The Influence of Social Media and Sustainability Advocacy on the Purchase Intention of Filipino Consumers in Fast Fashion

The large consumption of fast fashion brings many negative environmental impacts. Filipino consumers love and buy fast fashion because it is relatively cheap but trendy, and there are lots of fashionable designs to choose from. Despite the shortage in water supply and disposal issues of fast fashion, people still continue to purchase. The lack of awareness of consumers on sustainable fashion consumption led the researchers to conduct a study that aims to identify factors affecting Filipino consumers' buying decisions on fast fashion using the combined theory of planned behavior, elaboration likelihood model, and hedonic motivation. A total of 407 participants were gathered through a convenience sampling approach, and the data collected were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The result shows that attitude towards fast fashion is the highest contributing factor to purchase intention. While social media positively affects purchase intention, sustainability advocacy negatively impacts the consumers' intention to buy fast fashion. The awareness of sustainability leads to consumption reduction of fast fashion garments. Surprisingly, perceived product price and quality do not show a significant influence on purchase intention. Incorporating sustainability advocacy on social media may be a great strategy to encourage the sustainable consumption of fashion garments. The findings of this study could be a great tool to influence fashion companies and government institutions to promote sustainability awareness and transition marketing strategies to the sustainable consumption of fashion.

How to reduce vaccination hesitancy? The relevance of evidence and its communicator.

Even though the immediate urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have passed, many countries did not reach the vaccination rates they initially aimed for. The stagnation in vaccine uptake during the height of the pandemic presented policy makers with a challenge that remains unresolved and is paramount for future pandemics and other crises: How to convince the (often not insubstantial) unvaccinated proportion of the population of the benefits of a vaccination? Designing more successful communication strategies, both in retrospect and looking ahead, requires a differentiated understanding of the concerns of those that remain unvaccinated. Guided by the elaboration likelihood model, this paper has two objectives: First, it explores by means of a latent class analysis how unvaccinated individuals might be characterized by their attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. Second, we investigate to what extent (i) varying types of evidence (none/anecdotal/statistical) can be employed by (ii) different types of communicators (scientists/politicians) to improve vaccination intentions across these subgroups. To address these questions, we conducted an original online survey experiment among 2145 unvaccinated respondents from Germany where a substantial population share remains unvaccinated. The results suggest three different subgroups, which differ regarding their openness towards a COVID-19 vaccination: Vaccination opponents (N = 1184), sceptics (N = 572) and those in principle receptive (N = 389) to be vaccinated. On average, neither the provision of statistical nor anecdotal evidence increased the persuasiveness of information regarding the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, scientists were, on average, more persuasive than politicians (relatively increase vaccination intentions by 0.184 standard deviations). With respect to heterogeneous treatment effects among the three subgroups, vaccination opponents seem largely unreachable, while sceptics value information by scientists, particularly if supported by anecdotal evidence (relatively increases intentions by 0.45 standard deviations). Receptives seem much more responsive to statistical evidence from politicians (relatively increases intentions by 0.38 standard deviations).

The effect of involvement on attitude formation and strength in the digital domain

The spike in e-commerce caused by COVID-19 mandates a re-evaluation of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) vis-à-vis digital marketing communications. The experiment presented here focuses on product involvement on attitude formation and strength. A sample of 185 students was exposed to mock websites of fictitious high- and low- involvement products (a laptop and a soft drink) chosen through a free-association exercise with the involvement level measured using two independent samples of 20 and 30 students respectively. Exposure to the high involvement product website elicited a greater number of product- and website-related thoughts (central route processing) than exposure to the low involvement one (peripheral route processing). Involvement was found to influence attitude formation, but it did not affect attitude strength (measured at a later time after a single exposure). The efficacy of the measurement scales and the applicability of the ELM to the digital domain are confirmed but e-commerce marketers are advised to encourage the constantly connected 21st century consumers to regularly revisit their website to strengthen the attitudes their Marcoms have formed. Further research is required to further elucidate the changes to consumers' cognitive processes that were brought about by the COVID-19 lockdown-imposed switch to e-commerce and assess their stability.

