• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.67-88
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• 2018

Purpose The purpose of this study is to verify motivations of corporate Facebook usage and to examine the impacts of usage motivations on brand attachment, trust and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model is developed based on Self-determination theory(SDT) and the previous studies. We conducted a web survey with a convenient sample of 121 Facebook users who clicked "Like" button on the corporate Facebook pages. Findings The followings are the findings of the study. First, intrinsic motivation(Entertainment) turned out to have positive effects on brand attachment. Second, extrinsic motivation(information exchange) turned out to have positive effects on brand trust. Third, brand attachment turned out to have positive effects on brand loyalty. These findings provide a valuable basis for constructing an explanatory model for "Like"-clicking behaviors of corporate's Facebook community platform users, as well as making significant practical contributions to enhance social and commercial benefits for businesses and individuals.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.29-42
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• 2008

The prior studies for consumer-brand relationships vested brands with personalities after had personified them. In these studies, a brand become the object of consumer's attitude, and former researchers investigated the types and styles of consumer-brand relationships based on this theory. However, I though that these studies did not follow the original concept of 'relationship' for they approached consumer as the subject and a brand as the object.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.117-139
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• 2013

Research on purchase intention had showed remarkable progress in contributing to the theory of consumer behavior. Despite the popularity of academic discussions on various issues influencing purchase intention, the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention, in particular advergames, has not yet been well explored, especially in developing economies such as Malaysia. Furthermore, the influence of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance as antecedents to brand recall and brand attitude are expected to add value to the brand recall, brand attitude and purchase intention relationships. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention in advergames among Malaysian gamers. The antecedents towards brand recall and brand attitude are also examined to measure their influence on purchase intention. A total of 350 Malaysian gamers were interviewed through online survey in this study. The results showed that brand recall and brand attitude mediate the relationship between self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance with purchase intention. Also, entertainment and brand placement acceptance were found to have a significant relationship with brand recall. As expected, brand recall and brand attitude showed a positive relationship with consumer purchase intention in advergames. It was found that self-brand congruity has a significant influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. When users see the brand which matches with them, they tend to act positively toward the brand exposed in the game. This is consistent with Escalas and Bettman (2005) who suggested that the greater the congruity, the more positive the consumer's attitude toward the brand in question. This leads to game usage and purchase (Davis and Lang, 2013). In the advergaming context, the entertainment value in advergames is very important to determine the level of enjoyment and pleasure experienced by gamers during game-playing. Therefore, the more entertaining the ads, the more it will be remembered and the greater the positive behavior of the consumer towards the advergames - this ultimately stimulates their intention to purchase the brand. This study shows the effect of brand placement on brand recall and brand attitude and also purchase intention. Brand placements might not work in games due to the interactivity involved in game-playing as people could be distracted from noticing the brand placements (Yang et al., 2006). However, the significant influence of brand placements found in this study may provide major promise for advertisers. Game players may or may not explicitly remember the brands they see in the games, but these placements may influence their brand recall and brand attitude and could therefore influence later decisions (Yang et al., 2006). In this study, it was found that self-brand congruity was not significantly related with brand recall. The reason for this could be attributed to the fact that this study examined gamers who are highly involved in the interactive medium of games which force them to focus on game play rather than advertisements; the level of recognition to remember the brand exposed in the game is low and contributes to the "mismatch" between the gamers and the said brand. The present study contributes to the existing literature of the antecedents of brand recall and brand attitude in advergames. This study contributes to the role of brand recall and brand attitude as mediators in purchase behavior theory. Academically, the relationship between brand recall and brand attitude is well known in advergaming research, but their impact as important mediators on purchase intention add new understanding in the interactive communication literature. Their mediating role may provide new insights on how they facilitate the effects of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement on purchase intention. Besides that, the studies on the influence of self-brand congruity on brand recall and brand attitude and also consumer intention to purchase had not well-investigated in advergames. This study contributes to fill those gaps in advergames literature. For practitioners, this study could suggest the use of illustrative or demonstrative placements of new products to help customers remember new brands, and the use of associative placements for existing products to increase consumers' purchase intention (Ho et al., 2011). To advertisers, this study may provide useful information to improve their current advertising strategies in games, for instance, by considering game players' congruity, entertainment value and brand placement factors.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.88-103
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• 2017

