ALBERT

Description: In an environment characterized by growing awareness of environmental sustainability among various stakeholders in organizations, innovating for sustainability can be expected to grow in importance from the standpoints of organizational legitimacy, reputation, and performance. Relatedly, a firm’s sustainable innovations capabilities as a source of competitive advantage and the sustainability related attributes of a firm’s product offerings as bases for market segmentation, target marketing, positioning, and differentiation can also be expected to grow in importance. The emergence of sustainability as a major driver of innovation highlights a number of important issues that merit investigation, such as potential avenues for sustainable innovation and sustainable product innovation and factors underlying differences between firms in their commitment to a sustainable innovations orientation. In an attempt to gain insights into these issues, this paper presents (1) a conceptual framework delineating potential avenues for sustainable innovations and (2) a conceptual model delineating a number of firm-related and industry-related antecedents of sustainable innovations orientation, along with performance outcomes of sustainable innovations orientation. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Description: Conventional wisdom and prior research on processing fluency suggest that consumers prefer fluent information, such that it has positive effects on their purchase decisions. Challenging this conventional wisdom, and on the basis of recent research on processing disfluency, this study proposes that the increased effort required to process disfluent price information can lead to deeper information processing. If the advertised price offer represents a good value, it can enhance purchase decisions, even if customers prefer the disfluent display less. A series of studies in the field and lab demonstrate support for this positive impact of disfluent price information on purchase decisions.

Description: This paper seeks to understand how marketers might capitalize on consumers’ increasing time spent online and convert online procrastination tendencies into purchase behavior. More specifically, the authors explore whether the propensity to use the Internet to avoid work tasks (online procrastination) leads to purchase behavior, and if so, what the mechanism underlying such an effect might be. Through two studies, the authors find that online procrastination positively impacts purchase, which in turn is indirectly affected by the consumers’ propensity to delay their decisions. The authors further find different likelihoods of purchase based on degrees of tendency to delay decisions, online users’ age, and type of online activities. Implications of these findings for informing managers about the ways to increase purchases for decisive and indecisive consumers who waste time online and raising online procrastinators’ awareness about their vulnerability to marketers are discussed.

Description: Studies show that service employees are among the most disengaged in the workforce. To better understand service employees’ job engagement, this study broadens the scope of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to include power distance orientation (PDO). The inclusion of PDO enriches the JD-R model by providing a key piece of information that has been missing in prior JD-R models: employees’ perceptions of the source of job demands (i.e., supervisors) or employees’ views of power and hierarchy within the organization. Study 1 uses a survey-based field study to show that employees with a high (compared to low) PDO feel more burnout due to supervisors when they are closely monitored by their supervisors. Study 1 further supports the finding that employees with high (compared to low) PDO feel less disengagement despite burnout due to supervisors. Study 2, using a lab experiment, and Study 3, relying on a survey-based field study, unveil why these effects were observed. Stress and job satisfaction emerge as mediators that explain the findings from Study 1. Implications of the role of PDO are discussed to improve the current understanding of how job engagement can improve customer service performance.

Description: Serving as mental models, psychological contracts guide consumers’ service interactions with their service providers. This study incorporates a psychological contract perspective into the relationship marketing literature, exploring service customers’ beliefs about the terms and conditions of the resource exchange process and the types of relationships they form with service providers. It provides new insights that explain why and how some customers respond favorably to a company’s relationship overtures and investments while others do not. A latent class analysis on a sample of 700 consumers across three different service industries reveals that consumers form four distinct types of psychological contracts: relational, standard, transitional, and captive. To further validate the differences between the contract types, open-ended responses from the respondents were sorted by each class. The distinctive themes that emerged provide a richer understanding of the characteristics of each class beyond those inferred from the quantitative results. Each contract type is also profiled against its underlying level of trust, satisfaction, and commitment to understand the relationship between the contract types and these traditional relationship marketing variables. Marketers can differentiate their relationship marketing strategies and allocate their resource investments more effectively by segmenting consumers according to their psychological contract type.

