Marketing Opportunities and Challenges in a Changing Global Marketplace

Table of Contents

1. Frontmatter

2. Exploring Customer Engagement and Sharing Behavior in Social Media Brand Communities: Curvilinear Effects and the Moderating Roles of Perceived Innovativeness and Perceived Interactivity: An Abstract

   Jamie Carlson, Yi-Chuan Liao, Mohammad M. Rahman

   Abstract

   Given the increasing attention to building customer–brand relationships within online brand communities (OBC) in social media, this study examines the link between customer engagement (CE) and customer sharing behaviours across the USA and China. This study draws upon the perspective of CE to investigate how the customer–brand relationship within the OBC affects sharing behavioural intentions under different levels of perceived OBC interactivity and innovativeness intensity.

   Based on a sample of 1259 OBC followers (595 US and 664 Chinese) respondents in two different social media platforms (Facebook and Weibo), hierarchical moderated regression analyses reveal that while the relationship seems straightforward, its impact is more nuanced across country markets and platforms. Our results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between CE and sharing behaviours, indicating there is a limit to the beneficial effect of CE. However, we consider two moderators that may influence the nonlinear relationship between CE and sharing behaviours which show that these moderating effects vary across countries. Within the US context (OBC in Facebook social media platform), the results show that perceived OBC innovativeness mitigates the U-shape effect and becomes a linear relationship. Further, considering perceived OBC interactivity, there still exists an inverted U-shaped effect although the nonlinear effect becomes lessened. Within the China context (OBC in Weibo social media platform), the moderators also impact the inverted U-shape effect, but when considering the increasing effect of perceived OBC innovativeness or perceived OBC interactivity, the inverted U-shape between CE and sharing behaviours becomes more pronounced.

   These results suggest that social media brand managers in the USA can increase perceived OBC interactivity and perceived OBC innovativeness in order to reduce the negative impact of CE on sharing behaviours, whereas in China, social media brand managers should be mindful of heightened perceived OBC interactivity and perceived OBC innovativeness levels to strengthen the negative impact of CE on sharing behaviours. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

3. Between a Banker and a Barbie: The Illusions of Social Media: An Abstract

   Samreen Ashraf

   Abstract

   Within social media, projections of identities can be deceiving and differ markedly from reality. Without realising the impact of social media on their future career, students regularly project their current student identities on various social platforms. Despite the rapid increase, potential impact of social media and high tendency of younger people to use social media, this area lacks in empirically driven theory (Benson et al. 2014).

   This study therefore aims to address the research gap stated in the studies conducted by Casatander and Camacho (2012) and Jackson and Wilton (2016) by exploring the impact of social media on students’ digital identities in a higher education context. The author conducted 33 “talk and draw” interviews which lasted 45 min on average with final year students. This visual research technique provided the respondents with an alternative way to express and communicate their views around their digital identities which might be difficult to articulate in words (Theron et al. 2011).

   In line with the past studies (Linn et al. 2017; Woodley and Silversti 2013) there were major discrepancies between students’ digital identities and their future career aspirations. This was attributed to parents’ involvement in picking the professions for their children on the basis of high income. Students were aware of their digital prints on some occasions; however, this awareness did not create any positive impact on shaping their digital identities in contrast to Camacaho et al. (2012) study. Further, social media was identified as an overwhelming tool which can give rise to various uncertainties in relation to students’ future careers. For example, they demonstrated cognitive dissonance by portraying themselves as tech savvy without considering the bigger picture of creating their own digital prints which can be potentially looked at by their future employers.

   This study contributes to the identity formation literature through social media and has implications for Higher Education sector. The discussion concludes that universities must confront social media challenges as part of the educational experience for the development of a responsible and professional ethical digital citizenry. Future research is needed to assess the ways which can positively influence students to shape their digital identities to increase their employability opportunities.

