نادر سیدامیری

To achieve the full potential of digital transformation, retail companies must use digital platforms to drive significant innovation in the retail industry. Millions of people participate in retail platforms. But a holistic model that explains the formation of consumer value co-creation intentions in such platforms is less available. Considerable research points to the proactive roles consumers play in the creation of value for companies. The concept of co-creation was an extension of the idea. Developed by researchers interested in user driven product innovation. As the co-creation efforts they studied demonstrated impressive increases in value, the phenomenon garnered considerable attention outside the innovation field in which it spread to marketing and, more recently, to branding. In the case of branding, co-creation expands to embrace other stakeholders than consumers. Merz and Vargo, Christodoulides and Gregory have all equated co-creation with the era of stakeholder-focused branding, with Merz and Vargo calling co-creation ‘a new brand logic’. Meanwhile, Ind and Bjerke defined stakeholder participation in brand co-creation as an issue of brand governance, largely because it implies that organizations share control over their brands with stakeholders. These studies indicate that co-creation resonates with an ever-increasing number of scholars who take the view that brand meaning and value(s) emerge from stakeholder engagement with a company. However, in spite of the importance these researchers place on considering all stakeholders to be co-creators, the only stakeholder groups branding researchers have empirically examined thus far have been consumers and marketers. Thus, the work of describing how brands are co-created with their stakeholders has barely begun. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a holistic model that explains the formation of customers' value co-creation intentions in Iranian retail platforms.

Since these indicators have a large measurement error, using a conventional regression model may lead to an estimation error. As a result, the structural equation approach, which is able to process measurement errors in addition to determining the structural relationships between hidden variables, is a more suitable option for the present study. Therefore, in order to analyze the data, Smart PLS software and the method of structural equations were chosen.

Relying on the relationship quality theory literature, value co-creation literature and relationship marketing literature, we proposed a theoretical model that explains the formation of customers' value co-creation intentions. We analyzed empirical data collected from 101 customers on the Digikala platform using structural equation modeling and confirmed 7 out of 10 hypotheses.

The results show that in retail platform, trust and satisfaction influence value co-creation intentions, however, commitment does not influence value co-creation intentions. Our study contributes to the sharing economy literature by providing a comprehensive model of the antecedents of consumers' value co-creation intentions.

Over the recent years, the concept of customer engagement has emerged as a focal point in marketing research. Despite the increasing interest in this concept, there is a lack of a comprehensive body of research in this area. Additionally, existing research in this field has focused on small segments rather than taking a holistic view of customer engagement literature. Furthermore, different theoretical perspectives have led to a fragmented theory. In light of this gap, the present study aims to delineate the evolutionary trajectory of customer engagement literature and outline the knowledge structure of the field, providing a comprehensive perspective.

The type of research in this study is qualitative in terms of data nature, applied in terms of purpose, and bibliometric in terms of data collection. The bibliometric method, as a practical application of mathematical and statistical methods, serves to identify the intellectual trajectories of scholars within a field. It also illuminates the structures and underlying framework of knowledge, highlighting their interrelationships. This approach offers an unbiased perspective for researchers. All analyses were conducted using R programming languages. The algorithms employed included thematic analysis, correspondence analysis, clustering algorithms, and co-occurrence analysis of words.

The study identified the most influential authors and journals within the period spanning 2009 to 2022. The most active and influential author in this field is Ms. Hollubeek. Additionally, the journal "Business Research" with a frequency of 41 has the highest number of published articles. The majority of publications are attributed to the United States, Australia, and China. The most frequently occurring words related to customer engagement are customer satisfaction, behavior, impact, and scale development metrics. Furthermore, the results indicate that the majority of research in the field of customer engagement focuses on social media marketing and brand loyalty. Additionally, based on co-occurrence analysis, three clusters of words related to the concepts of engagement and its metrics in social networks, preconditions for customer engagement, recommendation marketing, and the effects of social networks on customer behavior were extracted. This study also provides a comprehensive insight into marketing and brand managers by identifying the main themes of customer engagement. Moreover, the direction and trends of customer engagement shed light on a range of strategic opportunities that can be used by brand managers as a competitive advantage.

Based on the results of the histogram mapping, three main pathways of scholars in this field were elucidated. The first one focuses on the customer-centric approach for organizations. From this perspective, organizations should delegate some control to the customer and provide them with incentives, effectively making the customer the marketer of the company. The second pathway has reached its peak with the emergence of social networks and interactions between organization-customer and customer-customer. A wide range of research in the areas of brand community, engagement metrics, and engagement drivers, including content type, customer attitude, industry, and behavior, are encompassed in this pathway. The last one is service dominance. Based on this, engagement is defined as the interaction and creative experiences of the customer with the brand. This pathway is rapidly evolving from a micro to macro perspective and new research is likely to focus on all actors in a service eco-system.

