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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make up the deficiency of theoretical research in nostalgic marketing and is helpful for the original theories of brand marketing and experiential marketing to deepen further. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the approach of the empirical study. Based on the literature review, a theoretical model of the impact of nostalgic emotion (NE) on brand trust and brand attachment is constructed and corresponding research hypotheses are proposed. Then nostalgia-themed restaurants are selected to complete a questionnaire survey, and SPSS22.0 and LISREL8.70 are used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Findings The results of the paper show that NE consists of four dimensions in the context of China: atmosphere nostalgia, interpersonal nostalgia, family nostalgia and personal nostalgia. Among these, NE has a significant positive impact on brand trust and brand attachment; further, brand trust has a significant positive impact on brand attachment and plays a partial mediating role in the impact of NE on the latter. Research limitations/implications As the nostalgic restaurant industry is the research object, the theoretical model described here may be limited to this specific industry. The potential applicability of the theoretical model to other service industries requires further study. Practical implications The results of the paper are helpful in building a good nostalgic experience, increasing consumer trust in restaurant brands, and strengthening the connection between NE and restaurant brand reconstruction. Social implications The results of the paper on the impact of NE on brand trust and brand attachment provide a referential basis and guide for services’ companies (e.g. restaurants) to revitalize the services’ brands. Originality/value The first contribution is that NE scale is constructed for the nostalgia-themed restaurants. The second contribution is that the paper reveals the mechanism of the impact of NE on brand trust and brand attachment.

is an associate professor of marketing at the College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston. His research interests include customer value, complaint behavior and relationship management, country image, cross-cultural consumer behavior, organizational learning and knowledge management. After his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Masters degree in Econometrics from Dalian University of Technology, China, he got his PhD in Marketing from the University of Oregon. Wei Zhangis an associate professor of management information systems in the College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston. His research interests include knowledge management, computer-mediated communications and online communities. He earned his Bachelor ' s degree from the University of Science and Technology of China, his Masters from Renmin University of China, and his doctorate in Management Information Systems from Boston University.ABSTRACT Increasingly online retailers are allowing their customers to leave online feedback on the products or services they offer. There have been limited efforts in understanding the mechanism through which such online feedback affect consumers ' purchase decisions. In this article, we report an empirical study on the informational infl uence of online customer feedback (OCF), that is, how consumers decide to integrate the information content of the feedback into their purchase decisions. We argue that the perceived usefulness of OCF plays a central role in this process, as the effects of prior experience with OCF, consumer trust toward OCF, and perceived importance of OCF work through perceived usefulness. Hypotheses derived from our research model were supported with survey data, and results suggest new ways to improve the design of OCF systems.

In this article, we examine the four processes of dialectical thinking: interconnection, development and change, transformation of quantitative into qualitative, and unity and struggle of opposites. We argue that the decisions of some consumers reflect dialectical thinking, at least some of the time.