Issue #3 (Volume 18 2022)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant change in customer behavior, including in the luxury product business. One crucial part of customer behavior is purchase intention. Understanding purchase intention is an essential basis for developing various marketing innovations. This study aimed to establish a model of the interaction of factors that influence purchase intention in luxury products today, especially in Indonesia. The study used a cross-sectional study approach. This study’s respondents were social media users who would buy luxury products. The research sample size was 381 users. The Lime Survey was applied to collect data and was accessed online. The questionnaire statement items used a Likert scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree), including Perceived Value (9 items), Social WoM (3 items), Brand Attitude (3 items), and Purchase Intention (3 items). The model validation was analyzed using bootstrapping to process the Structural Equation Model (SEM) under Smart-PLS software. The analysis results show that the three variables simultaneously (R-square = 0.419) moderately can be used to explain Purchase Intention. However, the factors that affect Purchase Intention are only Perceived Value (p-value = 0.000) and Brand Attitude (p-value = 0.000), but not Social WoM (p-value = 0.203). This study concludes that marketing innovation is critical to focus on the prestige of luxury product users through perceived value and brand attitude. Information from other users is not reliable enough to build purchase intention because luxury product users tend not to trust products from other users. Still, they believe more in the perceived prestige.

Acknowledgments
Faculty of Economics and Business of Universitas Negeri Sebelas Maret facilitates using LIME Survey software for this research.

Many apparel retailing brands use e-service marketing tools such as a chatbot (a system that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) to increase their competitive advantage in today’s world of digitalization. During the COVID-19 pandemic, chatbots gained more power to serve as a communication tool that provides information and maintains customer experience. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate the influence of chatbot e-service agents’ marketing efforts (involving interaction, entertainment, trendiness, and problem-solving) on Thai customers’ perceived communication credibility and satisfaction in apparel retailing, as research in this area is limited. In order to test the hypotheses, the paper employed structural equation modeling using Amos. In addition, an online survey of 400 Thai consumers who had previously used chatbots in the apparel retailing industry was conducted. The results showed that chatbot e-service marketing efforts, including interaction, trendiness, and problem-solving, affected customer satisfaction without entertainment elements. Beyond this, a chatbot, viewing interaction and entertainment, was found to have an insignificant effect on communication credibility. Thus, the coefficient value proved that information regarding communication credibility is more dominant in customer satisfaction. Therefore, the chatbot e-service marketing effort is essential in motivating communication credibility in customer satisfaction. These findings delivered managerial implications for understanding consumers in the field of digitalization.

The most crucial key to successfully approaching customers is enhancing the interaction experience between customers and retailers. This study explores the motivations for adopting augmented reality (AR) in retailing small and medium-sized retailers in Vietnam. A structured questionnaire was delivered to a total sample of 302 Vietnamese retailers and got 215 clean and valid responses. The survey was conducted both online and offline for ten months, from February 2021 to December 2021. The chosen surveyors are retailing managers and owners of retailing firms. These firms sell fashion products, technology gadgets, and household products. The data were statistically analyzed using Smart PLS software and the partial least equation structural model. The findings indicate three direct, positive, and significant factors that influence the retailer’s AR adoption, including (1) organizational attitude toward AR, (2) organizational innovativeness, and (3) competition pressure in which organizational attitude toward AR and organization innovativeness are two critical motivational drivers. The competition pressure has been identified as the challenge barrier. The cost barriers affect organizational attitude toward AR but do not significantly influence AR adoption. Along with theoretical contributions, this paper also gave some theoretical and practical implications for retailers who have the intention to adopt AR and integrate AR into their current retailing system.

The purpose of this study is to critically examine the effect of relationship marketing (such as trust, commitment, communication effectiveness, and conflict handling) on customer loyalty in the telecommunication service delivery sector. The data for this study were gathered through a questionnaire. In addition, a survey of two hundred and twenty-five (225) customers of telecommunication services in Nigeria supports the investigation. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was employed to analyze the data gathered. The findings of this study show that trust, commitment, communication effectiveness, and conflict handling directly affect customer loyalty. In addition, all four variables directly influence customer loyalty. Hinging on the study’s discoveries, the paper suggested that organizations should strategically implement relationship marketing as this will help build and increase loyal customers. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in this field, which adds significant value. Moreover, the study provides valuable details on the telecommunication sector, possibly new to many readers.

Acknowledgment
The authors wish to appreciate the management of Covenant University for the full sponsorship of this publication in this journal.

