Traditionscapes in Emerging Markets: An Abstract

Dalmoro, M., Pinto, D. C., & Nique, W. M. (2019). Traditionscapes in Emerging Markets: An Abstract. In P. Rossi, & N. Krey (Eds.), Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers: Proceedings of the 2018 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress (WMC) (pp. 277-278). [Chapter 69] (Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02568-7_69Tradition has been described in consumer studies as a powerful instrument for consumer identity construction even in a globalized consumer culture (Izberk-Bilgin 2012; Varman and Belk 2009; Türe and Ger 2016). In these terms, tradition can perform significant role in contemporary multicultural marketplaces (Cruz et al. 20017), cultural acceptability (Sinha and Sheth 2017), and brand evaluations and choices (Dogerlioglu-Demir et al. 2017). Drawing on these recent studies, we contribute to the literature exploring how consumers use tradition in fostering identity in an emerging market. Particularly, we shift the discussion involving tradition versus globalization to explore the traditionscapes, that is, a fluid consumer’s appropriation of certain traditions as a resource to build their identity at large in emerging markets. To explore this concept empirically, we adopt a multilevel approach involving qualitative and quantitative data collection with South Brazilian consumers connected with gaucho traditions. At the exploratory level, we identify three themes that describe consumers’ appropriation of certain tradition as a resource to build their identity: (1) cultural drives, (2) identity formation, and (3) tradition value. Even that in a symbolic way, tradition allows building a sense of belonging recognized as unique and locally accepted as source of identity. Following it, we observe that tradition serves as an indexical cue useful to deal with globalization flows and to express cultural attachment. At the confirmatory level, we conduct a survey with 600 participants at a gaucho tradition show. Results provide evidences for the qualitative predictions that tradition attachment is a cultural identity process and tradition value is influenced by the three levels of identity (regional, social, cultural). Findings indicate that traditionscapes is a relevant concept to describe the way consumers appropriate certain traditions as a resource to build their identity in emerging markets. We observe yet that consumers want to preserve traditional values in their identity projects not necessarily in opposition to global culture own. Discussions provide novel insights to marketers and local governments in considering the importance of traditionscapes when in emerging markets.authorsversionpublishe

The Scarcity Trap: How Perceptions Of Resource Immutability Reduces Scarcity-Induced Present Bias [abstract]

Pinto, D. C., Castagna, A. C., & Hidelbrand, D. (2023). The Scarcity Trap: How Perceptions of Resource Immutability Reduces Scarcity-Induced Present Bias [abstract]. In Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, 52nd (pp. 1-2). [114324] European Marketing Academy (EMAC). https://proceedings.emac-online.org/pdfs/A2023-114324.pdfConsumers often find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle where financial resource scarcity decreases their psychological well-being, which in turn leads them to make present-biased financial decisions that contribute to the perpetuation of their condition. The present research explores how perceptions of resource immutability can help consumers disarm this scarcity trap. Results of six experiments (n = 1,801) and a secondary dataset (n = 51,288) reveal that perceptions of resource immutability reduce the present bias that characterizes the decisions of consumers facing scarcity episodes. Reported findings also show that this effect is contingent on consumers who perceive themselves to be socioeconomically vulnerable and is mediated by positive appraisals of the scarcity episodes. In addition to contributing to the literature on resource scarcity, this research provides substantial implications for interventions that can help consumers disarm the scarcity trap.publishersversionpublishe

Sustainability in the fashion industry

Castagna, A. C., Duarte, M., & Pinto, D. C. (2022). Slow fashion or self-signaling? Sustainability in the fashion industry. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 31(May), 582-590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.03.024 ----------------Funding Information: This study was partially supported by Grant DSAIPA/DS/0113/2019 from the Foundation for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Portugal).There has been a noteworthy rise in sustainability awareness in the fashion industry. However, the motivation to adopt such behaviors is unclear, making it relevant to consider which identity self-signals influences consumers' perceptions towards slow fashion. Findings from two experimental studies suggest that consumers hold a higher word of mouth (WOM) and status perceptions when non-conformity, pro-environmental, and frugality signals are highlighted. This research further shows the importance of increasing ownership through customization, which increases status. The findings provide key implications for researchers and practitioners regarding fashion industry sustainability.publishersversionpublishe

