Dr Philip Rosenberger III

Purpose: Social media has transformed communication possibilities for immigrant consumers with their home country in their acculturation efforts. However, the acculturative outcomes of consumer interactions with the home country through social media are largely overlooked in previous research. This study aims to investigate the acculturative processes and outcomes resulting from interacting with the home country through social media. Design/methodology/approach: A netnographic approach is used to collect data from a social media platform that provides an interactive social context in which Iranian immigrants in Australia share their experiences of immigration with non-immigrants who are considering and planning to migrate to Australia. Findings: Findings show how both immigrants and non-immigrant users via social media reflexively contribute to the formation of two competing collective narratives, namely, the dominant, romanticizing narrative and counter, pragmatic narratives. Findings highlight how notions of the home and host countries, and the idea of migrating from home to host, are constructed as the result of the circulation of the dominant and counter narratives. Further findings include how these two collective narratives come into play in the formation of three acculturative outcomes, namely, self-validating, ordinary experts and wellbeing. These insights extend consumer acculturation theory through highlighting the acculturative processes and outcomes of interactions with the home country via a social media platform. This includes, for example, how interacting with the home culture can take on assimilationist properties through the construction of a romanticized representation of the hosting society (i.e. Australia) in the dominant collective narrative. Practical implications: Implications for ethnic marketing practice, policymakers and non-governmental organisations are advanced, especially regarding using social media as a channel to communicate with current and potential immigrant consumers. Notably, policymakers can use social media to engage with immigrants before and after migration to reduce the potential for cognitive dissonance in recent arrivals. Managerially, brands can advertise on Web-based forums, independent websites and social media platforms to target potential immigrants to sell relevant products immigrants needs after migrating to the host country. Social implications: Findings broaden the understanding of the potential acculturative outcomes on social media by moving away from the traditional outcomes, which are restricted to the dichotomy between the home and host cultures. Originality/value: Scholarly attention is deficient on the role of direct interaction with the home country in immigrant consumer acculturation, especially through social media, which is the focus of this study.

With the rise of interculturalism as an alternative paradigm to the dominant multicultural integration policies in immigration countries, the importance of cities, as landscapes of intercultural interactions and consumption has become more and more important. This study aims to investigate how cities and city-related consumption practices play a role in consumer acculturation, an area that is largely overlooked in previous research. A hermeneutic approach is used to analyse and interpret the data collected through semi-structured and unstructured go-along interviews with 18 Iranian immigrants who live in Dortmund, Germany. Beyond the dichotomy of the home and host countries, the findings of this study show how city-related activities and interactions can lead to the construction of a sense of belonging to the hosting society. We show how such a sense of belonging can be constructed through immigrant consumers' involvement in city-related rituals, private appropriation of public space and reterritorialisation.

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 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.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse data from the New South Wales Government's Pilot Programme of establishing Smart Work Hubs (SWHs) for enabling teleworking in two busy commuter corridors. The paper analyses the relationships between various firm, job and personal factors and the perceived value, attitudes and expected usage by users of the SWHs. Design/methodology/approach: Employing a cross-sectional survey design, the characteristics, values and attitudes of 117 SWH users were analysed using partial least squares (PLS) method of structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM-PLS approach is considered appropriate especially in prediction-based studies and to estimate an endogenous target construct. Findings: Results revealed that perceived SWH value significantly influenced attitude towards the SWH, which then had a significant influence on SWH usage intentions, with personal, job and firm factors also playing a role. Further analysis revealed four variables that significantly influenced the perception of family-value benefits (age, income, hub commute distance, work commute distance), however, there were none that significantly influenced the perception of work benefits. Research limitations/implications: The small sample size limits statistical inferences and generalisations to be drawn. Further, this paper also discusses how the low and uneven uptake of teleworking at a SWH raises several managerial and policy implications needing attention. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study analysing the expected values, attitudes and usage intentions of teleworkers in a SWH context. This study adds to the emerging body of human resource management studies on an outward-looking approach. The novel context will provide a useful base for subsequent studies.

This study seeks a deeper understanding of the forms of value that travel consumers derive from a group-travel experience to a major event. We focus on specific group-travel value dimensions of social, hedonic, monetary, functional ¿ major event, functional ¿ event-destination tourism infrastructure, epistemic, and convenience. A sample of 389 consumers is used to substantiate our framework. We also empirically examine this model with satisfaction and future group-travel intentions ¿ with satisfaction found to fully mediate the relationship between the perceived value of the group-travel experience and future group-travel intentions. This framework can serve to advance further theory development in this domain.

The complexities of environmental issues require that when developing new green products marketers have to seek-out, involve and learn from stakeholders with environmental expertise. These stakeholders have information that lies outside the organisation's main area of expertise and can assist the firm in developing less environmentally harmful products. This article examines US and Australian markets' perceptions of stake-holders' potential to influence the green new product development (NPD) process and what strategies can be used to involve stakeholders in this process. The findings suggest that marketers believe some stakeholders with "high" influencing abilities should be involved in the green NPD process, although it appears that in practice, firms use very basic methods to include these stakeholders. It also appears that there is limited formal interaction between the firm and its stakeholders and that respondents are not engaging and learning from others with green product expertise. © 1998, MCB UP Limited

© 1998, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. The complexities of environmental issues require that when developing new green products mar keters have to seek-out, involve and learn from stakeholders with environmental expertise. These stakeholders have in -formation that lies outside the organisation's main area of expertise and can assist the firm in developing less environmentally harmful products. This article ex amines US and Australian markets' per ceptions of stake -holders' potential to in fluence the green new product de vel op ment (NPD) process and what strategies can be used to involve stake hold ers in this pro cess. The findings suggest that marketers believe some stakeholders with "high" influencing abilities should be in volved in the green NPD pro cess, al though it ap pears that in practice, firms use very basic meth ods to include these stakeholders. It also ap pears that there is limited formal in ter ac tion between the firm and its stake hold ers and that respondents are not en gag ing and learning from others with green prod uct expertise.