Can A Commercially Oriented Brand Be Authentic? A Preliminary Study Of The Effects Of A Pro-Business Attitude On Consumer-Based Brand Authenticity

The scholarly literature and general feeling support the idea that brands that are overly business-minded and commercially oriented are not authentic. Typically, consumers do not regard big corporations as authentic, due to the perception that corporations focus on making profit and their business-based mindset. In particular, consumers perceive commercially oriented brands are insincere. Sincerity is one of the three facets (quality commitment and heritage are the other two) that form consumer-based brand authenticity (Napoli, Dickinson, Beverland, & Farrelly, 2014). Contrary to that long-held assumption, this study suggests that consumers may perceive commercially oriented brands are sincere. A positive attitude toward business may increase the perceived brand sincerity. The results of this empirical research confirm the brand authenticity scale developed by Napoli et al. (2014) by showing the conditions under which commercially oriented brands may enter the group of sincere brands

Effects Of Intrinsic And Extrinsic Religiosity On Attitudes Toward Products: Empirical Evidence Of Value-Expressive And Social-Adjustive Functions

Religiosity affects various aspects of consumer behavior. This research distinguishes two dimensions: Intrinsic religiosity is lived per se, as a personal and intimate value; extrinsic religiosity is an instrument to attain personal goals by connecting with other people. Intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity likely affect the functions of consumers’ attitudes toward products, both value-expressive (e.g., to express the individual self) and social-adjustive (e.g., to be accepted by social groups). Intrinsically religious consumers have an inner self defined by their religiosity, so they do not seek social approval. They should have less need for products to express their inner selves or manifest social ties, compared with extrinsically religious consumers. In contrast, extrinsic religiosity may increase both value-expressive and social-adjustive functions of products. Study 1 supports these hypotheses; intrinsic religiosity decreases the value-expressive and social-adjustive functions of consumer attitudes, whereas extrinsic religiosity increases both attitude functions. Study 2 applies these findings to an advertising context and reveals that the purchase intentions of intrinsically religious consumers increase when they view a value-expressive instead of a social-adjustive advertisement. Purchase intentions among extrinsically religious consumers are higher than those of intrinsically religious consumers when they view a social-adjustive advertisement

Managerial Gaps in e-Banking Quality Drivers: An Empirical Assessment

Providing quality service to the customer is a main issue for e-banking. The extant literature on e-services has preferentially examined quality factors as perceived by customers. On the other hand, quality depends on the managerial perceptions about quality drivers and the decisions that would follow from these perceptions. According to SERVQUAL - the most known service quality model - any gaps between management’s and customers’ perceptions would affect the experienced quality and then the customer satisfaction. The aim of this paper is to explore how bank managers perceive quality drivers for e-banking through a preliminary empirical survey

Do costs matter in ASP sourcing decisions?

This paper on Application Service Providers investigates why organizations select an ASP as a form of IS sourcing. To achieve this, we set the ASP within the context of literature on Neoclassical and Resource-Based View (RBW) theories. The results revealed that costs matter little in ASP sourcing decisions. The ASP is chosen not simply as a cost reducing alternative, but moreover, when companies detect an IS gap. Our study presents some managerial implications that affect both customers and ASPs.Este artículo sobre los proveedores de servicios de aplicación investiga por qué las organizaciones seleccionan una ASP (una plataforma que desarrolla y aporta servicios de aplicación), como una forma de fuente de IS (sistema de información). Para conseguir esto, ponemos la ASP en el contexto literario sobre teorías neoclásicas y Resource-Based View (RBW) – un marco de gestión que debate que recursos deben utilizar las empresas para tener una ventaja competitiva. Los resultados revelaron que los costes no tienen tanta importancia en las decisiones de la ASP. Esta última se elige no solo como una alternativa de reducción de costes, pero además, cuando las empresas detectan una brecha de IS. Este estudio presenta algunas implicaciones gerenciales que afectan a ambos, clientes y ASPs

Treatment decision-making capacity in children and adolescents hospitalized for an acute mental disorder: The role of cognitive functioning and psychiatric symptoms

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to assess treatment decision-making capacity (TDMC) in a child and adolescent psychiatric sample and to verify possible associations between TDMC, psychiatric symptom severity, and cognitive functioning. METHODS: Twenty-two consecutively recruited patients hospitalized for an acute mental disorder, aged 11-18 years, underwent measurement of TDMC by the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T). The MacCAT-T interview focused on patients' current treatment, which comprised second-generation antipsychotics (45.5%), first-generation antipsychotics (13.6%), antiepileptic drugs used as mood stabilizers or lithium carbonate (45.5%), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (32%), and benzodiazepines (18%). We moreover measured cognitive functioning (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III) and psychiatric symptom severity (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale v 4.0). RESULTS: Patients' TDMC varied within the sample, but MacCAT-T scores were good in the sample overall, suggesting that children and adolescents with severe mental disorders could be competent to consent to treatment. The TDMC proved independent of psychiatric diagnosis while being positively associated with cognitive functioning and negatively with excitement. CONCLUSION: The MacCAT-T proved feasible for measuring TDMC in a child and adolescent psychiatric sample. TDMC in minors with severe mental disorders was not necessarily impaired. These results deserve reconsidering the interplay between minors and surrogate decision-makers as concerning treatment decisions

What happens to customers when a crisis hits the core dimension of corporate reputation? The role of the perception of congruence versus incongruence

Nowadays, initiatives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are fundamental to build reputation and corporate reputation plays an important role in determining the impact of crises on firms. Reputation is a comprehensive construct, but customers may perceive a company as particularly strong on a specific CSR dimension. Through an experimental study, we show that the congruence between that salient dimension of corporate reputation and the dimension affected by a crisis influences customer behavior. Negativity effect, diagnosticity of information, and dissonance theory help in explain the different effects of a congruent vs. incongruent crisis scenario. We found that in case of congruence (i.e., the crisis hits a dimension that is not the core of the company reputation) the customers’ attitude toward the company, word-of-mouth, and purchase intention are better than in the case of incongruence (i.e., the crisis strikes the company’s main reputational asset)

THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF A VIRTUAL COMMUNITY AND THE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE E-MARKETER

The aim of this work is to analyse the social dynamic of a virtual community of consumption and the way in which this influences the marketing strategy and approach of a company

Accounting for attitudes and perceptions influencing users' willingness to purchase Electric Vehicles through a Hybrid Choice Modeling approach based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

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Approaches for Modelling User’s Acceptance of Innovative Transportation Technologies and Systems

The gradual penetration of new transport modes and/or new technologies (advanced information systems, automotive technologies, etc.) requires effective theoretical paradigms able to interpret and model transportation system users’ propensity to purchase and use them. Along with the traditional approaches mainly based on random utility theory, it is a common opinion that numerous nonquantitative variables (such as psychological factors, attitudes, perceptions, etc.) may affect users’ behaviors. Different traditional approaches and more advanced ones (e.g. hybrid choice model (HCM) with latent variables, theory of planned behaviour, regret theory, prospect theory, etc.) may be identified and properly applied in the literature. In particular, the chapter will focus on the hybrid choice modeling with latent variables, aiming to incorporate users’ perceptions, attitudes and concerns in order to model the user’s propensity to use and the willingness to buy a new technology. The methodology overview and the results of the application at real data are discussed