Many studies depict marketing, particularly branding, as one of the challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although branding ranks as a top priority for SMEs, they tend to concentrate more on day-to-day activities like sales rather than on branding endeavors. Consequently, brand management often does not receive high priority among SMEs. Despite the crucial role of branding in SME growth, scant attention has been devoted to it in the literature. Therefore, there is a need for greater focus on branding in SME literature, given its significance in customer outreach, sustainability, and resource utilization. The brand serves as a strategic resource generated within the company, capable of enhancing the company's vision and capabilities and facilitating logical and emotional interactions with customers. Hence, the efficacy of branding strategies hinges on the advantages offered by the brand itself. Given that branding in SMEs remains a relatively underexplored research area, this study aims to contribute new empirical data, particularly in the book industry, to address this gap.On the other hand, while it is evident that branding plays a pivotal role in the success of many businesses, particularly in developing countries like Iran, limited research has been conducted, especially concerning the acquisition and selection of branding strategies in SMEs. Therefore, this research seeks to design entrepreneurial branding strategies tailored to the dynamic capabilities of SMEs in the publishing industry, focusing on areas where knowledge is lacking.

The research adopts a qualitative approach, employing a multiple case study strategy to investigate businesses in the book publishing industry. Given that the unit of analysis is at the company level, the study's statistical population comprises active managers and founders with experience in branding and brand management within the Tehran book publishing industry. Data collection involved the use of an interview protocol with the event-based STAR method. Additionally, multiple data sources, including interviews, documents, evidence, and observation, were utilized. Purposeful sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved, ensuring that the obtained information was nearly exhaustive. This saturation was reached after the 14th interview, and to bolster research reliability, semi-structured interviews continued until the 20th interview. The interviews lasted approximately 60 to 120 minutes each. The thematic analysis method was employed to analyze the interview data, with coding performed using Atlas.ti software version 7. The validity and reliability of the coded themes were confirmed through qualitative research validation methods, including review by two coders and peer review, resulting in a validity score of 74%, considered highly desirable according to Chin (1998).

The data obtained from participant interviews were coded using the thematic analysis method as follows: Initial Codes: The researchers initially familiarized themselves with the interview text, identifying basic content and creating initial codes such as copyright infringement, limited book genres, and uniformity across departments.Selective Coding and Theme Creation: Codes with semantic and conceptual affinity were grouped together to form main and sub-themes, generating new meanings and words.Theme Definition and Naming: Main themes were introduced and explained, highlighting the aspects of the data each theme encompassed. Five essential steps and two internal and external components influencing entrepreneurial branding in SMEs were identified based on interviews and documents. These steps include "Triggers of Idea Generation," "Paths of Brand Idea Generation," "Brand Concept Formation," "Brand Evaluation," and "Brand Exploitation and Development."

The process of entrepreneurial branding in SMEs comprises five main steps and two components that influence branding and capability emergence throughout this process. The first step involves primary triggers in ideation to enter the business world, followed by the creation of an idea path through accidental discovery, deliberate search, or legacy. Subsequently, the brand concept is formed, evolving through brand identity and brand imagery. The fourth step entails brand evaluation, measured through desirability and feasibility, leading to brand exploitation and development, where entrepreneurs translate thoughts into action, creating and developing brand-based businesses. This process is influenced by internal components such as human resource characteristics and manager/brand owner personality, as well as external factors like industry and market characteristics and legal and socio-demographic environments. The entrepreneurial process is inherently embedded within the social and environmental context of the entrepreneur.