The rapid growth in the popularity of social media sites has meant that social media has become an important communication channel for brands. Brands create brand pages on social media to cultivate positive and strong relationships with consumers. This study seeks to enhance our understanding of how fashion brand pages in social media foster consumer-brand relationships by exploring the factors that affect the development of consumer-brand relationships. Drawing on the parasocial interaction theory, this study proposes parasocial interaction as a key factor of this process. Specifically, this study proposes four antecedents (vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention) of consumers' parasocial interaction with brand pages, which further affects consumer responses in terms of affective engagement and brand loyalty. An online survey was administered with consumers who have followed and visited at least one fashion brand page via a social networking site (SNS). Structural equation modeling revealed that consumers' perceptions of vividness, interactivity, social presence, and focused attention on a fashion brand page positively affected their feelings towards parasocial interaction with the brand page, which in turn led to their affective engagement with the brand page and consequent brand loyalty. These findings suggest that consumers build relationships of varying degrees with brand pages in a similar manner to that with people, which leads to their development of a positive relationship with the brand. This study concludes with discussions and practical implications.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.95-117
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• 2021

In this study, we investigate which alternatives to choose when giving a gift, according to the giver's relationship with the receiver. In particular, we study which alternatives are preferred when the prices are approximately the same: products with high-brand status but low-model ranking or products with low-brand status but high-model ranking. Leclerc, Hsee, and Nunes(2005) conceptualized the relative preference between a low-ranking model of a high-status brand and a high racking model of a low-status brand. The category effect is the preference for lower-ranking models of high-status brands. Meanwhile, the ranking effect refers to the preference for higher-ranking models of low-ranking brands. Based on construal level theory, the current study suggests that the category and ranking effects vary depending on the giver's relationship (vertical vs. horizontal) and intimacy (distant vs. close) with the person who will receive the gift. We manipulate the relationship and intimacy of the subject receiving the gift and verify the interaction effect. Results reveal that the giver exhibited a category effect in vertical relationships in which the psychological distance was far from the relationship. However, the ranking effect was found in horizontal relationships in which the psychological distance was close. Lastly, the gift selection significantly depends on the level. Overall, this study showed that when choosing a gift, the selection of a low-ranking model of a product from a high-tier brand or a high-ranking model from a low-tier brand might vary depending on the type of relationship and the level of intimacy. In addition, our findings provided managerial implications in targeting and marketing communication strategies based on product status.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.45-52
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• 2019

With the popularity of mobile Internet and smart phones, the domestic digital music access platform has entered a period of rapid development. Existing studies in the academic circle have shown that experience has a positive impact on user perception and loyalty. However, the research on the relationship between brand loyalty, user perception and user experience of Internet products has not received much attention. Starting from the brand loyalty theory and user experience theory, this paper explores the mechanism of user experience, user perception and brand loyalty of digital music access platform. Based on the development status of digital music access platform in China, the purpose is to explore how the user experience of the mainstream digital music access platform can affect Usefulness Perception, Epidemic Perception. And to explore how the Usefulness Perception, Epidemic Perception can affect users' brand loyalty. also further explore the role of users' perception in this process to understand the relationship between brand and user experience. In practical operations, 398 formal questionnaires were issued online to collect first-hand data, and reliability analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis and hypothesis analysis were carried out successively on the data in the later stage. Through research, it is found that the user experience of digital music access platform has a partial significant impact on the perception and loyalty of applications. The visual presentation and emotional feelings of digital music access platform are positively correlated with the perceived usefulness of applications. The visual presentation and emotional feelings of digital music access platform are positively correlated with the perceived popularity of applications. The e perceived usefulness and perceived popularity of the digital music access platform are positively correlated with the loyalty of the application. Through this research, it has certain guiding significance to the promotion of digital music access platform's brand loyalty degree.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.57-64
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• 2018

Purpose - As the importance of salesperson attitudes and behaviors enhancing customer perception and loyalty have increased, many retail companies put emphasis on internal marketing activities. The issue also has captured the interest of academics, but most of the previous research tends to be limited to investigating antecedents of salesperson job satisfaction and commitment. Based on the consumer-brand relationship concepts, this study aims to examine the effects of the salesperson-brand relationships on customers' service evaluation and store loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - In a structural equation model, it is hypothesized that salesperson brand identification influences salespersons' brand trust and affect, which are the two dimensions of consumer-brand relationships. Salespersons' brand trust and affect are expected to increase salespersons' customer orientation, which in turn influences customers' service evaluations and store loyalty. To test this hypotheses a set of data collected from department stores in Seoul is utilized. Results - First, it was found that salesperson brand identification is a significant antecedent to salespersons' brand trust and affects, the two dimensions of salesperson brand relationships. Second, salespersons' brand trust and affect were found to enhance salespersons' customer-oriented behaviors. Third, salespersons' customer orientation showed a significant effect on customers' service evaluation. When a salesperson makes more effort to provide useful information for fulfilling customer needs, customers evaluate the salesperson's service more positively. Finally, customers' service evaluation had a positive impact on customers' store loyalty. Conclusions - This study provides significant academic and practical implications. First, based on the theory of consumer-brand relationships, the concept of salesperson-brand relationships was introduced and found to be an effective motivator of salespersons' customer oriented attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, the two dimensions of brand relationships, brand trust and affect, should be considered as the critical factors both in developing theoretical research and improving long-term company performance. Also, internal marketing activities should focus on maximizing employees' brand identification. That is, retail companies need to put emphasis on sharing their brand values and personality with internal customers to strengthen the brand relationships with salespersons and to enhance customer responses.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.107-144
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• 2023

