The freemium strategy is a widely adopted model in the mobile app industry, offering users free access to basic features while enticing them to pay for premium content. Successfully navigating the boundary between these two app types is crucial for developers. This study aimed to examine the impact of perceived values on satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and the intention to pay in utilitarian apps, drawing on the two-factor theory and the expectation confirmation model. Additionally, the study proposed that hygiene factors should be integrated into freemium apps, reserving motivating factors for premium apps. This study used an online survey to collect 552 participants and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The empirical model provided insights into the fundamental determinants of motivating factors transitioning from freemium to premium apps. Results indicated that social and emotional values positively influence satisfaction, with satisfaction potentially mediating purchase intention. Furthermore, functional value reduces dissatisfaction and increases purchase intention. This study distinguished social and emotional values as motivational factors and functional values as hygiene factors. The findings offered valuable guidance to software companies for developing useful and profitable apps. DOI : https://doi.org/10.54663/2182-9306.2023.v11.n21.112-131

The Covid-19 has caused an unprecedented global economic crisis (Maguire, 2021). This pandemic has negatively affected all industries, but it has specially struck hard in the service sector. One example is based on sports entities, which have faced serious financial difficulties because of the lockdown and restrictions during the “new normal” era. However, Real Madrid FC is the only major European football club that did not suffer economic losses during the years of the pandemic. On the contrary, they even continued to be profitable, achieving the distinction of the world’s most valuable soccer team by Forbes in 2022. Furthermore, during this time they also became the most followed football club on social media and the club with the highest web traffic. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, this article applies the framework of Social Identity Theory to explore how emotional attachment towards the brand was cultivated during the pandemic through the use of digital marketing.

The current context has revealed the weaknesses of the contemporary world in several areas, but, above all, it has again emphasized the vulnerabilities of personalities, governments, parties, companies and organizations concerning the management of crisis communication and how you deal with risk (Jong, 2020, 2021), failure and the unexpected (McGuire, Cunningham, Reynolds, & Matthews-Smith, 2020). Inevitably, social networks have come to accelerate dissemination and, as a result, image and reputation become sensitive elements of an ecosystem that requires parsimony when it comes to matching stakeholder expectations (Coombs, 2007; Coombs & Holladay, 2010). This new world requires strategy when communicating about human and property losses, but also aims to avoid credibility breakdowns and disastrous damage to notoriety and reputation (Mocho, 2021) (...) DOI: https://doi.org/10.54663/2182-9306.2022.sn11.1-4