Suchergebnisse

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how young female fashion consumers assessed the facial attractiveness of an advertising model. The study focused on the consumers exposed to both local and foreign fashion advertising.


Design/methodology/approach
The study sample consisted of 161 young female (18-30 years old) university students from the State of Qatar. A research questionnaire was designed to assess the perceptions of young Qatari females toward the facial features of a cluster of international fashion models representing a variety of looks. Due to the cultural sensitivity of the research topic, data were collected online using SurveyMonkey. Apart from the key demographics, the research questionnaire captured the respondent's own self-assessed facial profile, an ideal facial profile, and the facial profile of the most preferred model from a set of choices. The authors analyze the similarities and differences between the three profiles collected from each respondent: self, ideal and choice.


Findings
The findings indicated that a mix of facial features (a blend of classical Arabic looks and contemporary Western looks) is preferred by most respondents. This matches the expectation of consumers exposed to local as well as international fashion advertising.


Practical implications
In developing markets (such as Qatar), preference for fashion models is shaped by a combination of local and foreign advertising influences. Hence, it is likely that hybrid models (i.e. representing a combination of Eastern and Western looks) appeal to young female consumers within these markets. Retailers of fashion clothing and accessories can use this information to select models who maximize the appeal of their brands.


Originality/value
The research sheds light on how judgments about the attractiveness of female models are made by triangulation among the self, the ideal and the selection of models available to choose from. The research provides a window into how young women make judgments of physical attractiveness based on facial features.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of key demographics (i.e. gender, age, education and income) on the rich Muslim consumers' Domains of Living (DoL). DoL were broken down into being, belonging and becoming domains. Relationship between the DoL and luxury consumption behavior (LCB) was analyzed as well. Being domain included elements that indicated who one is and how one defines the self; belonging domain linked an individual to his/her environment; and becoming domain referred to the set of social activities that an individual performed.


Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to get insights into the LCB of affluent Muslim consumers and how these insights related to key demographics and DoL. The researched population was Qatari consumers who were buying luxury products and belonged to a high-income bracket. Stratified sampling method was considered appropriate because the key objective of the study was to generalize the results across the affluent Qatari population. Stratification of the population was primarily done through the selected demographic variables. This research survey, conducted in Qatar, resulted in the collection of 213 usable questionnaires. General Linear Model Multivariate Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to establish the goodness of fit and to test the proposed hypotheses.


Findings
Results indicated that there were significant LCB differences between the genders, age groups, income levels and educational background. Furthermore, there was a significant association between the three DOLs and LCB. There were indications that for affluent Qatari Muslims, consumption of luxury products had become a socially accepted norm. Fulfillment of luxury needs did not isolate rich Muslims from their family and friends or made them unhappy about luxury consumption. This behavior could be related to high levels of affluence among Qataris that makes acquisition of luxury products easy and not effort or time intensive.


Practical implications
Islamic luxury markets need to adopt an appropriate balance of global (considering global luxury trends) and local (based on cultural, social and religious forces) marketing strategies to engage rich Muslim consumers.


Originality/value
This paper presents LCB from the perspective of affluent Muslim consumers within the context of DoL and through the lens of key demographic variables.

Purpose
This study aims to focus on how informal value transfer networks, Hawala business in particular, used social exchanges in their business dealings. More specifically, the conducted research looked into how social exchange theory was used in Hawala business relationship initiation and management.


Design/methodology/approach
Twenty-one depth interviews were conducted with Hawala Network members, and Hawala customers, in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The collected qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis and NVivo 11 software.


Findings
The study outcome indicated that Social Exchange Theory was a principal relationship driver in Hawala Networks. Especially, trust had a pivotal role in evolvement and nurturing of Hawala Network business and social exchanges. Other relationship variables, namely, reciprocity, religious affiliation, reputation and information sharing had a significant part in relationship building as well. Results supported a prominent influence of time in carefully controlled and rigorously assessed transformation of Hawala relationships. This metamorphosis converted an exchange from short-term into a long-term orientation where limited amount transactions changed into large sum transactions and restricted information exchange moved to elaborate information sharing. In addition, findings revealed that monetary and non-monetary interactions between Hawala Network members took the form of a homogeneous club, with shared social, cultural, religious and ethnic values. In particular, financially constrained and illiterate social groups preferred Hawala services due to ease of servicing in the form of minimal bureaucracy, fast transfers and low service charges. These marginalized fractions of society had limited access to formal banking which made Hawala business their main (and in most cases only) source for sending and receiving financial remittances. Hawala Networks provided an effective alternative to formal banking for disadvantaged communities.


Originality/value
This study provided unique and useful insights into the nature of social exchanges within Hawala Networks. Especially, it provided clarification on how informal networked businesses used Social Exchange Theory to by-pass the need for legal protection and formal contracts. Furthermore, the study highlighted the role Hawala business played in providing essential banking services (e.g. transfer of money and micro-lending) to educationally and economically deprived individuals.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine customer attitudes toward purchasing counterfeit luxury products (ATPCLP) in two cities in two different countries (Saudi Arabia and Malaysia) by testing the relationships between the various reasons for purchasing those products: social status insecurity, status consumption and value consciousness.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were distributed conveniently to urban customers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Altogether 658 useable questionnaires were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics, general linear model of univariate analysis of variance and structural equation modeling.FindingsQuality, price, popularity and status signaling represent the main motivating factors for their brand choices of counterfeit luxury products among the two country groups of customers. As expected, customers' social status insecurity influences their ATPCLP, but not their status consumption. However, status consumption does positively moderates the relationship of their social status insecurity and their ATPCLP. Furthermore, customers' value consciousness influences their ATPCLP and moderates the relationship between status consumption and ATPCLP. The impact of status consumption on ATPCLP depends on the importance one places on the value of the products. However, the authors found no differences in social status insecurity, status consumption and value consciousness, on their ATPCLP among the customers. Some implications and limitations of the results are discussed.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of convenience sampling and mainly college students (in Saudi Arabia) as respondents represent the main limitations of this study.Practical implicationsThe practical implication of this study is to discourage the purchasing of counterfeit luxury products in their respective country Malaysian marketers need to stress that their genuine products are of top quality while Saudi marketers need to stress that their genuine products are of well-known brands that are sourced from well-known countries of origin. Besides, Malaysian marketers need to offer genuine products that are not overly priced or ones that indicate value-for-money while Saudi marketers need to convey the message that their genuine products could help enhance or uplift their customers' social status. In this study, the authors did not find any support for differences in ATPCLP between the two rather different Muslim-majority countries. This could be due to the fact that the majority of the respondents were females in their mid-20s and that both countries have a growing number of young customer base, which makes them particularly attractive target customers for branded/luxury products and, at the same time, easy preys to luxury products counterfeiters. This implies that there are still more opportunities for academics to study the topic or related topics in the future.Originality/valueAs far as the authors know, no one has undertaken a comparative study involving two very different Islamic majority countries (more conservative mono-cultural and mono-ethnicity Saudi Arabia versus less conservative multicultural and multi-ethnicity Malaysia) before.