4. A Longitudinal Review of Models in Marketing Research: An Abstract

   Mark Bender, Veronika Ponomarenko, Hao Wang, Khalia Jenkins, Donna Davis

   Abstract

   This research offers a dynamic perspective on the evolution and use of marketing models through a content analysis of articles published in the top five marketing journals from 1990 to 2017: Journal of Marketing (JM), Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), Journal of Consumer Research (JCR), Marketing Science (MS), and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Research (JAMS). Three independent researchers classified articles by their content (conceptual, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed), type of data source (experiment, survey, and observation), type of model (choice, hazard, panel data, nonlinear, theoretic, etc.), and subject (consumer behavior, research methodology, channels of distribution, etc.). The results of the analysis show that the number of studies per article has been steadily increasing in JCR (from 1 in 1990 to 5 in 2017), JM and JMR (from 1 in 1990 to 2 in 2017), less so in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (from 1 in 1990 to 1.5 in 2017), and no change taking place in Marketing Science. In methodological terms, conceptual and survey research exhibit a declining trend whereas experimental and observational research is increasing. This study looks at changes in the adoption of model types. Our findings reveal that researchers have been using simple linear models less with the ratio of linear regression models/more complex models being 50/50 in 1990 and 30/70 in 2017. The top five frequently used modeling methods in marketing (by percent of studies) include linear regression, choice, theoretical, multivariate, and structural equation models. However, the use of theoretical, multivariate, and structural equation models has been declining, while the use of hierarchical linear, dynamic, panel data models has been increasing. We believe that the rise of the latter models can be attributed to the increased availability of time-series cross-sectional data. We also find some journal-specific preferences for particular models. Our research sheds light on the interplay of research methods and the trends in model types in the top five marketing journals as well as provides direction for future research.

5. What would we Hear if we Really Listened? Using I-poems in Qualitative Marketing Research: An Abstract

   Julie Robson, Caroline Burr

   Abstract

   Qualitative methods of analysis are concerned with transforming and interpreting data to capture and understand the complexities of the social world (Edwards and Weller 2012). However, the question that has preoccupied many qualitative researchers is how can we know, and how can we come to know, others who are a part of this social world (Doucet and Mauthner 2008).

   The Listening Guide (LG) is a feminist, qualitative method developed by Brown et al. (1989) to enable researchers to hear how respondents uniquely make meaning of their social world (Woodcock 2005). It focuses on reconstructing the holistic meaning of the stories that people tell about themselves (Edwards and Weller 2012). I-poems are a fundamental component of the Listening Guide and centre on the relationship between the process of “selfing” (i.e., the activity of being a self) identified primarily through the use of “I” and knowing (Debold 1990). In I-poems, the collection of personal pronouns and the verbs/actions that go with them are presented in a format similar to that of a contemporary poem. I-poems have been recognised as an emergent method in social research (Hesse-Biber and Leavy 2006), and although the method has been extensively used by researchers in the field of psychology and sociology, only a small number of marketers have adopted this method (see for example Woodruffe-Burton and Brown 2015).

   In this paper we provide an introduction to this innovative method and detail its application in a study conducted on the attitude young girls have to money. At conference we will share our findings and reflect on the contribution and insights that the use of I-poems can make in marketing by comparing and contrasting the findings from a thematic analysis with that using LG and I-poems. We will argue for the wider adoption of I-poems by fellow marketing academics.

6. Effects of Environmental and Social Sustainability Perceptions on Willingness to Co-Create from Consumer Perspective: An Abstract

   Gözde Erdogan

   Abstract

   In today’s business environment, companies face more challenges and competitions since the consumers have a voice in the business environment, and companies have to find out new ways to reach consumers, whereas consumers, in the current environment, could serve as collaborators, communicators, or competitors according to their interests (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2009). Therefore, customer value co-creation concept is adopted because it is a path to collaborate with consumers as well as to meet companies’ economic benefits (Vargo and Lusch 2004). In order to collaborate with customers, they listen to their brand communities and ask questions to customers in order to test their offerings (Füller et al. 2008; Gouillart 2014; Kozinets 2010; Kozinets et al. 2008). However, the customer’s willingness to co-create may have different reasons, such as social, hedonic, and ethical reasons (Carù and Cova 2015; Schau et al. 2009). In this connection, the co-creation process here is understood as a means to emphasize the social and ethical aspects, with consumers embracing the need to fulfil a social and ethical function in society. It means that consumers are increasingly seeking solutions to their own concerns and they are interested in creating a better world, guided by their moral values when making buying decisions (e.g., Hollenbeck and Zinkhan 2010). However, there is a lack of study on ethical motives such as environmental and social sustainability. Hence, this paper aims to find out whether consumer’s willingness to co-create may be affected by companies’ social and environmental practices. In this study, the social and exchange theory was applied (Thibaut and Kelley 1959). In order to measure cause-end-effect relationship between sustainability practices and willingness to co-create (Thomas 2011), a survey was conducted (n = 454) and respondents assessed environmental and social sustainability perceptions, and their willingness to co-create. Findings show that both environmental and social sustainability practices of companies have positive effects on consumers’ willingness to co-create.