Consumer Impulsiveness and Purchase Behavior in Emerging Markets: An Abstract

Castagna, A. C., Pinto, D. C., & Herter, M. M. (2019). Responsible Consumption during Crisis: Consumer Impulsiveness and Purchase Behavior in Emerging Markets: An Abstract. In P. Rossi, & N. Krey (Eds.), Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers: Proceedings of the 2018 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress (WMC) (pp. 571-572). (Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02568-7_154The effects of economic crisis on consumer behavior affect from unplanned to planned purchases (Quelch and Jocz, 2009). Previous research analyzed how consumers are coping with crisis considering aspects such as low-income consumers (Kumar et al., 2017), household consumption and their financial management (Albert and Escardibul, 2017), and the increase of poverty and reduction of well-being during crisis (Gutierrez-Nieto et al., 2017). Taking into account the few studies on impulsiveness consumption during an economic crisis, the present research extends previous literature by showing that the relationship between consumer income and consumption behavior is processed by responsible behavior during crisis and that consumer impulsiveness will vary according to this responsible behavior. In this sense, this research develops and tests a framework of responsible consumption during crisis that explains changes in purchase behavior in an emerging market context. We conceptualize responsible crisis consumption as the changes in regular habits of consumers to a more rational way of buying, such as shifting for less expensive products and less known brands or reducing expenditures on services. The study was developed in two stages: an exploratory qualitative phase of 12 in-depth interviews with consumers and specialists and a confirmatory quantitative phase with 408 consumers during the recent Brazilian economic crisis (2015–2018). The results using partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM) indicate that responsible crisis consumption is an important underlying mechanism between consumer impulsiveness, income level, and purchase behavior. Our findings reveal that consumers, when faced with an economic crisis, develop responsible consumption habits that modify their consumption behavior, especially decreasing services consumption compared to products. Consumers change their purchase habits during a recession by looking for a security status, which means that in this period consumers shift from their general habits to a more rational way of buying. In this sense, our results also report that during the economic crisis, consumers tend to reduce impulsiveness and increase behaviors such as replacing the usual purchase with cheaper products, increasing reflexivity about purchases, decreasing purchases without looking at the price, and increasing the repair of products instead of buying new ones. Theoretically, our findings on responsible crisis consumption reveal that consumers are not only economically affected by recession, but it also triggers psychological mechanisms on consumers by changing their level of impulsiveness and changing their purchase behavior. In managerial terms, the findings help companies and public institutions to understand the changes in purchase behavior in emerging markets.authorsversionpublishe

The role of perceived efficacy and sensorial expectations

Simão, S. A. V., Rohden, S. F., & Pinto, D. C. (2022). Natural claims and sustainability: The role of perceived efficacy and sensorial expectations. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 34(November), 505-517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.09.026Natural claims have been increasingly used by brands across a variety of product categories to address the growing concerns about sustainable and healthy consumption. To add insights to this body of knowledge, this research aims to investigate the influence of natural claims on consumers' judgments and purchase intentions of personal care products. Findings from two studies suggest that natural claims are broadly used in personal care product packaging to influence consumers' purchase intentions, due to the natural-is-better bias and the health halos evoked by such claims. This research also contributes to the literature by investigating the underlying mechanisms of perceived efficacy, safety, sensorial expectations, and greenwashing perceptions. Moreover, environmental consciousness moderates the effects of natural claims on consumers' judgments of perceived efficacy. The findings thus not only enhance our understanding of the natural-is-better bias but also shed light on the role played by perceived safety and sensorial expectations on intentions to purchase natural-claimed products. Relevant implications for brands and policymakers in terms of sustainable consumption are also discussed.publishersversionpublishe

An Extended Model of Goal-Directed Behavior

Huseynov, K., Costa Pinto, D., Maurer Herter, M., & Rita, P. (2020). Rethinking Emotions and Destination Experience: An Extended Model of Goal-Directed Behavior. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 44(7), 1153-1177. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348020936334This research aims to extend the model of goal-directed behavior, by deepening its emotional path and including new variables to predict tourist behavioral intention: hedonism, destination experience, and tourism innovativeness. Based on a final sample of 457 European tourist nationals, the findings showed the significant influence of hedonism and tourism innovativeness on tourist desire. In addition, findings uncover the mediating role of hedonism on the emotional path. The findings also extend previous research by revealing that not all destination experience dimensions (sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual) equally influence tourist behavioral intention. Indeed, only sensory and intellectual destination experience dimensions were found to affect behavioral intention. The findings have important implications for tourism managers crafting destination experiences and contribute to tourism research by presenting a more comprehensive framework of goal-directed behavior applied to tourism.authorsversionpublishe

