Assoc Prof Guilherme Pires

Despite promising conceptual developments in value co-creation and consumer-brand engagement (CBE), the scholarly attention afforded to the importance of social media marketing (SMM) activities in strengthening consumers' intention for value co-creation and CBE is limited. SMM is conceptualised as a hierarchical construct with five dimensions: entertainment, customisation, interaction, electronic-word-of-mouth (EWOM) and trendiness. This study examines the role of SMM in building value co-creation and CBE, as well as repurchase intention and on-going search behaviour as behavioural responses. Based on primary data from a survey of 392 smartphone users in China and Hong Kong, we use partial least squares - structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses. The findings show that effective SMM strategies lead to the strengthening of value co-creation, CBE, repurchase intention and ongoing search behaviour. It is also found that there is a significant difference in the impact of CBE on repurchase intention between China and Hong Kong consumers. These findings contribute to the marketing literature by empirically validating the five elements in the SMM construct, providing intelligence on how SMM can drive value co-creation and CBE. The findings also enrich the marketing literature by showing that value co-creation acts as an antecedent of CBE, driving consumers' behavioural intention, reflected by on-going search behaviour and repurchase intention.

Grounded on service-dominant logic (S-D logic), a vital issue for marketers is to understand how the multiple approaches encouraging consumer participation (CP), as manifested by consumer-consumer interaction (CCI) and consumer-brand interaction (CBI), reflect on the extent of consumer-brand engagement (CBE). This study examines the role of CCI and CBI in driving the CBE's cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions, and their effect on consumers' behavioral intentions based on repurchase intention and ongoing search behavior. Data collected from 316 Malaysian consumers using a self-administrated online survey was analyzed using Partial Least Square ¿ Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings demonstrate the importance of the two forms of CP in strengthening the CBE dimensions, revealing that the cognitive engagement is an influential driver of consumers' ongoing search behavior, while emotional engagement and behavioral engagement are significant predictors of consumers' repurchase intention. We provide meaningful implications for marketers to manage CP on social-media platforms.

This paper extends understanding of consumer-brand love relationships by examining the effects of brand likeability and consumer gratitude, as antecedents of brand love, on brand love creation and consumer repurchase intention. This is examined for service-products characterised relative to the dominance of their intangible elements, hence accounting for their search, experience and credence qualities. Using PLS-SEM and empirical data from an online survey, results indicate that brand likeability and consumer gratitude are directly related, and both constructs are positively associated with brand love for the three types of service-products, such that consumer gratitude is a significant mediator in the relationship between brand likeability and brand love. Examining brand likeability and gratitude effects on brand love narrows the knowledge gap in the brand love literature leading to important managerial implications, allowing for the development of effective brand strategies for strengthening consumer repurchase intention.

This study examines the effectiveness of social-media brand communication and intensive-distribution strategy on the consumer-based brand equity dimensions, also accounting for the moderating effect of product involvement. The theoretical framework is tested using data collected from 210 consumers who shopped in electronic-appliance stores (high involvement) or sports-apparel stores (low involvement) in a shopping mall in Hong Kong. Data analysis used partial least squares ¿ structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that firmcreated social-media brand communication and distribution intensity are key factors influencing consumer-based brand equity, with the moderating effect of product involvement also confirmed. However, inconsistent with previous studies, there is only partial support for the impact of user-generated social-media brand communication on consumer-based brand equity dimensions for both high-and lowinvolvement products. This study enables managers and academics to better understand the combined effectiveness of social media marketing and distribution intensity, as well as the moderating effect of product-involvement level for better resource allocation.

This study presents an enhanced automated approach based on literature analysis and synthesis for establishing the dimensions of the ethnic marketing literature, covering a set of 239 journal articles published by nine major publishers. The approach reported is enhanced by two novel procedures to address previously identified limitations, namely: definition of a relevant dictionary based on both a sufficient lexicon extracted from a definition of the core theme and a conditional dictionary, with related but non-core terms; and a visually appealing pictorial representation to summarize the discovered topics. The application of the method to ethnic marketing indicates that ethnic marketing research is characterized by high conceptual heterogeneity, although a clear definition of "ethnic marketing" is imperative for research development. Overall, the paper advances an approach with considerable scalability advantages when compared with extant approaches, an important issue to consider when textual sources become big data.

Purpose: The abolishment of the wine tax in Hong Kong has led to increased wine consumption and increased demand for wine-related professionals, such as sommeliers. Yet the importance of sommeliers' value-adding performance in the context of upscale Chinese restaurants has not been examined. To address this gap, the SERVQUAL framework is adopted to examine the influence of sommeliers' service quality (SQ) on customer satisfaction (CS) and loyalty in the context of upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: The survey method is used to collect data from 302 units of the population of interest, partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the links between constructs. Findings: Four of the seven dimensions of sommeliers' service quality, namely, empathy, tangibles, credibility and assurance, have a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, whereas the impact of perceived value and responsiveness on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is positive but only marginally significant. Reliability has a weak and non-significant impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications: Examining a small number of upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong limits generalisation of the findings to other contexts. Replication of the research in different contexts will enhance generalizability. In terms of implications, the discussion highlights the importance of sommeliers' service performance on customers' SQ perceptions SQ, CS and loyalty, all of which are important variables for restaurateurs. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study of the influence of the quality of sommelier's SQ on CS and loyalty in upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Given the lack of attention to this service role in the literature, the study contributes theory from which further understanding can develop.

Service logic emphasises value co-creation, although mostly contending that the customer alone creates actual value. Value co-creation and co-production imply customer and supplier participation, but the literature mostly omits participation issues. This paper disentangles notions of production and co-production from the creation and co-creation of value propositions, and from the assumptions underlying value-in-use. The focus is on participation in exchange by customers and suppliers and their contributions at various stages of the value creation process. The paper uses service logic to develop a process model of customer and supplier participation in exchange with three phases (production, negotiation and usage), explores why suppliers allow customer participation in value proposition creation, and the motivations compelling customers to participate. Understanding how supplier and customer participation impact on value proposition creation and on value-in-use, provides an impetus for improved targeting practices, enhanced supplier ability to compete, and more focused research.

This paper examines managerial perceptions of the role of power distance as a moderator of the perceived impact of the targeting of employees with relational strategies on perceived business performance. The study examines data collected from managers in selected industries in Hong Kong, a country identified by Hofstede (1984) as characterised by high power-distance. The rationale for the application of RMO theory to businesses' internal environment, or IRMO, is discussed using the virtuous cycle conceptualisation and marketing orientation theory. Discussion of the link between IRMO adoption and business performance suggests that justification for IRMO adoption may depend on organisational structure, with particular prominence for cultural aspects associated with power-distance conditions. A view of power-distance as a moderator in the adoption of IRMO strategies is justified. It is concluded that power-distance holds a moderating effect on managerial perceptions of the impact of trust, one of six dimensions that were examined, on business performance. This finding suggests that businesses considering the adoption of IRMO may benefit from examining how success may depend on managing power distance within the firm.