Purpose This paper aims to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to brand crisis and examine an empirical model to explain consumer’s internal process in the context of negative information about a brand, analyzing the relationships between the brand association types, brand-customer relationship strength and consumers’ responses depending on the types of brand crises. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an integrative approach based on qualitative and quantitative methods: a focus-group interview and an experiment. Findings The results indicated that consumers’ responses were more favorable in the corporate ability (CA) crisis than in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) crisis. In addition, consumers with high brand-customer relationship strength and brand associations for CA (CSR) showed more favorable responses to a brand crisis related to CA (CSR) than to that related to CSR (CA). Practical implications Managerially, firms should improve their marketing activity to reinforce particular brand association type that strongly related customers mainly have. In addition, firms should carefully find the best timing and channel that strongly related customers usually access, to present corporate corresponding statements in brand crisis and information of their corporate crisis-coping process. Originality/value Theoretically, this study will contribute to the literature on brand crises by providing critical insights into the mechanism underlying consumers’ responses to brand crises.

Consumers' perceptions of visual merchandising can arouse consumers' in-store merchandise exploration, such as interacting with products, differentiate a retail brand among competitors; contribute to brand preference; and encourage purchase intentions. However, the combination of topics, visual merchandising and cognition, remains relatively unexplored. Thus, Study I develops measures of visual merchandising cognition and Study II examines the impact of visual merchandising cognition on brand preference, with a focus on fashion brands. This research used mixed methods and an experimental design to empirically test the influence of visual merchandising cognition on fashion brand preferences. Confirmatory factor analysis finds three dimensions of visual merchandising cognition: in-fashion, attractiveness, and function. A structural equation model confirms a conceptual framework for the influence of visual merchandising cognition on brand preferences. In-fashion and attractiveness have a significantly positive effect on brand aesthetic attributes. Function has a significantly positive effect on brand utilitarian attributes. Favorable attitudes toward visual merchandising directly transfer to favorable brand attitudes that are positively associated with purchase intentions.

Purpose Despite the importance of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in e-commerce transactions on the global market, there is still limited understanding about the effect of eWOM sequence and its psychological mechanism in cross-cultural settings. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the differences in brand attitude changes according to the eWOM sequence, as well as cross-culturally, based on thinking styles. Furthermore, the authors examine the moderated mediation effect of perceived cognition congruency across cultures to explain its underlying mechanism. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a 2 (eWOM sequence: positive/negative, negative/positive) × 2(culture: East (South Korea), West (USA)) factorial design. Perceived cognition congruency is measured as a within-group variable. Findings First, brand attitude changes in the West (USA) for the negative/positive presentation order are significantly larger than for the positive/negative presentation order, while, in the East (South Korea), no significant differences exist. Second, in the Westerner group (analytical thinking style), the perceived cognition congruency shows a significant difference according to the eWOM sequence, whereas in the Easterner group (holistic thinking style), the perceived cognition congruency does not show a significant difference according to the eWOM sequence. Practical implications As such, a strategic interpretation of the mixed eWOM presentation order across cultures is needed. In the West, interest and attention are necessary for the eWOM sequence. However, in the East, a different strategic approach, except for the presentation order of mixed eWOM, is required. The other elements of the mixed eWOM, such as attribute type or intensity of negative information, need to be considered for mixed eWOM management. Originality/value This study expands the existing body of knowledge on the sequence effect of mixed eWOM. Furthermore, it provides strategic direction and practical implications for mixed eWOM-driven information management, focusing on sequence in cross-cultural settings.

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This study tries to empirically compare the effects of scarcity message type on impulse buying in online advertising between Korean and Chinese consumers. In addition, it attempts to highlight the moderating roles of message framing and need for cognitive closure (NCC). This study found Chinese consumers' impulse buying (compared to Korean consumers') is more likely to be impacted by limited-time messages than limited-quantity messages. It also found a significant three-way interaction effect of scarcity messages, message framing and country on impulse buying. However, the three-way interaction effect of scarcity messages, NCC and country is not significant with regard to impulse buying. It would be useful to investigate in detail how various marketing factors support impulse buying and which ones exert the strongest influence within different degrees of context and collective cultures.