Miloslava Chovancová

Social media marketing has vastly benefitted businesses, including the development of brand identity via solid communication channels. Innovative marketing tools have proven effective among service and non-service-based businesses. This study examines the impact of social media on customer buying decisions via brand personality attributes among telecom products (e.g., mobile phones, sim cards, and data subscriptions) in Ghana. A positivist research paradigm with a non-probability sampling were deployed to achieve study goals. A structured questionnaire was designed to collect the data from subscribers of the telecom giants (MTN, Vodafone, and Airtel-Tigo) in the capital of Ghana through a non-probability sampling technique (snowball/referral method). Both self-administered and online survey (link) were deployed with strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols. A valid data set of 414 (representing 82% of response rate) from 507 responses was received for data processing. PLS-SEM was applied to analyze the study hypothesis. The study identified five main brand personality attributes (i.e., brand sincerity, brand excitement, brand competence, brand sophistication, and brand ruggedness) as mediators of the proposed framework. The study found that brand sincerity, brand excitement, and brand competence played a significant mediation effect on the relationship between social media usage and customer buying decisions, whereas brand sophistication and brand ruggedness did not. The findings suggest that brand management plays an interconnected role in customer decision-making in which brand practitioners should take a keynote regarding their strategic marketing decisions. Finally, the paper recommends that future research consider a mixed approach to offer an in-depth analysis.

Acknowledgment
This study is supported by Tomas Bata University in Zlin through IGA/FAME /2022/010 Influencer marketing and intercultural differences across generations and IGA/FAME/2021/005-Significant factors in the sustainability of economic growth with a focus on the SME segment. We are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief and the anonymous reviewers for their comments in shaping this manuscript.

Consumers expect companies to practice fair pricing. Understanding the underlying cognitive mechanism that determines consumers’ price fairness perceptions is significant. It could help mitigate negative outcomes from unfairness perceptions and place firms in a better competitive position. This study examines the role of consumers’ thinking styles in perceived price fairness and purchase intention in a price increase situation. An online experiment was conducted wherein 171 participants across India, primarily from tier-1 cities frequently using car rental services, took part from September to December 2021. The majority of the participants (72) were 21-30 years old (42%). All involved participants met the initial criteria of using car rental services at least once a week. Proposed hypotheses were checked by one-way ANOVA following Tukey post hoc test and PROCESS. One-way ANOVA results shows a significant influence of thinking styles on cognitive attribution with large effect size, F(2, 168) = 28.04, p < .001, η2 = 0.25; presents a significant influence of thinking styles on perceived price fairness with large effect size, F(2, 168) = 30.07, p < .001, η2 = .0.26; demonstrates a significant influence of thinking styles on purchase intention F(2, 168) = 19.94, p < .001, η2 = .0.19. Findings revealed that, in the face of a price increase occurrence, consumers thinking holistically and analytically differ in perceived price fairness and purchase intention. Furthermore, holistic thinkers with higher cognitive attribution perceive a price increase as fairer. Thereby, they have higher purchase intention than analytic thinkers.

Acknowledgment
This study received support from Internal Grant Agency (project number IGA/FaME/2022/010), Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

Researchers have long pondered on the online banking transaction adoption. Some of these studies focus primarily on the motivating factors that affect customers’ intention to adopt/accept these services (technologies). However, research into the constraining factors, in particular socio-economic factors, barely exist in the literature, especially in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Against this background, the paper seeks to fill in this gap by: (1) assessing the socio-economic factors impeding the engagement of e-banking transactions among retail bank customers in Ghana, and (2) examining the moderating effect of ‘customer experience of Internet’ on the identified factors that inhibit the engagement in online banking in Ghana. The paper used a quantitative research approach to obtain data from two leading Ghanaian banks. Out of the 450 questionnaires distributed, 393 were valid for analysis. Data were analyzed with the aid of PLS-SEM (partial least squares and structural equation modeling). Findings revealed that perceived knowledge gap and the price of digital devices were directly important to the intention to disembark on e-banking transactions among Ghanaian bank customers. Whilst customer experience (frequent use of the Internet), as a moderator variable, has a significant effect on the interaction between perceived knowledge gap and the intent to disembark on e-banking transactions; and finance charges and the intent to disembark on e-banking transactions. Study implications and directions for future research are discussed in the paper.

Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Internal Grant Agency of Tomas Bata University under the Projects no. IGA/FaME/2019/008 and IGA/FaME/2020/002. The authors would like to extend their appreciation to Prof. Boris Popesko (Vice-dean for Research and Business Liaison) at the Faculty of Management and Economics for facilitating the financial readiness of this project.