7. Decision-Making and Interruptions: An Abstract

   Regina Schreder

   Abstract

   We are interrupted constantly in everyday life. These interruptions are usually considered a nuisance. For example, being interrupted during work normally lowers performance (Katidioti et al. 2016). But when it comes to decision-making, interruptions sometimes have counter-intuitive effects. After an interruption, for example, consumers may make better decisions (Dijksterhuis 2004). While previous research on interruptions focuses on alternative selection, this paper looks at downstream variables and examines the effect of interruptions on consumers’ subjective perceptions. When making a purchase decision, in reality, there is often no right or wrong. Especially when it comes to complex decisions like buying a car or choosing a holiday, consumers are usually confronted with many alternatives and various characteristics. The quality of such decisions cannot be judged from a normative perspective. Consequently, we test whether unconscious thinking can increase the quality of a decision from a subjective point of view. Accordingly, we investigate whether an interruption in the decision-making process can increase decision satisfaction and also affect more behavioral outcomes like willingness to pay for the chosen alternative and purchase intention for an add-on that is related to the product.

   In line with Dijksterhuis (2004), we assume that during an interruption, participants think unconsciously about their choice. We hypothesize that a more organized integration of information, which occurs when people engage in unconscious thinking, leads to a more correct weighting of the given information and thus enhances decision satisfaction. The specific type of information processing could reinforce this effect. We hypothesize that an instruction to form an overall impression increases the integration of information, compared to an instruction to focus on details. Accordingly, we expect an interaction between unconscious thinking that occurs during an interruption and an instruction to form an overall impression.

   To test our hypotheses, we conducted a 2 (instruction: “form an overall impression” vs. “focus on details”) × 3 (interruption: interruption, thinking, immediate decision) experiment using a between-subject design. In an online experiment, participants had to choose between two package holidays. The alternatives differed slightly in various characteristics but were very similar overall, taking into account all information available. In this manner, we created a realistic situation without a preset correct choice.

   We did not find the hypothesized effects in our data. Thus, our results are not consistent with the findings of Dijksterhuis (2004). Further research is underway to find potential moderators which may have influenced the findings.

8. Buying Authentic Luxury Products or Counterfeits: The Role of Benign and Malicious Envy: An Abstract

   Murong Miao

   Abstract

   Counterfeited luxury goods have increasingly become an economic and social problem worldwide. Buying counterfeits is a common act for many consumers, and the consumption of counterfeited luxury goods has shown an increasing trend. Considering negative effects associated with counterfeiting, how to encourage consumers to buy authentic products has increasingly become an important but challenging issue. Given the significance of the topic, we can find two things. The first thing is that except for Wilcox et al. (2009), socio-psychological motivation associated with counterfeit consumption is under-researched. The second thing is that most of previous studies overlook the importance of theory in explaining the motive behind purchasing counterfeits. To address the above gap, this paper employs Social Comparison Theory to examine the influence of envy (categorized as malicious envy and benign envy), which is a social-psychological aspect, on consumers’ counterfeit/genuine brand buying behaviors. Envy emanates from an upward social comparison, which is a basic constituent of human cognition (Lange and Crusius 2015). Malicious envy and benign envy can be distinguished based on the consumers’ feelings, thoughts, behavior, and motivations. Benign envy induces a moving-up motivation designed to improve one’s current position, whereas malicious envy leads to a pulling-down motivation designed to damage the position of the superior other. In this paper, we adopt this conceptualization of envy and then we make several novel contributions. First, ours is the first empirical effort in terms of employing envy as a socio-psychological driver to explain the reason why a group of consumers turn to purchase counterfeited luxury products instead of authentic luxury products to fulfill their needs. We found that the two dimensions of envy work differently to affect people’s consumption behavior in terms of choosing either genuine luxury products or counterfeit luxury products. Specifically, while benign envy drives genuine luxury product purchase, malicious envy drives counterfeited luxury product purchase. We suggest that the type of envy can also moderate the relationship between luxury product consumption behavior and personal well-being. What we found is that the well-being of people who are benignly envious is more likely to be affected by their choice of genuine luxury products or counterfeit luxury products in comparison with that of maliciously envious people. Second, this paper makes theoretical contributions by employing Social Comparison Theory to illustrate the motivation behind counterfeit consumption behavior. Third, previous researchers are largely focused on what antecedents can contribute to counterfeit purchase intention. They treat counterfeit consumption as a dependent variable. However, in this paper, we also regard counterfeit consumption as an independent variable that can affect personal well-being. Because personal well-being is an important indicator to gauge consumer satisfaction toward the good, this study can provide luxury brand companies with more insights.

