closed-ended questionnaires administered to three consumer samples. Contamination-based disgust reduces the intention to purchase expertise and trustworthiness products. Similarly, structural disgust reduces the intention to purchase expertise and trustworthiness products. Moral disgust seems to have a positive effect on the intention to purchase attractiveness products. Marketing strategies for expertise and trustworthiness products should emphasize their pureness and capacity to match consumer expectations, respectively. Ad hoc strategies centred on moral disgust could be designed for attractiveness products. This study proposes a new conceptualization of consumers’ disgust and shows that the identified disgust dimensions have different effects on consumer intention to purchase attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness products.

The genetically modified food industry may contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development. Nevertheless, many consumers are skeptical about genetically modified foods and fear that their diffusion may have detrimental effects on the environment and public health. Given this situation, genetically modified food producers may benefit from understanding how to address such concerns through appropriate corporate social responsibility initiatives. However, there is scarce research investigating this issue. This paper contributes to this research stream by studying how consumers' perceptions about genetically modified food producers' corporate social responsibility initiatives impact said consumers’ attitudes toward and intentions to buy such products. This research builds on the well-established model of corporate social responsibility proposed by Carroll (1979) and investigates this issue through a survey study of 260 Italian consumers. The results show that perceptions about producers’ philanthropic and legal responsibilities favorably impact Italian consumers' attitudes toward genetically modified foods and their intentions to buy such products, respectively. Managers interested in developing the genetically modified food market could therefore focus on these responsibilities to foster favorable attitudes and intentions toward genetically modified foods.

Managers’ integrity is increasingly considered a crucial topic in organizational studies, as it has been linked to companies’ profitability and success. Employees’ perceptions of the consistency between leaders’ deeds and their words seem, in fact, to influence their attitudes towards an organization, enhancing their supportive behaviour. This study addresses the issue by examining the role of behavioural integrity in the chain linking human resources (HR) practices to employee attitudes. An important novelty of the study is that it explicitly distinguishes between intended and experienced HR practices in conducting the analysis. The aim of the study is to analyse whether managers’ behavioural integrity moderates the link between intended HR practices (practices as designed by the organization) and experienced HR practices (practices as perceived by the employees). The study also tests whether experienced HR practices mediate the relationship between intended HR practices and positive employee outcomes, such as affective commitment and job satisfaction. The results of this study, conducted with more than 6,000 employees, show that managers’ perceived behavioural integrity plays two major roles: it promotes a positive relationship between intended and experienced HR practices, and boosts employees’ affective commitment and job satisfaction both directly and indirectly. The analysis also reveals an intervening role for experienced HR practices, which mediate the joint impact of intended practices and behavioural integrity on the two employee outcomes.

The aim of the present study is to examine the role of ethical dimensions and product personality in the purchasing intention of organic food products. The Prospect method (Caprara, Barbaranelli and Guido 2000), which integrates the Five factors model of personality (FFM, cf. Digman 1990) and the Theory of planned behavior (TPB, Ajzen 1991) extended to an ethical dimension, was employed, by using a Structural Equation Modeling approach. Results showed that moral norms – i.e., personal beliefs regarding what is right or wrong (Parker, Manstead and Stradling 1995) – can be considered the main motivator of purchasing intention, and they are, in turn, affected by subjective norms and product personality traits of Naturalness and Authenticity. Marketing implications for firms operating in the organic food industry are discussed, in their intent to shift from a “niche” market to a broader diffusion of these products.

The study contributes to the debate in the HRM literature by examining the role of trust in management in moderating the effect of HRM practices on employee attitudes. The novelty of the study lies in our interest in assessing this relationship not only on a system of HR practices, but also considering whether the influence varies according to specific ‘bundles’ of practices. Adopting a Structural Equation Modelling approach, we first test the moderation using an HRM index of seven practices on a sample of 9,000 employees from 46 Italian organisations. Then, following the AMO approach, we assess the relationship on three ‘bundles’ of practices, one oriented to increasing ability, another motivation and the third opportunity to participate. Results confirm the moderation with the overall HRM index. Interestingly, the effect varies depending on the HR bundles, being significant only with the motivation practices and not relevant in the other two bundles.

Luxury brands are increasingly interested in developing digital marketing strategies that are able to attract new customers and improve brand perceptions. At the same time, however, the online context has become untrusted by luxury brands, due to the potential risk of losing control over brand image because of intense interaction with customers through the Web. In spite of this criticality, only few academic studies have investigated the way consumers interact with luxury brands within online dedicated platforms, such as luxury brands’ web communities. Thus, this research, by focusing on the length of English comments left by consumers in the online brand community of luxury brands, investigates the role of engagement (emotional involvement) and valence of comments (positive or negative). In particular, the analysis of comments left on the Facebook official page of the brand Chanel sheds light on a quite counter-intuitive phenomenon, demonstrating that the length of comments is influenced, at the same time, by both the valence of the comments and the level of engagement of the commenter. Results demonstrate that the effect of the engagement on the length of a comment is moderated by the valence of the comment itself. In particular, the study shows that in a luxury brand online community, a high level of engagement is associated with shorter comments, but only when the valence of the comments is negative. This research has both theoretical and managerial implications. In particular, from a practical point of view, the results may be useful to Made in Puglia luxury companies, since they offer interesting insights to companies from Apulia which need to understand how to better use social media for their branding strategies.

How do social cues in the immediate environment affect older consumers’ tendency to feel younger? And what is the impact of this tendency on consumption? This research investigates the malleability of older consumers’ feel-age and the underlying mechanisms by focusing on the influence of contextual social cues and the downstream effects on consumption behavior. Five experiments provide evidence that the mere presence of young social cues triggers an identity threat for older consumers; and feeling younger is a way to protect the self from negative stereotypes associated with aging. By contrast, young consumers are relatively immune to age-related social cues. Whereas the presence of young social cues magnifies older consumers’ tendency to feel younger, this effect is attenuated when the young social cues are less desirable or when the older consumers possess higher self-esteem. The greater tendency to feel younger in the presence of young social cues increases older consumers’ choice of contemporary over traditional products, especially among those with lower self-esteem. Theoretical insights and practical implications are discussed.