Description: Extant research confirms the importance of cocreating value with customers in service marketing, yet little is known about the impact of service agents’ work experiences on customers’ service perceptions. This research examines how service agents’ workplace ostracism from different sources (supervisors versus coworkers) influences customers’ perceived coproduction value, perceived service performance, and actual purchases. Three laboratory experiments and one survey reveal a double-edged sword effect of workplace ostracism and its contingency such that (1) supervisor ostracism reduces customers’ perceived control value in customer–agent coproduction through threatening service agents’ efficacy needs when the agents experience low servicing empowerment; (2) coworker ostracism enhances customers’ perceived relational value in coproduction through threatening service agents’ relational needs when they expect a long-term relationship with customers; and (3) customers’ perceived control and relational values increase their perceived service performance, and customer relational value also increases the amount of purchases. Our findings reveal that service agents’ workplace ostracism may actually help or harm customers’ service perceptions, depending on the source of ostracism. The results provide significant implications for how organizations can better manage employees’ perceived ostracism in the workplace and strategically improve customers’ experience in service coproduction with excluded agents.

Description: This research builds foundational theory in a new domain of marketing: animated visual brand elements. It focuses on agent animation, which conveys a sense that the brand element, such as a logo, moves of its own volition, as distinguished from object animation, which does not. Given limited marketplace utilization (pilot study), animated logos represent new opportunities for branding and promotion. However, the influence of agent animation on attitude toward the firm or brand is contingent on the fluent processing of the animation in the context it is used. As compared with object-animated or static logos, agent animation encourages more favorable attitudes toward dynamic firms but less favorable attitudes toward stable firms (Studies 1 and 2). Further, more favorable attitudes arise when the brand personality suggested by the animation is consistent with other brand cues, such as brand slogans (Study 3) or the logo graphic (Study 4). Finally, the effects are replicated with choice behavior using established brands (Study 5).

Description: Many businesses increasingly use strategic partnerships to manage corporate environmental agendas. However, how value is created in green partnerships remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, the authors examine the effects of announcements of green partnerships (marketing versus technology) on shareholder value. It is argued that in green partnerships firms leverage marketing and technology-related capabilities for value-enhancing purposes. The results show that announcements of green marketing partnerships have an immediate positive and significant effect on shareholder value, whereas announcements of green technology partnerships produce an immediate negative and significant effect. Nevertheless, green technology partnerships can accrue positive returns, but over a longer-term (1 year) period. In “dirtier” industries, it is more difficult to generate positive returns to green partnerships. Counterintuitively, though, in high-polluting industries, firms having a history of positive environmental performance experience lower financial gains from announcements of green partnerships than firms that were less environmentally responsible in the past.

Description: Work–family interface conflicts have typically been cast in a negative light due to their detrimental consequences. This study offers new insights by uncovering conditions under which such conflicts may produce both positive and negative effects on salesperson job-related behaviors in the context of B2B sales. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory as an overarching theoretical framework, the authors suggest that informal controls (i.e., professional control and self-control) have differential moderating effects in salespeople’s primary and secondary appraisal processes when faced with work–family conflict and family–work conflict. Dyadic data from a matched salesperson–customer sample reveals that professional control amplifies, whereas self-control mitigates, the positive effect of work–family conflict on perceived stress. Professional control amplifies the positive effect of stress on in-role behavior, and self-control strengthens positive effects of stress on in-role behavior and customer-directed extra-role behavior while suppressing unethical behavior under high stress. Moreover, the two types of informal controls moderate the direct effects of family–work conflict on salesperson behaviors in an opposite fashion, such that under a strong professional control, family–work conflict reduces in-role and extra-role behaviors and induces unethical behavior, whereas a strong self-control alleviates such detrimental effects. These findings suggest that work–family interface conflicts should be viewed as a double-edged sword capable of producing both positive and negative consequences under certain conditions, offering new theoretical insights and important managerial implications for this prevalent phenomenon in sales management.

