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Purpose: Although digital content marketing (DCM) research and industry-wide expenditure is growing very rapidly owing to the positive outcomes associated with this new pull marketing strategy, research has not completely mapped how DCM activities can be optimized in the social media brand community context. This paper seeks to understand how social media DCM activities can be optimized to achieve greater relational and monetary outcomes for different products. Design/methodology/approach: A structural equation modeling procedure was used to analyze 416 survey responses obtained from members of Facebook brand communities in South Africa. Findings: The results reveal that social media DCM consumption motives exert significant differential effects on both relational and monetary marketing outcomes in search and experience product contexts while also demonstrating the mechanism through which social media DCM consumption motives lead to contributing social media engagement behaviors. Practical implications: The study findings call for the need for firms to understand the motives that drive the consumption of DCM in social media brand communities. Specifically, marketers of search products should deploy more of hedonic contents such as images while simultaneously keeping highly textual DCM to a minimum in Facebook brand communities as this works better for experience products. Finally, more authentic SM-DCM activities that effectively address the authenticity SM-DCM consumption motive can result from the DCM activities of social media opinion leaders and genuine consumer–brand interactions in the context of Facebook brand communities. Originality/value: This paper broke new grounds in three unique directions in terms of: (1) the relative salience of SM-DCM consumption motives in enhancing WTP and different aspects of SMBE; (2) the contextual influence of product type on SM-DCM activities optimization and (3) the mechanisms that underlie the effects of SM-DCM consumption motives on contributing SMBE in the Facebook brand community context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication on social media has revolutionized how travelers search for and share information and how they interact with one another digitally. This research examines the effects of eWOM-triggered customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions on travelers' post-eWOM behaviors (i.e., repurchase and customer engagement) in a cross-cultural context. Drawing upon cognitive dissonance theory, a scenario-based experiment was conducted using a sample of 461 African tourists with recent intracontinental travel experience. Our findings suggest that a customer's repurchase intention and engagement in social media C2C interactions are significantly influenced when their eWOM is challenged by other customers. Compared with individualistic cultures, such a phenomenon is more effective in collectivistic cultures, particularly when a customer shares negative eWOM. Customers in collectivistic cultures are more likely to appreciate consensus with other customers, and they tend to expend more effort toward solving dissonance. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organic food industry has significantly gained currency due to consumers being increasingly health conscious. However, more insight is needed to decipher the impact of organic food consumption on consumer well-being. Quantitative methods using a cross-sectional design were applied to collect data from 578 organic food consumers residing in South Africa. The results revealed that organic food consumption plays a central role in providing pleasure, positive emotions, a sense of accomplishment and personal growth to consumers. Moreover, the findings indicate that consumers' health consciousness significantly influences the interplay between dimensions of well-being. These findings shed important light on the scholarly debate around the influence of sustainable consumption on well-being. The study also provides crucial insights into new strategies that actors in the organic food industry as well as policymakers will use to effectively promote sustainable consumption and a healthy lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The implementation of mandatory energy-efficiency on electronic products is one of the strategies used by governments to mitigate the environmental impact of consumption. Yet, studies on mandatory energy-efficiency labels and the pivotal role of consumers' attention to such labels remain limited. Thus, this study examines the key drivers of consumers' attention to energy-efficiency labels that must by law be affixed to all home appliances sold in South Africa. Based on the signalling theory and the attitude-to-behaviour theory, an integrated model was designed to explore these drivers. Using the data from a survey involving 440 South African home appliance users, the model was tested through the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The empirical results indicated that consumers pay attention to energy-efficiency labels when they trust the energy-efficiency credentials of products, and when they intend to purchase energy-efficient appliances. Perceived product price was established as an important marketing signal for improving consumer trust in energy-efficiency labels, while social norms and attitude were confirmed as the most important antecedents of the consumer purchase intention of energy-efficient appliances. The findings provide important insights useful for the development of policy interventions aimed at promoting the use of more environmentally friendly home appliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In tourism, globally there is a growing interest in social media marketing research. However, most previous research on social media marketing has focused on large tourism enterprises such as chain hotels, leaving out small tourism businesses such as travel agencies and tour operators. Objective: The aim of this research was to establish factors that influence attitude towards the use of social media marketing by travel agencies and tour operators in South Africa. Method: The study adopted a quantitative approach through the use of questionnaires. Data used in the analysis