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AbstractWhen brands communicate with consumers via interactive medium such as smartphone apps, how do they influence consumers' self‐concepts? This study investigates the effect of branded smartphone app usage on consumer self‐perceptions of personality traits. Our approach relies on a longitudinal experimental design in which self‐perceptions of personality traits are measured at the beginning and at the end of a 4‐week period. During the study period, in the treatment condition consumers use a branded app while in the control condition they used an unbranded app. Brand engagement in the self‐concept and lay theory beliefs (incremental vs. entity) are the measured mediator and moderator, respectively. Branded smartphone app usage alone is enough to lead consumers to update their personality self‐perceptions in line with the personality of the brand. The brand's highly salient and desirable personality trait rubs‐off entity theorists' self‐perceptions by strengthening personality signaling to the self. However, the brand's low saliency and undesirable personality trait fades away from incremental theorists' self‐perceptions without serving as a personality signal to the self. The findings have direct implications for marketers attempting to use branded smartphone apps to influence self‐brand relationships. This paper extends knowledge of how branded apps influence consumers' self‐perceptions of personality. It differentiates the mechanisms through which these effects occur for consumers who have different lay beliefs (i.e., incremental vs. entity) as well as for brands' personality traits with varying levels of saliency and desirability.

PurposeConsumer racism (CR) is a highly relevant issue to societies such as Australia and one which has, up until now, been somewhat neglected by marketers. This paper aims to investigate this relatively "new" construct and its impact on product evaluation and subsequent willingness to buy cross‐ethnic products amongst Australian consumers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a quasi‐experiment method. Data were collected from an intercept sample of 212 Australian consumers via personal interviews. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics, and hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and two‐way between groups ANOVA.FindingsThe results provide evidence that higher levels of CR translate into more negative evaluations of product quality which, in turn, decrease willingness to buy products perceived as originating from the ethnic minority. Further, regardless of the importance of product outcome, CR has a consistent negative effect on product evaluation and willingness to buy amongst Australian consumers.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could be expanded into other ethnic groups and other countries, and could include other moderators such as level of interaction. CR construct can also be examined in service contexts.Originality/valueThe major contributions of the study are the validation of the CR construct and the findings about the impact of it on consumers' willingness to buy cross‐ethnic products via product evaluations in the Australian context.

Artificial intelligence service agents (AISA), such as chatbots and virtual assistants, are becoming increasingly pervasive in service. Research to date has not adequately addressed how the unique nature of AISA shape consumers' service quality expectations. A deeper understanding of AISA service quality is important for their successful deployment in the service sector. To address this gap, we reviewed marketing and information systems literatures and conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with 37 informants, inclusive of 28 AISA users and nine AISA experts. We developed a conceptual framework for how consumers use and evaluate AISA. Twelve service quality dimensions emerged from the qualitative evidence representing AISA service quality, two of which align with AISA's unique characteristics. The study extends the service quality theory to a new context and offers fresh insights for theory and practice. It culminates with a research agenda to advance research on AISA service quality.

Brand knowledge is a critical factor for employee 'living the brand'. However, literature of employee brand knowledge remains underexplored. Drawing from information processing theory and the motivation and job design perspective, this study investigates the role of brand knowledge and employee organizational tenure in the development of an internal brand and specifically its impact on employee brand citizenship behaviour. We collect data from a sample of 257 employees in branded service providers in hospitality sector in Vietnam. The results indicate the influence of brand leadership and internal branding on employee brand citizenship behaviour through brand knowledge of service employees. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relationship-mediated theory of internal marketing, and further explain the role of leaders as knowledge facilitators when building a brand ethos among employees. Further, the service tenure of the employees was found to moderate the relationships between the antecedents and brand knowledge, demonstrating that the impact of these internal brand building activities dissipates over time; highlighting the challenge organizations face in sustaining brand citizenship behaviour among employees.