9. Excitement or Fear? The Effect of a Personalized In-Store Experience on Consumers: An Abstract

   Anne-Sophie Riegger

   Abstract

   In fear of the online competition and increasingly demanding customers, retailers strive for their competitive edge through a great retail experience. Opposed to the consequent anonymity and interchangeability in retail stands the consumer need for individualization as an expression of personal appreciation and a unique self. While consumers are already used to a personalized shopping experience in online environments, a personalization in brick-and-mortar retail is still in its infancy. Supported by recent technological advancements, it is not surprising that retailers put great efforts into equipping their stores with smart technology that enables personalization. In contrast to personalization online (Aguirre et al. 2015) and traditional personalization in brick-and-mortar retail through face-to-face encounters with store employees (Gwinner et al. 2005), in-store personalization enabled and conducted by technology is an unexplored phenomenon.

   As research points out that shopper-facing in-store technology should answer to actual consumers’ expectations and preferences (Pantano and Viassone 2014), this paper aims to elicit implication-relevant consumer concerns and expectations regarding personalization in brick-and-mortar retail. Identifying consumers’ expectations and concerns is essential to meet their future preferences, proactively address anxieties, and thereby overcome innovation rejection. This study is further guided by the question of whether the type of technology by which the personalization is conducted impacts consumers’ reactions.

   First results based on an exploratory qualitative study indicate that consumers expect technology-mediated personalization (TMP) to have a positive impact on their future shopping experiences by offering greater convenience and depending on the shopping mission, inspiration, or efficiency. In particular, the majority of participants expect the content to be context-specific, thus being based on their actual in-store behavior. While most respondents would prefer discreet messages on retailer-owned devices, only a few would favor receiving messages on their own smartphone. The main concern raised by the respondents is the fear of being watched by others. Privacy concerns towards other customers seem to surpass privacy concerns towards the retailer. We plan on empirically testing the proposed relationships in a lab as well as a field experiment. Further, we intend to extend the knowledge on personalization in offline retail by taking novel technological opportunities into account. Specifically, we take a consumer perspective and identify expectations and concerns in regard to the content of the personalized message as well as the medium over which it is transmitted. In addition, we contribute to retailing literature by identifying novel ways to address consumers’ in-store with innovative and interactive shopper-facing technology. Implications to theory as well as practice are discussed.

10. All Hands on Deck Special Session: Cultivating Socially Responsible Consumers and Corporations: An Abstract

    Elisa Chan, Felix Tang, Maggie Y. Chu

    Abstract

    In this consumption-driven economy, consumers and companies, and by extension employees, must collaborate to ensure that consumption activities would contribute to societal well-being. Social responsibility is defined as stakeholders’ values, expectations, and practices that emphasize the responsibility of individuals as a member in society (Aguinis and Glavas 2011; Pigor and Rockenbach 2016). Corporate social responsibility refers to “obligations to take action to protect and improve both the welfare of society as a whole and the interest of organizations” (Davis and Blomstrom 1975: 6). By the same token, consumer social responsibility refers to consumer decisions which are driven by socially responsible motives rather than the individual’s own self-interest (Devinney et al. 2010; Öberseder et al. 2011). While the goal of social responsibility is to improve societal well-being, extant socially responsibility research has identified positive consequences of such actions for both consumers and companies as well. On the one hand, companies would be perceived as more trustworthy and in turn enhance evaluation of their product quality and brand image (Dacin and Brown 1997; Klein and Dawar 2004; Smith et al 1994). On the other hand, consumers would gain a better sense of self and improve self-image through moral licensing (Khan and Dhar 2006; Mazar and Zhong 2010).

    In this special session, the speakers examine social responsibility through the consumer, employee, and management lens. In doing so, we hope to extend our understanding of social responsibility with respect to its theoretical conceptualization and underpinnings as well as social and managerial implications. Moreover, we address some of the unanswered questions in this field of research. We first examine how consumers’ moral emotions (i.e., guilt and shame) may influence consumers’ decision towards socially responsible consumption choices. In this regard, it illuminates an affective mechanism through which consumers decide on whether or not to make socially responsible consumption. While both guilt and shame are negative affects, our study found that they have divergent effects on socially responsible consumption. Next, we propose a double mediation model that delineates how company’s corporate social responsibility climate may attenuate employee cynicism and enhance work meaning which would turn employees into brand ambassadors. As such, it extends extant corporate social responsibility research, which looked at employees’ affective commitment to and identification with the organization, to show that corporate social responsibility can enhance work experience for individuals. Finally, we consider the philosophical roots of corporate social responsibility though Confucianism, a Chinese philosophy that has been widely adopted in cultural and management research. Building on brand personality literature, this paper suggests that a socially responsible corporation can be personified as an individual who possesses virtuous qualities and puts others’ interest in front of self-interest.

