Editorial

Citation

Phau, I. (2013), "Editorial", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 25 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-05-2013-0060

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Volume 25, Issue 4

This fourth issue of the APJML presents a diverse range of studies conducted around the world, and covers three broad themes: branding, consumer behaviour and retail management.

The first paper, by Basfirinci, opens this issue with a discussion on country of brand origin effects on consumer perceptions of brand personality, and if this relationship is moderated by product involvement and familiarity. The experimental study is set in Turkey, and ascertains the extent to which brand origin associations transfer to brand personality perceptions. Identifying eight countries with strong country of origin branding, the study found that brand origin associations do greatly affected the subjects’ perception of the brand’s personality; and that product involvement positively moderates the brand origin effect while product familiarity negatively moderates it. The second paper, by Anisimova, examines the effect of corporate brands on consumer satisfaction. This study employed an Australian sample, and findings showed that the corporate brand, along with corporate associations and the organisation’s core values play a significant role in predicting consumer satisfaction.

The next few papers focus on consumer behaviour, touching on concepts such as consumer variety seeking behaviour (VSB), consumer innovativeness, time orientation and ethical intentions. Leading into the theme of consumer behaviour is a paper which examines consumer repurchase loyalty using consideration set size (CSS) and VSB as the conceptual focus. This study, by Tuu and Olsen, was conducted in the context of health products in Vietnam, and seeks to determine if CSS and VSB play a moderating role in the satisfaction-loyalty relationship between customers and businesses. Analysis using structural equation modelling revealed that the CSS has a positive effect on consumer repurchase loyalty, while VSB has a negative effect. Following this, Chao, Reid and Mavondo discuss consumer innovativeness, and examines its influence on consumer electronic product adoption. This study, which surveyed consumers in Australia, China, and Taiwan found that domain specific innovativeness and not innate innovativeness influenced consumer adoption of new electronic products. Next, Kaynak, Kara, Chow and Apil present another cross-national study, this time in Macau and Georgia, and considers how time orientations affect consumer attitudes towards advertising. The findings showed that Georgians are more past oriented while those from Macau were more future oriented. It underscores the vast differences in consumers’ perceptions of time, and stresses the importance of understanding these differences in order to appropriately manage advertising campaigns. Rounding off the theme of consumer behaviour is a paper by Ferdous and Polonsky, discussing selling ethics in developing countries. This paper employs the theory of planned behaviour and seeks to ascertain salespeople’s ethical selling intentions and behaviour in Bangladesh. The findings showed that under the theory of planned behaviour, only perceived behavioural control does not directly relate to ethical sales behaviour.

This issue closes with two papers discussing retail management. Fong discusses retail bargaining in China, evaluating the various sources of retail negotiation and examining them in the Chinese market. Surveying shoppers who had recently bargained at a retail store, the findings revealed that consumers’ bargaining attempts and objectives are influenced by their perceived bargaining power and product liking. These bargaining objectives were also found to influence the outcomes such as consumer satisfaction, concessions obtained and likelihood of continued patronage. The final paper by Fu, Lai and Liang considers the performance of both manufacturer-owned and traditional retail channels and determines the impact of manufacturer-owned channels on traditional retail channels. A comparison is also made between brick-and-mortar and online retail channels.

I hope this issue has provided interesting perspectives and unique insights to stimulate future research. I thank the reviewers and EAB for their timely reviews and contribution the APJML; and the authors for submitting manuscripts of exceptional calibre.

Ian Phau