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This study aims to answer the following questions: How do consumers’ perceptions of brand coolness affect brand relationship outcomes and how do brand coolness effects differ between product brands and service brands?

A quantitative survey was used to collect data from 1,500 consumers assigned to assess one of 20 popular product and service brands in Vietnam. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Data analysis reveals that both dimensions of brand coolness (i.e. self-oriented and other-oriented coolness) exert positive impacts on brand relationship outcomes (i.e. brand satisfaction, brand love and brand advocacy) through brand attitude (i.e. the evaluative mechanism) and self-brand connection (i.e. the identity mechanism). While the identity mechanism of brand coolness effects is more prominent in product brands, the evaluative mechanism is more pronounced for service brands.

This research provides practical guidance for brand managers to build strong customer relationships by leveraging their brand coolness and the mechanisms underlying coolness effects. This study suggests a tailored application of brand coolness dimensions to different branded entities.

This research contributes to the brand coolness literature by validating a two-dimensional brand coolness structure encompassing self-oriented and other-oriented coolness, in accordance with a value-based conceptualization of the concept. For mass brand studies, this study recommends the exclusion of rebellious and subcultural attributes, as well as the utility of pre-determined brands as evaluated objects, in measuring brand coolness. This study also illuminates dual mediation mechanisms and moderation of the branded entity underlying brand coolness effects on consumer–brand relationships.

In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from gossip theory, this research focuses on two key suppressors of consumer vulnerability: transparency and control. Previous studies conceptualize transparency and control from rationalistic approaches that overlook individual experiences and present a unidimensional conceptualization. This research aims to understand how individuals interpret transparency and control concerning privacy vulnerability in the online environment. Additionally, it explores strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

An interpretivism paradigm and phenomenology were adopted in the research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 participants, including consumers and experts, and analyzed through thematic analysis.

The findings identify key conceptual dimensions of transparency and control by adapting justice theory. They also reveal that firms can communicate assurance, functional, technical and social values of transparency and control to address consumer vulnerability.

This research makes the following contributions to the data privacy literature. The findings exhibit multidimensional and comprehensive conceptualizations of transparency and control, including user, firm and information perspectives. Additionally, the conceptual framework combines empirical insights from both experiencers and observers to offer an understanding of how transparency and control serve as justice mechanisms to effectively tackle the issue of unsanctioned transmission of personal information and subsequently address vulnerability. Lastly, the findings provide strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

This study aims to explore the barriers that prevent students from moderating their drinking by comparing attitudes towards moderation in a wet (New Zealand) and dry (Vietnam) drinking culture and examines whether these barriers can be understood by applying an ecological framework.

A qualitative survey involving a written vignette was conducted with a sample of 226 and 277 undergraduates from New Zealand and Vietnam, respectively. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

The analysis reveals that students perceive several barriers to moderate drinking at the intrapersonal level (e.g. positive attitude towards drinking), interpersonal level (e.g. peer pressure) and environmental level (e.g. socialising activities), suggesting that an ecological framework is useful for understanding drinking cultures. The response variations between the two countries provide novel insights into cultural differences in students’ perceptions, with external factors being more important and influential in the wet culture and internal influences being of more concern in the dry culture.

The findings highlight that students in the wet drinking culture do not take personal responsibility for their drinking and suggest that social marketing should move beyond individualistic approaches and towards the disruption of drinking cultures/practices, in pursuit of a healthier drinking culture.

This study provides novel insights into the barriers and facilitators of moderating drinking. Further, the findings demonstrate the value of a holistic ecological framework for understanding student drinking cultures. The comparison between two diverse cultures revealed how insights from one culture can help to understand deep-seated practices and meanings in another.

Among others in South Vietnam, the Temple of Literature in Vinh Long is the only one that has preserved its original form and layout. As such in 1991, the temple was recognized by the Ministry of Culture as a national-level historical and cultural relic. Nevertheless, the temple has been neither studied nor documented to any great depth. Only a few historical descriptions for local tour guidebooks and photo catalogs exist. Therefore this paper aims to initially record heritage values, spatial characteristics and the process of major changes, while documenting the current state of the temple structure and carrying out on-site inspections to survey the buildings.

This paper outlines the collection of survey data through field survey and provides an overview of the existing significant heritage factors of the Temple of Literature in Vinh Long by comparative examination in relation to other surviving temples and analyzing its unique spatial characteristics and indigenous cultural decorations in detail.

Although the layout of the temples was influenced by the Chinese Confucius's principles and the notion of Feng Shui, it is evident from the study that the design of the temple has many architectural elements that reveal Vietnam's unique culture and local features. In particular, the Temple of Literature in Vinh Long was a symbol of feudal education, symbolizing sacred traditional values in the field of education for the people of Vinh Long province. Stone steles recorded names of all contributors related to the construction and restoration of the temple with sincere gratitude. Moreover, many of the decorative motifs contain many indigenous cultural and artistic values of Vietnam, reflecting traditional Vietnamese beliefs and ethnographic features.

By comparatively analyzing the temple with others, it reveals the unique spatial features, layouts, changes and evolutions of the temple. Unlike the oldest and the largest Temple of Literature in Hanoi, the temples in the South are much smaller in terms of complex sizes and the number of buildings. They are mostly composed of a singular structure, the Attained Talent House, with some basic gates and water features interwoven within the landscape of the site. Based on the elementary layout, some subsidiary buildings were added according to the needs and site conditions, and in accordance with the bilateral axis.

The awareness and preservation of the architectural features of the local temple are needed to protect heritage monuments and to enhance cultural resources as part of securing Vietnamese ideology for a longer period of time. While the interest in historic preservation and conservation activities of heritage buildings in Vietnam has slowly grown in attention over the last decade, it is evident that many opportunities remain. It is hoped that this research is a small step toward further research, education and advocacy in the preservation of historic buildings in Vietnam.

The introduction of Chinese Confucian thought to Vietnam was one of the most substantial influences in Vietnamese intellectual history. Despite being an important part of the nation's architectural, cultural and intellectual heritage sites, the study and documentation of the Temples of Literature have been relatively neglected or marginalized. Accordingly, this study is significant to reveal not only the values and unique heritage characteristics of the temple, but also to prioritize resources for continued study and preservation.