Yuri Seo

• PhD
• Associate Professor at University of Auckland

Purpose This paper aims to examine when and how the number of “likes” can exert significant influence on consumer evaluations of social media advertising. It sheds a novel perspective on how social media “likes”, advertising disclosures and the presence of firm-serving motives influence advertising effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach Study...

The literature on trolling has viewed trolling as discrete instances of transgression undertaken by antagonistic individuals. We identify three main issues with current theorizations: diffuse definitions of “trolling,” blurred boundaries between trolling and other online anti-social behaviors, and the context dependency of trolling. To address thes...

Luxury branding has received much attention from marketing and consumer research scholars. Yet, research into how consumers themselves shape luxury brand meanings is underdeveloped. Following the resurgence of the application of theories of social practices in consumer research, we offer a novel and comprehensive typology of luxury consumption prac...

This study draws on the psychological tenets of implicit self-theories, which differentiate between individuals with entity versus incremental orientations, to deepen our understanding about how consumers evaluate luxury-brand advertising appeals. Our findings show that entity theorist consumers are more attracted to the symbolic value appeals of l...

Countervailing discourses of cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation are fueling a tension between the ethnic consumer subject, who views the consumption of cultural difference as a valorized identity project, and the responsibilized consumer subject, who is tasked with considering the societal impacts of such consumption. Drawing on an...

Purpose This study aims to investigate how charitable advertising effectiveness in response to threat-based awe, an emotional response that typically arises in the presence of natural disasters, is likely to depend on the construal level. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies were conducted to examine the positive and negative eff...

Purpose This research draws upon construal level theory to investigate how brands can develop effective international marketing strategies using country image versus product image across international markets with different cultural distances between them. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports two preliminary studies and three experimental...

Offering customization services via online toolkits has emerged as a growing trend among luxury brands. Previous studies in this domain have largely focused on how customization influences product evaluations and purchase intentions. Our research identifies a novel effect of luxury product customization by showing that customized luxury offerings c...

With the advent of the digital experience economy, contemporary luxury brands have embraced social media as an important channel for improving brand perceptions and developing customer relationships. This is because encouraging consumers to share luxury purchases on social media offers a strategic value for luxury brands. The present research inves...

The present research investigates how charitable giving in response to threat-based awe, an emotional experience that typically accompanies disaster-relief campaigns, is likely to depend on consumers’ implicit theories. Although consumers want to behave prosocially when experiencing threat-based awe, due to the presence of threats, such behavior de...

Social media influencer (SMI) advertising is on the rise; however, extant theory regarding the determinants of SMI advertising effectiveness is undeveloped. The present research establishes when and how the type of SMI based on the number of followers influences SMI advertising effectiveness. Specifically, the findings of four experimental studies...

This research investigates the effect of mindfulness on pro-environmental hotel preference. The results of six studies demonstrate that both trait mindfulness and temporary states of mindfulness increase tourists' preferences for pro-environmental hotels. Further, we show that the effect of mindfulness on the preference for a pro-environmental hote...

Awe represents a powerful positive emotion that has received limited examination in the advertising context. The present research draws on construal-level theory to shed light on when and how awe increases persuasion. Across five experimental studies, we show that the effect of awe elicits an abstract mindset and, therefore, increases advertising p...

This research examines how warmth and competence advertising can be effectively utilized in luxury and sustainable brand advertising. Across four experimental studies, this research shows diametrically opposite “match-up” effects between advertising appeals and construal levels for luxury and sustainable brands. For a luxury brand, consumers show f...

The art infusion effect posits that exposure to visual artworks heightens the perceived luxuriousness of related brands. Across six studies conducted in different cultural settings, we establish that the art infusion effect is dependent on cultural congruence. That is, when the artwork’s country‐of‐origin (CO) is culturally congruent (vs. incongrue...

This study synthesizes research on evolutionary psychology, emotional appeals, and viral advertising in order to develop a novel perspective on how sustainable luxury brands can be effectively promoted on social media. The results of two experiments show that the emotional appeals of pride and gratitude increase consumer intentions to spread electr...

