Alessandro M. Peluso

University of Salento | Unisalento · Department of Management and Economics

The study examines the effects of the dark triad traits (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) on positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intention for luxury products, and the moderating role of others' opinion divergence (i.e., whether or not a consumer's opinion deviates from that of the reference group). An experiment with 208 respondents t...

Framing of the research. Healthiness plays an increasingly important role in consumers' evaluations and purchases of food products. Indeed, a report from the International Food Information Council (2020) showed that in the last 10 years 54% of consumers choose healthy products, both in stores and online. And now, in the aftershock of the COVID-19 p...

Framing of the research. Word of mouth (WOM)-that is, any informal communication among consumers concerning goods and services-exerts a great influence on consumers' purchasing decisions (Berger, 2014). WOM communications can take different forms such as opinions (i.e., narrative descriptions of a product or service) and recommendations (narrative...

One way for local economies to foster sustainable development is to encourage the consumption of local food products. Thus, there is value in understanding which marketing strategies would be useful in this regard, especially in service settings such as restaurants. Through four experimental studies, the present research shows that centering a comm...

Internet-of-Things technologies may help luxury companies deliver their offerings in a different way. However, their actual effects on consumers remain hazy. This paper sheds light on the impact that consumers’ openness to technological innovations may have on perceived usefulness of Voice Assistants (VAs) in the context of luxury tourism. In two s...

The health crisis due to the recent pandemic influenced our lives and, consequently, our consumption. Despite prior investigations on exogenous crises and their effects on consumption, no studies to date have examined consumers' coping strategies to health crises that require social distancing and, more particularly, responses to such crises by foc...

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected tourists’ travelling intention, especially regarding foreign destinations. Amid this health emergency, many studies have explored the psychological antecedents of tourists’ intention to travel. However, none has investigated the role of belief in karma. The present research is the first to examine the...

Il presente articolo fa luce sulle opportunità di business dei Non-Fungible Token (NFT) nell'ambito del settore del lusso ed i possibili effetti sulle strategie di marketing delle marche di lusso. Date le caratteristiche in termini di immodificabilità e univocità della proprietà degli oggetti digitali basati su tecnologia NFT, questi possono contri...

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the market have become a buzzing trend. The current research proposed that consumers feel less empathy toward AI (vs. human) telesellers and thus tend to hang up on AI telesellers faster. Moreover, anthropomorphism (i.e., an individual tendency to attribute human qualities to nonhuman entities) moderates...

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of the heterosexual orientation on men's product choices in different consumption contexts. The research provides empirical evidence for a bias-here called pink bias-that leads male consumers to avoid consumption of pink-colored products because of a gender-related pre...

The use of temporary employment has increased in China, but few studies to date have analyzed the outcomes of the employment relationship type (permanent vs. temporary) from the perspective of psychological compensation. In this study, we examine the moderating effect of employees' need for status on their responses to an organization's permanent v...

Il presente lavoro investiga le opportunità di business dei Non-Fungible Token (NFT) nell'ambito del settore del lusso ed i possibili effetti sulle strategie di marketing delle marche di lusso (o luxury fashion brand). Nello specifico, date le caratteristiche in termini di immodificabilità e univocità della proprietà degli oggetti digitali basati s...

This chapter conceptualizes NFTs, describes their creation process, and illustrates their main characteristics (i.e., unicity, indivisibility, and scarcity), which differentiate them from Fungible Tokens (e.g., cryptocurrencies). It presents the technical aspects of NFTs and the main technology behind them, the so-called Blockchain, which essential...

This chapter suggests the notion that, in addition to materialism (i.e., the individuals’ tendency to appreciate material possessions more than spiritual values), status consumption orientation (i.e., the individuals’ tendency to consume products that confer them a sense of prestige) could be another determinant of consumers’ intention to purchase...

This paper investigates the roles of product intelligence, change seeking, and behavioral control in determining consumers' intention to use Artificial Intelligence-based self-driving cars. In an experimental study conducted with a sample of 343 respondents, we show that consumers might feel more in control when driving such cars, and such an incre...

Tour experiences often comprise sequences of episodes, yet little is known in tourism research on how two common situational factors might alter individuals' evaluation of such multi-episode experiences: hedonic trend (i.e., the order of such episodes) and perceived time pressure (i.e., individuals' perception of limited available time). Two studie...

Purpose This study investigates the transmission of art-related aspects (i.e. art products or services and people's experiences at museums) via word-of-mouth (WOM) from a personality perspective. Specifically, the study explores the effects of the Big Five personality traits (based on the five-factor model) and market mavenship (i.e. the propensity...