11. All Hands on Deck Special Session: Motivating or De-motivating Responsible Consumption? The Divergent Influences of Moral Emotions: An Abstract

    Maggie Y. Chu, Lisa C. Wan

    Abstract

    Human activities are undeniably the cause of the abnormal climate change that has occurred in recent decades. Many of our daily habits cause serious harm to the environment (e.g., overuse of disposable products). Even though consumers understand that such a lifestyle is essentially in violation of our societal standards, very few will take the actions to correct it. We speculate that consumer decisions to correct their existing life habits depend on the emotions they experience in relation to an irresponsible lifestyle. Psychology research suggests that when people commit wrongdoing (i.e., behaviors that are in violation of moral or societal standards), they will feel guilty. There is a high tendency for a guilt-laden person to make amends and correct the wrongdoing. Therefore, guilt is commonly referred to as a moral emotion. Interestingly, another moral emotion, shame, coexists with guilt in most situations but can lead to divergent behavioral consequences by making the person more inclined to escape from the problem. We speculate that the divergence is rooted in a critical difference between the experience of guilt and shame. Guilt involves a negative evaluation of a specific behavior (i.e., “What I did is not environmentally friendly”), while shame tends to result from a negative evaluation of the global self (i.e., “I’m such a non-environmentally friendly person”). Therefore, shame has negative implications about the self. If this is the case, we predict that in situations where shame predominates, consumers will perceive it to be more difficult to improve the problem as it involves changing a defective self. As a result, consumers are less likely to correct their existing lifestyle. In our experiment, we induced feelings of guilt and shame by using bogus feedback about the environmental impact of one’s existing lifestyle (e.g., very high resource demand). The results show that a negative self-evaluation associated with shame leads to a lower intention to correct one’s existing lifestyle. The effect is mediated by the perceived difficulty in improving the problem.

12. All Hands on Deck Special Session: Personifying Socially Responsible Corporations: Scale Development and Validation: An Abstract

    Vane I. Tian, Felix Tang, Alan C. B. Tse

    Abstract

    This paper aims to develop an alternative model based on traditional Chinese Confucius ideologies and normative ethics that is different from existing strategic orientations. The philosophy of Confucius emphasizes the wholehearted social responsibility of a “Junzi,” the ideal image of a holy man in Confucianism, who always undertakes to behave righteously in all situations. Analogous to the popular marketing concept and the associated strategic marketing orientation concept, we define our Junzi concept as a business philosophy and Junzi orientation as the organizational behavior involved in the implementation of the guiding philosophy.

    Based on in-depth interviews with experienced Chinese business managers together with a comprehensive review of the existing literature, Junzi orientation is defined as a multidimensional behavioral construct made up of five dimensions: (1) Ren—benevolence or humaneness: Ren is the extent to which the company attempts to care about and satisfy the needs of its stakeholders; (2) Yi—appropriateness or righteousness: Yi is the extent to which the company acts in a righteousness manner and undertakes to do so at all costs; (3) Li—propriety or harmonious differentiation: Li is the extent to which the company strives to look for a harmonious relationship with its stakeholders and keeps the balance between conflicting needs of stakeholders to achieve a win-win outcome for all stakeholders; (4) Zhi—wisdom or knowledge management: Zhi is the extent to which the company recognizes the importance of learning and long-term vision, and the ability to see things as they truly are; (5) Xin—integrity or trustworthiness: Xin is the extent to which the company acts in an honest and trustworthy manner.

    A 30-item scale was developed based on the expert panel and a pilot study with MBA and MSc students in Hong Kong. The scale and other outcome measurements were mailed to 2760 firms in different industries in Hong Kong. The sample frame was obtained from the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the oldest and largest nonprofit association representing all firms in Hong Kong. Four hundred and twenty-three questionnaires were collected (after two waves of mail and one wave of telephone reminder), representing a response rate of 15.3%. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, and the scale was found to be reliable and valid. The data also support that Junzi orientation has a positive influence on company performance.