ObjectiveIn the past decade, with the emergence of financial technology startups known as "FinTech", economic models and traditional market activity in the field of financial services underwent a complete transformation, and traditional approaches gave way to new ideas of providing financial services using various technologies. Nowadays, despite the influential role of fintechs in the digital economy of every country and the necessity of their survival for the economic stability and media transparency of countries, research conducted in the existing literature is not rich enough. They rarely model the process that fintechs should be in order to survive and most of the studies related to this field have dealt with other issues such as factors affecting survival. This is in a situation where due to the emerging nature of fintech ecosystem services and their flexible and evolving nature, and also the complexity and multi-dimensionality of their field of activity with the momentary changes of customers' tastes and needs, entrepreneurs are confronting many challenges in order to master all matters. On the other hand, the emerging fintech ecosystem has also created many gaps in regulatory activities, and the country's legislative system has not yet found a mature approach to this ecosystem and has become an obstacle to the survival, growth and development of startups by imposing cumbersome laws. In this situation, the survival of fintech startups is exposed to a high risk, since due to the high number of financial transactions in fintechs, in case of ignorance of the ways to maintain survival, the damages caused by their failure will bring on serious damage to the economic body of the country. As there is still lack of sufficient documented experience for survival in the field of digital financial services, newcomers and owners of fintech startups providing financial platforms need to know the process preventing their startup from failing. Therefore, the issue of this research is the lack of transparency of the fintech platforms’ success path in order to provide financial services and play the media role, and also not knowing the steps of the process that must be taken for survival. Considering the high rate of exit and unsustainability of businesses in Iran, it is necessary to look for a model to reduce the failure rate of active startups in the country. This is why the present article intends to design a model using the experience of successful fintechs that have survived in the early years of their activity to introduce the process that leads to survival with a prescriptive approach. The purpose of choosing this topic is to identify the mechanism of implementation of solutions to increase the survival chance of fintech platforms and to obtain a process model to provide recommendations and solutions to reduce the probability of startups’ failure in order to create knowledge about the survival process of startups and also to present the steps that should be taken to maintain survival.Research MethodologyThe method of this research is qualitative and of the multiple case study type by in-depth interview used to collect data from 18 senior managers of successful fintechs. By coding the data in the first cycle and the second cycle, the main structures of this process model were designed and for each stage, recommendations and prescriptions were obtained which defines the path to achieve fintechs’ survival. To validate the model, four criteria were used to confirm its scientific accuracy: 1) credibility 2) reliability 3) verifiability and 4) transferability.To validate the model using reliability, after the initial design of the process model, it was again controlled and reviewed by all participants, and the research model was modified based on the feedback. In addition, in order to ensure the accuracy of the research, the entire process of doing the work was reviewed by colleagues and the final result was modified based on the feedback. Also, to increase credibility, the participants in the research sample were selected with the maximum variety of experience.To validate the model using reliability, in this research, the researcher used the first and second cycle coding, and the reliability of the research has been increased with the direct quotes of the interviewees and their exact words. In addition, one of the ways to increase reliability is to control the mental biases of the researcher during data collection, in this research, during the interviews, an external observer was used to carefully check the data in order to reduce biases and increase the stability of the research.To validate the model using verifiability, in this research, in order to track the progress of the research and provide the possibility of auditing the research by the audience and readers, all the stages of research and data collection have been fully described so that the progress process from beginning to end be fully traceable.To validate the model using transferability, increasing the transferability criterion and generalizing the research results in other fintechs, interviews were conducted from the maximum diversity of the studied companies by choosing from different types of fintech.In this research, this model has been tried to be a process that can be used for newcomers of fintech so that they can take the necessary steps to increase the survival of fintech by sharing the experience of successful entrepreneurs and transferring the concepts of the model to the activity platform of newcomers and those who intend to launch their own platform. Also, one of the ways to increase the transferability is to increase the suitability of the data with the environment of study, which can be investigated by providing more details regarding the participants and the characteristics of the environment. In this research, the information related to the statistical population of the research and the research sample is stated in general, and in the section of presenting the research results, the proposal for the design and development of this model in fields other than fintech is also presented.FindingsTo clarify the process in which fintechs, as a financial medium, must go through to guaranty their survival, this article has designed a process model using the experience of successful fintechs that have been active for more than 42 months. The stages of this model have five phases: prerequisite, embryonic, breeding, launching and growth, and each phase has more detailed structures and stages that are included in the appendix of the model with necessary recommendations for each stage. In the theoretical contribution of this research, an attempt has been made to change the way entrepreneurs look at the concept of survival by relying on the experience of experts and the designed model, and the most important theoretical contribution of this research is to change the way of looking at failure and survival. Failure means gaining experience and it is a stage of success that should lead to accurate learning and not repeating mistakes. Fast decision-making is the key to survival in the dynamic and turbulent environment of the fintech ecosystem. Based on the designed model, the entrepreneur must first be alert to the changes in his environment by continuously monitoring the environment in order to catch opportunities and follow up the design and development of the product and business at the same time because in fintech, the product and the business are interdependent and not separate from each other. The type of entrepreneur's viewpoint on moderation in the amount of innovation, the type of communication with big and long-standing competitors, as well as the way of interacting with regulators and supervisory bodies are among the other findings of this research in the analysis of the collected data.Discussion & ConclusionAccording to the survival model of fintech platforms, in the process of identifying opportunities for fintech startups, the entrepreneur should monitor the environment by relying on his previous experience and skills to identify, evaluate, screen and select suitable opportunities for exploitation. For the conceptual design of the product, based on the needs of customers and existing priorities, ideation, design and development of the initial concept and its evaluation should be done in order to choose the best possible product concept. The product development process is a cycle of producing, measuring and learning, during which the prototype produced is tested for a small group of customers and the necessary modifications are made based on the feedback to be ready to be presented in the market. With the formation of founders’ team, the business concept should be designed based on the vision and mission of the company. To achieve this purpose, it is necessary to identify the target customers and their needs by studying the market and its segmentation, and by analyzing the competition situation in the market, design a business model. In case the business model would not meet the needs of the market and offer products, then it is necessary to study the market again and go through this process. In order to expand the business, company strategies should be developed, financial model should be defined, services should be priced, suppliers and possible risks, geographic location, company size and marketing methods should be determined based on the designed business concept in order to have a business plan. If this business plan is not suitable for business development and is not scalable and repeatable, you should revise the strategies and go through this process again. Another special feature of this model is the synchronization of product design and development and business design and development. In fintech platforms, business is not a separate concept from the product, and these two stages must go in accordance with each other and at the same time. To set up the company, it is necessary to develop customers and form functional departments and try to attract capital, develop infrastructure, and solve legal issues by using professional consultants after providing the basic physical facilities and recruiting the necessary forces. For the commercialization and growth of the company, it is necessary to implement marketing plans on a larger scale, grow by networking and interacting with regulators, increase the size of its market share, and by continuously monitoring the changes in the national and international environment, be ready to review and rotate the previous steps related to the product and business to make appropriate reactions. Therefore, the findings of this research show that in order to maintain the survival of their platforms, fintechs must go through a process in a targeted, scalable, repeatable and iterative way in order to face competitors, sector regulators, suppliers and customers, constantly able to adapt to new conditions and use the opportunities. For this purpose, the media role of fintechs will be the lever of their power in streamlining to provide new technology-based services.

