In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, competition among IT industries is becoming increasingly fierce. If a company is weak in its competitive advantage, it can have a huge negative impact on its organizational sustainability and ultimately lead to organizational failure. In such a research background, we highlighted that employees’ innovative performance via creativity acts as an alternative lubricant to increase the sustainable competitive advantage and promote overall organizational sustainability. In particular, employees’ innovative performance has a great relationship with organizational culture and types of leadership. Hence, we focused on exploring the ways in which visionary leadership increases employees’ innovative performance, presenting and verifying a moderated mediation research model related to the innovative performance. To verify our research model, this study conducted a survey of 303 employees from the information technology (IT) industry of SMEs in China. According to the results, visionary leadership was found to have a positive influence on both psychological empowerment and employees’ innovative performance. In addition, psychological empowerment partially mediated the impact of visionary leadership on the innovation performance. Finally, the organizational learning culture moderated the effects of psychological empowerment and the innovation performance. Overall, this study contributes to revealing the process that leads to employees’ innovative performance and contributes to expanding the research field by verifying the moderated mediation model for a sustainable competitive advantage and organizational sustainability in IT Industry 4.0 for SMEs.

This study examines the role of self-concept in consumer responses to advertising messages. Specifically, this study postulates that matching advertising message framing (concrete vs. abstract) with consumers’ self-concept (actual vs. ideal self) should yield positive ad evaluation. Results from an experimental study suggest that individuals primed into their actual self evaluated the concrete ad message more favorably than they did the abstract ad message. In contrast, those primed into their ideal self responded more favorably to the abstract ad than to the concrete ad. Implications from the study and suggestions for future research are provided.

This study aims to explore how consumers' chronic and momentarily activated national identity affect their responses to patriotism-themed ads across countries. Specifically, this study examines (1) how consumer response to patriotism-themed ads varies across cultures in terms of chronic level of national identification; (2) how the activation of national identity influences consumer response to patriotism-themed ads and how this influence varies across cultures. Findings from this study suggest that consumers' cultural orientations influenced their responses to patriotism-themed ads. And, this influence was mediated by the chronic level of national identification. Specifically, Koreans (collectivistic) were likely to respond to patriotism-themed ads more favorably than were Americans (individualistic) due to their higher level of national identification. Results from this study further showed that, when national identity was made salient through an identity prime, consumers' evaluation of the patriotism-themed ads were increased significantly, regardless of their cultural backgrounds. However, such an effect of national identity activation was found to be significantly stronger among Koreans than among Americans.

With the popularity of Instagram, the hashtag (#) symbol has emerged as an important marketing tool. By using hashtags, brands can increase their visibility and reach among Instagrammers. The purpose of this research is to examine how fashion brands utilize hashtags and captions on Instagram and how Instagrammers respond to different hashtag and caption patterns. A computational analysis of a large collection of hashtags and captions posted with fashion images was conducted to identify patterns of utilizing hashtags and captions in terms of frequency, form and content. Specifically, 65,107 hashtags attached to 29,557 fashion images posted on Instagram by ten global fashion brands were analysed. This study also examined how customer engagement levels vary for each variable. Several important findings emerged from this study: (1) while most fashion images were posted with hashtags and captions, indiscriminate use of hashtags (i.e. hashtags that are too frequent or too long) were likely to lower the number of likes and comments; (2) using a hashtag in combination with a caption or only using a caption could be more effective than using a hashtag alone in increasing customer engagement levels; and (3) hashtags containing promotional messages, in general, were less effective in promoting likes and comments.

Purpose: This study examines how socioeconomic status (SES) shapes quiet versus loud luxury preferences through status anxiety and the moderating role of symbolic self-completion. Design/methodology/approach: Three-hundred and fifty-eight Chinese consumers were randomly assigned to quiet or loud luxury conditions differentiated by logo prominence. SES was measured as a composite of objective and subjective SES. Status anxiety captured individuals’ anxiety over social standing, and symbolic self-completion captured identity incompleteness and self-repair motivation, all measured via scales. Partial least squares structural equation modeling assessed measurement and structural models; PROCESS Model 14 examined the conditional indirect effects at different levels of symbolic self-completion. Findings: SES negatively predicted status anxiety, and status anxiety positively influenced luxury purchase preferences. Symbolic self-completion exhibited a divergent moderation pattern on this indirect effect: at low levels, status anxiety primarily drove consumers to prefer quiet luxury; at high levels, it drove consumers to prefer loud luxury. Originality/value: This study disentangles two psychological routes to luxury preference: an expressive path grounded in cultural capital and identity theory, whereby individuals with relatively intact identities prefer quiet luxury; and a compensatory path driven by symbolic self-completion theory and signaling theory, whereby individuals with identity deficits prefer loud luxury to restore identity under status threat. These findings offer practical implications for luxury brand positioning and marketing in the emerging-market context of China. However, the findings are context-specific, and income volatility and cultural values have not yet been incorporated.