Purpose This paper aims to examine how mortality-related sadness, as compared to other emotions such as fear, anger and happiness, can leverage the effectiveness of fresh start appeals. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon the consumption-based affect regulation principle, this paper investigates how sadness associated with mortality can elici...

Purpose This paper aims to examine how consumers make choices when they are faced with a fixed set of available options, consisting of both preferred and less-preferred choices, in the domain of food consumption. Specifically, the paper offers a novel perspective to predict repeated choice decisions in food consumption, which is termed as “pattern-...

Purpose This study aims to investigate how the effectiveness of luxury advertising can be improved by matching the emotional (promotion pride vs prevention pride) and luxury value (authenticity vs exclusivity) appeals within advertising messages. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted. Studies 1A and 1B establish the influenc...

The present research establishes that taking photos has a paradoxical dual effect on travelers’ satisfaction and revisit intention. Across five empirical studies, we show that while taking photographs increases travelers’ satisfaction with an experience, it simultaneously decreases travelers’ intention to revisit the same experience. The increased...

This article aims to understand how young Korean women respond to the changing ideals of K-beauty, a form of gender imagery embodied by Korean pop celebrities, when such ideals become exported as global cultural products. The findings reveal that K-beauty is characterized by three paradoxical themes: manufactured naturalness, hyper-sexualized cuten...

Informed by the psychological theory of mindsets, we establish how “fixed” and “growth” mindsets divergently influence luxury travel behaviors. Across three experiments, we found that the relative preference for luxury travel is higher when consumers adopt a fixed rather than growth mindset (studies 1a and 1b). The effect of mindsets is also eviden...

Virtual reality (VR) offers a new medium for marketing communications, where consumers are immersed into technologically synthesized ‘real-use’ experiences of products and services. In this study, we theorize and investigate empirically how consumers derive meanings from VR experiences. Using the ZMET technique, we uncover three themes: VR as democ...

This study establishes that when social media advertisements appear with disclosures, featuring friend recommendations can result in diametrically opposite effects on advertising effectiveness in the United States and Korea. While friend recommendations reduce perceived credibility, brand attitude, and purchase intention for disclosed advertisement...

Contemporary luxury brands have fully embraced social media as a quintessential channel for improving brand perceptions and developing customer relationships. However, what consumers actually do when engaging with luxury brands online has received limited attention to date. In this study, we theorize and investigate how the practices of lurking tra...

Cultivating pro-environmental choices and behaviors is an important concern for tourism research and practice. Informed by recent developments in psychological research on embodied cognition and the moral effects of physical cleansing, we elicit novel insights about the causal relationship between the embodied experience of physical cleansing and p...

Social media has transformed the way tourism-related information is generated and distributed. While previous studies have focused largely on the benefits of social media for tourism management, there is an emerging recognition of the downside of social media through the enablement of enhanced facilities for consumer com-plaints. Informed by servic...

The international expansion of Korean popular music (K-pop) reflects the increasing dislocation of cultural globalization from Western centers, spurred by the rise of cultural, economic, and political institutions within different regions. This study adopts a translation theory perspective on how the meanings of such cultural products from the “per...

This study draws on the theory of social practices as a novel theoretical lens to understand sustainable organic food consumption. Through a situated investigation of the South Korean organic foods market, the findings uncover three consumption practices, which include investing in long-term wellbeing, expressing sustainability values, and the sign...

This research examines the role of self- and vicarious-pride in eliciting divergent mindsets and behaviors toward volunteering. We propose that the congruent matching of self-pride (vicarious-pride) emotions with promotion (prevention) focus-framed messages increases the effectiveness of promoting volunteering behaviors. The positive “match-up” eff...

Informed by recent developments in the field of evolutionary psychology, we elicit novel insights about the causal relationship between the activation of mating motives and gender-specific preferences for risk taking in tourism. In this endeavor, across four experimental studies, we illustrate that the effect of activating mating motives on the pro...

