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PurposeThere has been considerable research into the global phenomenon of luxury brand consumption, but relatively few studies have empirically explored key relationships influencing purchase intention. This research aims to consider the respective roles of social context, individual perception, and vanity, and to set these relationships within a broader theoretical context of the literature on possession and consumer identity.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study consisted of a large‐scale survey conducted among Chinese luxury brand consumers in Taiwan. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression.FindingsThe findings support the influence of the social context on purchase intention for luxury brands. There was weaker support for the role of perception. The experiential and functional aspects of luxury brand purchase were positively correlated with purchase intention, but symbolic value was not. Physical and achievement vanity had a positive impact on purchase intention while only achievement vanity had a moderating effect on perception.Practical implicationsThis study offers new empirical support for the proposition that vanity has a role in luxury brand purchase intention and thereby shades both theoretical and managerial understanding of luxury brand consumption. It also suggests that symbolic value, which is highly influential in western conceptualizations of luxury brand meaning, needs to be re‐evaluated in the context of Chinese consumers.Originality/valueThis study offers new empirical findings which contribute to a re‐conceptualization of the antecedents of purchase intention in the area of luxury brand consumption. In particular, the study provides evidence of the roles of social context, perception and vanity in a Chinese consumption context to inform the primarily western models of luxury brand purchase intention.

Based on theories of inter-organizational knowledge flows and organizational learning, we argue that intensively accessing knowledge from a limited number of external channels, i.e., open search depth, can facilitate the innovating company's incremental innovation performance. We also argue that accessing knowledge from a broad range of external channels, i.e., open search breadth, can enhance the innovating firm's radical innovation performance. Using hierarchical regressions to analyze survey data collected from 184 Taiwanese electronic product manufacturers, we found that open search depth is positively related to the innovating firm's incremental innovation performance, and that open search breadth is positively related to radical innovation performance. As our results differ from those of previous studies, we provide a possible explanation for the discrepancy. Examining the effect of open search strategy from a theoretical angle not yet explored before, our findings can contribute to both scholarly and practitioner knowledge of open innovation.

This research examines the influence of restaurant stimuli on diners' emotions and loyalty to teppanyaki restaurants. In teppanyaki restaurants, chefs take orders from diners, prepare food in front of diners, and serve dishes to diners. Although the importance of chefs has been acknowledged by scholars, empirical research on the influence of chefs on diners has been scarce. To augment the literature on how chefs influence diners, this research incorporates "chef's image" into an extended Mehrabian-Russell model (M-R model) to conceptualize diner loyalty to teppanyaki restaurants. A total of 308 diners from Taiwan were recruited. After examining their completed questionnaires, this study found that chef's image, service quality, and food quality can affect the positive and negative emotions of diners. Moreover, other diners and restaurant atmospherics affect only the negative emotions of diners. Both positive and negative emotions can affect diner loyalty to teppanyaki restaurants.

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