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There has been a dramatic rise in the use of online food delivery apps (FDAs) services since the COVID-19 pandemic. Though online FDAs have contributed significantly to the rise in demand for products from the gourmet industry, little is known regarding the factors that inspire customers to order from online FDAs, subsequently influencing customers’ satisfaction. Considering the knowledge gap, this study utilizes the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model to conceptualize the factors: stimuli (eWOM, online reviews and online deals as external stimuli, and late-night craving and convenience as internal stimuli) that determine the organism level (i.e. customers’ inspiration) to subsequently generate the response (i.e. customers’ satisfaction).

We collected the data from 388 users and analyzed it via partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results reveal that online reviews, deals, late-night food cravings and convenience positively determine customers’ inspiration and satisfaction. In contrast, eWOM fails to impact customers’ inspiration directly and indirectly, affecting customers’ satisfaction through inspiration. Besides, customers’ inspiration positively mediates the relationship between stimuli (e.g. online reviews, online deals, late-night cravings and convenience) and customers’ satisfaction.

This study is novel in that it explores the impact of internal (late-night craving and convenience) and external (eWOM, online reviews and online deals) stimuli on customer inspiration and subsequently predicts customer satisfaction. We also expand prior studies on food delivery apps by studying customer inspiration as a mediating mechanism between internal and external stimuli and customer satisfaction.

This research examines the underlying psychological process of customers' impulsive buying on social media through the lens of customer inspiration. Drawing on the customer inspiration theory, it identifies the factors influencing customer inspiration on social media from three perspectives: source characteristics, platform characteristics and personal characteristics, which subsequently lead to impulsive buying. Since the conceptualization of source credibility includes three mostly reported components: attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness, it further contrasts the effects of three dimensions of source credibility on customer inspiration.

A structural equation model of customers' impulsive buying on social media was developed through the lens of customer inspiration. An online survey with 625 participants was conducted to test the hypotheses, and the partial least squares (PLS3) method was used.

This research found that source credibility, social presence and customer innovativeness are antecedents of customer inspiration on social media, which positively influence the inspired-by state of the customers, which impacts the inspired-to state and further leads to impulsive buying. By comparing the three dimensions of source credibility, the authors found that attractiveness and expertise positively affect the inspired-by state, while trustworthiness has no significant effect.

This research establishes the link between impulsive buying and customer inspiration, which provides a new psychological perspective to understand impulsive buying. In addition, it investigates the source characteristics of customer inspiration by comparing the effect of three dimensions of source credibility on customer inspiration, which provides the first evidence for connecting customer inspiration and source credibility.

Social media has emerged as a new marketing channel and an important source for customer inspiration. Understanding the sources and consequences of customer inspiration via social media is important for both researchers and marketers. However, little has been done to empirically examine customer inspiration in the social media context. Specifically, the process through which customers become inspired and motivated by social media to purchase the advertised products remains elusive. Therefore, this study extends the conceptualisation of customer inspiration into the social media context, and explores the antecedents of customer inspiration from three perspectives: informational, social and personal. This study also examines the impact of customer inspiration on customers' behavioral intention.

Survey methodology was used and data from 679 respondents were collected in China. To examine the hypothesized relationships, partial least squares (PLS) was used to analyse the data and Smart PLS 3.0 was used for data analysis.

The study findings demonstrated that the vividness of ads, social influence and promotion focus had positive impacts on the “inspired-by state”, and subsequently the “inspired-to state”, which in turn positively influenced customers' purchasing intentions. However, media richness has a negative impact on the “inspired-by state”.

This study provides the first evidence of customer inspiration via social media and examines its antecedents and consequences. Practically, this study offers useful guidelines and suggestions for firms on how to inspire customers using social media.

This study aims to propose and empirically validate a framework of antecedents and consequences of customer inspiration.

This study consisted of a survey administered to consumers who are current users of Samsung or Apple electronic devices. The survey targeted only users who had some level of university studies to homogenize the sample’s characteristics. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results support the two-step nature of customer inspiration, with “inspired by” (activation) as the first step followed by “inspired to” (intention). In addition, the results highlighted the role of brand experience and openness to experience as antecedents to customer inspiration, while customer satisfaction, brand engagement in self-concept, brand affect, word of mouth and repurchase intention were validated as its consequences.