Service ecosystem is a broad concept that has been considered by researchers in the last decade, but little effort has been made to conceptualize it so far. The purpose of this research is to expand the understanding of service ecosystem research fields. Also, it is the recognition of the knowledge base of service ecosystems that can be useful for policy makers and researchers. The methodology is one of the systematic review qualitative research methods, namely the bibliometric analysis method, which has been used. This research is classified as descriptive research; Because the purpose of bibliometric research is to describe and expand the scope of knowledge. Data collection is done using quantitative and qualitative tools such as co-citation analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis with the help of BibExcel software. The studied community is the Scopus information resource system, which has been considered from the beginning of 2004 to the end of 2021. The research findings show the conceptual development of issues in service ecosystems over time by providing a conceptual framework that has received little attention so far. These concepts include service ecosystem Antecedents (prior experience, user attitude, and service readiness), service ecosystem levels (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem), and finally, service ecosystem outcomes (social approaches, systematic value co-creation, and performance) that propose a forward-looking research framework for policy-makers, and researchers.

Today, the use of advertising in marketing research has become increasingly important, so the use of multi-sensory marketing in online retail advertising can increase the effectiveness of advertising. The focus of previous research in the field of sensory marketing has been on monosensory (visual) channels and due to increasing consumer awareness of advertising a product, product consumption and inattention of suppliers to this type of marketing has been used less than other senses. Therefore, the present study examines the two senses of visual and aidtion at the same time. This research, in proportion to the purpose, is an applied research and due to its nature, it is a descriptive research that in descriptive research, the intended society can be explored and studied through a survey and correlation method. The statistical population of the research has been unlimited and has been one of the consumers of online retail. The final sample size of 400 retail consumers was selected by cluster random sampling. The required data were collected using a distributed questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics techniques such as structural equation modeling and standard regression coefficient (β). Findings showed that multi-sensory marketing mediated by the attitude to advertising has a positive effect on the effectiveness of advertising and marketers can use multi-sensory marketing to create feelings and emotions for consumers to enjoy product advertising can influence their attitudes and purchasing behavior. This in turn will make advertising more effective in the online retail industry.

Given the importance of digital content marketing, and the scattered knowledge in the body of literature, this study seeks to take a comprehensive look at the factors influencing the digital content marketing process in order to engage the consumer with the brand on social media. With the help of the Bibliometrix package of R and VOSviewer software, the science performance and the scientific network were recognized and mapped. Classifying five main clusters in the co-citation analysis, theories, contexts, and main constructs of the field were identified. The recent trends were identified using co-occurrence analysis.  Finally, the achieved results were presented within a conceptual framework. The most common antecedents and consequences of digital content marketing were presented together with the contexts.

Bibliometric systematic review has been used to identify and analyze thematic trends in digital content marketing and brand engagement scopes. In fact, bibliometric analysis is a specific scientific field that examines the evolution of knowledge, scientific quality, and the impact of resources in this field from an objective and quantitative perspective. The bibliometric method generally has two main parts: (1) performance analysis and (2) intellectual mapping of science. In the section on performance analysis, the actions of authors, countries, and scientific institutes as well as their contribution to scientific development in a specific field are examined, while knowledge maps are used to identify the intellectual structure of the field and examine time trends and current issues in each period.

In the performance analysis, the most-cited countries, authors, and articles were identified. The United States, China, and the United Kingdom were the most outstanding countries in this field. In the co-citation analysis, five main clusters were identified and the main constructs of each cluster were extracted along with important theories, contexts, and methods. With the help of these constructs, the antecedents and consequences of the digital content marketing process were presented. Co-occurrence analysis recognized new trends in this field to complete the framework.

Based on the ADO-TCM framework, five important antecedents of the digital content marketing process were introduced: social media characteristics, source characteristics, content characteristics, consumer characteristics, and online community characteristics. Consumer participation or non-participation is a behavioral decision that originates from the digital content marketing process, which ultimately leads to brand engagement as the output of the process. Finally, culture and artificial intelligence were introduced as important contexts to facilitate this process.

