Promoting the inheritance of the traditional skills of time-honored brands, and realizing the development goal of "the inheritance is not a mere imitation of the ancient styles, and the innovation is not leaving behind the tradition” , is not only to promote brand building, but also an important measure to promote Chinese traditional culture. Brand authenticity management provides theoretical support for the time-honored brands to realize the inheritance and innovation of "originality". Based on the case study of Suzhou Daoxiangcun, this paper constructs a theoretical model for the inheritance and innovation of time-honored brands based on brand authenticity management. The research results show that：(1) the original authenticity management of the brand has realized the inheritance of the time-honored brands and ensured the "originality" of the time-honored brands；(2) the constructive authenticity management of the brand has promoted the brand innovation based on the "originality" of time-honored brands and realized the sustained growth of brands；(3) based on the satisfaction of customers' functional needs, experience needs and emotional needs, it has promoted the inheritance and innovation of the time-honored brand's products, marketing and culture respectively. Multi-level customer demand is an important driving factor for the authenticity management of time-honored brands.

With the development of social media, influencers and virtual influencers have become one of the most important channels for customers to learn about brands and products, and have a profound impact on consumers' brand attitudes, purchase intentions, etc. However, how to choose the right influencers, especially influencers with suitable facial features, has become the primary challenge for marketing practitioners. However, we have limited understanding of the impact of influencers' faces, especially virtual influencers' faces on customers' decisions to follow influencers. Therefore, we applied the hierarchical linear multinomial logit model to quantitatively analyze the relationship between influencers' facial features and customers' decisions to follow influencers, and study whether the effects of facial features of real and virtual influenceis are different. The results show that ： (1) models based on facial features can accurately explain and predict consumers' preferences for influencers' faces; (2) when faces of virtual influencers are indistinguishable from faces of real ones, there aren't any systematic differences between the effects of facial features on the consumers' preferences. Theoretically, the paper fills the research gap on the relationship between facial features and consumers' following behaviors in influencer marketing, especially in virtual influencer marketing ； practically, our findings can help guide influencer marketing practices, especially the selection and design of faces of influencers.

In the present paper, we seek to explore the effect of negative reviews ( humorous vs. non - humorous) on consumers' attitudes toward e-retailers and the mechanism and boundary conditions behind the effect. Results of three laboratory experiments showed that compared with non-humorous negative reviews, humorous negative reviews significantly enhanced consumers' attitudes toward e-retailers. In the relationship between humorous negative reviews and consumers’ attitudes toward e-retailers, consumers' affective responses played the mediating role. In the relationship between non-humorous negative reviews and consumers’ attitudes toward e-retailers, consumers’ cognitive responses played the mediating role. Results of Study 1 showed that the response speed significantly moderated the effect of negative reviews on consumers' attitudes. Results of Study 2 showed that the moderating effect of whether e-retailers explained the cause of the problem (yes vs. no) in the relationship between negative reviews and consumers’ attitudes toward e-retailers was significant. Results of Study 3 showed that compensation money significantly moderated the effect of negative reviews on consumers' attitudes.

Gift promotion is one of the common ways for merchants to improve sales performances. Based on the Agentic-Communal Model of sense of power, this research investigates the impact mechanism and boundary conditions of the effects of consumers' sense of power on consumers' preferences for gift promotion. The research finds that consumers' sense of power affects consumers' preferences for the types of gift promotion, and consumers with high ( vs. low) sense of power prefer alternative (vs. complementary) gifts (Experiment 1) ； thinking style (holistic vs. analytic) mediates this effect (Experiment 2)； whether or not there is a choice for gift plays a moderating role. Under the condition that gifts can be chosen, consumers with high and low sense of power both prefer alternative gifts ( Experiment 3 ) . The research conclusions not only enrich and expand the literature in the field of sense of power and promotion, but also have important reference value for enterprises to design gift promotion strategies in a targeted manner.

With the popularity of short videos, “short video e-commerce” are adopted by more and more companies. Short videos are very helpful in e-commerce context because they carry more information than texts and pictures do. However, what kind of short videos can more effectively promote product sales in e-commerce context? This paper draw samples o£ short videos on the "Mogujie" platform and extracts features that may affect the marketing effects of short videos, such as visual perception, auditory perception and video content. Then we construct multiple linear regression model, classification and regression tree model and random forest model to study the relationship between short video features and their marketing effects, which are measured by the sales of the products introduced in the short video. The research results show that although the visual, auditory and content features of short videos are all related to the marketing effects, the content features have the strongest effects on the sales performance.

