Influencer-driven loyalty: Understanding the mediating role of customer brand engagement in the relationship between social media influencers and brand loyalty

Journal Paper
AHMED Suhaib, GHAFFAR, Abdul, ZAHEER ZAIDI, Syed Shahid, ISLAM, Tahir, KHAN, Muhammad Mumtaz, ISLAM, Fazila, KINCL, Tomas & SHEIKH Altaf Ahmed
Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
Publication year: 2024

Factors developing brand loyalty through social media influencers (SMIs) are immensely important to academics and marketing practitioners since it is a remarkable driver of organizational success. This research investigates the impact of SMIs homophily in developing customer brand engagement (CBE) and its impact on BL. We collected valid data from 412 respondents using laptop brands in Pakistan and used structural equation modeling to analyze the data. The findings indicate that the SMIs homophily is crucial in establishing CBE and BL. The results further show that CBE’s emotional and cognitive dimensions significantly mediate the relationship between SMIs homophily and BL. However, the emotional CBE has a stronger mediating impact on BL. The study provides valuable insights for brand managers to hire SMIs who resemble their fans to grab their loyalty toward the brand. This study unfolds new avenues in social media marketing, consumer behavior, and branding literature by understanding the association between SMIs homophily, CBE, and BL.

 

The role of service quality in enhancing brand authenticity through the moderation effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Journal Paper
GHAFFAR, Abdul, ISLAM, Tahir, KINCL, Tomáš, HAKEEM, Abdul, SHARMA, Anshuman
Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, Vol. 33, Iss. :3, pp. 475-494
Publication year: 2023

This paper aims to examine the impact of service quality and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on brand authenticity and determine the moderating effects of CSR on the relationship between service quality and brand authenticity. Survey data was collected from 472 customers of Karachi, Pakistan’s four major medical diagnostic laboratories, through the convenience sampling technique. The quantitative method was used. To collect information from respondents, a self-administered questionnaire is used. We utilized the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to analyze data. The results show that CSR, service quality, and brand authenticity are related in medical diagnostic and research laboratories. Research findings indicate that service quality and CSR directly and positively impact brand authenticity. In addition, CSR moderates the effect between service quality and brand authenticity. Managers can see corporate social responsibility as an intangible value that goes along with high-quality services and makes medical diagnostic and research laboratory services more authentic.

A sustainable Retailer's journey to sustainable practices: Prioritizing the customer and the planet

Journal Paper
GHAFFAR, Abdul, ISLAM, Tahir, KHAN Huda, KINCL, Tomáš, SHARMA, Anshuman
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services Vol. 74, 103388, ISSN 0969-6989
Publication year: 2023

Rapidly increasing demand for eco-friendly products is evidence of consumers’ intention to make responsible purchases. As a result, companies and retailers are increasingly pressured to reconsider their product lines and provide environmentally friendly products in order to satisfy their customers’ demands. The current study aims to explore how sustainable retailers, sustainable product packaging, sustainable product availability, and lower price perception impact sustainable behavioral intention towards (SBI) sustainable consumption behavior (SCB). A survey in the form of a self-administered questionnaire was used to get information from millennials for this study. Smart Partial Least Square (SEM) was employed to analyze the data. This study’s sample was obtained using judgmental sampling, resulting in 297 valid responses. The results indicate that millennials are progressively adopting environmentally responsible consumption practices. The study found that sustainable retailers, sustainable product packaging, availability, and lower pricing perception contribute to sustainable behavior intentions. The findings indicate that promoting ecological practices and environmentally conscious consumers can assist developing nations in attaining sustainability and ecological stability.

Snowflakes as Ph.D. candidates – are we prepared to supervise the new generation of postgraduate students?