Today's social media and social networking sites (SNS) have had a significant impact on how people receive information and news. A recent report from the Pew Research Center shows that most adults in the United States rely heavily on social media for news, and that number has been increasing in recent years. These new sources of information also mean that people are now exposed to a large number of commercials on a daily basis, most of which are embedded in social networks. In the meantime, we are facing the phenomenon of social influence. Social influence is a concept that includes a wide range of phenomena such as socialization, obedience, compliance, conformity and persuasion. This concept refers to the process of changing opinions, attitudes and behaviors as a result of interacting with people around us. Currently, a large part of social interactions takes place in online environments where social influence processes occur. The convergence of collective and interpersonal communication, which is characteristic of online communication and especially social media, helps to increase the complexity of social influence processes. Technological capabilities have dramatically changed the traditional communication approach in terms of message control, audience scale, source ambiguity, receiver ambiguity, and temporal ambiguity, and as a result, have affected the process of social influence. In addition, today, the emergence and popularity of social networks has led to a change in consumers' media consumption and the means of communication between customers and brands have undergone fundamental changes. Currently, many brands, including retail brands and consumer goods, clothing, tourism, beauty products, etc., use different social media platforms, and many of them have added social media to their marketing strategies. Social media are considered to be an effective way to attract new customers and retain customers, because they rely on the users’ generated data, which are considered more reliable than the content available on the official websites of companies. These social networks are able to create real connections between users and brands, which has a positive effect on the performance results of brands. The ability to use these social networks in marketing actions has made them one of the research priorities of the marketing field. Among the most popular social network platforms is Instagram, which has the fastest growing number of users among social networks. This social network has succeeded in attracting the attention of social network users by continuously providing new and attractive features. One of Instagram's recent actions has been providing special capabilities for businesses so that these businesses can easily use this social network to achieve their business goals.Social media influencers act as digital opinion leaders, observers, and strategic communication actors on various social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok. Influencers' embedded advertising messages are often seen as honest opinions, so they are highly persuasive. In addition, influencers and their groups of followers are involved in a mediated relationship, and there is evidence that the quality of this relationship affects the effectiveness of influencers' advertising messages. Horton and Wohl have called this relationship a para-social relationship, which is intended to be an illusory close relationship between the audience and the media personality. Given the significance of influencer marketing, and the diffused knowledge in the body of literature, this study attempts to take a comprehensive look at the agents influencing the para-social relationships process to enhance the effectiveness of influencer marketing on social media. With the help of the Bibliometrix® package of R and VOSviewer software, the science performance and the scientific network were discussed and mapped. By showing four main clusters in the co-citation analysis, theories, contexts, and main constructs of the field were identified, and by co-occurrence analysis, the recent trends were identified, which all eventually presented in the conceptual framework. The most common antecedents and consequences of influencer marketing were presented together with contexts.

Bibliometric systematic review has been applied to identify and analyze thematic trends in para-social relationships and influencer marketing scopes. Bibliometric analysis is a specific scientific field that examines the evolution of knowledge, scientific quality, and the impact of resources in this field from an objective and quantitative perspective. The bibliometric method generally has two main parts: (1) performance analysis and (2) intellectual mapping of science. In the section on performance analysis, the actions of authors, countries, and scientific institutes and their contribution to scientific development in a field are inquired, while knowledge maps are used to recognize the intellectual structure of a field and examine time trends and current issues in each period.

By using co-citation analysis, not only the most influential publications are identified, but also researchers can find thematic clusters. Here, thematic clusters were extracted based on the mentioned publications. With at least 15 Citations, total number of 13258 cited references was considered which results in 84 items (34 in cluster 1, 19 in cluster 2, 16 in cluster3, 15 in cluster 4), 4 clusters, 3388 links and total links strength 18086. In the performance analysis section, the most-cited countries, authors, and articles were identified. The United States, China, and Germany were the most prominent countries in this field. In the co-citation analysis, four main clusters were identified and the main constructs of each cluster were drawn out along with substantial theories, contexts, and methods. With the help of these constructs, the antecedents and consequences of the influencer marketing process were presented. Co-occurrence analysis considered new trends in this field that help to complete the framework.

Based on the ADO-TCM framework, five important antecedents of the influencer marketing process were introduced: influencers’ characteristics, audience characteristics, social media characteristics, content characteristics, and para-social relationships characteristics. Creating and developing para-social relationships is the most important behavioral decision and increasing the effectiveness of influencer marketing is the most important output of the influencer marketing process. Finally, culture and artificial intelligence were introduced as important contexts to facilitate this process that was not seen in the literature. So, the current literature has the ability to develop and grow, at least from a theoretical perspective, because the lack of a comprehensive framework that does not focus on only one element or part of the process and identifies various influential factors of influencer marketing is felt.

This study aimed at identifying the influence of scent and color cues on the affective consumer experience of products in the food e-retailing atmosphere. This investigation was an applied research based on a semi-experimental method (between-subject design). The population included the customers of online food retailers, who were selected through a non-probability sampling method. The sample size was 384 people selected by using Cochran formula.  The data collection instrument was a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Finally, 400 clear questionnaires were collected. The present research was conducted in two parts in such a way that in each part, the subjects viewed the images of the desired products (an orange juice and a cup of coffee) in two groups and answered the questions. For data analysis, the structural equation model was utilized in Smart PLS2. The results of the two parts of the study showed that the congruent background colors of the products and the dynamic product scent imagery had more positive effects on the sensory (vision and olfaction) responses, feelings, and emotions, thus providing affective consumers' experiences of the products in the online retail atmosphere.