New technologies represent an important challenge for all sectors across the world, becoming a relevant opportunity for the luxury hospitality industry as well. This study empirically investigates the effects of openness to change and status consumption orientation in influencing luxury hotel guests' perceived usefulness of voice assistants when in...

This book focuses on the relevance of non-fungible token-based products in the current hyper-digitalized and hyper-connected world. Connecting the new NFTs’ technologies with academic literature on marketing, the authors high-light future research streams as well as strategies and fac-tors that marketers and managers can use to promote this new typ...

This chapter investigates the potential interactive effect of consumers’ innovativeness (i.e., their desire to be among the first to try or buy a new product) and status consumption orientation (i.e., their tendency to consume products that confer them a sense of prestige) on their intention to purchase NFT-based products. The chapter presents an e...

This chapter proposes the notion that materialism (i.e., the individuals’ tendency to appreciate material possessions more than spiritual values) could be a major determinant of consumers’ intention to purchase NFT-based digital products. Thus, it presents an empirical study that tests this notion in a virtual artworks’ setting. The obtained result...

Given the increasing relevance and popularity of NFTs in online markets, this chapter presents a review of the available marketing literature on this subject. This review adopts a systematic approach that combined proper technology-related and business-related keywords to search for relevant papers published on the topic from 2015 to 2021 and avail...

Previous research suggests that consumers would listen more to product recommendations from other consumers (human recommenders) than from systems based on artificial intelligence (AI recommenders). We hypothesize that this might depend on the type of product being recommended, and propose an underlying process driving this effect. Three experiment...

While the concept of experience has attracted considerable attention in tourism, the research on psychological flow, as a mental state that tourists may derive from extraordinary experiences, has remained limited, especially in the field of tourism marketing. Yet, this concept might have an important role in promoting sustainable forms of tourism....

Purpose This study aims to integrate and extend existing approaches from self-identity literature by examining the underexplored aspects of online private self-disclosure. The study first explores the experiential value co-created when consumers voluntarily self-disclose on public platforms. Second, it sheds light on what motivates such consumers t...

Background The marketing literature suggests that consumers prefer simple messages; however, text clarity—i.e., the extent to which a message is communicated in plain and unambiguous language—has rarely been investigated in the context of health claims. Scope and approach Focusing on extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), this commentary investigates how...

Purpose This study examines the effect of both objective knowledge (i.e., what arts audience members actually know about art) and subjective knowledge (i.e., what arts audiences members think they know about art) on their propensity for experience-sharing (i.e., the tendency to share art-related experiences with other individuals). In addition, the...

The present research investigates whether the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has modified consumers' spending on environmentally sustainable products by focusing on the role of age. An empirical study conducted in Italy during the first wave of the pandemic finds that consumers' age affected their reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak, a...

The use of temporary employment has increased in China, but few studies to date have analyzed the outcomes of the employment relationship type (permanent vs. temporary) from the perspective of psychological compensation. In this study, we examine the moderating effect of employees’ need for status on their responses to an organization’s permanent v...

Purpose The aim of the study is to explore the chain of relationships between service attributes, consumers' perceived benefits, fulfilment of personal goals, satisfaction judgements and future intentions. Design/methodology/approach This research proposes and implements a model of consumer satisfaction in the performing arts. The model is based o...

This research examines how individuals’ vacation preferences may vary due to their reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it investigates the influence of age on the individuals’ negative affect felt during the lockdown period of the first contagion wave and their level of uncertainty subsequently perceived. A study conducted in Italy sho...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is changing consumers’ behavior (McKinsey, 2020). However, no studies have explored how such changes might have changed due to lockdown. The present qualitative research explores how consumers’ consumption orientation may evolve during a pandemic as a consequence of the COVID-19 shutdown. Through a series of semi-...

Based on the perspective of dual-system information processing, this article explores how word-of-mouth (WOM) referral affects the purchase intentions of consumers with different types of self-construal. Two experimental studies, using WeChat as a research setting, tested the interactive influence of type of WOM referral (economic vs. public welfar...

Tourism industry is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the global spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, due to the novelty of the phenomenon, there is a shortage of studies exploring the effects of the pandemic on tourists’ reactions and, to date, no study has examined how certain individual differences might impact vacation...

Technology represents a relevant challenge for today’s luxury brands. However, although new technologies like smart objects might be useful to improve luxury consumption experiences, their effectiveness from a consumer perspective is still unexplored. In particular, no studies have to date investigated the role of status consumption into the accept...

Purpose This research investigates the effectiveness of the four health claims that the European Union (EU) authorized for extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) in terms of perceived text clarity, text interestingness, message credibility and information diagnosticity, along with the claims' effect on product attractiveness and consumers' purchase intentio...