Description: The valuation of extension rights is critical for entertainment brands such as bestseller books. Building on brand extension research, we argue that accounting for the reciprocal spillover effect (i.e., the influence of an extension product on a parent brand) is important for determining the value of extension rights. We develop a contingency model of the reciprocal spillover effect for category extensions of entertainment products that are characterized by short life cycles and satiation effects. In the discussion of moderating factors, we pay particular attention to the new concept of backward integration, which accounts for the reaction of a parent to the introduction of an extension. Using data from all 446 literature adaptations produced for the big screen and theatrically released in North American theaters between 1998 and 2006, we provide evidence that extension success and marketing support impact the sales of the parent book and for several postulated moderating effects, including those of backward integration. Through simulation analyses, we demonstrate how considering the reciprocal effect in the managerial decision-making process can help entertainment managers to avoid biased estimations of category extension rights.

Description: The degree to which the research and development (R&D) department is regarded as more important for product innovativeness than is marketing, with greater potential to influence innovation decisions, appears ambiguous. This study examines how R&D’s level of power, relative to marketing’s, affects product program newness and meaningfulness, and thus market and financial performance. Relying on the motive of enhancement, this study reveals two underlying mechanisms to explain considerations of R&D and marketing depending on R&D’s power. A multi-informant sample of top executives and subordinates from 229 firms indicates distinct effects of R&D’s relative power on product program newness and meaningfulness. Specifically, R&D power exhibits a positive linear relationship with product program newness but a nonlinear effect with meaningfulness. To expand market and financial performance, firms should seek to generate meaningful product innovations through a moderate level of relative R&D power, particularly when their environments are characterized by high competitive intensity.

Description: This short note contains some reflections on the relationship between the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) and marketing. I focus on the main proposition of the RBV—that a firm should focus on what it can do better than others—and argue that it has implications for almost all marketing activities and that much thinking in the field already is consistent with it.

Description: As the roles of customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, regulators, and communities become more significant in today’s business environment, a precise understanding of the organization’s internal drivers in delivering value to its stakeholders is critical. To this end, this study integrates stakeholder theory and the organizational learning literature to propose that stakeholder-focused organizational learning drives organizations to respond to their stakeholders. Using a sample of 349 organizations, we introduce three stakeholder-focused knowledge acquisition mechanisms (experiential, vicarious, and contact) and, along with the other organizational learning processes (information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory), examine their influence on the behavioral actions of stakeholder-focused responsiveness, innovation, and imitation. Subsequently, we assess the impact of these behavioral actions on organizational performance. Overall, the results show that stakeholder-focused organizational learning is positively associated with responsiveness. More uniquely, the propensity to employ innovative or imitative stakeholder practices is found to be influenced by the way the organization acquires information about stakeholders. Lastly, the findings suggest that simply responding to stakeholders does not guarantee superior performance, but the manner in which the organization responds matters just as much.

Description: In this research, four longitudinal studies investigate changes in post-purchase brand attitude. Following predictions based on adaptation theory, Studies 1a & 1b reveal that brand attitude declines over time after purchase. This research further identifies moderators that counteract post-purchase brand attitude decline. In the first two studies, long-term (versus short-term) temporal orientation is associated with relatively more positive post-purchase brand attitudes. In Studies 2 and 3, brand singularization exerts a similar effect. These studies also point to an important congruence effect such that brand attitude change is relatively more positive when consumers’ long-term (short-term) time orientations are concordant with affiliative (autonomous) brand singularization. The positive congruency effect is mediated by self–brand connections. Overall, our study results advance theoretical and applied understanding of the understudied area of post-purchase brand attitude management.

Description: This research provides insights into the following questions regarding the effectiveness of mobile adaptive personalization systems: (1) to what extent can adaptive personalization produce a better service/product over time? (2) does adaptive personalization work better than self-customization? (3) does the use of the customer’s social network result in better personalization? To answer these questions, we develop and implement an adaptive personalization system for personalizing mobile news based on recording and analyzing customers’ behavior, plus information from their social network. The system learns from an individual’s reading history, automatically discovers new material as a result of shared interests in the user’s social network, and adapts the news feeds shown to the user. Field studies show that (1) repeatedly adapting to the customer’s observed behavior improves personalization performance; (2) personalizing automatically, using a personalization algorithm, results in better performance than allowing the customer to self-customize; and (3) using the customer’s social network for personalization results in further improvement. We conclude that mobile automated adaptive personalization systems that take advantage of social networks may be a promising approach to making personalization more effective.