The war in Ukraine dealt a crushing blow to the country’s economy. The relevance of the topic is due to the marketing ability to be an effective tool for restoring and developing business in Ukraine. The paper aims to define the state and prospects for developing business and its marketing component during the war in Ukraine. The research analysis demonstrates that the share of business representatives who completely or partially ceased their activities during the first three months of the war decreased from 75.3% in March to 49.0% in May (compared to February 24, 2022), which is indicative of the gradual resumption of business in Ukraine. At the same time, it was found that in May 2022, the food retail, non-food retail, household appliances, and electronics sectors partially resumed their work. The best renewal rates are observed in the jewelry sector, and the worst – in the entertainment sector. A study of marketing activities in Ukraine shows that the most positive changes regarding gradual renewal are observed in digital marketing. The paper highlights the key consequences of hostilities for Ukrainian business and its marketing activities: supply chain disruption, reduced purchasing power, changes in consumer demand, stockpiling, and a state of uncertainty among business representatives. In addition, the study offers general approaches to adapting marketing and SMM during the war to preserve, restore, and further develop business in Ukraine.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on decreasing hotel consumption levels. To survive and compete in the market, hotels must be able to maintain their brand power and performance. This study aims to determine the relationship between customer experience, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty toward brand power and brand performance in the hotel industry. The focus is on the importance of the role of the three consumer constructs on brand value. The paper uses a descriptive research design and a quantitative approach where data is collected by distributing online questionnaires to respondents through Google Forms. The selected population is tourists who have stayed in 4-5 star international hotels in Indonesia, with a sample size of 240 respondents. The collected data is then processed using SmartPLS v.3.3.3 to examine the results of the outer and inner models. The results show that from the customer’s perspective, customer experience has an impact on customer satisfaction, which influences customer loyalty. In addition, customer loyalty is a factor that affects brand value, including brand power and performance. Therefore, customer loyalty is a strong predictor of brand value in the hospitality and tourism industry. By strengthening this sphere, a company will have great resources and opportunities to build brand power and brand performance.

Nowadays, when the Internet is a regular part of people’s life in competitive conditions, it is essential to emphasize user feelings about the products, especially in the context of web pages. The study aims to clarify the significance of selected Technology Acceptance Model elements concerning user behavior in the web area. The study applied an exploratory method using an anonymous questionnaire in electronic form (Likert scale). This study’s respondents were website users, visitors, or internet users within the EU. Adequacy of the research sample was measured using Cronbach’s alpha and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (226 respondents). This paper proposed factors that impact user behavior. The quality of the website content factor contains two other variables: the quality of information (QI-Q5) and its availability (AI-A3). The design quality factor is composed of four elements: appearance (AP1-AP5), website findability (F1-F4), website navigation (N1-N3), and website access and usability (AU1-AU4). In addition, the paper selected the perceived usefulness factor (USEF1), the factor of perceived ease of use (EOU1-EOU3), and the attitude to use the website (ATT1). This study calculated the values of the Pearson correlation coefficients and used the lower triangle method to obtain the resulting coefficient values. The analysis results show that the simplicity of use and page orientation does not affect the actual use of the website. The study’s outcome is a model that identifies the impact of individual factors on user behavior in the context of user experience.

Acknowledgment
This paper was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under Contract no. APVV-21-0188. This paper was also supported by VEGA 1/0488/22.

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.

Due to innovations, the Industrial Revolution 4.0 has become a popular trend among the public. The Indonesian government is eager to implement e-procurement in accordance with Presidential Regulation No. 16 of 2018 on government procurement. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of each TOE model factor on Indonesian e-procurement adopters, as well as to investigate how the diffusion of innovation theory categorizes them. This study employed a quantitative method and SmartPLS version 3.0 to examine the model, based on Teo et al. (2009), which set the major structure. In this study, state-owned firms and their subsidiaries, as well as other private enterprises that operate in the infrastructure and construction sectors and participate in Indonesia’s e-procurement system, were used as samples. The result show that top management support (β = 0.279; p < 0.05) and information sharing culture (β = 0.783; p < 0.05) have positive and significant effects on e-procurement adoption. On the other hand, perceived cost (β = 0.097; p > 0.05), firm size (β = –0.080; p > 0.05), and business partner influence (β = –0.057; p > 0.05) did not contribute any effect significantly. This study expects that the organizing committee for government goods and services procurement, as well as participants in government goods and services procurement, would pay attention to and consider significant components in the implementation of e-procurement outside of the applicable legislation.

