Segmenting Chinese Tourists by the Expected Experience at Theme Parks

In this paper, we propose an experiential approach to tourist segmentation aimed at overcoming the limits of both socio-demographic and context-specific approaches widely adopted in the literature and in practice. In this study, segmentation is carried out based upon the expected experiences of Chinese tourists at the Shanghai World Exposition. The segmentation reveals four tourist clusters with different interests in relation to their experiences in visiting the World Exposition. The clusters showed insignificant differences in the demographics but proved to be powerfully discriminant in determining tourists' satisfaction and loyalty, which affirms the potential of the tourist experience being a segmenting variable. Moreover, thanks to the analysis, an evaluation of the Shanghai World Exposition's success in terms of visitors' satisfaction is provided

N-REL: A comprehensive framework of social media marketing strategic actions for marketing organizations

Despite the increasing and ubiquitous use of social media for business activities, scholar research on social media marketing strategy is scant and companies deploy their social media marketing strategies guided by intuition or trial and error. This study proposes a comprehensive framework that identifies and classifies social media marketing strategic actions. The conceptual framework covers actions that support both transactional and relationship marketing. This research also positions social media marketing strategy and strategic actions in the context of the marketing organization theory, and discusses the impact of the incorporation of social media on the concept of marketing organization. The study offers valuable theoretical insight on social media marketing actions and the deployment of social media marketing strategies in companies. The investigation also provides hints about how to maximize the benefits from social media marketing for customer-oriented, market-driven organizations

Social media marketing in Italian luxury fashion

Industries nowadays have been comfortable with the incorporation of social media to their marketing strategy. Italy has been known as a major center of the European fashion industry, a sector that is also following the social media marketing trends. This paper provides empirical findings on Italian luxury fashion brands? social media marketing activities. We present and analyze two case studies of Italian luxury fashion brands: Gucci and The Bridge (Il Ponte Pelletteria). Gucci is one of worldwide leading Italian fashion companies and The Bridge is a SME fashion brand that focuses on leather products. This study is based on a conceptual framework on social media marketing strategy synthesized from extensive social media marketing literature. The research methodology includes content analysis of Gucci?s and The Bridge?s public posts on their Facebook brand pages and Twitter. Our findings suggest that social media actions implemented by both brands are directed toward promotion and sales marketing activities. However, there are differences on the specific actions carried out by both brands, and the use the companies make of the two social media platforms. This paper provides valuable insight for framing social media marketing strategic actions and set the basis for social media performance measurements, especially among luxury fashion brands

Exploring the role of anticipated emotions in product adoption and usage

Purpose: This study aims to explore the role of positive and negative anticipated emotions on adoption and continued usage of consumer products. The components of value eliciting anticipated emotions are investigated as well. Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual model proposed is tested in two empirical studies, one focussing on functional and hedonic products and one on incremental and radical product innovations. Data are collected through online surveys on consumers and are analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings: Results confirm the ability of anticipated emotions to influence product decision-making process. Moreover, anticipated emotions mediate the influence of value perceptions on product attitude. Findings show that these relationships vary greatly between initial adoption and further usage of the product. Practical implications: Findings from this study may help marketers in the development of the right brand strategies and communication campaigns, aimed at building emotional connections with the consumer which prompt product adoption and usage. Originality/value: Anticipated emotions, the predictions about the emotional consequences of a behaviour, have been acknowledged as strong drivers of consumer choices. Despite that, the role of anticipated emotions in product decision-making has not been explored yet. The present research, by means of a novel conceptual model, uncovers the role of anticipated emotions in both product adoption and continued usage decisions and depicts the components of value arousing such anticipated emotions

Individuals’ adoption of smart technologies for preventive health care: a structural equation modeling approach

Healthcare is moving towards new patterns and models, with an increasing attention paid to prevention. Smart technologies for mobile health care are emerging as new instruments to monitor the state of essential parameters in citizens. A very debated subject in literature is the critical role played by citizens’ acceptance and willingness to pay for mobile health technologies, especially whereas the services provided are preventive rather than curative. The adoption of such technologies is, indeed, a necessary condition for the success of mobile personalized health care. In this view, a conceptual framework, grounded on Technology Acceptance Model, is developed to explore the determinants of users’ willingness to adopt and pay for a mobile health care application for cardiovascular prevention. Empirical data are collected from a sample of 212 non-hypertensive Italian individuals and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling. Results confirm that usefulness and ease of use determine both intention to accept and willingness to pay for mobile health smart technologies. Results show also the significant role played by social influence as well the role as antecedents played by technology promptness, innovativeness and prevention awareness. This study offers novel insights to design and promote smart application to improve mobile health care, with implications for researchers and practitioners in health care, research & development, and marketing

