Dekodiranje ključnih prethodnika, moderatora i posledica ponašanja krda radi predviđanja namera ponašanja potrošača - sistematski pregled literature

Purpose The study aims to examine the impact of cultural dependency stemming from exchange rate fluctuations (specifically the US dollar) on herding behavior in the housing market across 31 provinces of Iran from Q2 2011 to Q1 2022, using a spatial econometrics approach. After confirming the presence of spatial effects, the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Panel Model with Generalized Common Effects (SDM-DPD(GCE)) was selected from various spatial models for these provinces. Design/methodology/approach The study examines the impact of cultural dependency stemming from exchange rate fluctuations (specifically the US dollar) on herding behavior in the housing market across 31 provinces of Iran from Q2 2011 to Q1 2022, using a spatial econometrics approach. After confirming the presence of spatial effects, the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Panel Model with Generalized Common Effects (SDM-DPD(GCE)) was selected from various spatial models for these provinces. Findings The model estimation results indicate that fluctuations in the free market exchange rate of the dollar significantly and positively impact the housing market in both target and neighboring regions, fostering herding behavior characterized by cultural dependency within the specified timeframe. Additionally, the study found that variables such as the inflation rate, population density index and the logarithm of stock market trading volume have significant and positive impacts on the housing market. Conversely, the variable representing the logarithm of the distance from the provincial capital, Tehran, significantly and negatively impacts the housing market across Iranian provinces. Originality/value Given that housing is a fundamental need for households, the dramatic price increases in this sector (for instance, a more than 42-fold increase from 2011–2021) have significantly impacted the welfare of Iranian families. Currently, considering the average housing price in Tehran is around 50 million Tomans, and the average income of worker and employee groups is 8 million Tomans (as of 2021), the time required to purchase a 100-square-meter house, even with a 30% savings rate and stable housing prices, is approximately 180 years. Moreover, the share of housing and rent expenses in household budgets now constitutes about 70%. The speculative behavior in this market is so acute that, despite 25 million of Iran’s 87 million population being homeless or renting, over 2.5 million vacant homes (12% of the total housing stock) are not used. Therefore, various financial behaviors and decisions affect Iran’s housing market. Herd behavior is triggered by the signal of national currency devaluation (with currency exchange rates increasing more than 26-fold between 2011 and 2021) and transactions at higher prices in certain areas (particularly in northern Tehran) (Statistical Center of Iran, 2023). Given the origins of housing price surges, a price increase in one area quickly spreads to other regions, resulting in herd behavior in those areas (spillover effect). Consequently, housing market spikes in Iran tend to follow episodes of currency devaluation. Therefore, considering the presented discussions, one might question whether factors other than economic ones (such as herd behavior influenced by dependence culture) play a role in the rising housing prices. Or, if behavioral factors were indeed contributing to the increase in housing prices, what could be the cause of this herd movement? Has the exchange rate, particularly fluctuations in the free market dollar rate, triggered herd behavior in the housing market across Iran’s provinces? Or has the proximity and neighborhood effect been influential in the increase or decrease in housing prices in the market?

