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Luxury brands tend to be hesitant in adopting social media. This matter has created an imminent need to understand the different types of online luxury followers so as to help luxury brands communicate effectively with their consumers, while maintaining the “luxe” image and experience. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to provide luxury brands with a deeper understanding of their online audience and the strategies needed to engage with them through the different social media platforms.

A qualitative approach was utilized in which 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with Lebanese followers of an online luxury brand’s social media pages.

The study identifies the presence of six main categories of online luxury followers: pragmatists, bystanders, trend hunters, image seekers, passionate owners, and prime consumers. Each group has a specific engagement and propensity to buy levels.

Understanding the different segments of luxury brand followers provides a framework for marketing managers that allows them to correctly target their marketing and communication strategies in order to maximize consumer engagement and purchasing behaviors.

A significant gap exists in the extant literature which offers no understanding of the different luxury brand followers and their different characteristics. This study is the first to offer an exploratory typology of the various luxury brand followers on social media platforms.

The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the effects of religiosity level, ethnocentrism, subjective norms, product judgment and trust in Halal food products on the consumer intention to purchase a Muslim (manufactured in a majority Muslim country) versus a foreign (manufactured in a majority non-Muslim country) product available on the Lebanese market across the two main Muslim sects, namely, Sunnism and Shiism.

The study used a quantitative survey that was administered to a proportionate stratified sample of 607 respondents from the two sects.

The results indicate that Sunni consumers indicate a greater trust in judgment of and willingness to buy foreign Halal products compared to their Shiite counterparts, while Shiite consumers display a greater trust in judgment of and willingness to buy Muslim products. Moreover, religiosity, ethnocentrism, subjective norms, brand trust and product judgment have been found to significantly influence consumer purchase intention.

The study results exhibit that religious sect plays a key role in consumer purchase intention, which encourages decision makers and marketers to pursue identity, awareness and communication strategies while targeting Muslim consumers of both sects.

Muslim consumers’ perception of Halal products is a sorely under-researched area of study with minimal empirical data supporting such studies. The results of this study offer some insight into consumer behavior differences between members of the two sects.

This paper aims to analyze the adoption of social media platforms by tourists in Pakistan. Based on an adaptation of the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study assesses the factors that lead users to adopt these platforms.

A survey was administered to a convenience sample of 399 travelers who use social media in Pakistan. A Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using AMOS to evaluate convergent and discriminant validity as well as composite reliability. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the causal relationship among all proposed constructs.

The findings reveal that the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEoU) of a social media platform positively impact the behavioral intention of its users. The proposed constructs of compatibility, enjoyment, user expertise and e-trust all demonstrated their crucial roles in the adoption of a social media platform for tourism-related activities by enhancing the platform's PEoU and usefulness.

This research validates the relationship between PEoU and PU of a social media platform in the hospitality industry. Interestingly, this study has expanded TAM by validating the addition of four more constructs, (1) compatibility, (2) enjoyment, (3) e-trust, and (4) expertise, to add worth to this model regarding the understanding of social media usage in this specific industry. The findings are valuable both for managers and policymakers in the tourism sector in Pakistan, as the latter can utilize the results to entice a larger segment of social media users to the tourism industry.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze consumer switching behavior, which in the retail banking sector is of outmost importance, particularly during financial crises and in their ensuing consolidation pressures. Moreover, research indicates that cultural values play a critical role in determining a customer’s likelihood to switch the service provider. The theory of planned behavior offers a comprehensive theoretical framework for an understanding of this behavior. Its application implies that switching is influenced not only by one’s attitudes toward changing banking service providers, but also by the merger situation at hand, the influence of significant others, and whether the switching decision is under one’s behavioral control.

This paper scrutinizes the merger between Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland in the Spanish market, with a focus on the differences between British and Spanish consumers. In all, 30 face-to-face exploratory interviews were conducted with a sample of customers from both nationalities selected through a purposive sampling technique.

The results indicate that the switching behavior within the banking sector is largely determined by one’s cultural background. While individualistic consumers are more prone to switch banks, collectivist consumers are highly risk averse and are unwilling to lose the established relations with a bank’s personnel. These particular characteristics make them unlikely to switch banks irrespective of a merger and its related consequences.

This paper examines the impact of cross-cultural differences on consumer switching motivations and intentions in the particular case of a real-life banks’ merger.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that affect customers’ switching intentions among banks in the context of mergers and acquisitions, using particularly the case of the merger between Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland, which took place in 2009.

On the basis of the theory of planned behavior, a quantitative survey was developed and administered to 515 account holders from both banks in branches located in Spain. Structural equation modeling was then utilized to evaluate the significance of direct and indirect relationships between the various factors under study.

Empirical findings indicate a significant direct relationship between switching intentions and each of: behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, attitudes, and subjective norms. Results also reveal an inverse significant relationship between switching intentions and both control beliefs and perceived behavioral control.

The absence of a longitudinal study measuring the actual impact of the merger on customer switching behavior is the main limitation of this study. Moreover, despite being insightful, the results of this study should be generalized with caution since the sample was based on a list purposely chosen by the banks’ management.

This paper discusses customer switching behavior in the context of a real-life case of banks’ consolidation.

Based on transformative service research (TSR), the study explores the mechanisms by which a firm's information transparency influences a retail investor's perceived financial well-being (PFW). It proposes a model exploring the mediating roles of the investor's financial risk tolerance (RT) and financial self-efficacy (FSE) in the relationship between a firm's information transparency and the consumer's PFW.