This study synthesizes previous research on psychological distance, functional theories of attitudes, and cultural contexts of communication to develop a novel perspective regarding how contemporary consumers evaluate luxury advertising on social media. Three empirical studies conducted in Korea, the U.S., and Germany reveal that the consumer perce...

This study establishes that the experience of narrative transportation has a positive influence on viral advertising. The relative strength of this relationship, however, depends on several boundary conditions associated with the paratextual features of social networking service (SNS) environments. Specifically, it is stronger if the senders and inte...

Purpose – Thepurposeofthispaperistoexploretheintentionstoshareelectronicword-of-mouth(E-WOM) messages on social media websites depending on tie strength, perceptions of temporal distance and the concreteness of promotional messages. Design/methodology/approach – A2×2×2 mixed design is used. Temporal distance (near vs distant) and message concretene...

Purpose While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer lives. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intersubjective hermeneutic framework that bridges the socially constructed as well as the individualised meani...

Purpose The paper contributes to the debate on a general theory of markets. The purpose of this paper is to develop a market practice model based on social practice theories, and explore new ways of describing market boundaries. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual analysis of contemporary marketing directions and market theorizations provides...

This paper adopts the theory of social practices as a critical lens for understanding computer game consumption as multiple ‘nexuses of doings and sayings’, which represent the elements of and are situated within the broader context of consumer culture. Specifically, we explore an emerging phenomenon of an organised and competitive approach to comp...

Computer games have become an important part of consumer culture. Moreover, they drive cultural and societal advancements that serve and benefit postmodern consumers. In this introductory article to the special issue, we discuss recent developments and outline research directions that will inform future inquiries into the marketing and consumer beh...

Purpose – In this editorial viewpoint for the special issue, the authors identify a need to deepen our understanding of the important role that Asian consumer culture plays in the global marketplace of the twenty-first century. Design/methodology/approach – This editorial article discusses the emergence of Asian consumer culture, offers an integra...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify a need to incorporate Asian perspectives in theories of food consumption and marketing. Design/methodology/approach – This editorial discusses the mutually recursive relationship between food and culture in Asian markets, offers an integrative summary of the special issue and develops several key...

Our study offers a novel approach to investigating whether and when culturally customized websites are an effective way to influence consumers in their online purchase decisions. In particular, informed by extant studies on metacognitive experiences and processing fluency, we examine the underlying mechanism whereby increased cultural congruence de...

Purpose – Cross-cultural influences are important considerations in the international marketing of luxury brands. These influences have predominantly been understood through cross-national approaches and the lens of glocalisation. The purpose of this paper is to study augments these paradigms by advancing the view of luxury brand markets as conflue...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the emergence of a global luxury brand industry and discusses previous conceptualisations of luxury brands. In this endeavour, the study illustrates the unique context of luxury consumption, to highlight several developments in extant literature, and to advocate for the advancement of the consumer-c...

This article explores the role of symbols in value cocreation in order to develop a deeper understanding of how actors communicate, interact, and reconcile perspectives as they integrate and exchange resources to create value for themselves and for others. We draw on a service ecosystems approach to value cocreation and propose a conceptual framewo...

With the increasing importance of multicultural marketplaces, characterised by dynamic and intersecting cultural flows, we draw attention towards the ways in which individual consumers may co-evolve with these markets. Specifically, we draw upon interdisciplinary studies of cultural competences and the theory of basic human values to conceptualise...

Competitive computer gaming (eSports) has emerged as an important aspect of virtual-world consumption. This paper advances the concept of eSports consumption in marketing by developing the experiential perspective of competitive gaming as an assemblage of multiple interrelated experiential performances, which traverse the virtual and real worlds. I...

Computer games are now a significant consumption activity in consumer culture. Informed by interdisciplinary studies and drawing on data from in‐depth interviews with players of the Warcraft III computer game, we explore the relationship between play and storytelling during digital play. Understanding that such play is determined by systems of game...