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the influence of social media usage on fundamental branding impacts, i.e., Consumer Engagement, Brand Awareness, Brand Image, and Brand Loyalty. Its objectives included both direct and indirect effects of social media usage on the above variables.Ultimately, this study aimed to produce empirically based information on how organizations can strategically use social media sites to increase brand capital in the digital age. Introduction/Background: As the world has become increasingly digitalized, social media websites have emerged as important tools for organizational strategy, allowing consumer interaction, facilitating brand recognition, and building consumer loyalty. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter) offer brands immense opportunities for interacting with target markets and constructing brand communities. But whereas there is broad recognition of the strategicimportance of social media in modern marketing theory, the specific causal mechanisms by which social media usage affects important metrics like brand awareness and loyalty are not well understood. This study addresses this gap in the literature by rigorously examining the effect of social media usage on fundamental branding constructs and consequent consumer attitudes and behaviors. Methodology: A quantitative research design was employed in this study, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to rigorously test hypothesized relations among Social Media Usage (SMU) and specified brand-related outcomes. Data were collected from a sample of 300 Thai social media users recruited through a non-probability convenience sampling technique. A carefully crafted web based questionnaire survey was employed to determine respondents' attitudes regarding SMU, consumer engagement, brand reputation, brand awareness, and brand loyalty factors. Data thus gathered were subsequently readied for SEM to analyze the estimated direct and indirect effects hypothesized in the theory framework and thereby evaluate how social media usage translated to the brand's performance indicators. Findings: Statistical analysis revealed strong empirical evidence regarding the effects of social media usage. Findings indicate that SMU positively and significantly affected consumer engagement, brand reputation, and brand image. These, in turn, were revealed to positively affect brand loyalty. Specifically, path analysis indicated that social media behavior strongly predicted increases in brand awareness (β = .70, p < .01) and improvements in a brand image (β = .33, p < .01). Moreover, consumer engagement, found to be influenced by social media usage, was also identified as a mediating variable that significantly influenced the relationship between SMU and brand loyalty. Additionally, the analysis confirmed brand image and brand awareness as key antecedents, positively predicting brand loyalty. The findings collectively supported the central role of strategically using social media in building brand visibility, creating favorable brand perception, and ultimately inducingconsumer loyalty. Contribution/Impact on Society: The current research is an essential contribution to the literature in the area of social media marketing, since it presents robust empirical evidence for the direct and indirect effects brought about by social media usage on significant brand-related consequences. The findings specifically elucidated the role of consumer engagement as a mediator in the process towards stronger brand loyalty. Moreover, the study prescribes and examines a model charting the nomological network among SMUs, brand awareness, brand image, consumer interaction, and brand loyalty. The results hold practical importance to marketing managers and firms dedicated to refining and optimizing their social media campaigns to improve branding efficiency and ensure competitive advantage in contemporary marketplaces. Recommendations: Empirical findings suggest that firms should invest in engaging social media content designed to stimulate active user interaction, thereby enhancing brand visibility and positive perceptions. Maintaining consistent brand messaging across digital touchpoints and strategically leveraging user-generated content is crucial for fostering authenticity and trust. Furthermore, social media campaigns should be planned to simultaneously improve both brand awareness and consumerengagement, which are essential antecedents for building sustainable brand loyalty. Limitations of the Study: This research had certain built-in limitations worth mentioning. First, reliance on self-reporting enables response biases, and the application of a non-probability convenience sampling process may constrain the generalizability (external validity) of the outcome outside of the selected sample that was surveyed. Furthermore, the sample was confined to active social media users and so may not be representative of the attitudes or behaviors of the general consumer populace. Finally, the application of a cross-sectional research design inevitably precludes firm causal connections between the variables of interest; reported associations should accordingly be viewed circumspectly in causal terms. Future Research: Acknowledging current limitations, future research directions include: 1) Implementing longitudinal studies to examine temporal processes and potential causal effects of social media engagement on brand loyalty development over time; 2) Comparing the heterogeneous impacts of different social media platform types (e.g., Instagram vs. Twitter) on branding metrics like awareness, image, and loyalty; 3) Using qualitative techniques (e.g., interviews, focus groups) to gaindeeper understanding of subjective consumer experiences and motivations involved in social media engagement and loyalty formation.