To whom do restaurants' preventive measures matter more during a pandemic? The moderating effects of need-for-cognition and relationship strength

Purpose: Does every customer respond in the same way to restaurants' preventive measures (PM)? To answer this question, the purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating role of need-for-cognition (NC) and customer-restaurant relationship strength (RS) in the impact of restaurants' PM on dine-in intentions using a trust (Study 1) and psychological discomfort (Study 2) as mediators. Design/methodology/approach: Two studies were conducted using a 2 (PM: present vs control) × 2 (RS: strong vs weak) factorial design. NC was treated as a continuous variable in the regression model. Findings: The results of two experimental studies showed that people with a high NC are more likely to show positive responses (higher trust and less discomfort) to restaurants' PM when they have strong relationships with the restaurant. In contrast, people with a low NC did not show any interaction between PM and RS for trust and discomfort. Practical implications: For restaurants targeting people with a high NC and with more returning customers than new customers, the study results suggest that safety measures should be promoted. Originality/value: The present study expands the knowledge of customers' reactions to restaurants' PM by using the theoretical foundation of the ELM. The results of this study contribute to hospitality research by demonstrating the differences in customers' thought processes according to their NC and the strength of their relationship with the restaurant. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Factors Affecting Filipino Consumer Behavior with Korean Products and Services: An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior Approach

Korean entertainment industries are dominating all over the world, including in the Philippines. These celebrated mediums included Korean movies, songs, and products, many of which are beloved by Filipinos. As such, this study aims to determine factors that affect the buying decisions of Filipinos with Korean products and services by an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) approach. A total of 306 Filipino survey participants were collected and analyzed in this study through a convenience sampling approach. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to analyze the data using SmartPLS, which determined the correlation of the latent constructs of the factors. Based on the results, attitude had the highest effect on behavioral intention, followed by K-drama influence, K-pop influence, and product quality. Interestingly, product price was found to have a low effect on behavioral intention. This study can serve as a basis for investors and business owners to align business strategies concerning consumer behavior in buying Korean products and services.

Health Communication in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis of Italian Advertisements.

In the climate of great uncertainty characterizing the COVID-19 pandemic, health communication played a significant role: several communicative strategies and channels were used to inform, educate and alert. Entropy-related risks were soon translated into the "infodemic", a wide-spread phenomenon with psychosocial and cultural roots. Therefore, new challenges for public institutions occurred: public health communication, especially expressed through advertising and audiovisual spots, was engaged to offer key support in combatting the disease, mitigating its effects and supporting health and psychological wellbeing. This work aims to investigate how the Italian public institutions addressed those challenges by employing institutional spots. We tried to answer two main research questions: (a) in line with the literature concerning persuasive communication, what were the main variables that social advertising concerning health attitudes and behaviors relied on; and (b) how the different variables were combined to propose specific communicative pathways following both the different waves/phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and the elaboration likelihood model. To answer these questions, 34 Italian spots were analyzed by means of qualitative multimodal analysis (including scopes, major narratives themes, central and peripheral cues). The results enabled us to individuate different communicative pathways, oriented by inclusivity, functionality and contamination, in line with different rounds as well as with the holistic configurations of cultural narratives, central and peripheral cues.