were collected from 150 travel agencies and tour operators by means of a structured questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis and one-way ANOVA were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that managerial support and managers' level of education are the two main internal factors which influence attitude towards the use of social media marketing. Pressure from competitors, perceived benefits and perceived ease of use were found to be the most prominent external factors which influence the use of social media marketing. The results also revealed that technical knowledge moderates the relationship between attitude towards social media marketing and the level of social media marketing usage. Conclusion: The study concludes with these recommendations: Management of travel agencies, tour operating businesses and the South African government should support the use of social media marketing by small tourism businesses through providing training and workshops on social media marketing for the employees to acquire the required skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments in information and communication technologies have transformed the way retailing is conducted today, enabling the opening of stores online. This study aims at examining customers’ post-purchase attitude towards online stores. Data was collected from 201 online customers from Gauteng, South Africa, using a structured questionnaire. The findings show that most customers had positive attitudes towards the online stores they had bought from. Store offerings, navigation aids, security features, and fulfilment reliability were found to have significant influence on customers’ attitude towards online stores, while customer community did not. The findings also show that post-purchase attitude towards an online store has significant influence on behavioural intentions to repurchase from a store. With online retailing being a new phenomenon in Africa in general, not much research has been done to help understand customers’ perceptions and attitudes as well as factors that influence these. This study addresses the gap and shows factors that managers can focus on in order to influence positively their customers’ attitude towards their stores. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Use of online communities for knowledge generation has become a common phenomenon. In order for online communities to serve as affective spaces for knowledge generation and exchange, members need to behave in ways that are in line with good citizenship. However, because of the limited research, not much is known about citizenship behaviour in such communities and the factors that foster such conduct. Objectives: This article aims to examine the performance of citizenship behaviours by members of online customer communities, and the factors that influence this. Methodology: Data were collected from 303 contributing members of online customer communities using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data collected. Results: The findings show moderate levels of engagement in citizenship behaviours among the respondents. Engagement in citizenship behaviours was in general found to be influenced more by the level of affective commitment towards the community than by the perceived levels of social support. Both affective commitment and perceived social support were found to have less influence on compliant citizenship behaviour when compared with altruism and personal initiative. Affective commitment was found to influence personal initiative most strongly, while social support had its strongest influence on altruism. Conclusion: The results provide insights for managers of online customer communities into factors to which they should give attention in order to enhance the performance of citizenship behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of web interactivity and brand experience on the perceived brand value of guest houses, and ultimately, affective commitment toward guest houses. A questionnaire was used to collect data from guest house customers, yielding a total of 300 responses suitable for analysis. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that web interactive elements of social interactivity, active control and synchronicity positively influence brand awareness, however, both social interactivity and active control influence brand image. Results also confirmed that brand awareness influences brand image. Brand experience and brand image also had an influence on perceived brand value, with the latter influencing affective commitment. Guesthouses owners are recommended to have websites that allow two-way communication. Websites should also have embedded features such as effective navigation tools which allow for active control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to establish the impact of customer service failure attributions on customer commitment and the influence of service failure severity on recovery satisfaction. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and the hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The study revealed that service failure severity and attribution dimensions of stability and controllability influence recovery satisfaction. No relationship was established between locus of causality and recovery satisfaction. It was revealed that recovery satisfaction influences customer commitment and knowledge of alternatives moderates the relationship between the two. Service providers are recommedend to avoid preventable service failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of perceived justice on customer satisfaction with service recovery and on the future behavioral intentions of customers in the airline industry. The study uses an exploratory research design that is quantitative in nature. Questionnaires were used to collect data, and structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing. The study revealed that the three dimensions of perceived justice, namely interactional, distributive and procedural justice, influence satisfaction with service recovery in the South African airline industry. However, only interactional and distributive justice had a positive influence on future behavioral intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]