Conference Paper
KINCL, Tomáš
In: Proceedings from the Round Table Teaching Generation Snowflakes: New Challenges and Opportunities, eds. Lucie Sara Zavodna, Torberg Falch. ISBN 978-80-245-2453-5
Publication year: 2022

This paper discusses specific attributes of the so-called Snowflake generation, or rather Generation Z (Gen Z), which recently began entering the higher education (HE) system. Gen Z graduates will start to submit their postgraduate or Ph.D. studies applications soon. It remains a question whether the HE institutions and supervisors are prepared to reflect Gen Z’s unique attributes in study programmes settings/management and supervisory styles. The first part of the paper discusses the Gen Z specifics and their learning styles in the HE context. Subsequently, an overview of Ph.D. studies and their development in recent years follows. The last chapter discusses supervisors and supervisory styles as the most prominent factor influencing Ph.D. candidates’ dropout rates and satisfaction.

The conclusion is that we must develop procedures at various institutional levels to educate, support, or even supervise the doctoral supervisors and to adjust our doctoral programmes to better reflect the changing nature of today’s Ph.D. education. To improve the performance indicators, but also candidates’ satisfaction and well-being, the institutions must implement procedures that go far beyond considering the supervisor’s research records, expertise in a given field, or match between supervisor’s and candidate’s research interests. Non-functional aspects like the alignment of supervisory and learning style should gain more attention to better reflect the specifics of Gen Z candidates.

Keywords: Higher Education, Post-graduate, Supervision, Supervisory Styles, Generation Z, Snowflakes

Eye-tracking study on product placement familiarity in online games in streaming platforms: visual attention, recognition and recall

Journal Paper
PAŠTIKOVÁ, Alice, KINCL, Tomáš, BAŽANTOVÁ, Simona
Economics Management Innovation, Vol. 13, Iss. 3, ISSN 1804-1299, p. 18-36
Publication year: 2021

The growing popularity of streams and video games is creating new marketing opportunities. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship of product placement (PP) familiarity to visual attention, recognition and recall in streaming video. The experiment has three sources of data gathering – eye-tracking (AOI), questionnaires with Likert scales and semi-structured interviews. The participants were chosen according to the largest group – males aged between 20-25 years old. The results indicated better-unaided recall of familiar placement although the aided recall was found to be similar, as visual attention. The visual attention for other factors differs for PP size and the respondents’ experiences. The order of PP did not affect the visual metrics. Interviews complemented a picture of how and why respondents consume video games and streams and how mediums differ. Marketing opportunities could be seen in the growing video games industry and streaming platforms. However, some product placement might be more suitable to be implemented than others.

Born digital: Is there going to be a new culture of digital natives?

Journal Paper
KINCL, Tomáš, ŠTRACH, Pavel
Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, Vol. 31, Iss. 1, ISSN 2163-9159, p. 30-48
Publication year: 2021

The paper strives to answer the question of whether Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants share similar concerns with other generations across national cultures. A traditional cross-cultural approach is scrutinized to unravel the extent to which technology has influenced and co-created the digital culture, which may emerge as a distinct sub-culture.

This analysis is based on Mindreader Mindshare survey from more than 57,000 respondents from in 44 different countries. The cross-tabulation analysis was performed to investigate the differences in the respondents’ strongest concerns. The analysis revealed differences between the Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program’s cultural clusters, as well as between both generations of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Both generations of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants appear to share relatively homogeneous concerns, and therefore sharing the same digital culture regardless of the GLOBE cultural cluster to which they belong.

Golf courses in the Czech Republic: Analysis of the development and socio-economic characteristics

Journal Paper
SLÁMA, Jiří, STEJSKALOVÁ, Irena, KINCL, Tomáš, BYSTŘICKÝ, Václav, KVÍTEK, Tomáš, FIALOVÁ, Dana, ŠTYCH, Přemysl
Land Use Policy, Vol. 99, ISSN: 0264-8377
Publication year: 2020