Smart tourism: antecedents to Indian traveller's decision

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the tourists' perception of smart tourism with the application of virtual reality and design a framework of smart tourism with elements of VR for Indian Tourism especially in the periods of the pandemic COVID-19. The ever-evolving and unprecedented COVID 19 situation had posed extreme challenges for the travel and tourism industry. In such conditions, it is becoming increasingly necessary to rely on digital technologies, ICT and smart tourism. ICT has served as a catalyst for innovations in tourism.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the impact of smart tourism and virtual reality technology on the perception of tourists towards travelling decisions during and post COVID-19 scenario. The respondents involved in the study were tourists travelling in India, the tourists come from different parts of India. A structured questionnaire has been administered to collect data from 224 travellers across India. The questionnaire consisted 22 constructs. The constructs in this section were measured using a five-point Likert scale ranging. In the first step, the first order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is carried out, by using the software IBM AMOS-20. The initial model is generated ix constructs, and outcomes are used to analyse the model's goodness of fit and construct validity. In the second step, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is carried out to do the path analysis of the proposed model. The effect of relationships amongst the theoretical constructs is also analysed using SEM.FindingsThe findings imply that the application of smart tourism along with virtual reality forms a positive perception of tourists and provides a sustainable platform for tourism organizations in Indian tourism. Virtual reality-based tourism has emerged as alternate for the tourism industry during the times of Covid, which in long run can be seen as a substitute to traditional tourism. The increasing use of blue ocean concepts, to delivery high-value experience at low cost has complimented the tourism industry. The researchers have made a modest attempt by proposing a blended model of smart tourism with virtual reality as a blue ocean strategy and which would ultimately facilitate the sustainability of the Industry by creating multi-dimensional values of experience for tourists in India.Research limitations/implicationsThe researchers have made a modest attempt by proposing a blended model of smart tourism with virtual reality as a blue ocean strategy, which would ultimately facilitate the industry's sustainability by creating multi-dimensional values of experience for tourists in India.Originality/valueThis qualitative study designs a smart tourism system with the use of the recent advances in ICT and Virtual Reality (VR), as a bridging solution and the saviour of the tourism sector in India during COVID 19. The integration of ICT into the travel experience has resulted in the social phenomena of smart tourism. This has led to a rise in use of smart tourism tools among tourism service providers.

The effect of involvement on attitude formation and strength in the digital domain

The spike in e-commerce caused by COVID-19 mandates a re-evaluation of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) vis-à-vis digital marketing communications. The experiment presented here focuses on product involvement on attitude formation and strength. A sample of 185 students was exposed to mock websites of fictitious high- and low- involvement products (a laptop and a soft drink) chosen through a free-association exercise with the involvement level measured using two independent samples of 20 and 30 students respectively. Exposure to the high involvement product website elicited a greater number of product- and website-related thoughts (central route processing) than exposure to the low involvement one (peripheral route processing). Involvement was found to influence attitude formation, but it did not affect attitude strength (measured at a later time after a single exposure). The efficacy of the measurement scales and the applicability of the ELM to the digital domain are confirmed but e-commerce marketers are advised to encourage the constantly connected 21st century consumers to regularly revisit their website to strengthen the attitudes their Marcoms have formed. Further research is required to further elucidate the changes to consumers' cognitive processes that were brought about by the COVID-19 lockdown-imposed switch to e-commerce and assess their stability. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Source Credibility and the Information Quality Matter in Public Engagement on Social Networking Sites During the COVID-19 Crisis.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people use social networking sites (SNSs) to seek social support, ease the move toward the social distance, and communicate and engage with one another. However, there is growing evidence that trustworthiness and quality of information can affect individuals' online engagement behaviors. This study proposes a theoretical model to test people's online engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic by applying the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Through a questionnaire survey of 630 SNS users, the study examines whether and how source credibility and information quality affect people's online engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The model was tested using structural equation modeling. The findings show that source credibility and information quality have a significantly positive relationship with perceived benefit, while negative and significantly associated with perceived risk. Furthermore, perceived benefit is a stronger predictor of online public engagement than the perceived risk. To improve online public engagement as a crisis response strategy, careful source selection and careful generation of online crisis information should not be overlooked.

