This study focuses on how prior knowledge and the perceived importance of alignable and nonalignable attributes affect ordering through customization and searching from a retail assortment. The authors verify the moderating effect of prior knowledge on the relationship between the perceived importance of alignable and nonalignable attributes, and the perception of customization and retail assortments. Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling based on survey data from 3,328 running shoes consumers in Japan. The results show that the moderating effect of prior knowledge on the relationship between the perceived importance of an alignable attribute (e.g., shoe lightness) and the intention to customize is positive. These results reveal that product customization would be used more when expert consumers perceived the alignable attribute as important. Moreover, the moder­ating effect of prior knowledge on the relationship between the perceived importance of a nonalignable attribute (e.g., color and appearance design) and the perceived importance of a retail assortment is negative. These results reveal that novice consumers would not necessarily attach importance to retail assortments for searching an optimal product in the case that they do not perceive the importance of nonalignable attributes.

This study examines the relationship between marketing standardization and performance of Japanese firms in international markets. Additionally, it explores the moderating role of product strategy. Particularly, it focuses on Japan’s country image in foreign markets and suggests the best strategic fit for Japanese firms to enhance their performance in international markets. The research hypotheses are tested using regression analysis based on survey data from 118 Japanese manufacturing firms. The results show that marketing standardization is an effective strategy to enhance performance, especially when Japanese firms pursue a premium product strategy.

This study examines the impact of celebrity endorsements on the effectiveness of product placement. Celebrity endorsements and product placement appear in a multitude of media in consumers’ daily lives, and this phenomenon has increasingly raised the interest among researchers and practitioners. Therefore, this study explores the following two kinds of normative influence in the context of product placement: (a) parasocial interaction with a celebrity and (b) social interaction by means of peer com­munication among consumers on attitudes toward a placed brand. In addition, it examines the effect of plot connection, which refers to the way the placed brand is exposed in a scene. Finally, it tests how the message variables, plot connection and strength between celebrity and placed brand, moderate the parasocial interaction’s effect on attitude toward brands. This study tests these effects by conducting a hierarchical regression with survey data from a sample of Japanese consumers. It concludes with theoretical contributions and the direction of future research.