This paper aims to analyze selected socio-economic aspects of golf courses (GC[s]) in the Czech Republic (CR). The analysis strives to determine what aspects affect the development and dynamics of the golf market. The analysis revealed that the construction and development of the GCs are related to the socio[HYPHEN]economic type of territory. Most GCs are built in the developed areas (65), followed by a stabilized area (44), while only three GCs lie in peripheral areas. The GCs differ in the variety of services provided to the players. Based on the cluster analysis, The GCs fall into three various groups, where the first cluster comprises standard playgrounds, whereas the third cluster includes rather luxurious properties, which is also reflected in the quality and variety of the services provided. The subsequent economic analysis unfolded that the costs exceeded revenues for approximately 60% of the analyzed GCs resulting in a negative economic result. The loss per hectare (ha) is up to -0.5 million CZK, and for those GCs that are profitable, these gains are only in the tens of thousands CZK. Moreover, the equity of GCs ranges from thousands (at least 1) through hundreds of thousands to millions of CZK (maximum 1.5-2.5). It seems that the motives of the holdings of the GCs are of a different character, i.e., not only financially, but also of a specific nature (owner prestige, depositing money into the assets, other uses of the acquired property and pursuing a sporting interest as a hobby). Although the paper focuses on the Czech GCs, the results could be generalized as the CR golf market is similar to other countries (i.e., saturated, stagnating membership base, low operating profitability, sustainability issues). The conclusions are beneficial not only for GCs owners or managers but also for researches concerned with socio-economic aspects of GC’s construction, development, sustainability, and management.

TV Advertising Reach: Model for Effective Scheduling

Book Chapter
BÍNA, Vladislav, GUNINA, Daria, KINCL, Tomáš.
In: BIGNE, E., ROSENGREN, S. Advances in Advertising Research X: Multiple Touchpoints in Brand Communication [online]. Wiesbaden : Gabler Verlag, 2019, s. 215–228. 240 s. European Advertising Academy. ISBN 978-3-658-24877-2. eISBN 978-3-658-24878-9. ISSN 2626-0328. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-24878-9_17.
Publication year: 2019

Moderní marketingová komunikace. 2. zcela přepracované vyd.

Book Chapter
PŘIKRYLOVÁ, Jana, ŠTRACH, Pavel, JADERNÁ, Eva, KINCL, Tomáš, VELINOV, Emil.
Praha : Grada Publishing, 2019. 328 s. ISBN 978-80-271-0787-2.
Publication year: 2019

Improving Sentiment Analysis Performance on Morphologically Rich Languages: Language and Domain Independent Approach

Journal Paper
KINCL, Tomáš, NOVÁK, Michal, PŘIBIL, Jiří
Computer Speech & Language, Vol. 56, p. 36-51 ISSN: 0885-2308
Publication year: 2019

Sentiment analysis has become a phenomenon with the proliferation of social media and the popularity of opinion-rich resources such as online reviews and blogs. Even though significant advances have been achieved in this field, there are still some major challenges to be addressed – i.e. sentiment analysis in multiple languages or thematic domains. Only a few studies have focused on minor or morphologically rich languages. Moreover, it is a question of whether the results of sentiment analysis could be further improved by incorporating the surrounding context (local or chronological) of the analyzed document. This paper presents a language- and domain-independent sentiment analysis model based on character n-grams which improves the classifiers performance by utilizing surrounding context.

Four experiments on various datasets were conducted in order to validate the model. The datasets included a reference corpus containing movie reviews in English, movie reviews in the Czech language, the bestselling Amazon book of 2012 Fifty Shades of Grey novel reviews dataset from three Amazon language mutations (English, German, and French), another reference corpus containing Amazon reviews in multiple languages (German, French, and Japanese), and a multi-domain dataset (movies, books, and product categories ranging from electronics and home appliances to sports gear and supplies for hobbies and pets).

The experiments confirmed the approach of incorporating the surrounding context in order to be effective for datasets from various languages and domains, suggesting a strong performance of a character n-gram based model for multi-domain and language datasets as well. A simple all-in-one classifier, which uses a mixture of labeled data from multiple languages (or domains) to train a sentiment classification model, may rival more sophisticated domain/language adaptation techniques. Such an approach reflects the needs of companies – with the interconnectedness of today’s world, most companies operate across multiple markets and would find it difficult to obtain a specific sentiment analysis solution for each market they serve.