An Abstract

Pinto, D. C., Herter, M. M., Nicolao, L., & Terres, M. (2019). The Benefits of Unrelated Brand Corporate Social Responsibility: An Abstract. In P. Rossi, & N. Krey (Eds.), Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers: Proceedings of the 2018 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress (WMC) (pp. 367-368). (Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02568-7_97Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a growing strategic trend among companies, in the hopes to improve their brand outcomes and performance. However, despite the growing investment in such strategies, relatively little is known about how consumers respond to corporate social responsibility activities. Recently consumers started questioning whether socially responsible actions are authentic—i.e., companies are legitimately concerned with the causes they advocate—and whether these same actions are in the core of what companies provide to the market. We are especially interested in the effect that corporate social responsibility actions exercise over brand symbolism (i.e., a brand’s potential to serve as a resource for identity construction by providing self-referential cues representing values, roles, and relationships), which, in turn, is related to a consumer’s emotional attachment to a brand. Not all CSR actions positively affect consumer behavior and brand performance. For instance, past research shows that CSR activities can have a negative or a positive impact on perceived performance, depending on company motivation. We unfold and expand on this last finding to show that CSR actions that are unrelated (vs. related) to a company’s core competence (e.g., helping the local community) increase perceived brand symbolism, which will, ultimately, influence behavioral intentions. This research analyzes how unrelated corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions influence brand symbolism. This research contributes to previous studies showing that CSR actions unrelated to the company’s core business (i.e., with a community focus) have a greater appeal than actions with a focus on company’s core competences (i.e., focus on the consumer). Results from four studies show that CSR actions unrelated to the company’s core business, counterintuitively, increase brand symbolism, which, in turn, influences consumers’ behavioral intentions. We propose that unrelated CSR actions can positively influence consumer perception of brand social responsibility and increase brand symbolism, generating positive behavioral outcomes. The findings have important implications for brands that wish to invest in corporate responsibility.authorsversionpublishe

The role of experiential versus material posts

Pinto, D. C., Shuqair, S., Viglia, G., & Mattila, A. S. (Accepted/In press). Reducing resistance to sponsorship disclosure: The role of experiential versus material posts. Journal of Travel Research. --- The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work received partial support from national funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), under the project - UIDB/04152/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC)/NOVA IMS.Despite the growing relevance of influencer marketing, recent research suggests that consumers have negative reactions to social media ads. Our research investigates how different types of disclosure (paid partnership vs. in-text disclosure) and post content (experiential vs. material) mitigate consumers’ negative reactions to social media advertisements. Four preregistered studies, drawing on the social exchange theory, reveal how the post content shapes the sponsorship disclosure effects. In particular, we show that a paid partnership (vs. intext) disclosure has a positive impact on consumers’ responses (engagement and purchase intent) and that persuasion resistance mediates the effects. Furthermore, Study 3 reveals that the type of content (experiential vs. material) moderates the effect, such that consumers' negative reactions to sponsorship disclosure are mitigated with experiential (vs. material) content. Overall, our results provide actionable implications for tourism marketers on how to create advertisements in social media, minimizing negative reactions to sponsorship disclosure.authorsversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Artificial Intelligence and Its Ethical Implications for Marketing

Goncalves, A. R., Pinto, D. C., Rita, P., & Pires, T. (2023). Artificial Intelligence and Its Ethical Implications for Marketing. Emerging Science Journal, 7(2), 313-327. https://doi.org/10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-01 --- Funding: This paper received support from the Management of Information Research Center (MagIC), project UIDB/04152/2020, and from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT Portugal), project DSAIPA/DS/0113/2019.Despite the recent developments in AI, ethical questions arise when consumers contemplate how their data is being treated. This paper develops a conceptual model building on the theory of acceptance, risk, trust, and attitudes towards AI to understand the drivers that lead consumers to accept AI, considering consumers' ethical concerns. The model was empirically tested with 200 consumers of AI marketing services. The findings reveal that perceived risk significantly impacts attitudes toward AI, ethical concerns, and perceived trust and suggest a significant association between perceived risk, ethical concerns, and social norms. This research provides important theoretical and managerial implications for the ethical aspects of AI in marketing by highlighting the ethical and moral questions surrounding AI's acceptance.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Artificial Intelligence and Its Ethical Implications for Marketing

Despite the recent developments in AI, ethical questions arise when consumers contemplate how their data is being treated. This paper develops a conceptual model building on the theory of acceptance, risk, trust, and attitudes towards AI to understand the drivers that lead consumers to accept AI, considering consumers' ethical concerns. The model was empirically tested with 200 consumers of AI marketing services. The findings reveal that perceived risk significantly impacts attitudes toward AI, ethical concerns, and perceived trust and suggest a significant association between perceived risk, ethical concerns, and social norms. This research provides important theoretical and managerial implications for the ethical aspects of AI in marketing by highlighting the ethical and moral questions surrounding AI's acceptance. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-01 Full Text: PD