The Association Between Dissemination and Characteristics of Pro-/Anti-COVID-19 Vaccine Messages on Twitter: Application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Background: Messages on one's stance toward vaccination on microblogging sites may affect the reader's decision on whether to receive a vaccine. Understanding the dissemination of provaccine and antivaccine messages relating to COVID-19 on social media is crucial; however, studies on this topic have remained limited. Objective: This study applies the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to explore the characteristics of vaccine stance messages that may appeal to Twitter users. First, we examined the associations between the characteristics of vaccine stance tweets and the likelihood and number of retweets. Second, we identified the relative importance of the central and peripheral routes in decision-making on sharing a message. Methods: English-language tweets from the United States that contained provaccine and antivaccine hashtags (N=150,338) were analyzed between April 26 and August 26, 2021. Logistic and generalized negative binomial regressions were conducted to predict retweet outcomes. The content-related central-route predictors were measured using the numbers of hashtags and mentions, emotional valence, emotional intensity, and concreteness. The content-unrelated peripheral-route predictors were measured using the numbers of likes and followers and whether the source was a verified user. Results: Content-related characteristics played a prominent role in shaping decisions regarding whether to retweet antivaccine messages. Particularly, positive valence (incidence rate ratio [IRR]=1.32, P=.03) and concreteness (odds ratio [OR]=1.17, P=.01) were associated with higher numbers and likelihood of retweets of antivaccine messages, respectively; emotional intensity (subjectivity) was associated with fewer retweets of antivaccine messages (OR=0.78, P=.03; IRR=0.80, P=.04). However, these factors had either no or only small effects on the sharing of provaccine tweets. Retweets of provaccine messages were primarily determined by content-unrelated characteristics, such as the numbers of likes (OR=2.55, IRR=2.24, P<.001) and followers (OR=1.31, IRR=1.28, P<.001). Conclusions: The dissemination of antivaccine messages is associated with both content-related and content-unrelated characteristics. By contrast, the dissemination of provaccine messages is primarily driven by content-unrelated characteristics. These findings signify the importance of leveraging the peripheral route to promote the dissemination of provaccine messages. Because antivaccine tweets with positive emotions, objective content, and concrete words are more likely to be disseminated, policymakers should pay attention to antivaccine messages with such characteristics.

Patient's behavior of selection physician in online health communities: Based on an Elaboration likelihood model.

Background: With the rapid development of "Internet + medicine" and the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, online health communities have become an important way for patients to seek medical treatment. However, the mistrust between physicians and patients in online health communities has long existed and continues to impact the decision-making behavior of patients. The purpose of this article is to explore the influencing factors of patient decision-making in online health communities by identifying the relationship between physicians' online information and patients' selection behavior. Methods: In this study, we selected China's Good Doctor (www.haodf.com) as the source of data, scrapped 10,446 physician data from December 2020 to June 2021 to construct a logit model of online patients' selection behavior, and used regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Results: The number of types of services, number of scientific articles, and avatar in physicians' personal information all has a positive effect on patients' selection behavior, while the title and personal introduction hurt patients' selection behavior. Online word-of-mouth positively affected patients' selection behavior and disease risk had a moderating effect. Conclusion: Focusing on physician-presented information, this article organically combines the Elaboration likelihood model with trust source theory and online word-of-mouth from the perspective of the trusted party-physician, providing new ideas for the study of factors influencing patients' selection behavior in online health communities. The findings provide useful insights for patients, physicians, and community managers about the relationship between physician information and patients' selection behavior.

Restaurant-visit intention: Do anthropomorphic cues, brand awareness and subjective social class interact?

Purpose: Given the increasing need after the outbreak of COVID-19 to encourage restaurant customers to dine in, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that anthropomorphic cues jointly with brand awareness and subjective social class have on restaurant-visit intention. Design/methodology/approach: To better comprehend the use of anthropomorphic cues, this paper involved two studies that used two types of anthropomorphic cues: (1) non-food (a spoon) and (2) food ingredients. For each study, a 2 × 2 mixed factorial design was used. Findings: Using three-way mixed ANOVAs, the results from Study 1 confirmed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a non-food object (a spoon) could induce positive effects for restaurants with lower brand awareness, especially among individuals with low subjective social class. In contrast, Study 2 showed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a food ingredient (e.g. tomato, lettuce and olive) had a weaker effect on restaurants with high brand awareness, especially among individuals with a high subjective social class. Practical implications: Marketers should use anthropomorphism strategies based on their target customers, especially if their brand is less popular. Originality/value: Using the theoretical framework from the elaboration likelihood model, this paper contributes to the anthropomorphism literature by showing how an anthropomorphized image that fits an individual’s interests could trigger a careful thinking process that leads to differential behaviors based on brand awareness. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Factors influencing fake news rebuttal acceptance during the COVID-19 pandemic and the moderating effect of cognitive ability.