This research investigates electronic entrepreneur-related word of mouth (EEWOM), that is, the social dissemination of information about entrepreneurs via the Internet. Two experimental studies shed light on the interplay between the valence (negative vs. positive) of EEWOM, its language style (concrete vs. abstract), and the consumer–brand relatio...

Psychological flow refers to a positive experiential state, based on enjoyment, concentration, and low self-awareness, which occurs during active task performance, when the performer is totally connected to the performance, in a situation where personal skills equal required challenges (Csikszentmihalyi 1990; Jackson and Marsh 1996; Ullén et al. 20...

Museums and art galleries may benefit from creating an image of environmentally responsible organizations using green marketing messages. However, the effectiveness of these messages often depends on how they are framed, an aspect that may impact message recipients’ perception of and intentions toward such organizations. The present research addres...

Although extra-virgin olive oil is a primary component of the Mediterranean diet, there is a limited understanding about whether consumers might purchase this product out of its health properties. Furthermore, prior literature on the impact of health claims (i.e., statements about a food product’s positive effects on consumers’ health) on consumer...

Luxury goods are typically marketed by global brands and are associated to excellence, exclusivity and premium pricing. However, consumers may buy and consume luxury goods because of internal and self-related motivations—e.g., individual style and quality—or of external and others-related motivations—e.g., status signaling and prestige. This resear...

Luxury goods are typically marketed by global brands and are associated to excellence, exclusivity and premium pricing. However, consumers may buy and consume luxury goods because of internal and self-related motivations—e.g., individual style and quality—or of external and others-related motivations—e.g., status signaling and prestige. This resear...

This research examines how touching (versus not touching) tactile-functional products—namely those that provide a tactile feedback related to their utilitarian characteristics—affects these products’ expected ease, as well as consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward them. Three experimental studies investigated these effects by focusing on consum...

Understanding how message framing and companies' trustworthiness determine the effectiveness of green marketing communications Framing green marketing messages on the possible benefits (versus drawbacks) deriving from the implementation (or not) of a given behavior may significantly influence the effectiveness of this form of communication. Existin...

Despite society’s increasing sensitivity toward green production, companies often struggle to find effective communication strategies that induce consumers to buy green products or engage in other environmentally friendly behaviors. To add clarity to this situation, we investigated the effectiveness of negative versus positive message framing in pr...

Although extra-virgin olive oil is a basic component of the Mediterranean diet and features recognized health benefits, scholars have scarcely investigated whether consumers are willing to respond more for olive oil due its health properties. Furthermore, prior studies have found mixed and contradictory findings when assessing the effects of health...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight opportunities for the banking sector arising from the population’s aging and the expected reduction in pension incomes. Home equity conversion (HEC) instruments are a potentially useful way of restoring households’ finances and satisfying their needs, with implications for the demand for financial s...

Controversial sports sponsorships—namely those in which the sponsoring company is involved in ethically questionable activities—is a relevant area of research. Currently, there is a limited understanding about how controversial sports sponsorships affect sponsored teams and their perceived impact on local communities (e.g., the home city experienci...

Both the consumer's corporate social responsibility association and enterprise production capacity association are beneficial to business sustainable development. Based on Chinese traditional culture and from the perspective of Stereotype Content Model, this paper explores the relationship between two types of entrepreneur-related Word-of-mouth (WO...

Slow tourism"represents an emerging and sustainable form of tourism. This research aims to deepen current understanding of experiential dimensions of camping, considered as a form of "slow tourism" (Blichfeldt and Mikkelsen, 2015; Moira et al. 2017), and investigate their effects on visitors' intentions. The research adopted the framework provided...

How do social cues in the immediate environment affect older consumers' tendency to feel younger? And what is the impact of this tendency on consumption? This research investigates the malleability of older consumers' feel-age and the underlying mechanisms by focusing on the influence of contextual social cues and the downstream effects on consumpt...

Objectives The aim of this research is to identify the best marketing strategies to communicate the health value of the olive oil product. Specifically, the research investigates the effects of different label health claims authorised by the EU Register on Nutrition and Health Claims on consumers' attitudinal (i.e. attitude toward the product) and...

Social media have become an indispensable tool for promoting events and tourist destinations, but some tourism organizations are still unable to exploit their full potential. The present research addresses this issue and proposes a methodological framework that could help managers increase users’ online engagement with tourist events and destinatio...

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the literature on place marketing by focusing on the concept of strategic needs, i.e. the set of strategic priorities that a place could achieve in a medium- to long-term horizon to improve its development. Design/methodology/approach The research examines the strategic needs of four local territorial sys...

