• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.124-142
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• 2016

Companies operating in social network platforms continue to improve and expand their marketing techniques. This study examines the practice of "gating", which involves virtual barriers between social network users and company content. Gates demand mandatory user endorsements, in the form of a Facebook "Likes", Twitter "retweets" etc., to gain access to company content, such as coupons and rewards,. Gating practices demand a mandatory endorsement before any content consumption takes place. Thus, while user endorsements are assumed to arise voluntarily from trusted known sources, gating practices would appear to violate this assumption. However, whether this violation lessens the effectiveness of gating practices still requires empirical validation. We investigate this question through the use of a unique panel data set that includes data on "like" endorsements obtained from a number of real-world Facebook business pages. Results of the study show that gating practices are effective for endorsement solicitation; however, gates may interfere with more traditional marketing activities.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.175-188
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• 2019

This study investigates public receptivity to celebrity's climate change advocacy on YouTube through a semantic network analysis. The results of this study suggest that the YouTube video generated a number of viewers' responses. Celebrity endorsement not only leaded public voices on climate change issue, but also their opinions on the celebrity endorser. This study found that most of viewers were polarized in their judgment and attitude toward the celebrity advocate either positively or negatively. This study offers an exploratory examination of the perceived star power and the role of celebrities as spokespersons for social causes. This study contributes to the theoretical foundation of the role of celebrity advocacy using social media. In addition, this study offers methodological insights into how to detect public perceptions and attitudes toward celebrity endorsement of social causes by analyzing public comments.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.951-960
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• 2021

The paper aims to explain the influence of celebrity endorser on consumers' purchase intention, and explain the influence of brand perception on purchase decision in regard to the case of OPPO F-series and singer Son Tung MTP, in the Vietnamese context. Advertisement is regarded as the fastest and most effective communication method for brands to build an association and attract their target consumers. Among various types of communication tools, the use of celebrity endorsement is considerably growing owing to the explosion of social platforms. This study employs survey data from 258 people living and working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Then, those data were used to analyze the general hypotheses by conducting research reviews based on foregoing investigations. The results from data analysis reveal that celebrity's physical attractiveness, credibility, popularity, expertise, match-up, and multiple endorsements all have positive impacts on purchase intention. The findings from this study would suggest that brands, in general, and smart-phone brands, in particular, should not only focus on these attributes to select a suitable brand endorser, but also need to predict some potential risks when utilizing celebrity endorsement. Finally, various implications and recommendations for further studies and marketers are also discussed.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.119-142
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• 2020

This study aims to examine the role of IT features as heuristic cues in choosing a content on YouTube. According to the heuristic-systematic model, people tend to rely on heuristic cues when they have to choose and process useful information quickly so that they could save time and reduce demands for thinking. Based on this line of reasoning, this study posits that YouTube users rely on certain IT features as heuristic cues in choosing contents before they actually watch them. Based on the prior literature and interviews with YouTube users, we develop a research model in which social endorsement, self-presentation, and interactivity are identified as potential determinants of users' attitude toward contents, which in turn influence their intention to watch them. To empirically test the research model, we conduct a laboratory experiment and a follow-up survey. The results of data analysis show that social endorsement for the content, YouTube creator's self-presentation, and interactivity have significant and positive effects on their attitude toward the content, leading to their intention to watch it. This study suggests that IT features on YouTube could be wisely utilized to increase the chance that users choose a particular content out of many competing contents when they search certain information on YouTube.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.5-12
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of current paper is to identify features of advertisements at social media that generate the ad-click and to further identify if these advertisements lead to purchase. If no purchase is made, then reasons for not making purchase are identified. Users' purchase experience after users clicked at advertisements are also studied. Research design, data, and methodology - Research design followed is exploratory research, where various factors leading to ad-clicks and generating purchase at social media platform were explored. Raw data was gathered by means of survey among a sample of 185 respondents in India using online structured questionnaire. GLM model and multinomial regression were used to analyze the data. Results - Several factors including endorsement by friends, advertisement aesthetics, product reviews, and aggressive pricing played major role in generating ad-clicks. Major impediment to purchase on were product misrepresentation in advertisement, false discounts, and site security. Female users clicked more on social media advertisements and made more purchases compared to their male counterpart. Conclusions - Social media advertisements have significant positive effect on buying behavior of online customers. Transactions culminating from social media ad-click generated significant positive experience for social media users. Thus, social media can be effective marketing tool.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.137-155
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• 2019

The present study investigated the relationships between autistic trait and socio-moral judgments. We used Autism Spectrum Quotient, a moral judgment task in which participants needed to consider both the intention and outcomes of a person's actions, a moral judgment task in which participants were asked to evaluate a person's utilitarian choices in moral dilemmas, and Moral Foundations Questionnaire. Autistic traits were negatively correlated with blame for failed attempts to harm others, suggesting that higher autistic traits were associated with difficulty in considering intentions in moral judgments. Also, higher autistic traits were associated with higher endorsement of utilitarian option on personal moral dilemmas, and lower endorsement for no-harm principle of moral foundations. These correlations were confirmed as group differences between high autistic-trait group (AQ >= 26) and a low autistic-trait group (AQ < 26). Our findings suggest that individuals with high autistic trait may have difficulty in considering others' intentions and show lower sensitivity to no-harm principle in moral judgment tasks.

