Diana Gregory-Smith

Purpose: Technology-mediated gift-giving is prevailing as consumers seek convenience and novelty. Using an industry example, this study aims to explore how a subscription-based online gift-giving service contributes to the recipient’s well-being, both from sender and recipient perspectives. Design/methodology/approach: Online survey data were collected, with participants randomly assigned to sender (n = 257) or recipient (n = 257) scenarios, testing the underlying process and impact of surprise on the emotional value of the gift and two valenced emotions – happiness and disappointment. The authors also investigated how surprise, happiness, disappointment and emotional value influence recipient’s well-being, from the sender’s and the recipient’s perspectives. Findings: Sender’s surprise positively impacts perceived recipient well-being via the perceived emotional value of the gift and the sender’s happiness with the chosen gift. Conversely, recipient perceptions of well-being are impacted by both positive and negative emotional responses to the gift. The emotional value of the gift to the recipient is impacted by social closeness with the sender, highlighting the importance of the sender-recipient relationship. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to the emotions, consumer behavior and gift-giving literature by examining the nuanced context of online surprise gift-giving and its impact on recipient well-being from dual perspectives. Practical implications: The findings highlight well-being as a key area for companies in the online surprise gift-giving domain, along with the need to understand the relationship between senders and recipients and the option for personalization. Originality/value: The authors extend theoretical and practical understanding by exploring technology-mediated gift-giving and well-being from both the sender and recipient perspectives.

This paper examines consumers’ objective knowledge of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for brands over different product categories, and investigates whether objective knowledge influences attitudes to CSR, and the relationships between demographics and objective knowledge. The research uses an innovative approach to examining consumer CSR knowledge via (largely) unprompted recall. The analysis uses independent judges to score actual consumer objective knowledge of the CSR of well-known brands against the policies and actions of the brand owner. The research reveals that participants’ objective knowledge of CSR was limited or, in many cases, there was no knowledge. Further, the number and type of CSR policies did not influence overall evaluations of CSR. However, where objective knowledge was held, it did positively influence evaluations. The findings of the research direct managerial attention towards improvement of the communication of CSR, including using the research methodology here to evaluate the success of current communications.

This research focuses on the communication of typical–local foods and their consumption as a main motivation for travel experiences and driver of food tourism attractiveness. Past studies have provided an inconsistent understanding of this phenomenon and its underlying psychological processes. Others have called for research on more integrated and effective marketing communications about typical–local foods to increase destination attractiveness, help consumer decision‐making processes and reduce information asymmetry in the food tourism market. Through the application of an integrated framework under the umbrella of signaling theory, we focus on various signals (e.g., “food security,” “trusting relationships,” “emotional value”) associated with three key features of typical–local foods: sustainability, geographical indications and healthiness. We use a combination of neuroscience techniques, including the implicit priming test, eye‐tracking and electroencephalography, to investigate which signals are best at communicating typical–local foods' distinctiveness. We find that consumers/tourists perceive healthiness as typical–local foods' most engaging and attractive product feature, followed by geographical indications then sustainability. Specific signals impact people's visual attention and cognitive engagement differently, with social and emotional attributes being most appealing. Therefore, food tourism managers should focus on these attributes in their communication campaigns to increase food tourism attractiveness and enhance travel experience.

Although micro‐level research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has started to grow, little is known about the antecedents of employee conserving behaviors .(e.g., recycling, repurposing or reusing materials, and saving energy). Conserving behaviors can be explained by the individual‐level psychographic variables captured by the values‐beliefs‐norms (VBN) framework. Given the mixed empirical findings of previous VBN applications in organizations, this paper examines the full VBN model within a workplace context and extends the model by analyzing the effects of VBN variables on employee conserving behaviors. A quantitative survey with a sample of 714 UK office‐based employees across a range of industries is utilized and data are analyzed using a Smart PLS approach. We find direct and indirect effects among the VBN variables: in particular, personal norms strongly affect all conserving behaviors studied, highlighting the relevance of norming interventions in organizations. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided.

Spillover occurs when one environmentally sustainable behavior leads to another, often initiated by a behavior change intervention. A number of studies have investigated positive and negative spillover effects, but empirical evidence is mixed, showing evidence for both positive and negative spillover effects, and lack of spillover altogether. Environmental identity has been identified as an influential factor for spillover effects. Building on identity process theory the current framework proposes that positive, negative, and a lack of spillover are determined by perceived threat of initial behavior and identity process mechanisms evaluating the behavior. It is proposed, that an environmental behavior change intervention may threaten one's existing identities, leading to either (a) integration, (b) compartmentalization, or (c) conflict between one's environmental identity and non-environmental identities. Initial evidence for the proposed framework is based on a field intervention which included a meat reduction programme in a canteen of a medium size private sector company. Semi-structured interviews and an explorative visualization method that aimed at assessing identity change were implemented with thirteen employees (i.e., intervention participants) before and after the intervention. The qualitative data was analyzed by using thematic analysis via NVivo12. Results of the visualization task and interview method provided initial evidence of direct and indirect positive contextual spillover effects, with comparatively less evidence a lack of spillover and a relative absence of reported negative spillover. This paper provides a novel theoretical approach, centered on identity process theory to enhance understanding of positive spillover, negative spillover, and the lack of spillover.

Sponsorship in pro-environmental social marketing campaigns has received limited academic attention within a higher education (HEI) context. This study examines how multi-level variables, i.e. individual (general environmental attitudes), organisational (scepticism toward the HEI’s environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; perceived HEI behaviour) and campaign-related (attitudes toward the advertisement; attitudes toward the corporate sponsor) factors, influence university students’ environmental intentions in response to a corporate-sponsored environmental initiative; using mixed methods (231 surveys and 40 interviews). Questionnaires revealed that scepticism toward the HEI’s CSR initiatives led to less positive perceptions of the HEI’s environmental behaviour, which decreased positive attitudes toward the advertisement and environmental intentions. Interviews revealed that the corporate sponsor seemed to motivate environmental behavioural intentions due to product discounts related to the sponsorship. Thus, a corporate sponsor may have confounding effects on pro-environmental behaviour campaigns. This has implications for the use of sponsorship in environmental social marketing campaigns.