Purpose This study adds to the research on disgust by proposing a theoretical framework encompassing contamination-based, moral, and structural disgust dimensions. The study empirically assesses the impact of these three dimensions on consumers’ purchase intentions for different product categories. Design/methodology/approach The study investiga...

This research investigated how the use of a prominent versus subtle branding strategy and status consumption affect consumers' intention to buy luxury products across emerging and mature markets. To this end, an experimental study with consumers in India (emerging market) and the United States (mature market) was conducted. The results suggest that...

Purpose Monetary and non-monetary rewards have rarely been considered together under the HRM perspective. Despite the vast literature on HRM, there is still a lack of studies that explicitly discuss the link between the adoption of a total reward system (TRS) and employee-related outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this important...

Purpose This research advances current knowledge about art infusion, which is the ability of art to favorably influence the assessment of consumer products. In particular, the research investigates the effectiveness of artworks that evoke their creators’ most recognizable style in luxury advertising. Design/methodology/approach The research enco...

Consumers often give advice by recommending products and services to one another. The present research explores the idea that advice giving sometimes reflects a self-serving desire to compensate for a loss of control. Four experiments provide convergent evidence for a phenomenon we term compensatory word of mouth, whereby consumers' communications...

Luxury brands are increasingly interested in developing digital marketing strategies that are able to attract new customers and improve brand perceptions. At the same time, however, the online context has become untrusted by luxury brands, due to the potential risk of losing control over brand image because of intense interaction with customers thr...

People undertake various brand-related activities on social media that differ in levels of engagement. Companies, however, want to know how to motivate consumers to become involved in the relatively more engaging activities, as such activities are more likely to lead to increased sales. In this article, we focus on activities that are highly engagi...

Implementing Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) in residential buildings is one of the most effective ways of decreasing household energy consumption. The present research adopts an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior – which includes attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and environmental concern – to investigate...

The present research is aimed at establishing how farmers can be encouraged to adopt irrigation water saving measures. By developing and implementing an extended version of the well-known Theory of Planned Behavior, we considered farmers' propensity to adopt innovations and their water footprints. In a sample of 150 Italian farmers, we found that f...

When engaging in word-of-mouth (WOM) communications, consumers generally share either opinions, whereby they merely communicate whether they like or dislike a product (e.g., “I like the product I just bought”), or advice, whereby they offer explicit recommendations as to how others should behave (e.g., “buy or do not buy this product”). Past resear...

Consumers often advise other consumers by providing them with explicit recommendations on how to behave with regard to a wide range of purchasing decisions. Although previous literature (e.g., Goldsmith and Fitch 1997; Liu and Gal 2011) typically construes advice giving as a behavior driven by an empathic concern for others, in this research we pro...

Sustainable consumption—i.e., the use of products that minimize the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as emissions of waste and pollutants so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations (Oslo Roundtable 1994)—has emerged in marketing scholarship as a pressing matter. Indeed, sustainability is a key determinant of future...

Background music is widely used in advertising to attract audiences’ attention. Yet, no research to date has considered the effect of background music endings on consumer memory for advertised products and messages. Across two experiments, the present research shows that background music that ends abruptly (so-called truncated ending) distracts con...

This study aimed at identifying the factors that likely favor or hinder the development of cruise tourism in an emerging Southern Italian tourist destination. We conducted semistructured interviews with key players in this business, showing that the following are relevant enablers of cruise tourism development: the accessibility of tourist resource...

Purpose – This paper aims to assess the extent to which the perceived images and personalities of places mirror their prevalent production orientations, or “vocations”. It also investigates the factors that shape the expectations and desires of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets, as well as these users’ overall place experience. D...

The present research proposes an Italian version of the BFI-10 scale by Rammstedt and John (2007), which was originally developed in both English and German. The results on convergent and concurrent validity confirmed the scale as an effective means for assessing personality dimensions in a limited amount of time. This paper also presents and discu...

Background music is widely used in advertising to attract audiences’ attention. However, no research to date has considered the effect of background music endings on consumer memory for advertised products and messages. Across two experiments, the present research shows that background music that ends abruptly (i.e., truncated ending) distracts con...

In this research, we conceptualized brand anthropomorphism as a property of branded products in regards to the extent to which these objects are perceived as if they were actual human beings. Then, we developed a scale of brand anthropomorphism that captures the multidimensional nature of the construct. The proposed scale is composed of three dimen...

This chapter reports the results of a survey articulated into two complementary studies, performed in four districts located in Italy. These studies assess the opportunity to design destination branding strategies on the basis of customers’ perceptions, providing a framework to quantitatively determine the identity of a local district and its perce...