Purpose: In the digital era, business-to-business (B2B) salespersons are encouraged to communicate with buyers on social media platforms and shape customer loyalty. However, the effect of social media usage and its mechanism remain unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how salespersons’ social media usage influences B2B buyers’ trust beliefs and purchase risk, and therefore, customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conduct an online-survey, use partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the data, and adopt SPSS PROCESS macro 2.13 to test mediation effects. Findings: Salespersons’ social media usage can enhance buyers’ trust beliefs on salespersons’ ability, integrity and benevolence, but only the latter two can improve customer loyalty. Social media usage does not directly affect purchase risk, and only benevolence can reduce purchase risk. Serial mediation models reveal that the effect of social media usage on customer loyalty is mediated by buyers’ trust beliefs on salespersons’ integrity/benevolence and purchase risk. Originality/value: First, the authors confirm the effect of social media usage on customer loyalty in B2B context and refute the fallacy of social media uselessness in B2B practices. Second, the research shows that buyers’ trusting beliefs on salesperson’s ability and integrity do not significantly influence perceived risk. The finding is different from the stereotypical judgment in B2C scenarios. Third, the authors distinguish differently weighted influences of buyers’ trusting beliefs on salesperson’s ability, integrity and benevolence, and highlight the role of salespersons’ altruism attributes in shaping customer loyalty.

Purpose: The biggest obstacle to the sustainable development of online brand communities is social loafing. Based on 3M Hierarchical Model of Personality, this paper aims to discuss the influence of the Big Five on social loafing in online brand communities, and consider the mediating role of dehumanization from the perspective of moral disengagement theory, so as to alleviate social loafing and promote the sustainable development of online brand communities.Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected utilizing the online self-report questionnaires. Community members of mobile phone brands represented by HUAWEI and Xiaomi completed the questionnaire sets. Based on the responses of 214 participants, a structural equation modeling was applied to examine the relationship between Big Five on social loafing in online brand communities. Later, bootstrap analysis was used to further explore the indirect effect of dehumanization.Findings: Only two personality traits, neuroticism and extroversion, have direct effect on social loafing, while agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness not. However, all the Big Five personality traits can indirectly influence social loafing through dehumanization.Originality/value: This study introduces the concept of social loafing into online brand communities, and analyzes social loafing from the unique research perspective of moral disengagement theory, which can not only contribute to the development of moral disengagement theory and social loafing theory but also provide guiding points for relieving social loafing in online brand communities.

Looking at the contradiction between the prevalence of self-quantification and unclear applicable boundaries, the objective of this study is to examine the internal mechanism of how self-quantification influences consumers’ participation and behavioral decision-making in green consumption activities. Based on the goal setting theory, a series of research hypotheses were proposed. Four experiments were designed and performed in different situations with different subjects. Through the analysis of variance and bootstrap testing, the experimental data were analyzed and processed. The results show that, under specific goals, consumers with low self-quantification participate more in promotional activities and less in defensive activities. In promotional green consumption activities, self-quantification enables consumers with (without) goal requirements to reduce (enhance) their participation performance, and choose high-intensity promotional activity categories less (more) with better (worse) participation experience. In defensive green consumption activities, self-quantification enables consumers with (without) goal limitations to enhance (reduce) participation performance and choose high-intensity defensive categories more (less) with better (worse) participation experience. The conclusions can provide enlightenment for enterprises to guide consumers to participate in green consumption activities.

Purpose: Large language models, such as ChatGPT, have made chatbot responses seem more natural, making it more difficult for customers to distinguish that chatbots are non-human. Although chatbots offer advantages in the service industry, their technical limitations can lead to service failures. This study aims to explore how the disclosure of the chatbot's identity during the initial stage of service, before any service failure occurs, affects customer tolerance of service failures. Design/methodology/approach: Three psychological experiments were conducted to assess the effects of chatbot identity disclosure on customer tolerance of service failure. Findings: This study confirms that the disclosure of the chatbots' identity at the initial stage of service, before any service failure occurs, has a positive impact on consumers' tolerance of service failures. Compared to non-identity disclosure, chatbot identity disclosure increases consumers' perception of chatbots' sincerity and reduces their disgust, thus increasing the consumers' tolerance of chatbot service failures. In addition, the explanation of service failures moderates the relationship between chatbot identity disclosure and customers' feelings of disgust and perceived sincerity. Practical implications: This study reveals the importance of chatbot identity disclosure for service companies. Managers should consider a chatbot's ability to handle service failures when deciding whether to disclose its identity. Originality/value: This research contributes to the literature on the positive effects of identity disclosure by investigating how the disclosure of a chatbot's identity during the initial stage of service, prior to any service failure, affects consumers' tolerance of service failures.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of moral identity and construal level on consumer green consumption and the mediating role of pro-environmental self-accountability. Design/methodology/approach: The authors examined the hypotheses in two experiment studies. In study 1, the authors measured participants’ chronic individual difference of moral identity and primed construal level. In study 2, the authors primed moral identity and measured chronic individual difference of construal level. The authors also measured pro-environmental self-accountability in these two studies. Findings: The results reveal that construal level moderates the relationship between moral identity and consumer green consumption, specifically, when consumers are induced a high construal level, moral identity has no effect on consumer green consumption, while when consumers are induced a low construal level, moral identity has a positive effect on consumer green consumption; the interaction of moral identity and construal level on green consumption is mediated by pro-environmental self-accountability. Research limitations/implications: This research enriches the literature on how to improve consumer green consumption, and thus has some managerial and public policy implications. But the authors only chose students as participants and the dependent measures are also limited. Future research can choose other type of sample and other dependent measures to test the generalization of the conclusion. Originality/value: Prior literature of green consumption lacks research on mediation mechanism. Due to prior literature gaps, the authors integrate social-cognitive perspective moral identity theory, especially the in-group circle expansion of moral identity, and construal level theory to investigate the moderating effect of construal level on the relationship between moral identity and green consumption and the mediation effect of pro-environmental self-accountability.