In competitive political contexts, sustaining power is the ultimate goal for political parties. Nominating celebrity politicians can be a double-edged sword for parent brands in attracting votes and influencing voting intention. This study contributes to the moderating role of brand affinity towards celebrity politicians. It considers celebrities' cognitive perceived benefits and voting intention relationship in a multiparty parliamentarian election. A cross-sectional survey with a stratified proportional random sampling technique in fifteen Lebanese districts ensured a representative sample. One thousand two hundred sixty-nine responses were found eligible for analysis. Findings indicate that brand affinity positively moderates the negative relationship between perceived benefits and voting intention. This study offers a new understanding of celebrity politicians' implementation strategy and campaign management and considers the contribution of the affective intelligence theory. It provides implications, limitations, and promising directions for future research on celebrity politicians.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.187-209
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• 2017

Service industry performance and competitive advantage depend on the attitudes and behavior of customer service employees who produce and deliver services through contact with customers. Most studies on customer service employees so far have concentrated on kindness, attitudes, or benefits. This study focuses on the increasing importance of customer service employees and intends to study them from the viewpoint of human brands that recognize customer service employees as a brand. In addition to the role of the employee at the service contact point, the customer participation behavior affects the interaction process with the customer service employee. Ultimately, customers could no longer be excluded from control to improve service quality. This study based on theory that the human brand characteristics of the customer service employees lead the customer's participation, which has a positive effect on the relationship with the service brand and the service brand attitude surveyed and analyzed customers who use service brand. This study is summarized as follows. First, the relationship between the service brand and the customer is examined. Second, this study also expands prior studies by examining the human brand characteristics of customer service employees and customers' willingness to participate in providing information on the impact of the consumer-brand relationship. The results of the study indicate that among the customer service employees' human brand characteristics reliability, familiarity, and empathy were found to affect the relationship between customers, the service brand, and the attitude toward the service brand the most. This study provides important implications for theoretical and practical strategies by examining the qualities and characteristics of customer service employees, which are the most important agents of marketing.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.61-72
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• 2017

Purpose - The ICT development is affecting the consumer behaviors in selecting channel or distribution system. This study aims to advance the theory on the influence and interaction with omni-channel behaviors. Specifically, analyzing moderating variable is category knowledge that effect between propensity of brand loyalty and its precedence factor which is perceived difference, perceived value, authenticity and consumer-brand relationship. Research design, data, and methodology - The subject of this research is consumers who purchase goods in omni-channel situation. The hypothesis of this research is derived from the literature of the preceding research analysis on brand loyalty, omni-channel and consumer behaviors. This study have constructs that were defined operationally with reference to previous studies, and the research model was designed to figure out the structural relationship among perceived difference, perceived value, authenticity, consumer-brand relationship and brand loyalty. From 2016 Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, a questionnaire survey was performed targeting customers using omni-channel. 327 questionnaire survey had conducted. 316 survey data were used for empirical analysis except data that had missing and wrong value. AMOS(structural equation) was used to confirm the hypothesis which developed by researcher. Results - The results of this study are as follows. First, an authenticity has significant effect on brand loyalty. Second, in the omni-channel situation, but perceived differentiation, perceived value, consumer-brand relationship does not affect brand loyalty. According to this result, it is judged that it is easy to search for information in the situation of omni-channel and integrated decision making is done without distinction between channels. Third, category knowledge has moderating effect between brand loyalty and precedence factors. When the category knowledge level is low, preceding factors have a significant effect on brand loyalty. when the category knowledge level is high, the preceding factors did not have a significant effect on brand loyalty except the authenticity. Conclusions - This study finds out omni-channel's phenomenon is different from other distribution channel phenomenon. In the situation of omni-channel, it is suggested that brand loyalty may be relatively low for a certain brand because it raises the knowledge level of the category. Then this study provides a managerial implications based on the role of the moderate effect on category knowledge, brand loyalty and omni-channel.