Description: Brand and innovation management have become increasingly important priorities for firms over the last few decades. Firms rely on strong brands and product innovations to gain competitive advantage and fuel growth. Although academic research has addressed a number of different areas and topics that have collectively advanced our understanding, the interrelationship between branding and innovations is still relatively under-researched. Brand and innovation management need and benefit from each other, suggesting a need for a deeper integration between the two. Towards that goal, this article presents a conceptual framework to help structure the interrelationship and suggests a number of future research directions.

Description: In order to sustain and grow brand equity, brand managers are faced with balancing the preservation of existing brand identity through consistency with the need to maintain relevance, which requires change and innovation. In this paper we build upon the concept of organizational ambidexterity (March 1991 ), arguing that design thinking—the logics and practices associated with designers—can serve as a mechanism which promotes and enables the integration of brand consistency and relevance. Drawing on cases of innovation at firms across a range of industries, we show how design thinking can trigger brand ambidexterity across a three-stage process. We identify eight practices and examine how designers enable brand managers to address enduring consistency-relevance tensions in ways that ensure innovations renew or revitalize the brand without undermining its essence.

Description: Strategic marketing ambidexterity (SMA), the blend of a firm’s exploitation of existing competencies and exploration of future capabilities in strategic marketing activities, represents a dynamic capability that is vital in achieving superior performance. Given its criticality, the authors examine how firm antecedents and industry contexts affect the shift in a firm’s SMA over time (movement in the blend of exploitation and exploration). In addition, the authors examine SMA’s influence on firm financial outcomes, i.e., risk and return. Using data from 1999 to 2011 on publically traded firms, the authors show that firm maturity and slack (financial and strategic) are key determinants of SMA. Specifically, increased firm maturity and strategic slack result in a shift toward exploitation, whereas increased financial slack results in a shift toward exploration. Industry competitiveness moderates these effects. In terms of the financial performance implications of SMA, the authors find that shifts in SMA toward exploitation increase return, but they also increase firm-idiosyncratic risk. The authors conclude with implications for theory and managerial practice.

Description: Although marketers often introduce product innovations using line extensions, extant research provides little empirical evidence on whether and how this product strategy pays off. The objective of this study is to examine the effects of innovation and the relative roles of brand and marketing mix variables in the success of new line extensions. Using data from 196 new line extensions across 23 consumer packaged goods categories, the authors employ a two-stage approach to assess how innovation and parent brand strength impact line extension trial purchase. The authors find that innovative line extensions tend to have a higher level of average trial probability. The strongest marketing driver for successful innovative line extension introductions is parent brand strength. Non-innovative line extensions gain higher trial from greater distribution. The results offer guidance on how managers can better utilize brand strength and the marketing mix when employing a line extension strategy.

Description: Although companies receive a staggering amount of ideas from consumers, only a small fraction of the ideas are actually usable, with as many as 98% being rejected. This research examines the influence of firms’ responses to consumer-generated ideas on consumers’ self-perceptions of face and their tendency to return in the future with more ideas. Specifically, we examine the impact of firm response to consumers’ rejected ideas. The results show that consumers respond to a rejected idea with an increased of face threat, leading to a decrease in future idea sharing. However, the presence of face enhancement reduces these negative effects. Recognizing managers’ dilemma, we identify three buffering responses that may drive perceptions of face enhancement and thus buffer the negative repercussions of face threat from rejecting consumer ideas: (1) considering consumers’ past experiences (success/failure) with submitting ideas, (2) creating a unique group identity, and (3) offering an excuse. We also show the impact of a public versus private firm acknowledgment of consumer ideas on both consumers’ perceptions of face and future idea sharing behaviors.

Description: Increasingly, knowledgeable business-to-business (B2B) customers and evolving customer needs are leading to seismic shifts in vendor–client interactions. Across industries, sellers are changing their business models from a simple goods orientation to a hybrid goods–services model, placing greater emphasis on delivering complete customer solutions. In such an environment, companies must find ways to prioritize investments in resource development. The service-dominant (S-D) logic framework offers significant insights into this challenge; however, these effects have not been tested quantitatively. This study addresses that gap, examining the influence of various seller resources on buyer satisfaction. An empirical analysis of buying organizations that purchased and implemented business intelligence systems finds that “augmented” operant resources that the buyers ascribe to the software’s sellers—resources that go above and beyond expectations—are the most significant predictors of both successful technology assimilation and overall customer relationship quality. In particular, an augmented operant resource reflecting a seller’s ability to see value creation opportunities from the buyer’s perspective ( value mindset ) has up to three times the effect on relationship satisfaction as “core” operant resources such as product-specific expertise or basic interpersonal service skills. These results can help sellers prioritize resource investments.

