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This paper explores how apology strategies are used to rebuild the public's trust using evidence from Chinese e-commerce live-streaming hosts' apology letters. It is found that live-streaming hosts can use two strategies to rebuild the public's trust: apology-related metalanguage labels and apology-related supportive moves. The former are routine formulas generally used to give an explicit apology, such as "sorry." The latter are strategies used to support apology-related metalanguage labels, including offering explanations, taking responsibility, making promises, showing empathy, and expressing integrity. Further quantitative analyses indicate that metalanguage labels alone cannot rebuild the public's trust. Trust can be rebuilt only by combining metalanguage labels and supportive moves. This paper contributes to the theoretical study of trustworthiness building in the public arena and can enhance trust relationships between e-commerce and the public. • E-commerce live-streaming hosts use apology letters to build trust. • The apology letters include metalanguage labels and supportive moves. • Metalanguage labels (apology) alone cannot rebuild public trust. • Trust can be built by combining apology and supportive moves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revamp of the National Student Survey (NSS) has led to the elimination of the final 'overall satisfaction' question for Higher Education Institutions in England. This paper develops an index approach that can effectively summarise student satisfaction, utilising a 'fuzzy poverty' methodology that assigns weights to dissatisfaction outcomes based on their correlation levels. We show how our dissatisfaction index enables a comprehensive sector-level analysis by combining NSS data with sector-wide data and further show the usefulness by presenting a case study. Our approach can be universally and unbiasedly applied to student surveys globally, while alleviating problems related to the removal of the overall satisfaction question in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofit and public sector organizations increasingly rely on social media platforms to strengthen their relationships with key stakeholders. Prior research, especially in the for-profit marketing field, indicates positive effects of customers’ engagement with brand-related social media content on their loyalty toward the brand. The present paper examines these effects in the experientially rich and transformative context of higher education institutions (HEI). Our conceptual model also comprises new potential antecedents relating to the specific context. The results from the structural equation modeling, based on responses from 764 students at a Swiss HEI, indicate significant yet small positive effects of students’ social media engagement (SME) on their loyalty. Positive word-of-mouth behavior and loyalty intentions are primarily influenced by identification with the university. Attitude toward the published content, perceived organizational reputation, and student integration significantly influenced SME, whereby the latter two antecedents showed only a weak effect. In conclusion, SME as a behavioral construct seems to be another expression of existing student loyalty rather than an effective tool to foster loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work described in this paper investigates the impact of cause-related marketing on brand image and loyalty from the perspective of international fast-food chains. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with the managers to assess the current use of cause-related marketing practices (CrM) in fast-food chain restaurants. From the results of the interviews and review of literature, a model was developed including four variables, these are as follows: CrM, customer loyalty, brand image, and price increase. A self-administered structured questionnaire was designed to collect data on managers perspective of CrM, impact on brand image, customer loyalty, and price increase. Seven hundred and four questionnaires were distributed. Results from the study indicate that there is a correlation between CrM and brand and that there is a positive and significant and relationship between CrM and customer loyalty, CrM was found to have more effect on attitudinal loyalty than on behavioral loyalty. In addition, results revealed that brand image and customer loyalty are correlated. Regression analysis signified that customer loyalty is affected by brand image as the relationship between them is significant and positive. The study also found that brand image acted as a partial mediator between CrM and customer loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lines between journalism and public relations (PR) have become increasingly blurred with the rise of organizational media. Within this landscape, certain publications mimic journalistic formats while concurrently serving as PR instruments to promote organizational interests. These hybrid endeavors are commonly known as "brand journalism." This paper presents the findings of a quantitative survey conducted among brand journalists in Germany, focusing on the perceptions of their roles and ethical orientations. We compare their responses to those of German journalists surveyed as part of the Worlds of Journalism research project. The data suggests that brand journalists largely align with journalists in terms of their professional roles and ethical orientations, with only a few noteworthy distinctions. One such distinction is that brand journalists tend to perceive their role less as critical observers who scrutinize political leaders and businesses. In essence, our study underscores the remarkable resemblance in role concepts between brand journalists and journalists, offering insights into the convergence of organizational media with modern journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our world is turbulent: ecological, social, political, technological, economic, and competitive business environments change constantly. Consumers have changing preferences, learn, build trust in brands, adopt new products, and are persuaded by advertising. Firms innovate and engage in and respond to competition. Exogenous events, such as changes in economic conditions and regulations, as well as human crises, also cause major shifts in markets. This special issue focuses on novel Marketing data and modern methodologies from different fields (e.g., Operations Research (OR), Statistics, Econometrics, and Computer Science), which help firms understand, utilize, and respond to market dynamics more efficiently. Here we propose a framework comprising analytical methods and data for dynamic markets that is useful for structuring research in this domain. Next, we summarize the history of the Marketing/OR interface. We highlight studies at the Marketing/OR interface from the last decade focusing specifically on dynamic markets and use our proposed framework to identify trends and gaps in the extant literature. After that, we present and summarize the papers of the current special issue and their contributions to the field against the backdrop of our framework and the trends in the literature. Finally, we conclude and discuss which future Marketing/OR research could tackle important issues in dynamic markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world struggles to cope with the pressing matters of global warming, rising temperature, and environmental degradation, the need for sustainable practices has become more urgent than ever for individuals and other establishments. Organizations across industries recognize the importance of adopting sustainable practices, not only to meet societal expectations but also to achieve long-term success. This research paper studies the influence of sustainable marketing on customer loyalty, focusing on the consumer electronics sector in India. A mixed-methods approach incorporating descriptive and causal research methods was used; with data collected from 302 participants from India's capital, Delhi and its nearby regions. Structural equation modeling was employed to establish multivariate relationships and Smart PLS 4 was used to analyze the data. The results suggest that sustainable marketing practices positively influence brand image and loyalty. Additionally, brand image acts as an intermediary between sustainable marketing and customer loyalty. These results provide valuable insights for managers aimed at fostering customer loyalty through sustainable practices, particularly in the consumer electronics sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]