Yan Li

Purpose: The objective of this study was to examine how perceived augmentation influences pleasure and consumers' adoption intention. Design/methodology/approach: The research conducted one empirical study. Four hundred and seventeen students at a major Chinese University participated in our study. Findings: The results showed that perceived augmentation influenced three types of pleasure and adoption intention significantly. In the relationship between perceived augmentation and adoption intention, the mediating roles of cognitive pleasure and affective pleasure were significant. Compared with sensory pleasure and affective pleasure, the effect of cognitive pleasure on adoption intention was strong and the mediating effect of cognitive pleasure was strong. Situation moderated the effect of perceived augmentation on pleasure. Originality/value: This study enriches the research of augmented reality technology, especially the research on augmented reality-based virtual makeup. This article supplements the literature on pleasure and extends mechanisms behind the effect of perceived augmentation on intentions. Our work also confirms the explanation power of cognitive appraisal theory.

Employing virtual streamers in e‐commerce live streaming has become a popular marketing strategy. However, the effect of different streamer partner types (human–human vs. human–virtual vs. virtual–virtual) on consumers' approach intention remains unclear. Based on the Howard–Sheth model, this research conducts four scenario‐based experiments with 515, 508, 581, and 501 participants, respectively. Results show that compared with both human–human and virtual–virtual streamer partners, human–virtual streamer partners lead to the highest approach intention. Studies 1, 2a, and 2b, conducted across diverse contexts, consistently demonstrate that human–virtual streamer type significantly influences consumers' approach intention and reveal the underlying mechanisms of perceived interactivity and perceived manipulative intent. Study 3 introduces consumers' familiarity with live‐stream shopping as a moderating factor, demonstrating that human–virtual streamer type is more effective for consumers with lower familiarity, thereby enhancing their approach intention. These findings provide valuable insights for e‐retailers in selecting appropriate streamer partners to enhance the effectiveness of live streaming marketing.

Purpose: Metaverse is regarded as a virtual reality world driven by various scientific and technological advancements. The metaverse is bringing profound changes to enterprise marketing. This study aims to explore consumers’ value expectations and risk perceptions of the metaverse and provide strategic marketing insights for enterprises seeking to engage in metaverse-based marketing. Design/methodology/approach: This study collected qualitative data through in-depth interviews and online reviews of consumers. Based on perceived value theory and perceived risk theory, this study employed grounded theory analysis to develop a value-risk model that systematically reveals consumers’ value expectations and risk perceptions related to the metaverse. Findings: The analyses revealed six key dimensions of consumers’ value expectations in the metaverse: experiential value, functional value, social value, self-management value, product/service value and societal value. Simultaneously, consumers perceive four major categories of risks: legal and financial risks, technical and functional risks, physical and psychological risks and social and environmental risks. Originality/value: This paper systematically explores consumers’ value expectations and risk perceptions in the metaverse from an integrated perspective and constructs a theoretical framework based on perceived value theory and perceived risk theory. It enriches the understanding of consumer behavior in the metaverse and provides marketing strategies that create user values while addressing perceived risks.

The development of digital technology enables advertising information to be pushed precisely to suitable consumers, thus achieving advertising targeting. Ad push timing can significantly impact ad click-through rates when advertisers push targeted ads based on consumers' online behavioral data. By conducting two studies, the authors found that pushing targeted ads before a consumer's purchase resulted in higher browsing intention than after purchase. This process is mediated in parallel by the perceived usefulness of ad information and anticipated regret after browsing the ad. When the purchase decision is irreversible (vs. reversible), or the repeatability of a purchase decision is low (vs. high), the impact of pushing time on consumers' advertising browsing intention will increase. In addition, the cost of decision reversal affects consumers' intention to browse ads. Consumers' intention to browse targeted ads is lower when the cost of decision reversal is high. Consumers' anticipated regret can effectively explain the aforementioned influence and moderating effects.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how subjective characteristics of social network sites (SNSs) affect consumers' positive and negative word-of-mouth (WOM) sharing.Design/methodology/approach: The data used for this study were obtained from an online survey with a sample size of 369 consumers. Structural equation modeling was performed to test hypotheses and examine the research questions.Findings: The authors found that the perceived anonymity of an SNS is negatively correlated with its perceived interpersonal closeness of friends, and the number of friends in an SNS is positively correlated with its perceived interpersonal closeness of friends. With regard to positive WOM, the perceived anonymity of the SNS has a significant negative influence on consumers' WOM, and both perceived interpersonal closeness and the number of friends have a significant positive influence on consumers' WOM. But, in the case of negative WOM, only perceived interpersonal closeness of friends has a significant positive influence on consumers' WOM.Practical implications: When attempting to promote positive WOM, marketers should choose consumers who possess the “right” subjective characteristics of SNSs (i.e. low anonymity, high interpersonal closeness of friends and a large number of friends). At the same time, marketers should monitor the emergence of consumers' negative WOM, especially those consumers who have a high level of interpersonal closeness of friends in SNSs, and respond to the content of negative WOM without delay.Originality/value: This study investigates the influence that subjective characteristics of SNSs have on consumers' WOM sharing and therefore contributes to the literature on the antecedents of WOM generation and also contributes to the research that compares positive WOM with its negative counterpart.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to examine the effect of human model facial presentation (a smiling facial expression vs a neutral facial expression vs no facial presentation) on consumers' approach behavior and to determine the mechanism and boundary conditions behind such effects.Design/methodology/approach: The research consisted of four laboratory experiments.Findings: The results of four studies showed that a smiling facial expression led to the highest score for approach behavior. Pleasure and arousal mediated the effect of facial presentation on approach behavior. In the relationship between facial presentation and approach behavior, the moderating effects of emotional receptivity and the situation were significant. To be specific, for participants with high emotional receptivity, smiling facial expressions led to the highest approach behavior; for participants with low emotional receptivity, neutral expressions led to the highest approach behavior. In a browsing situation, the approach behavior of participants in response to a smiling facial expression was the highest. However, no significant differences were found in approach behavior under the three conditions regarding a purchasing situation.Originality/value: This study supplements the literature on human model presentation and enriches the study of facial expressions.

Using survey, we discuss how climate and environmental issues awareness affects residents’ low carbon use behaviour. The results are following. Firstly, climate and environmental issues awareness positively affects residents’ low carbon use. Secondly, perceived effectiveness has mediate effect on the relationship between climate and environmental issues awareness and low carbon use behaviour partly. Thirdly, perceived value has negative moderate effect on the relationship between climate and environmental issues awareness and low carbon use conduct. The results of this study show that when residents feel higher perceived value about their low carbon consumption, they will engage in low carbon use even with lower climate and environmental issues awareness. It tells us that we should treat the residents differently with classification when advocate low carbon use. Specifically, there are some product and service in which consumers can gain high perceived value if the residents frugally use them with high efficiency. And we need to make effort to the following things: we improve the perceived value with hard working, and on the other hand, we make enough effort to enable the residents to deeply experience the perceived value via multiple means.