The multitude of clothing manufacturers has led to a fully competitive market. Therefore, respective stakeholders are always seeking to increase the attraction and retain committed and loyal customers to their brand in this competitive market. Many clothing manufacturers from other countries are attempting to enhance the attraction and retain loyal Iranian customers through their sales representatives in Iran and understanding how to build constructive communications with their Iranian customers. This study examines the factors affecting the brand attraction and loyalty of Iranian customers to a foreign clothing manufacturer. In fact, the present study aims to investigate the drivers of attraction to the brand and loyalty to a foreign clothing brand, despite the diversity and differences between the two countries, including cultural and social differences. In addition, this research helps local marketers and stakeholders in clothing to attract loyal and committed customers in other countries by identifying the factors affecting loyalty and interest in the brand. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to enrich the brand management literature as well as to investigate the effect of social identity, communication and, product classification on brand interest and brand loyalty.

The present applied research is quantitative and descriptive in terms of data collection (research design). The statistical population of this study includes customers of Benton clothing brand in Tehran and the required data were collected using a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling and SmartPLS3 software (professional version) were used to analyze the data. Accordingly, the model fit is examined in three modes: the measurement model (the reliability of the factor loading of the indicators, the reliability that includes Cronbach's alpha and the combined reliability, and the validity that includes convergent as well as divergent validity), the structural model (determinant coefficient), and the general model (goodness-of-fit index). Structural equation modeling and partial least squares approaches were also implemented to investigate the research hypotheses.

The results have shown that brand loyalty includes three feelings of passion, kindness, and communication. On the other hand, brand loyalty is related to the quality of communication, and any increase in the communication with consumers can lead to improved loyalty and enhanced financial performance. Moreover, the effect of self-expression on brand interest was confirmed in the present study. Self-expression of an activity is related to emotions, which affects brand loyalty by creating dependence and interest in the brand.

Conclusion

According to the findings, social identity indicates the sense of belonging to certain social groups with an individual aspect. Thus, the social identity of social groups is achieved when the person considers himself/herself as a member of a particular group. The results of this study showed that social identity has a positive effect on self-expression. Besides, customers who have experienced brand interest are more likely to participate in a constructive partnership within a brand community. In addition, the results revealed that self-expression is potentially influential in increasing brand interest and encouraging desirable post-purchase behaviors.

The reduction of primary resources and the advancement of technology in the world, tempt the people around the world to share their unused assets through online platforms. Internet has provided an opportunity for users to share their experiences of using these platforms in the form of comments that create brand image in the minds of other users. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of user experience on their tendency to create online content and the impact of this content on creating a brand image of the shared economy platform. In terms of purpose, this study is applied and survey in terms of method. In order to do confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling with Amous 22 software is used. Accordingly, 394 people who used the SNAP platform and have shared their experiences on Instagram were selected randomly and standard questionnaire distributed among them. Research shows that customer experience is an important motivating factor for producing content on Instagram, which leads to creating brand image about a sharing-economy platform.

Today, the existence of media and social networks is the basis for the emergence of social interactions and the exchange of information between customers, as well as with businesses. These interactions, which include EWOM communication, can provide the basis for knowing the needs and demands of the customer, thus creating a common value between the customer and the service provider. The tourism industry, especially the tourism start-ups, is one of the most important issues that need to take advantage of this capacity. Therefore, the main question of this research is What does the effect of EWOM marketing on social networks on value co-creation among the startups of tourism customers? Accordingly, 390 customers of this industry in Tehran were selected through simple random sampling. This research has been carried out with a quantitative approach and in terms of purpose, an applied research and a descriptive-survey method in terms of collecting research data. To analyze the data, in analytical statistics, structural equations modeling technique with Partial Least Squares Approach were used. The results of the research showed that the EWOM marketing has a positive and significant effect on the value co-creation, new service concept innovation, new service process innovation and technological system innovation. Also, the new service process innovation and the technological system innovation have had a positive and significant impact on the value co-creation in the start-ups of tourism.

The corporate social responsibility is a concept that has found a place for itself in the world today, and especially large organizations. The corporate social responsibility is linked to the responsibility of participating in society, the people and the environment in which it operates, and this responsibility extends beyond the economic and financial objectives. As a result of this study, the effect of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty and Brand position considering the mediating variable is the customer value in the tourism companies based in Tehran. This research is descriptive-correlational in terms of purpose, applied and research method. The statistical sample was the visitors of tourism companies based in Tehran in the summer of 1396. The sample size of 200 people is selected through easy and convenient sampling. Data gathering tool was a standard questionnaire. The validity of the convergent and divergent narrative methods was used to assess its validity. From the two criteria, Cronbach's alpha and combined reliability were used. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling using SPSS and PLS software.The results of the research show the positive effect of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty and brand standing, as well as the positive effect of customer value on customer loyalty and brand standing in tourism companies in Tehran. The results also show that customer value is a mediator variable that plays a role in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty and brand position.