This paper explores the impact of social proof and user-generated content (UGC) on consumer engagement, focusing on their individual and combined effects. Social proof and UGC play crucial roles in enhancing brand credibility, authenticity, and engagement metrics such as conversion rates and click- through rates. The report also discusses key challenges, including data quality, scalability, and ethical considerations, as well as future directions involving advanced analytical models, broader applications beyond digital marketing, and enhanced model interpretability. The insights derived from this analysis aim to provide effective strategies for leveraging social proof and UGC to foster consumer trust and loyalty. Keywords— Social Proof, User-Generated Content, Consumer Engagement, Digital Marketing, Data Analysis, Brand Loyalty, AI, Deep Learning, Sentiment Analysis

PurposeThis study examines herd behavior in the cryptocurrency market at the aggregate level and the determinants of herd behavior, such as asymmetric market returns, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, 2021 cryptocurrency's bear market and the network effect.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied the Google Search Volume Index (GSVI) as a proxy for the network effect. Since investors who are interested in a particular issue have a common interest, they tend to perform searches using the same keywords in Google and are on the same network. The authors also investigated the daily returns of cryptocurrencies, which are in the top 100 market capitalizations from 2017 to 2022. The authors also examine the association between return dispersion and portfolio return based on aggregate market herding model and employ interactions between herding determinants such as, market direction, market trend, COVID-19 and network effect.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market is significantly captured when the market returns of cryptocurrency tend to decline and when the network effect of investors tends to expand (e.g. such as during the COVID-19 pandemic or 2021 Bitcoin crash). However, the results confirm anti-herd behavior in cryptocurrency during the COVID-19 pandemic or 2021 Bitcoin crash, regardless of the network effect.Practical implicationsThese findings help investors in the cryptocurrency market make more rational decisions based on their determinants since cryptocurrency is an alternative investment for investors' asset allocation. As imitating trades lead to return comovement, herd behavior in the cryptocurrency has a direct impact on the effectiveness of portfolio diversification. Hence, market participants or investors should consider herd behavior and its underlying factors to fully maximize the benefits of asset allocation, especially during the period of market uncertainty.Originality/valueMost previous studies have focused on herd behavior in the stock market. Although some researchers have recently begun studying herd behavior in the cryptocurrency market, the empirical results are inconclusive due to an incorrectly specified model or unclear determinants.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to assess the mediating role of brand trust and commitment in the relationship of brand engagement and brand experience with brand loyalty in the online service context.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the study’s objective, 414 users of virtual service brands, predominantly in the online banking, airline and hotel sectors, were surveyed.FindingsBoth brand engagement and experience exert direct effects on brand trust and commitment, as well as indirect effects on brand commitment (via brand trust) and service brand loyalty (via brand commitment).Research limitations/implicationsThis paper adds to the literature by incorporating brand engagement, experience, trust and commitment into a unifying framework. The framework emphasizes brand trust and commitment’s mediating role in the relationship that brand engagement and experience share with brand commitment and loyalty in the online service context.Practical implicationsMarketers should formulate online brand engagement and experience strategies that strengthen customer brand trust and commitment, which are expected to exert a significant brand loyalty-enhancing effect.Originality/valueBrand engagement and experience were validated as key drivers of brand trust and commitment, thereby further substantiating their role as important strategic metrics. Moreover, the role of commitment as a mediating factor in the association between brand engagement and experience and their respective impact on brand loyalty has been verified. Although the findings suggest that improved brand engagement/experience contributes to brand loyalty, this effect transpires only though brand commitment.

Impulse buying is a common behavior in live shopping, and business managers often worry about missing promotional opportunities related to it. This study aims to explore the relationships between CII (consumer-influencer interaction), CCI (consumer-consumer interaction), and consumer herd behavior within the context of live commerce, as well as the relationship between herd behavior and impulse buying, with perceived behavioral control included as a moderating variable. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). This study categorizes herd behavior into two distinct concepts: informational herd behavior and normative herd behavior. The findings indicate that both consumer-influencer interaction (CII) and consumer-consumer interaction (CCI) positively influence informational and normative herd behaviors, which, in turn, have a positive impact on impulsive buying. However, perceived behavioral control does not significantly moderate the relationship between herd behavior and impulsive buying.