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Psychology and economics (together known as behavioral economics) are two prominent disciplines underlying many theories in marketing. The extensive marketing literature documents consumers’ nonrational behavior even though behavioral biases might not always be consistently termed or formally described. In this review, we identify and synthesize empirical research on behavioral biases in marketing. We document the key findings according to three classes of deviations (i.e., nonstandard preferences, nonstandard beliefs, and nonstandard decision making) and the four phases of consumer purchase decision making (i.e., need recognition, pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase). Our organizing framework allows us to (1) synthesize instructive marketing papers in a concise and meaningful manner and (2) identify connections and differences within and across categories in both dimensions. In our review, we discuss specific implications for management and avenues for future research.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Recent meta-analyses provide clear insights into how service 〈em〉firms〈/em〉 can benefit from relationship marketing, whereas investigations of 〈em〉customers’〈/em〉 relational benefits (1) are unclear about the absolute and relative strengths by which different relational benefit dimensions induce different customer responses and (2) have not simultaneously examined the various mediating processes (including perceived value, relationship quality, and switching costs) through which relational benefits reportedly affect customer loyalty. To consolidate extant research on the benefits of relationship marketing for customers, this meta-analysis integrates 1242 effect sizes drawn from 235 independent samples across 224 papers disseminated in the past two decades. The results reveal that all three relational benefits affect loyalty, though confidence benefits and social benefits have the strongest effects. Among the three identified mediation paths through which relational benefits influence customer loyalty, the sequential path through perceived value and relationship quality is the strongest. From a service research perspective, this study provides novel empirical generalizations; managerially, the findings suggest that a primary goal for service managers should be strengthening confidence and social benefits.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Recent years have witnessed the diffusion of 3D printing technologies that allow consumers to create products with the push of a button. While these technologies may change how value is created in the marketplace, there is little research on 3D printing from a consumer perspective. Against this background, this research conceptualizes 3D printing as a form of co-creation and presents four studies aimed at understanding how consumers respond to products they have printed themselves. Study 1 shows that self-printing a product positively affects product evaluations by increasing perceived ownership. Study 2 finds that this effect occurs even when people are not able to observe the printing process. Study 3 shows that the positive effect of self-printing is moderated by the affective quality of the products being printed. Specifically, while self-printing enhances the evaluations of hedonic products, it has no effect on the evaluations of utilitarian products. Finally, Study 4 identifies a strategy that may offset the disadvantage that utilitarian products face in a 3D printing context, that is, ingredient branding.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉The prevalence of mobile usage data has provided unprecedented insights into customer hyper-context information and brings ample opportunities for practitioners to design more pertinent marketing strategies and timely targeted campaigns. Granular unstructured mobile data also stimulate new research frontiers. This paper integrates the traditional marketing mix model to develop a framework of personalized mobile marketing strategies. The framework incorporates personalization into the center of mobile product, mobile place, mobile price, mobile promotion, and mobile prediction. Extant studies in mobile marketing are reviewed under the proposed framework, and promising topics about personalized mobile marketing are discussed for future research.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉In the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to substantially change both marketing strategies and customer behaviors. Building from not only extant research but also extensive interactions with practice, the authors propose a multidimensional framework for understanding the impact of AI involving intelligence levels, task types, and whether AI is embedded in a robot. Prior research typically addresses a subset of these dimensions; this paper integrates all three into a single framework. Next, the authors propose a research agenda that addresses not only how marketing strategies and customer behaviors will change in the future, but also highlights important policy questions relating to privacy, bias and ethics. Finally, the authors suggest AI will be more effective if it augments (rather than replaces) human managers.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Programmatic television advertising technologies allow advertisers to detect the placement of competitor ads and schedule their own ads almost in real time. This paper investigates how managers can improve the effectiveness of their ad schedules by considering the relative placement of their ads with respect to competitor ads. By analyzing a dataset of more than 43,000 own-brand and 49,000 competitor TV ad insertions, we propose and estimate the effects of four ad scheduling strategies on online conversions. The best strategy is to place ads in isolation, either when competitors are not advertising at all or advertising on other stations; this avoidance strategy results in the greatest effectiveness of own-brand ads and delivers conversions from competitor ads. If an avoidance strategy is not possible, brands should advertise more heavily than their competitors. Doing so mitigates the substitution effect of competitive advertising, which occurs when competitor ads outnumber own-brand ads. Our analyses show that adopting programmatic television technology would have led the focal firm to increase the conversions from television advertising by 59%.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Although brands increasingly disseminate their brand biographies through brand sources, this research shows that this practice can decrease brand attitudes and consumer preferences. A brand source activates consumers’ persuasion knowledge, increasing negative thoughts and impeding narrative transportation into the brand biography. This research furthermore demonstrates that the negative impact of a brand source in the dissemination of brand biographies depends on self-congruence, such that a detrimental effect on consumer attitudes and preferences occurs when the brand biography is incongruent with consumer’s self-concept, but is mitigated when the brand biography is self-congruent. These findings suggest that the dissemination of brand biographies by brand sources requires consideration of source and congruence effects.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Extant research has established the effects of nostalgic brand positioning on brand equity, but studies have only examined individual nostalgic brand relationship dimensions separately. Combining these strands, we offer a holistic perspective of the mediating processes and identify contextual and firm-related moderators that affect the individual linkages. We draw on construal level theory and develop a multilevel model in which emotional attachment, brand local iconness, and brand authenticity explain how nostalgic brand positioning creates brand equity. We posit that country differences between emerging and developed markets and brand innovativeness moderate these mediating effects. The results from large consumer samples suggest that emotional attachment and brand local iconness play a weaker role in mediating the connection of nostalgic brand positioning and brand equity in emerging markets. However, this disadvantage in creating brand equity through nostalgic brand positioning in emerging markets can be attenuated with increasing levels of brand innovativeness.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Strategic alliances entail process-oriented decisions, in which information about outcomes is unveiled over time. Therefore, it is difficult for investors to gauge the value of such decisions in the short term; longitudinal analysis is necessary. Accordingly, the authors apply latent growth modeling to a data set of 270 international codevelopment alliances announced over an 18-year period. The results demonstrate that investors reward firms for their international codevelopment alliances in the short term but punish them in the long term. Initially, exchange conditions have positive effects, but these effects decrease over time. However, the decrease slows when firms’ market updates contain positive news. Although investors view sharing of innovation resources as a competitive advantage in the short term, they perceive exchange conditions as transaction hazards in the long term. The results also show that long-term decreases in market returns are greater when codevelopment activities are conducted offshore rather than onshore.〈/p〉