Reklama na českém trhu: Analýza souvislosti mezi emocionálními apely a barvami

Journal Paper
KINCL, Tomáš, GUNINA, Daria, ŠULDOVÁ, Sabina
Logos Polytechnikos [online]. 2018, Vol. 3, Iss. 3, p. 36–48. ISSN 1804-3682.
Publication year: 2018

Odezvu spotřebitele na reklamu ovlivňuje celá řada aspektů. Mezi nejvýznamnější se řadí užité barvy a emocionální apely. Využití barev a emocionálních apelů se přitom může lišit v závislosti na tom, do kterého odvětví či produktové skupiny nabízený produkt/ služba patří. Stejně tak lze k podpoře různých emocionálních apelů využít odlišných barevných schémat. V rámci tohoto výzkumu
je analyzován výzkumný vzorek reklamních spotů vysílaných v České republice v roce 2016. Výzkumný vzorek zahrnuje 200 reklamních spotů na základě náhodného stratifikovaného výběru, kde stratami jsou v tomto smyslu produktové kategorie NACE, které reprezentují 90 % všech odvysílaných reklam. Hlavním cílem tohoto výzkumu je analyzovat využití emocionálních apelů v televizní reklamě, dílčím cílem je dále prozkoumat závislost využití barev pro vyjádření různých emocionálních apelů.  Výsledky indikují, že existují statisticky významné rozdíly ve využití emocionálních
apelů v reklamách inzerujících produkty náležející do různých produktových kategorií. U kategorie potravin a nápojů jsou častěji využity apely jako humor a vřelost, více než v jiných produktových kategoriích jsou ale také zastoupeny informativní reklamní spoty, které emocionálních apelů nevyužívají vůbec. U kategorie dalšího zpracovatelského průmyslu jsou významně více využívány apely jako humor a strach, naopak mnohem méně je využíváno apelu erotiky. Peněžnictví a pojišťovnictví často užívá v reklamních spotech humoru, překvapivě v oblasti kultury jsou významně zastoupeny reklamy, které sází na jiné techniky než využití emocionálních apelů. Statisticky významné rozdíly byly nalezeny i ve využití barev k vyjádření různých emocionálních apelů. Barvami
erotiky jsou černá a červená, strach bývá vyjádřen za přítomnosti rovněž červené, ale také bílé a zelené barvy. Pro vyjádření humoru se používá překvapivě šedivá barva, dále pak červená, fialová či
bílá. Vřelost bývá vyjadřována zemitou hnědou, ale také růžovou, či překvapivě šedivou.

Modeling of Symmetric and Asymmetric Advertising Scheduling Strategies

Conference Paper
NOVÁK, Michal, BÍNA, Vladislav, KINCL, Tomáš
In: The 8th Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy. Valencia, 25.06.2018 – 27.06.2018. Valencia : Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy (GIKA), 2018. 12 p. ISBN 978-84-09-00253-5.
Publication year: 2018

Mass Media Communication & Companies’ Market Position: The Case of Czech Mortgage Market

Journal Paper
GUNINA, Daria, NOVÁK, Michal, KINCL, Tomáš, KOMÁRKOVÁ, Lenka
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia [online]. 2018, Vol. 26, Iss. 2, p. 41–55
Publication year: 2018

The study analyses mass media communication by mortgage lenders in the Czech market and builds on Kotler’s competitive strategies concept and aims to answer the question of whether there is a relationship between the mortgage lenders’ market position and their mass media communication profile. Furthermore, it analyses the mass media communication of mortgage lenders according to their financial performance. The analysis utilizes complete monitoring data from the mass media market in the Czech Republic. As a result of this study, the different advertising patterns of the market leaders and challengers on a highly commoditised market are shown. Market leaders do not utilise defensive strategies to protect their market shares but employ more offensive strategies to increase the size of the market. Market challengers have no resources to implement a massive and offensive communication strategy to challenge the market leaders.
Such a conclusion contributes to the debate on communication strategies for distinct types of companies according to their position on the market and their market share.