• American Studies
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.1-33
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• 2021

This paper examines the service ideal preached by Bruce Barton, a bestselling American author in the 1920s. Based on archival sources and other historical materials, this paper presents Barton's endorsement of service ideal less as an adaptation to the looming consumerist society than an endeavor to revive the old producer ethos that was more coercive than therapeutic. Revisiting Barton's messages to Americans, this paper traces the intellectual root of Barton's service ideal to the Social Gospel and illustrates the ways his producer ethos evolved into a commonplace ideology of Christian meritocracy that endorsed individualism and small government.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.113-123
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• 2021

Purpose: BTS Meal at McDonald's was launched in May 2021 in selected countries all over the world. BTS fans in Indonesia bought the BTS Meal and collectively donated to the online delivery drivers as a form of empathy. As a quantitative study, this paper aims to identify the influencing factors in sociopsychology for fans to buy products (BTS Meal) available online using celebrity endorsement strategy, as well as demonstrating social empathy as an extended effect. Research design, data and methodology: empirical research was conducted through an online survey sent to 150 participants using the purposive sampling method. Participants were BTS fans, or ARMYs, who bought BTS Meal and conducted donations. Data were then sorted and processed with path regression. Results: preference and role model influenced the buying behavior; however, these factors influenced social empathy only when mediated by consumption. Preference and role model alone did not have a direct influence on social empathy. Conclusions: Consumer behavior insight is relevant in distribution science. A meal distribution involving brand ambassadors is considerable, particularly with celebrities demonstrating quality in capturing fans' hearts through role modeling. When a distribution is conducted online using a brand ambassador, buying behavior could lead to a social impact.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.447-467
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• 2009

Lakoff's (2002) 'nation-as-family' metaphor suggests that conservatism and liberalism in the United States are based respectively on two different sets of morality, i.e., "strict father" morality and "nurturant parents" morality. He argues that values associated with respective metaphors and political principles derived from them tend to determine certain political attitudes and policy endorsement. Using the priming technique, this study attempted to examine whether "strict father" and "nurturant parents" morality are indeed what underlie very different positions conservatives and liberals take towards people in need. The results supported the Lakoff's idea and demonstrated that, compared to priming "nurturant parents" morality, priming "strict father" morality actually led people to derogate character of those in need and to attribute more responsibility onto them for their economic predicament. This research leads us to reconsider what constitutes politically conservative and liberal attitudes and emphasizes the malleability of political attitudes.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.152-161
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• 2023

Modern people live a life connected with the real world and the virtual world by relying on the new media of enterprises and social consumption led by innovative technologies. In this environment, virtual influencers actively communicate with consumers and build relationships through social media, which is a new marketing tool that has attracted widespread attention. From a business perspective, it is necessary to have a solid understanding of this phenomenon, and then explore communication strategies to effectively develop virtual influencers. To investigate followers' preference for virtual influencers, this study employs the Q-method, which studies human subjective attributes, an empirical research effort to uncover complex issues in human subjectivity. To determine the factors that trigger people's voluntary and active practice and the preference degree of virtual influencers, the Q method is implemented to examine human subjectivity, thoughts and attitudes. According to the results of this study, virtual influencers are a new group of idols full of vitality. The interviews found that there are still many virtual influencers who do not know about followers, but each type can be clearly understood through the intuitive understanding of the interviewees. Divided out, type 1 one egoideal virtual influencers aim to represent an idealized version of the creator or target audience. Embodies ideal physical characteristics, personality or lifestyle desired by the audience. Type 2 is charismatic and attractive, and has the characteristics of most virtual influencers. It is suggested that it can be developed into a potential type, doing brand cooperation, and content production on social media platforms. Type 3: Game animation, derived from the image of characters in games or comics, with stylized features and energetic personalities, which can be integrated into games or entertainment experiences. Type 4 development potential type is the most successful type among virtual imagers, and it is also the purpose of marketing virtual influencers. It is essential that brand endorsement on social media platforms, integrated marketing, and driving advertising traffic. It is recommended to improve production technology to reduce investment costs.