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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinct effects of aggressive and constructive humor on perceptions of Machiavellianism, relationship quality and willingness-to-switch (WTS).

The empirical analysis includes a first replication study with 138 business-to-business buyers and a second study with 175 business-to-business buyers that aims to test the theoretical model. The Process macro is used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Results indicate that aggressive and constructive humor types have distinct effects on relationship quality and subsequent buyers’ WTS. Specifically, and contrary to constructive humor, aggressive humor from sellers increases buyers’ perceptions of Machiavellianism, which reveals detrimental to relationship quality and subsequently increases buyers’ WTS.

Although the results about the effects of humor on relationship quality were obtained from actual buyers and consistent across the two studies, they were obtained from two cross-sectional designs, which limits the causality of the effects being observed.

Sellers may benefit from getting deep understanding of how usage humor may impact their relationship with buyers. In particular, this research makes clear for sellers that as long as the type of humor that they use when dealing with a buyer is constructive, no negative outcome might emerge. However, if the humor is aggressive, then the stereotype of Machiavellianism might emerge, leading to lower relationship quality and an increase in WTS from the buyer.

While research on humor as a communication technique for sellers has increased lately, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this research is the first to examine the effects of the distinct types of aggressive and constructive humor and to provide empirical evidence for the different effects of these two types of humor. This research also contributes to the literature on stereotypes associated with sellers, by presenting insights into how the negative stereotype of Machiavellianism is prompted by the use of aggressive humor.

This research paper aims to contribute to the literature on emotions in the service experience. The extant literature has extensively discussed how the service experience can drive singular emotions. However, the investigation of the combined effects of mixed emotions – that is, emotions of antagonistic valence (positive and negative) – remains scarce. To fill this gap, this research focuses on the combined effects of the negative emotion of guilt and the positive emotion of pride, two affective reactions that can be felt during a service experience but that differ from each other in terms of valence. Specifically, this research examines how consumers who simultaneously feel these two emotions cope with them and more precisely if they engage in a positive reappraisal of their own behavior during the service experience or if they rather prefer adopting the avoidance strategy of mental disengagement. Finally, this research paper examines how these coping strategies to the mixed emotions of pride and guilt affect satisfaction with the service.

A series of hypotheses relating guilt, pride and the coping strategies of mental disengagement and positive reappraisal, as well as their effect on satisfaction toward the service, are testes using two scenario-based experiments.

The findings show that the effects of guilt on the coping strategies of mental disengagement and positive reappraisal are moderated by pride. Importantly, the results show that these two interacting effects are distinct. Precisely, while pride moderates the effect of guilt on mental disengagement such that a negative effect of guilt is observed mainly among people who feel strong guilt feelings, the moderating effect of pride in the guilt-positive reappraisal relationship is positive and mainly among those who feel low guilt feelings. Further, mental disengagement mediates the effects of guilt on satisfaction and differently according to the level of pride.

This research makes a contribution through the investigation of mixed emotions. This approach appears of value because services can drive different emotions simultaneously, and in a context where most extant research focuses on singular emotions.

While humor is known to help relational outcomes, its usefulness for sellers to build strong relationships with their business partners and achieve performance remain unknown. Specifically, humor styles (constructive versus offensive) and business sectors (service-based versus other) may play an important role. To fill this gap in extant marketing literature, this study aims to test the effects of humor styles among salespersons of different business sectors on relationship quality and business performance.

This research paper derives hypotheses from prior studies referring to humor effects in psychology and management, business-to-business and relationship marketing literature. The hypotheses are tested using a sample of 175 salespersons operating across different business sectors.

While constructive humor is shown to have positive effects on relationship quality and business performance regardless of business sectors, a different pattern is found for offensive humor. Specifically, the results show that business sector moderates the effects of this type of humor, which has negative effects on relationship quality and business performance, but only when used by salespersons in non-service-based business sectors.

The limitations of the research concern the cultural context. The lack of responses from salespersons from different countries may be considered as a direction for future studies exploring connections between humor usage and culture in business-to-business marketing.

This study brings strategic insights into how to use humor in a business-to-business context.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, no previous study has thus far examined the proposed set of inter-related research constructs.

