Second-hand clothing (SHC) benefits society by reducing the wastage of natural resources. Research in the purchase of second-hand clothing is a debated topic. It is not yet clear whether caring for self, community, and nature drives the purchase of second-hand clothing. This study unpacks the intervening factors that drive second-hand clothing purchases underpinning attitude-intention and self-determination theories. The primary purpose is to examine the direct relationship between a) mindful consumption, b) ego-involvement, c) social norms on second-hand clothing purchase intention of young consumers. The mediation of ego-involvement and social norm is examined on the above relationship. A total of 314 usable questionnaires following the convenience and purposive snowball sampling techniques were gathered from China. The structural equation model (SEM) two-step approach analyzed the data. SmartPLS3 statistical package used to run the measurement and structural model analyses. IPMA analysis confirms mindful consumption as an important factor; hence ego-involvement drives the performance of the stated relationship. Ego-involvement mediates the relationship between mindful consumption and second-hand clothing purchase. This study bridges the unanswered questions and highlights the importance of mindful consumption, an essential driver of consumer behavior. Managers are encouraged to promote mindful consumption values in marketing communication to drive sustainability.

Understanding consumer behavior in digital environments is increasingly becoming crucial. This study investigates the influence of key metaverse characteristics—sociability, immersiveness, and environmental fidelity—on continuance intention to use the metaverse by examining the mediating role of consumer experience. In study 1, a Delphi method involving 26 experts was employed to establish a consensus on the significance of metaverse characteristics in shaping consumer experience and behavior. In study 2, data from 391 metaverse users were collected via an online survey, and a two-step PLS-SEM approach was used to evaluate the hypothesized relationships. The Delphi study confirmed the theoretical relevance of the identified metaverse characteristics, which were subsequently validated through user data. The results show that consumer experience fully mediates the influence of immersiveness and environmental fidelity on continuance intention and partially mediates between sociability and continuance intention. Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) further established consumer experience as a prerequisite for continued metaverse use, while importance performance analysis (IMPA) identified sociability as the most influential driver of continuance intention. This study advances our theoretical understanding of consumer behavior in virtual settings and offers practical insights for enhancing consumer engagement and continued metaverse use.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been receiving growing attention. It has been utilized in tourism to increase consumer engagement and marketing. Based on the IS success model, this research examined how different aspects of VR quality affected consumers’ intention to future travel. This study designed a VR framework, focused on quality and patterned the proposed hypotheses about customers’ future travel intentions. A conceptual framework utilized PLSSEM- 3 Software for Structural Equation Modeling, to evaluate the proposed model. The findings suggested that VR quality constructs, including content quality, vividness, and system quality, significantly and positively influenced the flow experience and satisfaction. Moreover, flow experience and satisfaction significantly and positively did impact future travel intention. The results provided helpful information and knowledge for academia, tourism industry professionals, VR developers, and tourism destination policymakers toward better designing VR platforms for destination marketing.

Crowdsourcing seems to have come of age since Jeff Howe christened it in 2006 and the writing on the wall is clear. As more and more companies are trying to jump on the crowdsourcing bandwagon, crowdsourcing as a marketing strategy is cementing its place in the fiercely competitive business environment and it’s leading the crowd of strategies which have come to the fore in the recent years. The business corridors are buzzing with this ever evolving phenomenon, which no more seems like another buzz word around. As this phenomenon is gaining currency across boundaries, the academic research around this topic has also gained lot of attention. As a result this paper will draw attention toward the marketer’s perspective about crowdsourcing, as they are the one who are the harbinger of the future growth of crowdsourcing. This paper will highlight the level of awareness of crowdsourcing among the marketing managers, their perspective about its use and impact on various marketing strategies. In addition to this, their perspective on digital divide is considered to be discussed, as digital divide could play a spoilsport in the relationship between crowdsourcing and marketing. Most often it is said that if you want to do something different then don’t follow the crowd, first time it seems it is good to follow the crowd.