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The purpose of this study is to contribute to previous research on customer relationships by quantitatively examining differences in the monetary benefits obtained by consumers using social and commercial relationships to make purchases from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Customer transaction and relationship data from an SME in the USA is used to quantitatively assess the value of different marketplace relationships in an entrepreneurial context. Tobit regression is used to empirically model and test the impact of specific relationship characteristics on customer discounts.

Customers using social connections to make purchases obtain significantly larger discounts than customers using commercial connections; customers using direct connections attain significantly larger discounts than consumers using indirect connections (referrals). Interestingly, when examined by connection type, direct and indirect connections do not produce significant differences for social connections, yet they yield notable differences for commercial connections. The findings provide valuable insights to entrepreneurs for understanding and managing customer relationships.

This study empirically demonstrates that social relationships can be both prevalent and influential in the marketplace. The methodology used to quantitatively assess the monetary value associated with different methods of engaging with SMEs allows objective comparisons among different types of customer relationships. Quantification also allows important relationship characteristics to be empirically examined, including how the relationships compare to one another and to nonpersonal marketing activities. Ultimately, these novel contributions generate important insights to help marketers and entrepreneurs better understand customer relationships.

This research aims to examine how credence, search and experience attributes compete with suggestive brand names that are incongruent with the attributes they cue (e.g. expensive EconoLodge Motel, short-lasting Duracell battery and joint-stiffening JointFlex pill).

This study relies on experimental studies, together with analyses of variance, t-tests and logistic regressions.

Incongruent suggestive brand names can distort product evaluations and alter perceptions of product performance in joint product judgments involving contradictory credence attributes; they can misdirect product evaluations even if the search attributes conflict with competitor brands. Furthermore, they are more likely to backfire if contradictory experience attributes are readily available to consumers.

This test of the role of incongruence between suggestive brand names and actual product features includes key concepts that can inform continued studies, such as search attributes that consumers can readily observe, experience attributes that can be observed only after product use and credence attributes that might not be observed even after use.

This study provides applicable guidelines for managers, consumers and policymakers.

The findings expand beyond prior literature that focuses on memory-based, separate evaluations of advertised benefits and inferences or expectations of unavailable attributes. Specifically, this study details the implications of congruence between the suggestive brand names and different types of attributes observable at different consumption stages.

In this article, we try to extend previous research on socially responsible practices by investigating the effectiveness of the environmental communication of an organization. The work is mostly based on the results of a qualitative research about the environmental efforts of a supermarket chain, particularly through its replacement strategy of nylon bags by biodegradable ones. There are many studies in the marketing literature on corporate environmentalism emphasizing the advantages of communicating the socially responsible practices (Detchessahar, 2001; Gabriel, 2003; Kolk, 2000; Krogh and Roos, 1995) but there are also risks related to communication strategy. Therefore, it is very crucial to know the possible impacts of this kind of communication in order to be successful in the market (Brown and Dacin, 1997; Creyer and Ross, 1997; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). The impact of this communication has to be analyzed by different points of view such as the consumers, the employees and the managers. The results of this study will provide various managerial insights and recommendations for companies willing to succeed in their socially responsible actions as the responsible business practices can build sales, develop the workforce, boost enthusiasm, and enhance trust in to the company by increasing its reputation.

The increase in environmental consciousness around the world since 1970's pushed firms to engage in socially responsible behaviors. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has naturally gained attention in the academic and business world (Colvin, 2001; Harrison & Freeman, 1999; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001; Waddock & Smith, 2000). The reasons for these socially responsible behaviors are not only the external obligations or regulatory compliance but also the firms desire to increase competitiveness, to improve stock market performance (Bansal & Roth, 2000; Drumwright, 1994, 1996; Klassen & Mclaughlin, 1996; Russo & Fouts, 1997; Waddock & Smith, 2000) and to create a positive self‐image among consumers. There have been numerous studies on CSR suggesting a link between social initiatives and consumer's positive product and brand evaluations, brand choice and brand recommendations (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Drumwright, 1994; Handelman & Arnold, 1999; Osterhus, 1997; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). Moreover, the consumers are continuing to become more interested in CSR and green product market is fast growing so the use of CSR initiatives by the firms to receive the support of the society and to influence consumer behavior has become quite common. However, these socially responsible steps must also have an effect on corporations' major objective: maximizing the profits.

This paper studies the role of personal selling and the salesforce as an information source and the impact potential information gaps in a downstream business chain can have. It offers a conceptual model of information gaps in an on‐licence wine business channel and suggests areas necessitating further research.

Copycat brands offering improved product quality pose serious challenges to original brands. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of why consumers prefer copycat brands with superior product attributes and how original brands can shift this preference back by strategically leveraging brand identity cues.

