The use of brand extensions has become fundamental to the business model of most luxury brands. Many traditional luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton or Chanel have expanded into traditional luxury sectors beyond their core business. Some brands such as Armani or Prada even crossed boundaries to nontraditional lifestyle segments to pursue new business opportunities. Given the high practical relevance of brand extensions for luxury brands and the importance to understand the success factors for their extendibility and potential backward effects on the parent brand, surprisingly little research has addressed these issues for luxury brands in comparison to nonluxury brands. The current research reveals extension‐related differences between luxury and nonluxury brands by simultaneously analyzing key dimensions of parent brand value, fit, and extension category involvement on the consumer's attitude toward the brand extension, which in turn influences the postextension image of the parent brand. Results of a structural equation model based on a survey among 492 participants show that the predominant driver of brand extension success for both luxury and nonluxury brands is overall extension fit, followed by the consumer's involvement in the extension category. The influence of functional value of the parent brand on the extension evaluation is more important for nonluxury brands. The hedonic value of the parent brand is found to be of relevance only in case of luxury brands. Moreover, a reciprocal spillover effect between the extension evaluation and the parent brand evaluation is observed. The degree of luxuriousness of the parent brand moderates this relationship. This effect is weaker for luxury brands.

It has become commonplace for consumers to judge companies against social responsibility criteria. Along with such judgments, many consumers are also taking up action, often using the Internet to virally spread their views. Such consumer‐led campaigns can put at risk years of investments in branding. For firms understanding what drives consumers to engage in boycotts is key to minimizing exposure to such viral risk. To date, the academic literature has offered disparate and disconnected findings with respect to boycott participation. In this research paper, we review relevant literature, confirm its appropriateness using a series of in‐depth interviews, and use our findings to identify key antecedents to consumer participation in boycotts. We then test our proposed model through an empirical study, thus revealing key drivers of consumers' intention to participate in such boycotts. Our results offer insight into factors that companies can manage so as to prevent consumers from participating in boycotts. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Shopping is sometimes a source of stress, leading to avoidance coping behavior by consumers. Prior research suggests that store-induced stress makes shopping an adverse experience and thus negatively affects consumers' purchase likelihood. We propose that consumers' response to shopping stress depends on their motivational orientation. The greater the in-store stress, the more likely task-oriented consumers are to abandon the trip without making purchases. However, recreationoriented consumers will be, up to a point, less likely to end the trip. The results of four studies show that the functional relationship between shopping stress and purchase abandonment changes from monotonic and positive for task-oriented consumers to an inverted U-shape for recreation-oriented consumers. Evidence of goal changes provides a process explanation for the differing functional relationships. The results offer an alternative explanation for why people buy or not and suggest approaches to structuring the shopping environment to appeal to both types of consumers.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to examine causal attribution in interactional service experiences. The paper investigates how triggers in the environment of a customer-employee interaction influence customer behavioral response to employees' negative and positive affect. Additionally, it studies the role of sympathy and authenticity as underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Design/methodology/approach-Two scenario-based experimental designs (N1 ¼ 162; N2 ¼ 138) were used. Videotaped scenarios served as stimulus material for the manipulation of two focal variables: the employee's emotional display as either negative or positive and the availability of an emotion trigger in the interaction environment to convey the attribution dimension of cause uncontrollability. The emotion trigger's visibility was varied in the two studies. Customer response was captured by buying intentions. Findings-Customer responses are more favorable for both positive and negative interactional experiences when customers have access to information on cause uncontrollability (i.e. notice triggers in the interaction environment). Analyses reveal that these effects stem from feelings of sympathy for negative experiences and authenticity for positive experiences. Originality/value-This research supports the relevance of causal attribution research on interactional service experiences, which have high-profit impact. Moreover, the findings underline the importance of the experience of fact in service interactions and thereby provide a more nuanced view on the discussion of whether service providers should use impression management strategies to engender customer satisfaction even when this behavior is "faked."

Stress can impact various aspects of a person's well-being. While some researchers have suggested that consumption-related activities may cause stress, no research has yet explored such stress among vulnerable, younger consumers. To better understand this phenomenon, the concept of adolescents' perceived brand deprivation stress (BDS) is introduced as a state of tension perceived negatively by a young consumer when he or she does not have specific brands from a particular product category. In a series of three studies with adolescents aged 11-17 years, a reliable and valid measure of BDS is developed and a framework encompassing antecedents and consequences of it is tested. This research demonstrates that an adolescent's peer group compared to the media exerts the strongest influence on BDS which is also affected by product involvement and age. In turn, stress influences both brand purchase intentions and psychosomatic illnesses, with the latter being reduced by consumer self-confidence. The studies show that BDS is real, but seemingly problematic for only a small portion of vulnerable adolescents. The findings suggest that marketers should be cautious when targeting young consumers and that educational programs aimed at developing consumer skills and confidence in adolescents are advisable.