Applying the stimulus–organism–response model, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of design aesthetics (stimulus) on adoption and recommendation intentions (response) of mobile banking applications through the mediating role of perceived usefulness and trust (organism). Importantly, this research further examines the moderating effect of persuasion knowledge, which attenuates the effects of design aesthetics on perceived usefulness and trust.

A survey is conducted with the help of panellist among a sample of 213 bank customers who are not yet users of mobile banking. Data are analysed using the PROCESS macro.

The results show that design aesthetics positively influence perceived usefulness and trust. These variables, in turn, positively affect adoption and recommendation intentions of mobile banking applications. Interestingly, the findings also demonstrate that persuasion knowledge moderates the effects of design aesthetics on perceived usefulness and trust, as well as their mediating effect.

Because the results demonstrate that persuasion knowledge weakens the effects of design aesthetics on perceived usefulness and trust, the originality of this research rests upon its reconsideration of the “what is beautiful is good” effect and the questioning of the supremacy of this effect. These results provide insights for academics to better explain and increase adoption and recommendation intentions. Moreover, the results can help banking practitioners to improve their policies and strategies pertaining to mobile banking applications.

This study aims to examine within-family and peer communication (type and frequency) and subsequent wine consumption of young adults. Specifically, this research investigates whether the distinct types of technical, prohibition and moderation-based communication affect wine knowledge, responsible drinking practices, and ultimately, wine consumption.

The authors adopted an econometric approach based on a cross-sectional study with data collected from a large sample of 1,466 students in France.

The authors show that wine technical-based messages from parents help young adults acquire knowledge about wine, which in turn increases consumption. Also, moderation-based messages make young adults both, more knowledgeable about wine and, as expected, more responsible in terms of drinking practices, subsequently limiting their consumption. Finally, prohibition-based messages marginally decrease wine knowledge and have no impact on responsible drinking practices.

This article provides relevant recommendations for public policymakers and brands, who should target parents and peers as part of their responsible drinking communication or advertising campaigns.

To fill a gap in the literature on young consumer behavior and food marketing, this research primarily investigates the relationship between family (and peer) communication and young adults' wine consumption, particularly whether and how, which type(s) of parental communication influences young adults' wine knowledge and adoption of responsible drinking practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how customers derive value (functional, emotional, social and epistemic value) from the design aesthetics of mobile banking applications and then form intention to adopt mobile banking. Furthermore, this research investigates the moderating effect of happiness, which is predicted – and showed – to strengthen the effects of design aesthetics on value.

A survey using screenshots of mobile banking applications was administered to a sample of 281 bank customers. Data were analysed using SmartPLS.

The results show that design aesthetics have a positive effect on functional, emotional, social and epistemic value. In turn, these value dimensions positively affect intention to adopt mobile banking. The findings also demonstrate that happiness moderates the effects of design aesthetics on these value dimensions.

This work can be useful to designers of banking applications and other practitioners to improve their policies and strategies related to mobile applications.

This research represents an initial attempt to examine how customers derive functional, emotional, social and epistemic value from design aesthetics in mobile banking. In addition, this research demonstrates that happiness moderates – and more specifically strengthens – the effects of design aesthetics on customer value. The results provide a theoretical contribution to the importance of value in customer decision making, and in the current case, in the seldom-researched area of mobile banking.

Applying the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory in a wine museum context, this paper aims to examine how and why experience design characteristics influence visitor satisfaction, particularly investigating the role of epistemic (learning) and hedonic (having fun) values as the underlying mechanisms of this relationship.

The authors collected field survey data from 652 visitors at a world-leading wine museum. The authors tested the research model on ten modules of the museum using path analysis and a bootstrap approach; the authors further conducted mediation analyses to test how the design of the museum’s modules influenced perceived value and satisfaction.

Content comprehensibility and surprise, as well as interactivity and ease of use, are core design characteristics that drive visitor satisfaction. More significantly, hedonic and epistemic values play a significant mediating role in influencing the relationship between design characteristics and visitor satisfaction.

The authors provide clear and actionable recommendations to help managers design museums that provide educational, entertaining and satisfying visitor experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply the S-O-R theory in a wine museum context. The significance of this study lies in demonstrating how and why experience design characteristics support the creation of an edutainment visitor experience that drives visitor satisfaction.