13. All Hands on Deck Special Session: How CSR and Servant Leadership Climate Affect Employee Cynicism and Work Meaning? An Abstract

    Elisa Chan, Frederick Yim

    Abstract

    Recent marketing management research, such as internal marketing (e.g., Berry et al. 1976), the service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch 2008), and the service-profit chain (e.g., Homburg et al. 2009), has acknowledged the value employees have to a company either as an operant resource (Constanin and Lusch 1994) or even as an internal customer (Wieseke et al. 2009). This suggests that consumers are not the only target for company’s marketing efforts and that more attention should be paid to understanding employees in order to achieve desirable outcomes.

    Cynicism is often examined as consumer resistance against company’s initiatives and actions out of the mistrust for its motives (Kanter 1988). Cynical consumers may become angry and bitter at companies (Helm 2004), and these negative affects may escalate to the detrimental actions such as spreading negative word of mouth and boycotts (DeCarlo 2005; Laczniak et al. 2001). In any case, consumer cynicism would have undesirable impacts on the company and its brand image (Odou and de Pechpeyrou 2011). Consequently, the impacts of employee cynicism towards the company cannot be overlooked. For this reason, the current research examines employee cynicism, in particular, how specific organizational climates (i.e., corporate social responsibility and servant leadership) can help reduce cynicism towards the company.

    Extant consumer research has long established that consumer make purchases not just based on functionality and utility, products are also purchased for more personal reasons such as symbolic meaning of status and achievement as well as a sense of social belonging (e.g., Ferraro et al. 2011). By the same token, employees view their work as a means to earn a living, but it also gives individuals a sense of achievement and a sense of communitas through exchanges with their supervisors, peers, and colleagues. That is to say, work would also serve as a means to earn respect and to demonstrate self-worth to others (Fineman 1983). Work meaning is conceptualized as the individuals’ understanding of the purpose of their work or what they believe is achieved in their work (Wrzesniewski and Dutton 2001). The current research proposes that work meaning can be cultivated via specific organizational climates (i.e., corporate social responsibility and servant leadership) and can increase perceived work meaning.

    Taken together, this study will investigate the chain effects of CSR climate, servant leadership climate, employee cynicism, and work meaning on an important marketing outcome—brand citizenship behaviors (i.e., extra-role behaviors congruent with the company’s brand values to strengthen brand identity; Burmann and Zeplin 2005; Burmann et al. 2008). In order to test the proposed theoretical model, a multilevel research design is deployed. CSR climate and servant leadership climate are team-level constructs, and work meaning and employee cynicism are individual-level constructs.

14. Non-Compliance Is a Double-Edged Sword: An Abstract

    Amanda Yamim, Adilson Borges

    Abstract

    One of the most important premises in the field of marketing is the satisfaction of consumer needs and desires (Kotler and Armstrong 2010). While an employee’s capacity to attend to customer desires has always been critical to organization’s competitiveness, consumers of today expect companies to meet their customized requests like never before (Chandler and Lusch 2015). Considering this premise, over the last decade a body of literature has focused on understanding how to increase employee capacity to attend consumers’ desires (Kearney et al. 2017). This research explores the consequences to managers’ willful non-compliance with consumers’ desires. We propose that if consumers judge the producer as having high (low) expertise, the non-compliance will increase (decrease) consumers’ perception of how much effort was dedicated to product creation, thus increasing (decreasing) product evaluation and willingness to pay. We test the proposed intuition with three studies.

    In Study 1 participants (N = 107; M_age = 35.33, 48.6% female) were randomly assigned to two scenarios following their modification of a dish component request: “She tells you that the change can affect the dish integrity because all dishes are extensively and carefully though by the chef. She apologizes and tells you that the restaurant can’t do the changes [She tells you that if you want she will manage to do it].” Participants who read the non-compliance scenario judged the food as tastier (M_{non-compliance} = 7.57 vs. M_compliance = 6.98, F(1,105) = 9.458, p < 0.01) and were willing to pay more for the same (M_{non-compliance} = 35.91 vs. M_compliance = 27.00, F(1,105) = 5.866, p < 0.05) in comparison to consumers who read the compliance scenario.