Utilitarian and Hedonic Values of Gamification and Their Influence on Brand Engagement, Loyalty, Trust and WoM

In this article, we study the herding behavior of two types of cryptocurrencies, called dirty and clean, based on their energy consumption levels. Empirical results reveal that herding behavior generally only exists in the dirty cryptocurrency market and is more pronounced during bear market periods, high trading volume days, and high trading days. volatility. Moreover, we observe herding behavior in the cryptocurrency market only during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of integration quality, perceived fluency and assurance quality on brand engagement and trust, and their impacts on brand loyalty in the omnichannel banking setting. It further explores the critical role of personal innovativeness and demographic characteristics as moderating variables for the propositions in the research model.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey of 1,547 respondents was carried out with bank customers located in the three largest cities of Vietnam, who have already used at least two various transactional channels in the past. The results were analyzed by the partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe findings denote that integration quality, perceived fluency and assurance quality significantly influence brand trust. Whereas, brand engagement is only affected by integration quality and perceived fluency. Further, brand engagement and trust are substantiated as critical drivers of brand loyalty in omnichannel banking. Customers with high personal innovativeness produce fewer effects of omnichannel properties on brand engagement and trust than other ones. The research context is found to be a significant moderator for the effect of perceived fluency on brand engagement.Practical implicationsThis study offers several recommendations for bank managers to develop a successful omnichannel strategy that could enhance brand engagement and trust by improving integration quality, maintaining fluency across various channels and assuring security during the transactional process. It suggests various policies to improve the effectiveness of the omnichannel model towards the clients with high innovativeness.Originality/valueThis research extends the social exchange theory (SET) theory by examining the effects of omnichannel properties on brand engagement, trust and loyalty in the banking sector. The moderating role of personal innovativeness and research context is also explored.

Purpose – GSM operators are turning to gamification applications as a strategic move in order to realize customer engagement and build brand loyalty. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the relationship between gamification, brand engagement and brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative research methods were used in the study. 415 participants residing in Bursa were reached in November 2019. They were provided to participate in the online survey. A questionnaire was prepared to obtain the data set. It was used Eisingerich et al. (2019)'s study for the scale of the gamification variable; Xi and Hamari (2020)’s study for the scale of brand engagement and loyalty variables. Survey data were analyzed with SPSS 23.0 program. Findings – It is reached that gamification affects brand engagement (%52,5); gamification affects brand loyalty (%27,8); and brand engagement affects brand loyalty (48,5). Some advantages of gamification are relatively more important customers to use these applications. Besides, GSM sector in Turkey has an oligopolistic structure and so GSM operators offer similar products to customers with close strategies. These reasons caused the low level of participation of customers to statements about brand loyalty. Discussion – The findings obtained support the literature. Brands can increase their engagement through gamification applications. These emotional, cognitive and social engagement with customers provide advantages to brands and affect their brand loyalty. This result has been reached in the analysis results.

Background: Understanding brand loyalty drivers is crucial in Nepal's competitive smartphone market. This study investigates five key antecedents; brand image, perceived quality, brand engagement, social media marketing, and customer product involvement proposed to influence brand loyalty, addressing a gap in context-specific research. Methods: A quantitative approach using descriptive and causal research designs was employed. Data from 200 smartphone users in Kathmandu were collected via structured questionnaires, applying convenience sampling. Results: All five hypotheses were significantly supported (*p*<0.05). Customer product involvement emerged as the strongest predictor of brand loyalty, followed by perceived quality and brand image. Brand engagement and social media marketing also demonstrated significant, albeit comparatively weaker, positive effects. Conclusion: The study confirms the multidimensional nature of brand loyalty in Nepal, highlighting customer product involvement as the dominant driver. Brands must prioritize fostering deep consumer involvement with products while strengthening perceived quality, brand image, engagement, and social media outreach to cultivate loyalty. Novelty: Its key novelty lies in revealing customer product involvement not traditional drivers like brand image as the paramount loyalty determinant, offering fresh strategic imperatives for market-specific brand management.