A survey was conducted by including a sample of 310 retail investors from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to test the proposed hypotheses. Data analysis was based on a series of multiple regressions, moderation and serial mediation analyses.

The findings show that a firm's information transparency harnesses investors' PFW. Information transparency also positively affects investors' RT toward the firm and their FSE while dealing with financial challenges.

The findings call for a deeper understanding of financial services' interventions and their underlying mechanisms to improve consumer’s financial well-being (FWB). On a methodology level, future studies could apply a mixed-method approach and SEM to explore new avenues for predicting investors' FWB.

Besides validating TSR, the study has several implications for listed firms to adopt more transparent information reporting practices to improve investors' PFW. Accordingly, regulators should take initiatives to compel firms to comply with higher standards of information transparency.

The proposed model explores a concrete mechanism that helps listed firms to strengthen investors' PFW via information transparency.

The purpose of this paper is to study the important factors which help explain consumer intention and use behavior in mobile banking (m-banking) adoption. All constructs of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 are studied. Non-monetary value is studied through perceived value. Trust and perceived risk are also included to predict intention.

A questionnaire was utilized to evaluate customer responses on a five-point Likert scale. A convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from a sample of 490 respondents in Pakistan. The data were analyzed using AMOS and SPSS for Cronbach’s α, CR, CMV, AVE, Harmon’s single factor test, correlation and structural equation modeling.

The results of the study show that most of the predictors of intention, including perceived value, performance expectancy, habit, social influence, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation (except for facilitating condition), perceived risk and trust, are significant. All predictors of usage behavior are significant.

A cross-sectional study was conducted due to time constraints.

Bank managers must focus on improving customers’ intentions to use m-banking as well as on providing facilitating conditions to increase its actual use. To boost mobile banking, banks’ management must consider the customers’ habits while designing their m-banking products.

The findings of this paper are not only interesting in terms of boosting m-banking diffusion rate, but also in terms of financial inclusion of the vast majority of mobile users. Further the impact of intention, facilitating condition and habit were checked on actual use behavior since people tend not always to act upon their intentions.

The spread of fake news on social networking sites (SNS) poses a threat to the marketing landscape, yet little is known about how fake news affect consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviors. This study aims to explore when consumers believe fake news, whom they blame for it (e.g. negative attitudes toward brands or SNS) and when they choose to share it.

Data obtained from 80 open-ended, semistructured interviews, conducted with SNS consumers and experts, is analyzed following the principles of grounded theory and the Gioia methodology.

Factors affecting consumers’ perceptions of fake news include skepticism, awareness, previous experience, appeal and message cues. Consumers’ brand- and SNS-related attitudes are affected by consumers’ blame, which is determined by consumers’ perceptions of the vetting efforts, role and ethical obligation of SNS. Consumers’ motives for sharing fake news include duty, retaliation, authentication and status-seeking. Theoretical and practical implications derived from the study’s novel conceptual framework are discussed.

This study identifies communication strategies that marketing professionals can use to mitigate and counter the negative effects of fake news.

By simultaneously considering consumers’ perceptions of the source, information and medium (i.e. SNS), this study presents a novel conceptual framework providing a marketing-centered, dynamic view on consumers’ fake news experience and connecting consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviors in the context of fake news.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of religious sect on the Lebanese consumer’s perception of controversial product advertisements.

The study used a quantitative survey that was administered to a purposive representative sample of respondents from the two main Muslim sects in the country, namely, Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

The results indicated significant differences in perceptions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims with regards to the offensiveness of the advertising of controversial products. Briefly, Sunni Muslims found the advertising of social and political as well as health and care products more offensive, whereas Shiite Muslims found the advertising of gender and sex-related products more offensive, and no significant difference in offensiveness perception between the two sects was found with regards to the advertising of addictive products.

Two main limitations faced the researchers: the fact that the respondents were not shown examples of offensive product advertisements; and that religiosity was not measured for the respondents, which could also be a factor in offensiveness perception.

The study indicates that a consumer’s religious sect can play a determining role in how he/she perceives product advertisement, thus encouraging marketers to consider the differences between these sects while advertising to ensure no potential consumers are alienated.

Although research has looked into the impact of religiosity and religion on the perception of offensive product advertisements, minimal research exists on the impact of religious sects on the perception of offensive product advertisement. The results of this study provide some insights into the consumer behavior differences between the two sects.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the influence of religiously motivated boycotts, such as the one conducted in Saudi Arabia against Danish companies, on corporate brand image, customer loyalty and product judgment. Despite a growing research interest in understanding the effects of different types of consumer animosities on companies’ performance, there appears to be a scarcity of studies addressing the specific effects of religious animosity. Religious animosity is considered as an additional type which may have more stable and longer-term impacts than other animosities on behaviour.

The study was based on a two-stage design: an exploratory qualitative stage involving 11 in-depth interviews, followed by a more comprehensive quantitative stage designed to test a proposed theoretical model. Data was collected from Saudi customers of the Danish company Arla Foods in Saudi Arabia. Data was analysed using structural equation model (LISREL 8).

The model confirms that boycotting have strong negative impact on brand image and consumer loyalty but does not influence consumers’ product judgment.

Religious boycotts have significant consequences on both corporate profits and brand image. The study provides clear steps for companies to combat the influence of religious boycotts especially in relation to brand image and customer loyalty.

The study tested the influence of consumer religious boycotts on brand image and customer loyalty. Religious animosity was found to cause a more persistent boycott that negatively impacts brand image and weakens customer loyalty. However, by and large, boycotting was found not to have any significant impact on product judgment.