Description: 〈p〉The section “S-D logic axioms: a customer engagement perspective” and author note in the original version of this article contained an oversight from the authors in acknowledging the contributions of the work by Brodie et al. in this publication.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉In user-generated content (UGC) platforms, content generators (i.e., posters) account for only a minority of users. The majority of users lurk, participating in information diffusion only and making no direct contributions to the platforms (i.e., diffusers). In this paper, we study diffusers’ reposting behavior in a UGC platform and compare it with that of posters. We find that diffusers generally behave similarly to posters in reposting. Both groups repost more when seeing more posts and encountering popular posts. Interestingly, their reposting behavior diverges under information redundancy, i.e., when more popular posts are seen in a dense network. Under this condition, diffusers show a much higher propensity to repost, which is (partially) driven by their lesser need for uniqueness (NFU). Overall, this study suggests an exquisite way for platforms to activate their lurking users and it sheds light on their value in generating word-of-mouth and in facilitating information diffusion. It also provides useful guidelines for firms to approach the right type of lurking users (i.e., diffusers in a dense network) by using the right method of stimulation (i.e., offering popular albeit redundant information) during product diffusion online.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Recently, practitioners have begun appraising an effective customer journey design (CJD) as an important source of customer value in increasingly complex and digitalized consumer markets. Research, however, has neither investigated what constitutes the effectiveness of CJD from a consumer perspective nor empirically tested how it affects important variables of consumer behavior. The authors define an effective CJD as the extent to which consumers perceive multiple brand-owned touchpoints as designed in a thematically cohesive, consistent, and context-sensitive way. Analyzing consumer data from studies in two countries (4814 consumers in total), they provide evidence of the positive influence of an effective CJD on customer loyalty through brand attitude—over and above the effects of brand experience. Importantly, an effective CJD more strongly influences utilitarian brand attitudes, while brand experience more strongly affects hedonic brand attitudes. These underlying mechanisms are also prevalent when testing for the contingency factors services versus goods, perceived switching costs, and brand involvement.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉The availability of information and variety of online purchase options are increasing for consumers shopping for complex products (e.g., cars, real estate). This situation, and consumers’ resulting sense of informedness, has led many to suggest that the need for business-to-consumer (B2C) salespeople is diminishing. Yet, despite these claims, many purchases—especially those associated with high prices and, therefore, high consumer involvement—still require consumers to interact with salespeople. This interaction, between consumers (at varying levels of informedness) and B2C salespeople, is the focus of the current study. Merging theories of consumer informedness and adaptive interpersonal influence, we suggest that the interaction between salesperson influence attempts and consumer informedness plays an important role in purchase decisions. To study this notion, Study 1 matches automobile shoppers’ survey responses with objective purchase data from 480 sales interactions. Study 2 is a scenario-based experiment that investigates informedness and influence in a financial services setting. The findings of both studies suggest that understanding a consumer’s informedness, and adapting the proper influence approach to it, is critical if salespeople are to influence modern consumers’ purchase decisions and, thus, avoid irrelevancy.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Endogeneity in empirical marketing research is an increasingly discussed topic in academic research. Mentions of endogeneity and related procedures to correct for it have risen 5x across the field’s top journals in the past 20 years, but represent an overall small portion of extant research. Yet there is often substantial difficulty in reconciling issues of endogeneity with many of the substantive questions of interest to marketing strategy for both theoretical and/or practical reasons. This paper provides an overview of main causes of endogeneity, approaches to addressing it, and guidance to marketing strategy researchers to balance these issues as the field continues to move towards more methodological sophistication, potentially at the expense of managerial tractability.〈/p〉