Fake news is spreading rapidly on social media and poses a serious threat to the COVID-19 outbreak response. This study thus aims to reveal the factors influencing the acceptance of fake news rebuttals on Sina Weibo. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we used text mining and the econometrics method to investigate the relationships among the central route (rebuttal's information readability and argument quality), peripheral route (rebuttal's source credibility, including authority and influence), and rebuttal acceptance, as well as the moderating effect of receiver's cognitive ability on these relationships. Our findings suggest that source authority had a negative effect on rebuttal acceptance, while source influence had a positive effect. Second, both information readability and argument quality had positive effects on rebuttal acceptance. In addition, individuals with low cognitive abilities relied more on source credibility and argument quality to accept rebuttals, while individuals with high cognitive abilities relied more on information readability. This study can provide decision support for practitioners to establish more effective fake news rebuttal strategies; it is especially valuable to reduce the negative impact of fake news related to major public health emergencies and safeguard the implementation of anti-epidemic strategies.

COVID-19 pandemic: consumers' purchase intention of indoor fitness products during the partial lockdown period in Singapore

Purpose: The study aims to explore how the perception of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects argument quality of advertisement, attitude and purchase intentions of the indoor fitness products based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Moreover, the moderating effect of exercise involvement was examined. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 283 consumers in Singapore were recruited during the partial lockdown period. Data analysis was employed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The results of data analysis showed that perception of COVID-19 affected argument quality of advertisement, attitude and purchase intention of indoor fitness products. Meanwhile, argument quality resulted in a favorable attitude toward indoor fitness products, which, ultimately, led to the purchase intention. In addition, exercise involvement positively moderated the influence of argument quality on attitude. Originality/value: The findings provide implications for businesses and researchers to understand sport consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Why Do Citizens Share COVID-19 Fact-Checks Posted by Chinese Government Social Media Accounts? The Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Widespread misinformation about COVID-19 poses a significant threat to citizens long-term health and the combating of the disease. To fight the spread of misinformation, Chinese governments have used official social media accounts to participate in fact-checking activities. This study aims to investigate why citizens share fact-checks about COVID-19 and how to promote this activity. Based on the elaboration likelihood model, we explore the effects of peripheral cues (social media capital, social media strategy, media richness, and source credibility) and central cues (content theme and content importance) on the number of shares of fact-checks posted by official Chinese Government social media accounts. In total, 820 COVID-19 fact-checks from 413 Chinese Government Sina Weibo accounts were obtained and evaluated. Results show that both peripheral and central cues play important roles in the sharing of fact-checks. For peripheral cues, social media capital and media richness significantly promote the number of shares. Compared with the push strategy, both the pull strategy and networking strategy facilitate greater fact-check sharing. Fact-checks posted by Central Government social media accounts receive more shares than local government accounts. For central cues, content importance positively predicts the number of shares. In comparison to fact-checks about the latest COVID-19 news, government actions received fewer shares, while social conditions received more shares.

The Impact of Reviewers' Creditworthiness on Consumers' Purchase Intention in Edge Path: Implications for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.

Reviewers' creditworthiness is an important edge clue in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). This paper takes the online travel booked by consumers as an example and uses the questionnaire data of 417 outbound passengers from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. The paper examines the influence of reviewers' creditworthiness on consumer purchase intentions in the edge path through a mediated moderation model. Investigate the mediating role of conformity behavior can influence the reviewers' creditworthiness on purchase. Thus, it examines the moderating effect of consumer involvement. The results show that the degree of consumer involvement moderates the relationship between reviewers' creditworthiness, and the purchase intention is achieved through the mediation of conformity behavior. The higher the degree of consumer involvement, the less impact the reviewers' creditworthiness has on conformity behavior, and the weaker the positive effects of its purchase intention are found. Implications for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era are also discussed.