Thanks to the online knowledge platform, users have got a new way to exchange knowledge. Value co-creation based on interaction has profoundly changed the mode of value creation on the platform. Embedding of community plays a pivotal role in promoting multi-party interaction and activating users’ willingness to co-create value. This paper uses the Value Go- creation Theory and Activity Theory, integrates 9 influencing factors from 3 levels of platform, community and user, and this paper constructs the influencing factors model of user value co-creation intention. This paper uses fsQCA to analyze the set relation of 574 questionnaire data. The findings of the research can be categorized into the following. Firstly, there are 14 configuration paths that activate user value co-creation, which are divided into 8 configurations in the second-order and clustering into 3 types: Community and User Dual Dominated-Platfbrm Driven Type, Community Dominated-Platform Reliant User Driven Type, Users Dominated-Platfonn Driven Type. Secondly, Self-efficacy in the user dimension, Opinion Leaders and Community Atmosphere in the community dimension are the most important factors to activate users' willingness to co-create value, the factors in the platform dimension are the promoting forces of user participation in value co-creation. Thirdly, under certain conditions, the factors of platform, community and user have substitute and complementary relationships. The conclusions of this research provide a practical inspiration for online knowledge platform to find a breakthrough to activate users' intentions of value co-creation and realize value co-creation.

In the Mobile Internet Era, advertising scenes are becoming more dynamic and fragmented. The spatial characteristics of consumers will affect the effect of different news feed advertising expression types on mobile media. However, the current literature lacks sufficient research on how spatial characteristics affect the effect of news feed advertising. Taking“ social crowding" , the most common spatial feature experienced by Chinese consumers, as the object, this paper explores the matching effect between social crowding and news feed advertising types through two field experiments and two laboratory experiments based on the Dual-Process Theory. The results show that people in socially crowded environments will prefer ads which have emotional appeals and horizontal attributes; in a less crowded environment, the advertising effect of rational appeals and vertical attributes is better.

Consumers generally experience financial constraints. This study explored the effect of perceived financial constraints on consumers, brand extension evaluations through three experiments. Experiment 1 initially examined the positive effect of perceived financial constraints on fit perception and consumers’ evaluations of distant brand extensions by measuring perceived financial constraints. Experiment 2A revealed the sequential mediating roles of the need for order and holistic thinking through measuring mediators. Experiment 2B replicated the mediating role of holistic thinking by manipulating the mediator. Experiment 3 found that this effect would be attenuated for sub-brand (vs. direct brand) architecture. This study provided important theoretical and managerial insights into perceived financial constraints and distant brand extensions.

With the popularity of intelligent products, more and more consumers can have personalized and diversified product experiences. Focusing on the anthropomorphism of intelligent products, this paper discusses the influences of different modes of intelligent voice communication on consumers' brand attachment. Based on the communication modes obtained from qualitative interviews, two experiments are designed and show that partner communication mode can stimulate consumers' brand attachment more significantly than servant communication mode can, and the para-social interaction between consumers and intelligent products explains its internal mechanism. In addition, brand personality plays a moderating role. According to the above conclusions, the research provides relevant management suggestions.

Government support has been recognized as a main impetus behind the internationalization of emerging multinational enterprises ( hereafter EMNEs) , but conceptual views are inconclusive regarding government support's impacts on EMNEs， post-entry operations. This research explores whether and when home country government support enables EMNEs to obtain foreign partners’ trust in the host markets. To test hypotheses, this research constructed a dataset that comprises of primary survey data collected from senior Chinese managers working for Chinese multinational companies' overseas subsidiaries and archival data. The findings indicate that home country government support is conducive for EMNEs to obtaining their foreign partners' trust. The positive impact becomes stronger when EMNEs operate in host countries that have more advanced regulatory institutions. However, in host countries that have tight diplomatic relationship and intensive cultural communication with the home countries, the impact of home country government support becomes weaker. This research extends the research on the internationalization of EMNEs and uncovers how diplomatic relationship and cultural communication at the macro-level affect interorganizational relationship management at the micro-level.

With the rapid development of digital technology, virtual influencers have become an important carriers of corporate marketing practices. However, existing research lacks exploration of the growth process of virtual influencers. This study proposes the concept of virtual influencers personal brand through an interpretative research of a core datasets of six virtual influencers under a leading industry company's Weibo accounts. From the perspective of corporate-led marketing practices, a process model for the personal branding of virtual influencers is established in this research. The model highlights the role of e-motional practices, centered around character positioning and self-narration, in establishing the personal brand of virtual influencers. It also elucidates the narrative mechanisms that integrate the human aspect and the technological aspect of virtual influencers ,and the role of identity recognition and intuitive image-building in shaping their influence. Based on this, the study points out the directions that corporates need to focus on the practice of branding virtual influencers.