    Study 2 replicates our findings but also shows that the effect of non-compliance is dependent on producer expertise. Specifically, when the producer had low expertise, the non-compliance decreased taste inferences (M_{non-compliance} = 6.73 vs. M_compliance = 7.35, F(1,175) = 4.61, p < 0.05) and did not influence willingness to pay (M_{non-compliance} = 24.02 vs. M_compliance = 21.71, F(1,166) = 0.56, p > 0.1). However, when the chef had high expertise, non-compliance increased taste inferences (M_{non-compliance} = 8.13 vs. M_compliance = 7.52, F(1,175) = 4.55, p < 0.05) and willingness to pay (M_{non-compliance} = 32.42 vs. M_compliance = 27.32, F(1,166) = 4.14, p < 0.05). Study 3 shows the same pattern on effect from non-compliance in a different context, fashion industry.

    This research has several contributions. First, we show that employees’ ability to translate the production process is important beyond attending consumer requests. We discuss the practical implications for adopting a no-substitution policy. Managers should consider adopting the no-substitution policy if they believe substitution could compromise the value of their product.

15. A Critical Review of Institutional Theory in Marketing: An Abstract

    Jeannette A. Mena, Veronika Ponomarenko

    Abstract

    It has long been established that marketing science benefits from borrowing theories from other disciplines (Alderson 1957). One such organization theory that can inform marketing studies is institutional theory (Hult 2011). This study provides a critical review of marketing articles that draw on institutional theory as a theoretical lens and are published in top marketing journals. Specifically, it assesses the state of institutional theory in marketing to identify gaps and directions for future research.

    The findings of the critical review indicate that many marketing articles in the strategy area apply institutional theory to understand corporate behavior with a social dimension—for example, adoption of sustainable innovations orientation (Varadarajan 2017), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (Nikolaeva and Bicho 2011), and voluntary green initiatives (VGIs) (Clemens and Douglas 2006). This application of the theory has benefited from the theory’s assertion that legitimacy constitutes one of the main motivations to participate in such activities.

    The second biggest research stream to use institutional theory is supply chain management (SCM). Given that institutional theory is a management theory, this finding is not surprising. Relative to other streams, SCM is closer to the theory’s roots. In SCM, researchers have looked at stages of institutional environment development and the influence of institutional pressures on supply chain constituents (Grewal and Dharwadkar 2002). In addition, mimetic pressures have been found to lead to “supply chain contagion” (McFarland et al. 2008).

    Consumer behavior researchers are increasingly using institutional theory, but it still remains underexplored. In this area, the theory has been used to study how media shapes legitimacy perceptions of consumption practices (Humphreys 2010) and industrial crises (Humphreys and Thompson 2014) as well as how consumers become institutional actors (Moorman 2002; Scaraboto and Fischer 2013).

    Institutional theory has been used several times to complement other theories—for example, service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch 2016) and transaction-cost economics (Gatignon and Gatignon 2010). However, the list of theories is not exhausted yet. Theories such as stakeholder theory and resource dependence theory can be integrated with institutional theory to explore firm and industry dynamics. Lastly, little research has investigated deinstitutionalization and institutional change, both in terms of companies and consumers. Future studies should use institutional theory to examine these issues as they have become important processes in an era of disruptive innovations and more turbulent markets.

16. Does the Environmentally Friendliness of a Service Invite Customer Loyalty? The Role of Positive Emotions: An Abstract

    Birgit Leisen Pollack

    Abstract

    This research evaluates consumers’ responses to the environmental friendliness of service organizations. It expands on the emerging literature connecting environmentally safe practices to customer loyalty (Chen 2013; Hur et al. 2013; Kwon et al. 2016; Koller et al. 2011). More specifically, this research investigates the mediating effects of positive emotions on the relationship between environmental friendliness and service loyalty. The positive emotions investigated include level of inspiration provided by the service, feelings of belonging instilled by the service, and the moral identity of a consumer. Repurchase intentions and word of mouth are investigated as the two primary behavioral manifestations of loyalty. The relationships are evaluated for three service industries.

    A total of six hypotheses were advanced. The data for empirically addressing these research hypotheses were collected from a convenience sample of 183 respondents. Each participant was asked to report on the consumption behaviors related to an educational service, a coffee shop chain, and a large retail chain. The study participants were familiar with each service. Existing scales were used. The hypotheses were tested using mediated regression models. The Hayes (2013) procedure was used. The results confirm inspiration and sense of belonging as mediator variables. The more enduring moral identity of the consumer could not be confirmed as a mediator.

    The findings of this study allow for two general conclusions. First, the results provide evidence for the existence of positive emotions as mediating variables affecting the relationship between environmental friendliness of a service and two service loyalty behaviors. Second, the findings suggest that the mediators are service specific. While sense of belonging was significant across the three services, the level of inspiration was service specific and only significant for the educational service.