Neuroscience is one of the most important methods in analyzing and understanding the consumer purchasing decision process. This study investigated purchase decisions, including two parts of attention and intention to purchase based on price indices and the presence of model using the survey method and the questionnaire tool and quasi-experimental design with an eye-tracking device. For this purpose, a sample consisting of 35 individuals was chosen nonrandom and targeted from the buyers of the LC WAIKIKI brand. Analyzing the data obtained from the questionnaire and tracking the eye movements of participants when buying women's clothing online showed that different levels of price and the presence of a mannequin or model influenced the attention and intention of the individuals. The results showed that significant relationship between price points (different price levels) with 77% on intention and 64% on attention, discounted price compared to competitors with 96% on intention and 75% on attention, price reduction and special tariffs with 62% on intention and with 84% on attention, and finally the presence of mannequin or model with 45% on intention and 52% on attention. Also, the analysis from the survey section showed that concerning the effect of price stimulus and the presence of the model or mannequin, it had a positive impact on individuals’ attention and intention to buy. The results of this study can be used in pricing strategies and as well as advertising marketing strategies, especially advertising in online purchases.

Entrepreneurship ecosystems are a combination of social, political, economic and cultural elements in a region that support the development and growth of startups, encouraging budding entrepreneurs and other actors to accept the risks of starting and financing a business. It is believed that the entrepreneurial economy, achieved through entrepreneurial ecosystem must replace the entrepreneurial policy, Therefore the regional policies for entrepreneurship are currently transitioning from an increase in the amount of entrepreneurship to an increase in the quality of entrepreneurship. The present study aims to identify the entrepreneurial ecosystem of IT startups in South Khorasan. the research has been done in qualitative method using the theme analysis technique. The data were collected through open and semi- structured interviews conducted with a group of IT workers. Primary and secondary themes were identified through examining data. The result of this study revealed the entrepreneurial ecosystem pattern of the IT startups in South Khorasan. Entrepreneurial culture and risk takin, government, market, new knowledge, the specialist human force, infrastructure, financial services, networking and industry are components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem model of south Khorasan. 

The global development of wellness tourism has brought niche entrepreneurial opportunities for tourism planners to develop and diversify the destination market. Meanwhile, Iran enjoys enormous natural and cultural potentials which can attract wellness travelers through proper management and planning. Hence, this article has employed the grounded theory methodology (the emerging approach) to propose a guiding framework for identifying and commercializing entrepreneurial opportunities of wellness tourism in Iran. This aim is pursued through analysis of literature and discussion with related academic and industrial experts. To this end, a qualitative data collection method is adopted, and since the potential participants were limited and hard to find, a combination of targeted and snowball sampling is chosen to conduct extensive in-depth interviews to identify the most important factors engaged in wellness tourism entrepreneurship. Analyzing the gathered data through the manual coding process, the findings of this study show that the factors and components that influence and are engaged in the development of wellness tourism businesses can be covered in four categories; “Macro Business Environment”, “The Wellness Tourism Industry’s Micro-environment”, “Barriers and Challenges of Development”, and “Effects and Consequences-Wellness Tourism Development”. The developmental strategies are categorized under the “Identification and Commercialization Process” (as the core category of the research model), and cover the stages from market identification to the commercialization of wellness products and services, each containing several steps towards sustainable exploitation of wellness business opportunities and especially, wellness tourism entrepreneurship

Despite many potentials in health tourism in Iran, few entrepreneurial behaviors tried to use them. The nexus theory of actor-opportunity suggests that entrepreneurial behaviors result from a suitable combination of actors and the supporting environment. Institutional factors are among the important elements of a supporting context for entrepreneurship. This qualitative research aimed to identify institutional factors that influenced the exploitation of health-tourism opportunities in Tehran province. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and health tourism experts. Interviewees were selected using targeted and snowball methods. This study took place in Tehran, April to July 2015. We introduced four categories of institutional factors: regulatory, normative, cognitive and supportive. These categories form the essential factors for exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities in health tourism in Iran focusing on the capital city of Tehran.

Attracting the competent labor to the current competitive labor market has become one of the main resources of gaining the competitive advantages. This research, emphasizing the interest value (innovation value) to attract the innovative labor, aims to give offers on designing the “employer brand” to organizations of which priorities are presenting innovative products and services to community. This research is descriptive and scanning type in terms of objective, usage and the way of collecting data. Statistical community of the research is 102 persons of staff who were employed in central unit of Shatel organization in Tehran in short time before conducting the research among which 51 persons were chosen randomly as a sample. Questionnaires are the variable measuring tool that a part of them results from Bretton et. al standard questionnaires (2005), Kannex and Freeman 2006 and Bretz and Judge 1994 and the designed part of them is based on existing definitions of the variable. Modeling the structural equations, using software Warp PLS, is the method for data analysis. Results indicate that employer brand, through association, results in creating a favorite image of the organization in the job seeker minds and, feeling the person – organization propriety in mind, the person is attracted by organization.

The companies have to utilize available capacities in start-ups especially those active in E-commerce because of the necessity of aligning with other countries and accessing success in domestic and global markets. However, creation of investing relationship between corporate venture capital and start-ups, requires utilizing strong and correct management. The previous research and models on process VC/CVC investment partly have promoted main factors affecting the formation process of venturing and until now less attention has been paid to present a comprehensive model with whole effective aspects on core investment phenomenon, especially in the developing countries like Iran. So, this paper uses a grounded theory approach and also semi-structured interviews with 13 experts and managers in CVC/VC firms, in order to identify factors influencing on formation process SBV investment in Iran. The obtained findings of the data analysis from interviews are shown by 18 factors classified within six categories including the core phenomenon relates to formation process of SBV investment, causal conditions, contextual and intervening conditions, and consequences. The results of this study totally help active members in ecosystem to create appropriate conditions for correct measurement in VC firms at E-commerce field.