Description: When implementing cause-related marketing campaigns, companies sometimes increase prices to partially cover some of the costs of the campaign. However, our knowledge regarding the conditions under which consumers perceive these increases as fair and are willing to bear some of the costs is lacking. Using a framework based on attribution theory principles, we show in four studies that the company donation amount positively affects consumers’ perceived price fairness and purchase intentions. More importantly, our study highlights a positive moderating impact of the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation and a negative moderating effect of company–cause fit on the donation amount–perceived price fairness relationship. The timing of the price increase also plays a key moderating role on this link. All four studies also provide insights into the underlying process of these moderating effects in terms of attributed company motives.

Description: Interest in customer reacquisition has increased as firms embrace the concept of customer relationship management. Using survey and transactional data from defected subscribers of a publishing company, we investigate how defected customers evaluate their propensity to return to the company prior to any win-back offer. We introduce a new variable for relationship marketing, general willingness to return (GWR), and show that it is strongly and positively related to the actual return decision and the duration of the restarted relationship. Combining attribution theory elements with existing win-back explanations, which focus on economic, social, and emotional value perceptions, provides a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence the GWR to a former relationship. Importantly, we learn that regardless of whose fault it is, if the reasons for the relationship termination can change or are preventable and the firm can control those changes, then the defected customer has a higher general willingness to return to the former relationship. Also, we show that the duration of time absence before relationship revival moderates the impact of GWR on second relationship duration. Furthermore, we demonstrate that satisfaction prior to defection and the length of time absence provide a reasonable basis for distinguishing defected customers who differ in their GWR. By applying our findings, we derive recommendations for firms on how to position marketing communications to recapture defected customers according to their general willingness to return.