Α survey of relationship marketing, branding, and the family business life cycle is conducted to determine the extent to which these variables ensure their path to the next generation. The study examines whether interpersonal relationships apply to family SME businesses and how they adopt relationship marketing as their main strategy. The study provides an insightful benchmarking approach between family businesses in early stage (1st and 2nd generation) and well-established (3rd and 4th generation) companies. In addition, the adopted branding process is examined. A qualitative method was chosen for the interviews with five B2B Greek family companies in the trading sector. Family businesses are Greek, have a known brand name, and family members are involved in the decision-making process. All participants agree that personal or friendly relationships of the owner-founder with customers, suppliers, and staff are crucial at the launch of businesses, and growth is a synonym for business survival. Data analysis revealed that relationship marketing is not related to the stages of development, as different perceptions were observed among participants of well-established and companies in the early stage. The results also show a significant relationship between different stages of family business’s development and branding strategies, documenting that owners of well-established family businesses focus on organizational structure and culture. In contrast, owners of family businesses in the early stage rely on personal relationships. Branding strategy seems to be the appropriate approach for a family-owned business to survive in the marketplace and have succeed pass on to the next generations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses experienced various challenges, resulting in economic decline. The pandemic also threatened their sustainability. Thus, business actors have to consider this condition seriously. This study aims to analyze the impact of marketing innovations and business plans on business sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper used quantitative methods. The population included 689 micro and small enterprises affected by COVID-19 in Palu City, Indonesia. It involved 253 respondents as samples selected using the Slovin formula with an error rate of 5%. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistical testing and multiple linear regression. The findings showed that marketing innovations and business plans significantly affected business sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic both simultaneously and partially. Then, simultaneously, it was indicated by the value of Fcount > Ftable (10.615 > 3.031) at a significance alpha (α) of 0.05 or Sig. F < 0.05. The significance value of 0.000 is smaller than the alpha (α) significance of 0.05, meaning it is significant. Partially, the business plan variable showed that tcount was higher than ttable (2.780 > 1.650). The significance value was 0.006, which is smaller than the alpha (α) significance of 0.05, meaning it is significant. The marketing innovation variable showed that tcount was higher than ttable (3.878 > 1.650). The significance value obtained was 0.000, which is smaller than the alpha (α) significance of 0.05, meaning it is significant.

Building a solid relationship between a brand and customers has become increasingly prevalent in a firm’s marketing strategy. It has led to a broader and deeper exploration of developing customer relationships by industry practitioners and academic researchers. Drawing on the marketing literature, this empirical study speculates on the possible mechanism underlying the process of building brand advocacy with consumers in online food delivery services. The data were collected from 562 respondents through online questionnaires from consumers of food delivery platforms in Bangkok and Metropolitan areas, Thailand. The survey data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to verify the model. The findings indicated the relationship between customer experience quality (brand experience, service experience, and post-purchase experience), brand leadership (perceived quality, perceived innovativeness, perceived value, and perceived popularity), relationship quality (trust, satisfaction, and commitment), and brand advocacy (recommendation, purchase intention, and brand defending). Regarding the investigation, customer experience quality positively affects brand leadership and relationship quality, which, in turn, mediated the pathway from customer experience quality to brand advocacy. The model explained 72% of the variance in brand advocacy. The study recommends that practitioners consider these findings when designing marketing strategies for online platforms.

Nowadays, organizations use social media to promote their services and products. At the same time, they use different tools to convey their messages, such as Facebook. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors that affect the e-WOM on Jordanian consumers’ purchase intention over Facebook. The study uses the information acceptance model (IAM) to examine the impact of information credibility, information quality, information adoption, and information usefulness over Facebook on Jordanian consumers’ purchase intention. The study uses cross-sectional quantitative research and is conducted online. The questionnaire was distributed through Facebook and WhatsApp, and the people who used only Facebook were allowed to complete the survey. Out of 327 filled questionnaires, only 304 were valid for further analysis. Collected data were coded in SPSS, and after confirming the validity and reliability of the tool, the correlation between variables was checked. In addition, multiple regressions were used to test the hypotheses. Multiple regression results show that the E-WOM can explain 49.2% of the total variation in the consumers’ purchase intention, where R2 = 0.492. Information adoption has the strongest effect on consumers’ purchase intention (β = 0.489), followed by information usefulness (β = 0.204). In contrast, information credibility and information quality do not have a significant effect on customers’ purchase intention (0.189 and 0.312, respectively). This study helps companies and businesses that have pages on Facebook to understand how consumers engage in the e-WOM on business pages and consider the consumers’ reviews, comments, or posts.

Retail customers often wait to complete their purchases during the checkout process. Prior research suggests that long checkout lines and service delays negatively affect customers’ evaluation of store services. The present study investigates the potential customer and in-store distractions and their implication for emotional discomfort due to crowding stress. This study employed a cross-sectional research design and surveyed 385 respondents visiting the target retail outlets in Bengaluru, India. Correlation analysis explored the relationship between self-distraction, in-store distractions, and emotional discomfort. The study found that self-distraction negatively correlates with discomfort while in the queue (r = –0.119) and discomfort during the billing (r = –0.119). In contrast, in-store distractions (r = –0.161) and video displays near the checkout area (r = 0.116) effectively reduce emotional discomfort while in the queue. Additionally, point-of-purchase (POP) display (r = –0.265) and availability of refreshments near the billing counter (r = –0.175) are effective in reducing emotional discomfort during the billing. This study thus offers viable and affordable methods of improving the customer’s waiting experience while contributing to store profits.