Stress detection in computer users from keyboard and mouse dynamics

Detecting stress in computer users, while technically challenging, is of the utmost importance in the workplace, especially now that remote working scenarios are becoming ubiquitous. In this context, cost-effective, subject-independent systems are needed that can be embedded in consumer devices and classify users' stress in a reliable and unobtrusive fashion. Leveraging keyboard and mouse dynamics is particularly appealing in this context as it exploits readily available sensors. However, available studies are mostly performed in laboratory conditions, and there is a lack of on-field investigations in closer-to-real-world settings. In this study, keyboard and mouse data from 62 volunteers were experimentally collected in-the-wild using a purpose-built Web application, designed to induce stress by asking each subject to perform 8 computer tasks under different stressful conditions. The application of Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) to Random Forest (RF) classification allowed the devised system to successfully distinguish 3 stress-level classes from keyboard (76% accuracy) and mouse (63% accuracy) data. Classifiers were further evaluated via confusion matrix, precision, recall, and F1-score

SME fashion brands and social media marketing: From strategies to actions

Fashion industry, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is an important contributor to European economy. This study analyses data from six Spanish and Italian SME fashion companies’ in order to understand how fashion brands implement their social media marketing strategies. The research includes a qualitative study, combined with a content analysis of brands’ posts on their Facebook brand-pages. The results suggest that perceived importance of social media as part of corporate marketing strategy is the main driver for brands’ social media marketing implementation, and that brand awareness is the main objective SMEs would like to achieve. The three Spanish brands and one Italian brand appear to take a transactional marketing approach, while the other two Italian brands adopt a hybrid transactional/relational approach. SMEs focus primarily on representation actions; more specifically, promotion and sales

What makes fashion consumers “click”? Generation of eWoM engagement in social media

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived exposure of fashion consumers to different types of fashion brands’ social media marketing (SMM) actions in social media, and its relationship with the intention to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical study uses a survey conducted on a stratified random sample of 241 Indonesian members of fashion social media brand communities (SMBCs). The research design includes 19 types of SMM actions and 3 types of eWoM engagement behaviors, and investigates their relationship using point-biserial correlation. Findings: Generation of intention to engage in “pass-on” and “endorsement” eWoM has different drivers and serves different purposes. The findings suggest that endorsement engagement is contingent on the consumer’s perceived exposure to marketing action stimuli, while pass-on engagement is driven by cognitive-inducing actions. Research limitations/implications: This study extends current theory on SMM strategy and its relationship with eWoM engagement with a theoretically grounded conceptualization of eWoM engagement behaviors through the use of one-click social plug-ins. Practical implications: The study offers guidelines for fashion brands to effectively design their SMM strategies by identifying specific drivers of consumers’ intention to engage in eWoM. Originality/value: This study identifies sources of generation of eWoM engagement behavioral intention from a fine-grained analysis of marketing actions across various fashion SMBCs. Besides, it extends the applicability of the “mere exposure” effect to the SMM context. The research pioneers the study on fashion consumers’ eWoM engagement behaviors in Indonesia, a country with one of the largest social media populations

Animal-related factors associated with moderate-to-severe diarrhea in children younger than five years in western Kenya: A matched case-control study

Background Diarrheal disease remains among the leading causes of global mortality in children younger than 5 years. Exposure to domestic animals may be a risk factor for diarrheal disease. The objectives of this study were to identify animal-related exposures associated with cases of moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) in children in rural western Kenya, and to identify the major zoonotic enteric pathogens present in domestic animals residing in the homesteads of case and control children. Methodology/Principal findings We characterized animal-related exposures in a subset of case and control children (n = 73 pairs matched on age, sex and location) with reported animal presence at home enrolled in the Global Enteric Multicenter Study in western Kenya, and analysed these for an association with MSD. We identified potentially zoonotic enteric pathogens in pooled fecal specimens collected from domestic animals resident at children’s homesteads. Variables that were associated with decreased risk of MSD were washing hands after animal contact (matched odds ratio [MOR] = 0.2; 95% CI 0.08–0.7), and presence of adult sheep that were not confined in a pen overnight (MOR = 0.1; 0.02–0.5). Variables that were associated with increased risk of MSD were increasing number of sheep owned (MOR = 1.2; 1.0–1.5), frequent observation of fresh rodent excreta (feces/urine) outside the house (MOR = 7.5; 1.5–37.2), and participation of the child in providing water to chickens (MOR = 3.8; 1.2–12.2). Of 691 pooled specimens collected from 2,174 domestic animals, 159 pools (23%) tested positive for one or more potentially zoonotic enteric pathogens (Campylobacter jejuni, C. coli, non-typhoidal Salmonella, diarrheagenic E. coli, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, or rotavirus). We did not find any association between the presence of particular pathogens in household animals, and MSD in children. Conclusions and significance Public health agencies should continue to promote frequent hand washing, including after animal contact, to reduce the risk of MSD. Future studies should address specific causal relations of MSD with sheep and chicken husbandry practices, and with the presence of rodents