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PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of three types of online customer-to-customer interaction qualities on customers' participation intention through customer–firm affection in online mass service contexts to address the influence of several types of intercustomer interactions.Design/methodology/approachThe data were amassed using retrospective experience sampling. The hypothesized relationships were examined utilizing structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results demonstrate that the perceived quality of the friend-interaction (e.g. [non-]verbal online interaction with friends), neighboring customer-interaction (e.g. [non-]verbal online interaction with stranger users) and the audience-interaction (crowding) has a significant impact upon customer participation intention, mediated by customer–firm affection.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was performed in the situation of online mass services (e.g. massively multiplayer online role-playing games). Future studies could extend the findings by conducting further studies across various types of services and by comparing results across different categories of mass services (e.g. hedonic vs utilitarian).Practical implicationsOnline mass service marketers should focus on facilitating all three types of online customer-to-customer interactions (i.e. friend-, neighboring customer-, and audience-interaction). For example, online game developers may need to require users to communicate and collaborate with not only friends but also stranger users to progress and succeed in online multiplayer games.Originality/valueThe current study differs from prior research by addressing the influences of not only online intercustomer interaction qualities but also customer–firm affection on customer participation intention.

PurposeThe authors aim to explore whether and how variations on pitch levels of background music in audiovisual commercials affect consumers' judgments of the competence of the advertised brands and for which group of consumers such changes in ad backgrounds are more influential.Design/methodology/approachConsumers are presented with an audiovisual advertisement in which the pitch of background music is lowered or raised. They are subsequently asked to evaluate the music and traits of the advertised brand and indicate their predisposed styles of thinking.FindingsConsumers tend to judge a brand in an audiovisual commercial as possessing a higher level of competence traits when the brand is accompanied by lower-pitched (vs higher-pitched) background music, which is mediated by levels of powerfulness they perceive from the background music. Consumers with holistic (vs analytic) thinking styles, who are known to devote more focused attention to background information, tend to be more (vs less) susceptible to the changes in pitch.Research limitations/implicationsThe current research approaches thinking styles as predisposed individual differences as in prior works in marketing. Provided that the predisposed thinking styles can be influenced by individuals' cultural backgrounds, the authors suggest cross-cultural studies as an approach to further validate the present findings.Practical implicationsGiven the recent trends that consumers are increasingly exposed to audiovisual ads with the rapid growth of various video-based platforms (e.g. YouTube) and mobile advertising, this empirical study may assist contemporary marketers in considering an acoustic strategy for brand communication using the audiovisual advertisement. This study suggests that the pitch of ad background music can serve as a manageable strategic tool that can assist in establishing an image of a competent brand.Originality/valueThis research highlights a seemingly-trivial element in audiovisual advertisements, the pitch of background music, as a crucial determinant of the perceived competence of an advertised brand upon which further brand evaluations (e.g. brand trust, purchase intention) are based. An important yet overlooked effect of ad recipients' predisposed thinking styles on how consumers respond to the changes of background cues in audiovisual commercials is also proposed.