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PurposeThe authors aim to examine how the construal level, either as an individual temporal orientation or temporal distance of promotion, moderates the effects of emojis' emotional intensity on consumers' purchase intentions in social media advertising.Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments are used to test four hypotheses.FindingsThe results of two experimental studies show that present-oriented participants reveal greater purchase intentions when low (vs high) emotionally intense emojis are embedded in a social media ad; but future-oriented consumers showed no difference when viewing ads with the two different emojis. In Study 2, participants indicate greater purchase intentions when a social media ad includes a distant-future promocode and high (vs low) emotionally intense emojis and an ad with a near-future promocode and low (vs high) emotionally intense emojis.Originality/valueThe current study advances our understanding how emojis with different emotional intensities can be effectively used in social media ads. This study also provides theoretical implications to construal level theory (CLT) by examining how emojis interact with construal level, either as a chronic tendency or simulated by psychological distance, can influence consumer response.

PurposeE-commerce continues to experience unprecedented growth, but a lack of understanding of socio-behavioral aspects of green last-mile delivery solutions is conflicting with e-commerce and shipping companies' climate-related pledges to e-shoppers. This study seeks to correct for research deficiencies in the e-commerce context by determining how e-shoppers' adoption of green last-mile delivery might be influenced by socio-behavioral factors, personality traits; and e-shopping motivations.Design/methodology/approachTo test the hypotheses, this study collected data from 319 US adults enrolled in an online panel survey and conducted hierarchical regression analyses after controlling for demographic variables.FindingsResults showed that socio-behavioral variables (attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavior control) contributed 60.3% of the unique variance in explaining purchase intention via green delivery (PIGD). Notably, e-shopping motivations derived from utilitarian features (convenience and energy efficiency) and experiential features (e-shopping adventure) emerged as significant predictors of PIGD. Although personality traits (conscientiousness and openness) significantly predicted PIGD in the regression model, the individual effect of openness was not significant. Further, demographic subgroups, including gender, education and income level revealed significant outcomes, while age and ethnicity exhibited no significant group differences with the above-mentioned variables.Practical implicationsThe study findings would provide online retailers and marketers with in-depth insight on how green marketing initiatives can increase responsible consumers' intention to purchase via green delivery.Originality/valueThis is a one-of-a-kind effort that integrates and tests e-shoppers' socio-behavioral factors, e-shopping motivations and personality traits into a single model.

PurposeThis paper aims to propose a conceptual model to examine the effect of an augmented reality (AR)–based product display (vs a picture-based product display) on interactivity, vividness, website quality and consumer responses. In addition, the moderating role of the need for touch (NFT) in the effect of AR on media features is identified.Design/methodology/approachHypotheses are tested using a one-factor between-subjects design for both a student sample (Study 1, N = 120) and a nonstudent sample (Study 2, N = 272). Data are analyzed using a series of analyses of variance, multivariate analyses of covariance and structural equation modeling.FindingsStudy 1 shows that an AR-based product display generates greater website quality, interactivity and vividness than a picture-based product display. Moreover, an AR-based product display improves interactivity and vividness only for high-NFT consumers; however, no significant difference emerged for low-NFT consumers. Study 2 replicates and extends our findings by identifying the specific processes that consumers go through when evaluating a website.Originality/valueThe current research advances the understanding of how product presentation technologies can attract customers with different haptic orientations and provides practical implications for online retailers interested in improving their customers' e-commerce experience.

Introduction. Digital advertising yields more than 100 billion dollars in the year 2018 in the U.S. (Maloy, 2018). Contemporary digital advirtisng exibits unprecedented growth of influencer marketing on social media by grabing maximum consumers' attention through high-impact conversations about brands or products (Traackr, 2019). In social media promotion, marketers prefer to use influencer-generated content than brand-generated content because of its prevailing reliability among consumers (Traackr, 2019). Despite many studies investigated the effects of influencer-generated contents on digital advertising (Kim, Spiller, & Hettche, 2015), little examined the role of emoji used in influencers' generated contents on consumer responses. An emoji refers to an image representing facial expressions, objects, or numbers that is used as a language in online communication (Grabowski, 2016). Previous studies mainly focused on the emotional valence caused by emoji while failed to consider consumers' emoji elicited emotional arousal level (Das, Wiener, & Kareklas, 2019). Gorn, Pham, and Sin (2001) found that the emotional arousal level influences ad evaluation more than emotional valence. Meanwhile, researchers suggest that temporal orientation-individuals' differences in their cognitive focus on either the present or future-may interact with their emotional valence or arousal level and influence subsequenct consumption behaviors (Bergadaa, 1990; Mogilner, Adker, & Kamvar, 2012). Accordingly, this study is to examine the effects of emoji arousal level as well as its interaction effect with consumers' chronic temporal orientation on their purchase intentions toward an influencer-advertised product.Literature Review. Social media marketers, including brands and influencers, usually use emojis in their commercial/content (Das et al., 2019). To date, research in marketing context mostly related to the effects of absent versus present emojis (Das et al., 2019; Li et al., 2018). Das et al. (2019) found that positive (vs. absent) emojis in brand-generated tweets increased consumers' purchase intentions and this effect was mediated by a positive emotion. However, no research has ever investigated the effct of emoji elicited emotional arousal level on consumers' responses of digitial advertising. Given the nature of marketing communication, this study focused on the emojis that convey positive emotions. Prior research suggested that emotional arousal level is positively related to behavior intention, such as repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth (Yuksel & Yuksel, 2007). Wu, Lee, Fu, and Wang (2013) proposed that a well-designed online webstie would lead to a higher level of consumers' emotional arousal and thus in turn positively influences their purchase intentions. Therefore, a high (vs. low) arousal level caused by emoji will lead to greater purchase intentions (H1).According to the construal level theory (CLT, Trope & Liberman, 2010), higher arousal levels were 2020 Proceedings