Employees have important roles in the success of service companies and their satisfaction may be a prerequisite for customer's satisfaction. In addition, considering their needs and wants and the responsiveness to them may lead to the development of entrepreneurial orientation in the company. Furthermore, being customer-oriented can lead to concentrating on innovation and to use opportunities proactively. Accordingly, this paper investigates whether internal market orientation has effect on entrepreneurial orientation with mediating role of market orientation in internet service providers (ISPs) in Tehran. For this purpose, a descriptive method was used and 322 questionnaires were distributed between managers and employees of Tehran ISPs chosen by simple random sampling. To analyze data, structural equation modeling with partial least squares by Smart PLS 3 software was used. The results showed that internal market orientation has positive and significant effects on entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation with 0.529 and 0.796 path coefficient values, respectively. The effect of market orientation on entrepreneurial orientation is also confirmed with 0.337 path coefficient value. The results also showed that market orientation plays a partial mediating role between internal market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation with 0.268 path coefficient value. The result of Sobel test also confirms the mediating role of market orientation between internal market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation. Furthermore, the value of VAF statistic equals to 0.336 which shows that about 34 percent of internal market orientation effect on entrepreneurial orientation can be explained through indirect effect of market orientation on this relationship.

In the prevailing competitive environment among software companies, these companie's success in achieving competitive advantage seems unlikely without investing on new ideas and technologies. The process of capturing new ideas, technology development, transforming ideas into products using technology, and offering them to the market, is called technology commercialization. Technology commercialization may not lead to competitive edge without considering customer as the heart of firm attention that indicates the concept of market orientation. Therefore, this paper investigates whether technology commercialization competence has effect on competitive advantage with moderating role of market orientation in five software companies. For this purpose, a descriptive method is used and 130 questionnaires are distributed between managers and employees of these five software companies chosen by simple random sampling. To analyze data, structural equation modeling with partial least squares by Smart PLS 3 software is used. The results show that technology commercialization competence has positive and significant effect on differentiation and cost advantages with 0.526 and 0.679 path coefficient values, respectively. The results also show that market orientation has a moderating role in the relationship between technology commercialization competence and differentiation advantage with 0.491 path coefficient value.

Identifying the necessary infrastructures for an effective management of knowledge and making innovations in organizations are of the paramount importance. In previous investigations, infrastructures have been studied in isolation from other factors, but it has been tried in this research to survey and analyze the direct and indirect impact of the climate and organizational structure on innovation performance considering the mediation of knowledge management and social interaction, through a comprehensive model. interaction in affecting leadership style & organizational climate on knowledge management . this study has been done as a sample of 140 selling and marketing unit employers of the shuttle corporation in the Tehran. the descriptive- survey research is management type & used tools is questionnaire . we used of SEM by lisrel software data analysis. The result of the research showed that knowledge management and social reaction as it should not played the role of mediating. The result of the research showed that organizational structure on social interaction and the organizational climate on knowledge management, and social interaction on innovative performance had a positive and meaningful impact, but the rest of the hypothesis were rejected.

The mentality and the distinct image of a product are very important in today's highly competitive environment. Based on existing studies, Image-producing country and marketing efforts will affect brand equity. This paper investigated the impacts on retail brand equity and brand profitability performance. The population is all of the SAMSUNG's brand retailers in the city of Tehran and used census method because the population size was small. The data collection tool is built-researcher and standard questionnaires. Reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha to 0.90. Statistical analysis was performed using LISREL 8.8 software. Based on these results, the origin of the image-producing country and marketing efforts on retail brand equity have a significant effect, as well as The retail brand equity on brand profitability performance has a significant impact.

Studies indicate that a large number of corporate entrepreneurial activities start informally and secretly from operational levels. Bootlegging emerges when employees cannot pursue their ideas formally, and hence utilize organizational time and resources for realizing their ideas. In this vein, this research aims to investigate factors causing employees to initiate bootlegging behavior. This was a qualitative research and the data was collected by semi-structural interviews from R&D and product managers in different industries. We identified 4 groups of factors explaining why employees undertake bootlegging behavior. This provides valuable insights into the better utilization of underground ideas for corporate innovative activities.

Today, in addition to physical capital, social capital, entrepreneurship is the determining factor. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the influence of social capital on entrepreneurship; to evaluate the impact of social capital on entrepreneurial innovation is the role of mediator. The study had a sample of 130 female entrepreneurs Ilam through simple random sampling has been done. Research methodology is descriptive and correlation survey questionnaire researcher-building was used to collect data. Also, researcher for validity, the content validity and for reliability, using of Cronbach's alpha, which result indicated the suitability of variable. Data analysis software LISREL structural equation model-building has been done. Research findings show that social capital is a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurship and innovation, but innovation could not affect social capital.