Four experimental studies test different types of brand identity cues that original brands can use to influence consumer preferences. Logistic and linear regression analyses analyze the effects.

The results systematically show the power of brand identity cues in helping original brands reduce share loss to copycat brands using superior product attributes. They also reveal the role of brand equity, conspicuous consumption and consumers’ tendency of using brands as status symbols in enhancing the effect of brand identity cues in the face of superior copycats.

This paper extends cue diagnosticity theory and the brand identity literature by showing the power of brand identity cues in predicting consumer choices of original brands.

This paper provides useful guidelines for managers of original brands on how to effectively use brand identity cues to compete against copycats.

Prior research focuses on how copycat brands’ characteristics influence consumers’ evaluations of copycats. These studies are limited, however, by their focus on cheap and low-quality copycats. The current paper examines the effects of brand identity cues and draws attention to the trade-offs consumers make when choosing between original brands and copycats offering superior product features.

This study aims to test the causality of fraud diamond factors (pressure, rationalization, opportunity and capability) and Machiavellian personality on fraud intention.

This study used a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 web-based laboratory experiment. Our subjects are accounting students from various Indonesian universities as surrogates of an accountant of a firm. We analyzed the data using the independent t-test.

This study provides empirical evidence that the four aspects of fraud diamond, namely pressure, opportunity, rationalization and capability cause fraud intention. Besides, high Machiavellian attitude also causes high fraud intention.

This study is a Web-based one that is subject to the instability of internet access. Specifically, some subjects had to redo the completion of their experimental modules because of the unstable internet connection.

The results of this study suggest organizations to pay attention to their members’ behavioral aspects that can be the symptoms of fraud and to design whistleblowing systems to prevent fraud intention as an opportunity factor within organizations.

Social implications are to develop the appropriate whistleblowing system to mitigate the fraud.

The novelty of this study lies in combining the experimental test of fraud diamond (internal and external factors) and Machiavellianism as a personality factor as the determinants of fraud intention. Further, another novelty lies in the use of the antifraud system as a proxy of opportunity that has not yet extensively investigated by previous studies.

This paper aims to examine innovativeness and extraversion as antecedents of perceived and social media opinion leadership in different country-level contexts and explore how these antecedents influence product adoption differently.

A survey method was used to collect data from Turkey and the USA. A total of 415 respondents participated in two studies, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This research shows that innovativeness affects perceived opinion leadership, whereas extraversion affects social media opinion leadership, and these effects are moderated by country-level differences.

Tthis research provides strategic information strategic information on how to identify and target influencers in social media across countries. This paper has implications for marketers who are trying to find influential consumers to increase new product adoption. Social media opinion leaders are important seeding points, because they actively initiate new product adoption for other consumers. Marketers should create strategies that are in line with the country’s cultural orientation in addition to personal/psychological traits.

This research provides valuable information to better explain the consumers’ adoption of technological products and the factors affecting this process in the context of social media. Specifically, this paper identifies strategies to use cultural differences across countries (i.e. Turkey versus the USA) and personality traits (i.e., innovativeness and extraversion) in the adoption of new products.

This paper extends prior literature on opinion leadership by uncovering consumer dynamics internationally, which are known to influence social media use. Specifically, by examining the effect of innovativeness and extraversion on opinion leadership in different countries, this research contributes to the literature on new product adoption and has implications for effectively identifying influencers in social media.

The experimental parliamentary subsidy on knights' fees and freehold incomes from lands and rents of 1431 was the only English direct lay tax of the Middle Ages which broke down. As such, this subsidy has a clear historiographical significance, yet previous scholars have tended to overlook it on the grounds that parliament's annulment act of 1432 mandated the destruction of all fiscal administrative evidence. Many county assessments from 1431–1432 do, however, survive and are examined for the first time in this article as part of a detailed assessment of the fiscal and administrative context of the knights' fees and incomes tax. This impost constituted a royal response to excess expenditures associated with Henry VI's “Coronation Expedition” of 1429–1431, the scale of which marked a decisive break from the fiscal-military strategy of the 1420s. Widespread confusion regarding whether taxpayers ought to pay the feudal or the non-feudal component of the 1431 subsidy characterized its botched administration. Industrial scale under-assessment, moreover, emerged as a serious problem. Officials' attempts to provide a measure of fiscal compensation by unlawfully double-assessing many taxpayers served to increase administrative confusion and resulted in parliament's annulment act of 1432. This had serious consequences for the crown's finances, since the regime was saddled with budgetary and debt problems which would ultimately undermine the solvency of the Lancastrian state.