Social media platforms help businesses connect, communicate, and access information, boosting brand loyalty and awareness. This study aims to determine the relationship between social media marketing, brand engagement, and brand trust toward customer experience and brand loyalty. The focus is on the importance of the role of social media marketing for frozen food brands. The paper uses a descriptive research design and a quantitative approach where data were collected by distributing online questionnaires among frozen food consumers through Google Forms. The selected 250 respondents were located in big cities in Indonesia, such as Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bandung. The data were processed using SmartPLS v.4.0.0 to examine the results of the outer and inner models. The results show that social media marketing has a significant effect on brand trust. In addition, brand engagement has a significant effect on customer experience. Then, social media marketing has an insignificant effect on brand engagement. Brand trust has an insignificant effect on customer experience. Next, the customer experience has an insignificant impact on brand loyalty. In addition, a frozen food company’s social media advertising might not be able to reach its intended audience, which leads to little engagement. To preserve consistency and transparency, a brand should maintain open communication, a customer-centric strategy, and customer engagement through messaging, dialogues, and user-generated content.

The Relationship of Happiness, Impulse Buying and Brand Loyalty

PurposeThe study aims to investigate the presence of herding behavior in the stock market of UK with a special emphasis on news sentiment regarding the economy. The authors focus on the news sentiment because in the current digital era, investors take their decision making on the basis of current trends projected by news and media platforms.Design/methodology/approachFor empirical modeling, the authors use machine learning models to investigate the presence of herding behavior in UK stock market for the period starting from 2006 to 2021. The authors use support vector regression, single layer neural network and multilayer neural network models to predict the herding behavior in the stock market of the UK. The authors estimate the herding coefficients using all the models and compare the findings with the linear regression model.FindingsThe results show a strong evidence of herding behavior in the stock market of the UK during different time regimes. Furthermore, when the authors incorporate the economic uncertainty news sentiment in the model, the results show a significant improvement. The results of support vector regression, single layer perceptron and multilayer perceptron model show the evidence of herding behavior in UK stock market during global financial crises of 2007–08 and COVID’19 period. In addition, the authors compare the findings with the linear regression which provides no evidence of herding behavior in all the regimes except COVID’19. The results also provide deep insights for both individual investors and policy makers to construct efficient portfolios and avoid market crashes, respectively.Originality/valueIn the existing literature of herding behavior, news sentiment regarding economic uncertainty has not been used before. However, in the present era this parameter is quite critical in context of market anomalies hence and needs to be investigated. In addition, the literature exhibits varying results about the existence of herding behavior when different methodologies are used. In this context, the use of machine learning models is quite rare in the herding literature. The machine learning models are quite robust and provide accurate results. Therefore, this research study uses three different models, i.e. single layer perceptron model, multilayer perceptron model and support vector regression model to investigate the herding behavior in the stock market of the UK. A comparative analysis is also presented among the results of all the models. The study sheds light on the importance of economic uncertainty news sentiment to predict the herding behavior.

Previous research conducted by Samarah (2021) [8] found that brand interactivity and brand engagement had an effect on social media customer brand engagement. In addition, social media customer brand engagement has an effect on brand loyalty, both directly and through the brand trust mediation variable. Meanwhile, research conducted by Li et. al (2020) [9] revealed that customer engagement has an effect on brand attachment and brand trust, then brand attachment and brand trust have an effect on brand loyalty. However, in this study it was found that customer involvement did not directly affect brand loyalty. This study aims to examine the effect of brand interactivity, brand involvement, and social media consumer brand engagement on brand loyalty. Then to test the effect of brand trust as a mediation between brand engagement and brand loyalty. The study used 240 samples selected using purposive sampling technique and analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results of this study indicate that brand interactivity, brand involvement, and social media consumer brand engagement have effects on brand loyalty. This research also shows that brand trust mediates the effect of brand engagement on brand loyalty. From this research, brand involvement has the biggest direct effect on brand loyalty. This shows that Tokopedia must continue to maintain interactivity, involvement, engagement, and trust so that consumers are increasingly loyal to the company.