    The findings from this study imply that for green efforts to result in customer loyalty, they first must instill positive emotions. If green-inspired loyalty is desired, service organizations may want to focus their green initiative on items most likely to evoke positive emotions.

17. Extended Service Plans and Buyer Perceptions and Behaviors in Automobile Industry: An Abstract

    Chiharu Ishida, Nat Pope, Peter Kaufman

    Abstract

    Sometimes called an “aftermarket car warranty,” “vehicle service contract,” or “extended auto warranty,” extended service plan (ESP) market is significant, exceeding $16 billion (Warranty Week 2018). ESPs are typically purchased at the original equipment manufacturer (OEM, such as Toyota and Ford) dealership at the time the vehicle is purchased, but one may often also buy an ESP through a third-party warranty provider at a later time. Unlike other, the so-called manufacturer’s warranties, which are included in the price of the product, ESPs are really vehicle service contracts (or safeguards) against expensive, unforeseen repairs. The term “extended” is also sometimes used because ESPs usually extend the length of the coverage and allotted mileage (and sometimes a few other extra coverages such as roadside assistance) set by the OEM warranty.

    The purchasing decision of ESPs is complex, considering the fact that multiple parties from the seller’s side are involved: the salesperson, Finance and Insurance (F&I) personnel, dealership, the manufacturer (auto brand), and sometimes a third-party underwriter. The purpose of this research is to better understand the dynamics of the decision (not) to buy ESPs, given the buyer characteristics and their interactions with the selling parties. The research was conducted by surveying 341 new car owners. Among several findings, our results indicated that the decision to buy an ESP shares no relationship to the degree to which the respondent felt positively toward the F&I person. In line with previous research, attitude and loyalty had significant effects: specifically, consumer’s dealership loyalty (but not automaker loyalty) and attitude toward ESPs.

18. Special Session: “The World Needs Storytellers”: New Research Avenues for Storytelling in Marketing: An Abstract

    Edward L. Nowlin, Claas Christian Germelmann, Sahar Karimi, Nawar N. Chaker, David M. Houghton, Doug Walker, Klaus-Peter Wiedmann

    Abstract

    In summer 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for “storytellers” to address the problem that he said was top priority for him these days: “the intransigence, polarization, unwillingness to listen to diverse points of view, and tribalism-run-amuck that afflicts society” (Alan Murray, Fortune CEO Daily 2018-09-11). Given such great expectations of storytelling in transformative and public policy marketing, this special session tries to take a look at what the future holds for storytelling research in a marketing context. Expanding on the AMS special sessions “Unveiling the Magic of Storytelling in Marketing” (AMS 2016) and “The Values of Storytelling: From Tactics to Transformative Action” (AMS 2017), we set out to investigate and discuss potential future avenues for this research stream.

    Chaired by Edward L. Nowlin and Claas Christian Germelmann, this session’s objective is to spark fruitful research discussions on the topic and hopefully to contribute to shaping the future of storytelling research in marketing.

    The three papers in the session show potential mechanisms, measurements, and uses of storytelling in marketing. Various contexts are covered that range from consumers as recipients (and co-creators, Huber and Germelmann 2016) to B2B Applications and Sales. The look at mechanisms of storytelling is accompanied by a proposed scale measuring storytelling activities by salespersons. This duality highlights the contention that storytelling is a co-creative activity (Huber and Germelmann 2016), which links the session with the previous ones. The first paper by Sahar Karimi, “Storytelling: How Do We Process Consumer Stories?” investigates storytelling from an information processing perspective. It proposes the idea that that consumers process and value stories differently, depending on their individual characteristics and the story format. The second paper, “Measuring Salesperson Storytelling: Theoretical Construct Development and Empirical Validation,” by Edward L. Nowlin, Nawar N. Chaker, David M. Houghton, and Doug Walker, suggests a careful and rigorous scale development process and test the nomological net of salesperson storytelling. Beyond providing a comprehensive definition of salesperson storytelling, and developing and validating a scale this purpose, this paper shows that salesperson storytelling has an effect on job-related outcomes in the sales context. In the third paper, “Overcoming Barriers to the Acceptance and Commissioning of Projects as a Challenge to Storytelling in the B2B Sector,” Klaus-Peter Wiedmann considers whether the potential for storytelling can be used to persuade Buying Center (BC) members to accept project offerings related to the implementation of high-tech systems or sophisticated business consulting projects. This final paper opens the discussion and the search for new research opportunities and potential research cooperations.