Managerial Planning: How Scheduling Influences TV Advertising Effectiveness

Journal Paper
GUNINA, Daria, BÍNA, Vladislav, KINCL, Tomáš
Economy and Market Communication Review. 2018. Vol. 8, Iss. 2, p. 188–200. ISSN 2232- 8823.
Publication year: 2018

The purpose of this research is to analyze the scheduling factors and their influence on TV advertising effectiveness. We deployed a quantitative approach based on a complete data set of advertisements aired on Czech TV in 2016 and 2017 for constructing a regression model. In contrast to several previous studies, our findings indicate that most analyzed variables have only a negligible influence (length of the spot, length of the break, number of spots, position in the break, category, a day of the week, week, year, and interaction of week and year) on TV advertising exposure, while only the type of programme, daypart and TV channel show a relevant impact on advertising exposure.

Gender Differences in Online Customer Satisfaction: The Asymmetric and Nonlinear Effect

Journal Paper
KINCL, Tomáš, ŠTRACH, Pavel
Services Marketing Quarterly. 2018, Vol. 39, Iss. 3, p. 157–174. ISSN 1533-2969. DOI: 10.1080/15332969.2018.1471954.
Publication year: 2018

The article aims to determine the extent of gender-related differences in user satisfaction with websites with a focus on the asymmetric and nonlinear effects of customer satisfaction. An experiment was conducted with 15 men and 15 women who undertook a typical task (scenario) on 44 websites. Overall, 1,320 evaluations of website quality attributes were obtained and analyzed. The results reveal that men and women differ in their website quality assessment. Marketing professionals should consider their target audience’s gender when designing a quality website, or even devise ways of approaching both gender groups through distinct means.

Usage of colors in TV commercials: cross-industry analysis of mass media communications

Journal Paper
GUNINA, Daria, KINCL, Tomáš, ŠULDOVÁ, Sabina
Communications [online]. 2017, Vol. 19, Iss. 4, p. 64–71. ISSN 1335-4205
Publication year: 2017

The aim of this study is to analyze the differences in color schemes in TV commercials across different product categories. The study answers the question of whether advertisers in different industries use specific color schemes to promote their company or products in TV commercials and if they follow the general recommendations for using colors in marketing communications. The research sample consists of 200 video adverts proportionally representing the commercials aired in six major product categories in the Czech Republic in 2016. The results indicate there is no statistically significant difference in the usage of colors between the product categories. Nevertheless, the advertisers in the Czech Republic generally follow the color scheme recommendations suggested by the theory.

Reklamní trh v ČR: analýza mediální proliferace

Journal Paper
GUNINA, Daria, KINCL, Tomáš
Logos Polytechnikos [online]. 2017, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, p. 27–43. ISSN 1804-3682.
Publication year: 2017

Článek analyzuje vliv proliferace médií na vývoj reklamního trhu v masmédiích v ČR v letech 2010–2016. Pro naplnění cílů je využito dat z kompletního monitoringu českého reklamního prostoru a deskriptivní analýza pracuje s ukazateli: celkový počet mediálních kanálů v rámci mediatypu, celkový počet a celkový objem reklamních sdělení v rámci mediatypu, celkový počet a celkový objem reklamních sdělení v rámci mediatypu, suma investic do reklamního prostoru v rámci mediatypu, průměrné investice na jednom kanálu, průměrná cena za jedno reklamní sdělení a průměrná cena za sekundu reklamního prostoru (pro TV a rozhlas).
Výsledky ukazují, že jednotlivá masmédia reagují na proliferaci odlišně. U televize krátkodobě došlo k propadu a rozmělnění poptávky mezi narůstající počet nových kanálů. V delším období ale počet reklam rostl více než dvojnásobně v porovnání s celkovým dostupným reklamním prostorem, za současného snižování ceny reklamního prostoru. U rádia se prostor nabízený českými stanicemi příliš nezměnil, přesto objem reklam vzrostl o čtvrtinu. Cena reklamního prostoru kolísala, suma investic do reklamy však vykazovala stabilní rostoucí trend. V oblasti tisku i přes masivní nárůst počtu titulů došlo k propadu poptávky po reklamním prostoru. Vydavatelé se propad snažili kompenzovat zejména nárůstem ceny reklamního prostoru. Proliferace masmediálního trhu byla pozitivním jevem zejména pro inzerenty a projevila se zejména vyšší přístupností reklamního trhu. Rovněž vedla k narovnání trhu a ke zmenšení rozdílů mezi jednotlivými poskytovateli reklamního prostoru.