Because consumers nowadays face a wide diversity of wine labels – from very traditional to a range of modern styles that include color and various images – the purpose of this paper is to better understand the effects of the presence of fun elements on wine labels. Specifically, it aims to identify the underlying mechanisms that explain why fun elements on labels can lead to a decrease in consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) and purchase intentions. The authors also test whether consumers’ risk propensity acts as a boundary condition for this effect.

This research uses an online experiment conducted among a sample of 271 US residents. Multivariate analyses – including analyses of mediation, moderation and moderated mediation – are performed to test the theoretical model of the effects of fun elements on WTP and purchase intentions through reassurance impressions and quality perceptions, and the moderating role of risk propensity.

This research demonstrates that when consumers face a wine label that incorporates a high degree of fun elements, they perceive the label as less reassuring, leading to a decrease in perceived quality, and ultimately exhibit lower WTP and purchase intentions. Importantly, this research also shows that the effects of such wine labels are moderated by the individual variable of risk propensity; consumers react more positively to funny wine labels when they have a higher level of risk propensity.

A limitation of this research lies in that it has been conducted online, while an experiment in a real purchase setting may have yielded results that are more likely to mimic response in the marketplace.

By showing that fun elements in a wine label can negatively affect consumers’ WTP and purchase intentions, this research suggests that wine marketers should be cautious when designing labels. Nevertheless, because consumers who are risk-loving exhibit less negative responses to funny wine labels, wine producers should consider segmenting their consumers on the basis of risk propensity and design front labels with fun elements only for customers who can be classified as risk-loving (vs risk averse).

While prior research recognizes the wide diversity of wine labels and the increasing use of fun elements in labels, no research to date has proposed and validated a model of their effects. This research fills this gap by empirically demonstrating that fun elements in labels have an overall effect of making consumers feel less reassured, leading to a decrease in perceived quality, and ultimately lower WTP and purchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to propose both a retrospective and a prospective look at one of the most powerful concepts in marketing research: consumption experience.

A historical review of the development of the concept of consumption experience is conducted from its introduction 35 years ago by Holbrook and Hirschman’s (1982) seminal paper to the most recent advances, including the articles selected for this special issue.

First, the authors show that the introduction of the concept of consumer experience was a major (r)evolution on the theoretical, methodological and managerial levels. Second, the authors examine the theoretical risks associated with a biased conceptualization of the consumption experience. Third, the authors highlight future avenues for research on the consumption experience from both macro- (“zoom-out”) and micro-analytic (“zoom-in”) perspectives.

This paper offers a comprehensive view on one of the most disruptive concepts in marketing theory.

This study aims to investigate the interacting effect of two forms of psychic distance (business and cultural) on export relationship management. Specifically, this research examines the moderating role of cultural distance in the effect of business distance on different dimensions of relationship management and financial export performance.

This research builds on a sample of 174 French export executives who were asked to rate their views of their relationship with their Chinese business counterpart in the wine trade, and their related performance.

A first finding lies in the strong positive effects of relationship management, relationship investment and communication quality on financial export performance. A second and important finding relates to the different effects of the business and cultural dimensions of psychic distance, while the former positively affects relationship management, the latter negatively moderates the effect of business distance on relationship management.

One limitation pertains to the focus on France and China as the only countries involved in the current research. Future research could investigate whether the results replicate in different countries. Further studies would also be needed to enrich the relationship management dimensions and test whether the effects observed here replicate in relation to other dimensions.

For export managers, this research offers a better understanding of business and cultural distance, and their effects on relationship structuring. Specifically, the results indicate that cultural distance matters more than business distance, meaning that business distance can help relationship management only when cultural distance is low. In addition, the results indicate that wine producers might gain from communicating openly with their business counterparts, for instance, by clearly explaining the business objectives, or through continuous interactions and temporal and financial investments.

The originality of this research lies in identifying the interaction effect of the business and cultural dimensions of psychic distance, with cultural distance revealed as a boundary condition for the effects of business distance on relationship management. The inclusion of marketing and financial aspects constitutes a further original aspect.