This study aids understanding of the role of customer inspiration as a conceptual and empirical construct in consumer behavior by including brand experience as an inspiration stimulus, as well as other constructs that relate to inspiration. This study also describes possible strategic implications when using brands of electronic devices as sources of inspiration.

Although previous research emphasized the importance of inspiration in influencing consumer behavior, there is no categorical response to how social-media inspirational content inspires consumers across cultures. This paper aims to take on this agenda through a vignette experimental study.

This paper devised a vignette study involving subjects (n = 370) recruited from Nigeria and South Africa. The structural equation modeling procedure, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis aided the examination of the scale psychometrics and hypotheses testing.

Among other findings, this study shows that: inspirational content (utilitarian vs hedonic) exerts a positive differential effect on customer inspiration (CI) such that the effect of hedonic content is more pronounced than utilitarian content; collectivistic consumers are inspired more than individualists; CI triggers customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) and purchase intention, and an inspired-to component of CI mediates the effect of inspired-by on CEBs and purchase intention.

While this study makes significant contributions to knowledge on CI, the focus on firm-generated content limits the scope of this study. Future research should examine the effect of consumer-generated content on CI. Additionally, the likely contextual influence of product type on CI and its triggers in the context of the foote, cone and belding grid creates the room to further interrogate the research model under conditions of high/low involvement products.

By showing how social-media inspirational content and cultural orientation separately influence and interact to influence CI which consequently triggers CEBs and purchase intention, the findings highlight the psychological mechanisms through which CEBs and purchase intention can be simultaneously triggered.

This study investigates two important research questions. First, does YouTube advertising create value for customers to activate their inspired-by state (motivation), or does customer engagement in advertised brands have a mediating role? Second, does the inspired-by state influence customers’ inspired-to state (action) to purchase the advertised brand?

This study employs Ducoffe’s advertising value model to investigate how customers’ engagement mediates perceived advertising value and their inspired-by state. The authors split customer inspiration into two primary states: inspired-by (i.e. the early interest in taking action) and inspired-to (i.e. the intention to act), demonstrating that the latter is positively influenced by the former. The study employs SmartPLS V3.2.9 to analyze survey data from 360 respondents in Pakistan – an emerging market.

This study found that informativeness, entertainment, creativity and incentives exerted a significant positive impact on perceived advertising value. The perceived advertising value of YouTube ads fails to influence customers’ inspired-by state directly; however, customer engagement positively mediates the relationship between the perceived advertising value of YouTube and customers’ inspired-by state. Finally, the customers’ inspired-by state is successfully converted into an inspired-to state.

This study has numerous practical implications for advertisers and marketers seeking to optimize social media advertising and marketing performance.

YouTube ads shape consumer behavior, empowering informed choices; authentic engagement transforms the advertising landscape.

This study is the first to examine the perceived advertising value of YouTube ads for eliciting customers’ inspired-by state, assessing the mediating role of customer engagement as a mechanism. Moreover, the authors examine the role of customers’ inspired-by state as a predictor of the inspired-to state.

This study aims to investigate the role of middle-class consumers’ need for uniqueness (CNFU), consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII), inspiration and behavioral intentions toward masstige products. Specifically, this study examines the differential effects of CNFU dimensions, the underlying mechanism of consumer inspiration and the moderating role of CSII in the purchase intentions toward masstige products.

Two studies were carried out to test the proposed relationships. Study 1 examines the differential effect of CNFU dimensions and the mediating role of consumer inspiration for data collected from Tier 1 cities in India. Study 2 replicated Study 1 findings for the jewelry masstige products and tested the moderating role of CSII for data collected from Tier 2 cities. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The study findings confirm the differential effects of CNFU dimensions on inspiration and its mediating role in masstige products’ purchase intentions. Furthermore, the study found that CSII moderates the effect of CNFU dimensions on inspiration toward masstige (jewelry) purchase intentions. Status does not determine masstige purchase intention.

The present study was carried out in the emerging market of India. Future studies should replicate the study findings in other emerging markets.

The study findings have important implications for marketers of masstige brands in developing effective marketing strategies in the emerging markets.

The study is among the few studies to investigate the differential role of CNFU dimensions and inspiration for masstige brands in an emerging market context.

Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this study aims to investigate the effect of social media marketing (SMM) activities on consumers’ purchase intention (PI), as well as to test the mediation effect of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) and consumer inspiration (INS) between the relationship of SMM and PI. Further, this study has also proposed and validated SMM as a reflective–formative higher-order construct (R-F-HOC) with its five first-order dimensions: customization, entertainment, interaction, trendiness and word of mouth (WoM).

Using a non-probability purposive sampling method, a structured questionnaire survey using Google forms was used to collect data from a sample of 236 UAE consumers. Subsequently, the data was analyzed with a hybrid method that combined partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis.

The findings suggest that SMM has a direct effect on CBBE, INS and PI. Both proposed mediation effects are statistically significant, and there is a partial complementary mediation effect of CBBE and INS between SMM and PI. This study validated the operationalization of SMM as R-F-HOC. Further, the results of the ANN analysis validate the results of the PLS-SEM, suggesting that SMM is the strongest predictor of PI followed by CBBE and INS.

In terms of theoretical significance, this study has advanced our understanding of the process by which the influence of SMM is transferred to PI via CBBE and INS. This study has also made a significant contribution by validating SMM as a R-F-HOC. In terms of practical implications, this study suggests that SMM should be best assessed as a R-F-HOC construct with five dimensions: customization, entertainment, interaction, trendiness and WoM. This study has also demonstrated the importance of CBBE and INS in transmitting the effect of SMM on PI to marketers.

This study contributes to the digital advertising literature by filling a knowledge gap about the mediation effect of CBBE and INS between SMM and PI via the SOR framework. SMM’s multidimensionality as a R-F-HOC has also been established.

This paper aims to identify the social motivational factors that can enhance brand-related content across social networking platforms (SNPs). It examines how brands can enhance motivation to create and exchange brand stories for existing and target customers.

The study followed an interpretivist approach and collected data from 40 customers of 5 top apparel brands based in the UK using non-directive and semi-structured interviews. The respondents were chosen using purposive sampling and thematic analysis was undertaken using the NVivo 11 Plus software.

The findings highlight various social motivational factors that can inspire the creation, sharing and exchange of brand-related content using SNPs. These include social responsibility, staying connected, inspiration from others, opinion leaders and recognition, optimal decision-making, inspiring or disheartening experience of the brand and emotional connection with the brand. People’s purchase decisions are strongly influenced by close friends, local online community groups, opinion leaders and other credible sources. Moreover, the respondents reported having more trust in shared consumer experiences than company advertisements and other marketing tactics.

The findings of this research will be beneficial for organizations, brand managers and marketing teams, offering insights into how stakeholders can enhance brand-related content on SNPs. The findings also show that online local communities on Facebook and expert opinions are the most significant factors in enhancing brand-related content, social engagement and purchase decisions.

There is limited literature on why people are motivated to create and exchange brand-related content, especially in the context of the apparel industry. The study offers insights into how brands can create motivation for enhancing brand-related content in ways that are recognized as a cheap and highly effective way of advertising, influencing pre-purchase information, purchase decisions and social engagement on the part of SNP users.

The study aims to explore how concept stores (theoretically) differ from other experience-based retail formats, and hence, how they (practically) contribute to a diversified retail store portfolio.

Case study based on semi-structured, qualitative interviews with seven IKEA retail managers, three industry experts and 26 customers of IKEA concept stores in London and Stockholm.

The concept store represents a conceptual departure from other experiential store formats. It is neither fully experiential in the sense that it is not only about marketing communications nor is it sales or profit-focused. Its aim is to be an accessible touchpoint that reduces friction on a diversified customer journey with its value to the retail portfolio being that it attracts new and latent customers, mitigates existing inhibiting factors and drives them to other touchpoints.

Ideas about the different characteristics of new store formats and their potential to shape the customer experience are extended. New formats reflect innovation in retailing and are part of a retail portfolio which generates different customer expectations and determinants from traditional store formats which provide the customers' existing reference point.

The contributions of new formats should be evaluated in light of other existing formats in the portfolio and not isolated. This is particularly true when considering format cannibalisation and the potentially extended customer journey that arises when customers use traditional format stores and new concept format stores simultaneously.

Previous research, using sales metrics and market-based results as performance determinants, suggests negative outcomes for format diversification. Our study suggests that the contributions of the concept store format should be viewed from an overall customer journey perspective and the “performance” of different format based touchpoints are not best captured through traditional sales evaluation methods.