Sentiment Classification in Multiple Languages: Fifty Shades of Customer Opinions

Conference Paper
KINCL, Tomáš, NOVÁK, Michal, PŘIBIL, Jiří
In: Business Challenges in the Changing Economic Landscape - Vol. 2 - Proceedings of the 14th Eurasia Business and Economics Society Conference. Barcelona, Spain, October 23-25, 2014. Cham : Springer International Publishing, 2016, s. 267–275. ISBN 978-3-319-22593-7
Publication year: 2016

Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing task where the goal is to classify the sentiment polarity of the expressed opinions, although the aim to achieve the highest accuracy in sentiment classification for one particular language, does not truly reflect the needs of business. Sentiment analysis is often used by multinational companies operating on multiple markets. Such companies are interested in consumer opinions about their products and services in different countries (thus in different languages). However, most of the research in multi-language sentiment classification simply utilizes automated translation from minor languages to English (and then conducting sentiment analysis for English). This paper aims to contribute to the multi-language sentiment classification problem and proposes a language independent approach which could provide a good level of classification accuracy in multiple languages without using automated translations or language-dependent components (i.e. lexicons). The results indicate that the proposed approach could provide a high level of sentiment classification accuracy, even for multiple languages and without the language dependent components.

Industry analysis of TV commercials: Do companies reflect audience profiles?

Journal Paper
NOVÁK, Michal, KINCL, Tomáš, LUŠTICKÝ, Martin
Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, Vol. 17, Iss. 3, p. 187–200. ISSN 1746-0166
Publication year: 2016

The purpose of the article is to explore one of the Cental and East European media markets to determine whether different audience profiles reflect the various industry structures of the commercials aired. The article is based on data from a complete television (TV) commercials data set (n=2,303,435) from 2013. The results indicate that there are only minor differences between TV channels while audience targeting is only implemented by a very few thematic channels. The article contributes to media marketing management research by showing that the differences in the distribution of commercials among different TV channels are smaller than expected.

Language-Independent Sentiment Analysis with Surrounding Context Extension

Conference Paper
KINCL, Tomáš, NOVÁK, Michal, PŘIBIL, Jiří, ŠTRACH, Pavel
In: Social Computing and Social Media: 7th International Conference, SCSM 2015, Held as Part of HCI International 2015, Los Angeles, CA, USA, August 2-7, 2015. Berlin : Springer International Publishing, 2015, s. 158–168. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9182, Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI, Social Computing and Social Media. ISBN 978-3-319-20366-9
Publication year: 2015

Expressing attitudes and opinions towards various entities (i.e. products, companies, people and events) has become pervasive with the recent proliferation of social media. Monitoring of what customers think is a key task for marketing research and opinion surveys, while measuring customers’ preferences or media monitoring have become a fundamental part of corporate activities. Most experiments on automated sentiment analysis focus on major languages (English, but also Chinese); minor or morphologically rich languages are addressed rather sparsely. Moreover, to improve the performance of machine-learning based classifiers, the models are often complemented with language-dependent components (i.e. sentiment lexicons). Such combined approaches provide a high level of accuracy but are limited to a single language or a single thematic domain.
This paper aims to contribute to this field and introduces an experiment utilizing a language– and domain– independent model for sentiment analysis. The model has been previously tested on multiple corpora, providing a trade-off between generality and the classification performance of the model. In this paper, we suggest a further extension of the model utilizing the surrounding context of the classified documents.