Service robot is considered to be an important way to reduce costs, improve efficiency and promote service innovation. But how to use service robot to improve customer satisfaction, is a core concern of service enterprises. Drawing upon customer value hierarchy theory, this study constructs an impact model of service robots perceived intelligence and perceived cuteness on customer satisfaction, including the boundary condition of consumption motivation and the underlying mechanism of interactive experience. An exploratory study of 2,201 network texts of customers and two empirical studies of 622 adult respondents showed that perceived intelligence and perceived cuteness of service robot positively affect customer satisfaction and downstream behavior (patronage intention and willingness to share). Consumption motivation has a moderating effect on the influence of perceived intelligence and perceived cuteness of service robot. For utilitarian motivation, perceived intelligence has a greater impact on customer satisfaction than hedonic motivation. While for hedonic motivation, perceived cuteness has a greater impact on customer satisfaction than utilitarian motivation. And such moderating effect is mediating by customer engagement. This study not only makes theoretical contribution on clarifying the different effects of perceived intelligence and perceived cuteness of service robots on customer satisfaction, but also provides an important reference for service enterprises to introduce and apply service robots in practice.

Carbon neutrality has profound implications for sustainable development in China and the world, and pro-environmental behavior of consumers can be an important contribution to achieving carbon neutrality. Based on this, our study explores how information intervention strategies can be taken to guide residents to use environmentally friendly products for waste separation. Four experiments of the research lead to the following conclusions: (a) the negative message framing (vs. positive message framing) has a better effect on the purchase intention of eco-friendly products, and the dual mediating path of perceived value and pro-environmental personal norms (PPNs) explains this effect； ( b) environmental concerns together with perceived value or PPNs play a chain mediating role in the influence of message content on purchase intentions; ( c) individuals’ mindset towards message ( construal level) moderates the mediating role of environmental concerns, such that environmental message (vs. self-message) has better persuasive effect on consumers who has a mind-set at the low level of abstraction. The research explains the differential impacts of message interventions on the purchase intentions of environmentally friendly products through multiple pathways, as well as the matching with individuals. Our findings extend the theory of message intervention and provide effective recommendations for companies to develop marketing strategies for environmentally friendly products.

Based on priming effect, this research examined the influence of whimsically cute products as environmental cues on consumers' tendency to behave unethically. Four experiments found that consumers who were presented with whimsically cute products were more likely to act unethically in subsequent situations. This effect was mediated by capricious association. When the association is made explicit or cut off, the effect weakens or even disappears. This research contributes to the literatures on cuteness perception and consumers' unethical behavior and has important practical value for marketers.

Chinese marketing academic community is working diligently in developing marketing and branding theories with Chinese characteristics. In this paper, I first explained how my research thinking changed from the American “ Black and White" thinking to the Chinese "Yin and Yang” thinking, next presented a Yin Yang branding concept, which I proposed with inspiration by Dao De Jing, a classic of Chinese philosophy, probably as a foundation concept of the Chinese branding thought, finally I shareed my thought on how we could provide the world with unique theories applicable to the world in the future.

Considering the differences of firms' digital capabilities, this paper studies how behavior-based pricing ( BBP ) affects pricing decisions, profits and strategy choices of both firms. We use Hotelling model to construct a two-period pricing model in a competitive market. By comparing prices and profits of both firms, the study reaches the following conclusions: (1) the equilibrium of the second period is jointly affected by the market share in the first period and digital capabilities gap, which leads to three possible equilibriums. Meanwhile, in the equilibrium of the second period, the price for current customers may be lower than that for new customers; (2) when the market share gap in the first period is large, BBP increases the profits of both firms in the second period. However, the profit of firm that shares a larger market in the first period is lower than the firm's competitor in the second period； (3) a pure strategy equilibrium exists, when the digital capability gap is large enough or small enough. Further, when the digital capability gap is large enough, the advantage firm can get new customers, which help it get rid of the prisoner's dilemma brought by BBP and achieve profit growth.

Considering the differences of firms' digital capabilities, this paper studies how behavior-based pricing ( BBP ) affects pricing decisions, profits and strategy choices of both firms. We use Hotelling model to construct a two-period pricing model in a competitive market. By comparing prices and profits of both firms, the study reaches the following conclusions: (1) the equilibrium of the second period is jointly affected by the market share in the first period and digital capabilities gap, which leads to three possible equilibriums. Meanwhile, in the equilibrium of the second period, the price for current customers may be lower than that for new customers; (2) when the market share gap in the first period is large, BBP increases the profits of both firms in the second period. However, the profit of firm that shares a larger market in the first period is lower than the firm's competitor in the second period； (3) a pure strategy equilibrium exists, when the digital capability gap is large enough or small enough. Further, when the digital capability gap is large enough, the advantage firm can get new customers, which help it get rid of the prisoner's dilemma brought by BBP and achieve profit growth.