Fashion leaders significantly contribute to an economy’s clothing segment, given their unique role in influencing fashion followers to purchase fashion clothing. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the factors that influence the sizeable and lucrative Generation Y male student cohort’s fashion leadership. The study conveniently sampled 400 Generation Y male students between 18 and 24 years old enrolled at two public South African higher education institutions. The study used a descriptive research design. A standardized self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data analysis included computing the descriptive statistics, the internal consistency reliability, the nomological validity, collinearity diagnostics, and multiple linear regression. The study results suggest that although product knowledge, fashion consciousness, mood enhancement, and brand switching behavior have a statistically significant favorable influence on Generation Y male students’ fashion leadership tendencies, decision-making confidence was not a statistically significant predictor. The study offers valuable insights that could assist marketing practitioners and fashion retail stores in understanding and better influencing the Generation Y male cohort’s fashion leadership. This, in turn, will aid them in rethinking and adapting their marketing endeavors to appeal to this market segment.

This study measured the impact of leadership styles on service quality and the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction. In addition, it analyzed whether there is a difference in service quality and customer satisfaction between banks by categorizing them by capital types. The quantitative method was used to achieve the objectives. The sample comprised 360 employees of Kosovo banks, where 99 employees were from banks with domestic capital, and 261 were from foreign capital banks. According to the OLS model, the authoritarian style has a more significant impact on the service quality in banks with foreign capital. In contrast, in banks with domestic capital, a transactional style significantly impacts service quality. According to the t-test, there is a statistically significant relationship between consumer satisfaction and banks with foreign and domestic capital, with the greatest consumer satisfaction in banks with foreign capital. However, considering the service quality, the t-test showed a non-significant result, which means that there is no difference in the service quality between the two categories of banks. This paper found that the leadership style has a higher effect on the service quality of the two categories of banks, recommending that banks fill the gap between the style used and the one that affects the service quality best. Banks also received feedback on customer satisfaction to strengthen SERVQUAL model components, improving service quality and increasing customer satisfaction.

Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to AAB College for the support in preparing this paper.

A huge body of research analyzed panic buying during the pandemic; however, there is a dearth of studies scrutinizing social media triggering panic buying of drugs and medical supplies. This study assesses the impact of social media on panic buying of drugs and medical supplies during COVID-19. An online survey was conducted in the Delhi-NCR region (India) using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The data were collected from the respondents (N = 250) who were youngsters considering their pivotal role in the battle against COVID-19. Regression analysis in SPSS was used to process the data. The results manifested a strong impact of social media on buying behavior during COVID-19. Perceived scarcity (p = .000), perceived quality (p = .000), perceived cost (p = .000) of medical supplies, and fear-of-missing-out (p = .000) were found to strongly influence panic buying. Further, perceived scarcity was found to have a significant impact on FOMO (p = .0400). At the same time, perceived cost also had a substantial effect on perceived quality (p = .0100). The results indicated that perceived scarcity did not affect perceived quality (p = .0600). People indulged in hoarding during COVID-19 to remove their fear of missing out. The perception of scarcity of medicines, the quality degradation that may happen later, or the likelihood that costs may increase in the future contributed fairly to people stockpiling. Perceived scarcity also induced fear of missing out, while perception about the quality was dependent on perceived cost.

According to social psychology researchers, categorizing a new product may involve the formation of automatic judgments at the subconscious level. This study aimed to ascertain if attitudes might be formed unintentionally when categorizing a new hybrid product under the effect of associated sensory inputs. Data were collected using an explicit and implicit approach: an explicit categorization measure, an explicit attitude scale, and the “Single Category Implicit Association Test’’ (SC-IAT), from 280 Moroccan university students having a normal sense of smell and taste, under the effects of two types of sensory stimuli (smell and taste) and according to two learning conditions linked to two categories of existing products. The data were then computed and processed using the “Statistical Package for Social Sciences” and the “Inquisit Lab’’. The study’s findings revealed that the respondents were able to categorize the new product into one of the targeted categories (depending on the learning condition of each category) after exposure to sensory stimuli (olfactory and gustatory stimuli) related to this product and were also able to form an implicit and explicit attitude towards it. The occurrence of the categorization process and the formation of these two distinct types of attitudes can be explained by the olfactory and gustatory sensory stimulation during the experiment, which helped the participants recognize the basic domain of the new product and then transfer knowledge and affects to it.