Description: The literature that focuses on acquisitions from the consumer perspective has generally neglected the brand strategy of cross-border acquisitions in an emerging market by a developed country brand. However, research in this field appears necessary, considering the high failure rate of M&As, the common practice of Western/global companies of augmenting their brand portfolio through local acquisitions, and the sensitivity of emerging market consumers to foreign brands. The present study is an initial attempt to understand the loyalty of consumers toward the acquired brands. Moreover, we investigate how such an acquisition affects the relationship between quality and loyalty, as well as between price and loyalty. For fast-moving consumer goods brands in China, the findings indicate that from a customer’s perspective acquiring a local brand is not an advisable strategy for foreign brand conglomerates, because such an international takeover may decrease consumer loyalty. Additionally, consumers tend to expect higher quality after the takeover but may not want to pay more for the quality increase.

Description: Retailers increasingly recognize that environmental responsibility is a strategic imperative. However, little research has investigated or identified the factors that facilitate the successful implementation of environmentally responsible strategies across a network of customer-facing sales units (stores). We propose that a store manager’s ability to lead by example facilitates this process by fostering a supportive climate for store environmental stewardship (SENS-climate). By examining the influence of store managers’ actions on sales associates’ perceptions of the SENS-climate, as well as the subsequent impact on their performance—measured by margins, as well as sales of green and regular products—this study demonstrates that store managers can foster a SENS-climate by articulating their prioritization of environmental responsibility in their operational decisions. These positive effects are sustained by relational factors, such as the moderating effect of the store manager–sales associate dyadic tenure. In contrast, when store managers display high variability in their environmental orientation, it hinders the development of SENS-climate perceptions among sales associates. If sales associates perceive an enabling SENS-climate, they achieve higher margins and more green but fewer regular sales.

Description: This research fills a gap in the retailing literature regarding physical proximity while shopping. Most research in this area examines perceived crowding or social presence and largely ignores issues of distance. Using four studies we explore the impact of the physical proximity of an employee to a shopper. Contrary to common belief, we show that such encroachments can increase consumers’ acceptance feelings and their purchase intentions. We illustrate how these results are consistent with social identity theory. The results show a shopper can have higher purchase intentions the closer an employee physically gets to them due to an increase in feelings of acceptance. This result is strengthened when being included to an in-group is important to the shopper. The negative effects of feeling anxious in a purchase situation can also be buffered the closer an employee gets. Finally, the positive relationship of felt acceptance to purchase intentions is most critical when the product being purchased is perceived as less expressive. These results have important implications to our understanding of shopper behavior and reactions to physical proximity.

Description: Service firms are encouraged by historic evidence that loyal customers are less price sensitive. Yet, some research has challenged the assertion while others have demonstrated considerable heterogeneity within loyal segments. Aiming to reconcile this debate, we investigate the relationship between customers’ behavioral loyalty and the importance they place on price relative to two managerially relevant service attributes: rewards and convenience. We also assess the moderating role of attitudinal loyalty resulting from superior service experience. Results from a longitudinal survey and transaction data from an airline carrier show that as customers’ behavioral loyalty increases, they place more importance on price and less importance on rewards and convenience, revealing that behavioral loyalty causes a shift in emphasis toward price. As a result, behaviorally loyal customers spend less and revenue decreases. However, by improving attitudinal loyalty, firms achieve the desired outcome of reducing price sensitivity and increasing revenue. Specifically, after experiencing better service, behaviorally loyal customers focus less on price and instead shift their focus toward rewards and convenience, and this results in revenue gains for the firm. Overall, attitudinal loyalty from better service experience acts as a key mitigator of the positive link between behavioral loyalty and price sensitivity.

Description: Consumers’ existing habits are a key driver of resistance to new product use. In an initial survey to identify this role of habit, consumers reported on products that they had purchased intending to use. They also reported whether or not they actually used them. For one-quarter of the products they failed to use, consumers slipped back into old habits despite their favorable intentions. However, consumers effectively used new products when integrating them into existing habits. A four-week experiment with a new fabric refresher confirmed that habit slips impeded product use, especially when participants thought minimally about their laundry and thus were vulnerable to habit cues. However, slips were minimized when the new product was integrated into existing laundry habits. Thus, in launching new products, managers will want to consider consumer habits that conflict with product use as well as ways to embed products into existing habits.

Description: The authors develop a conceptual framework for conditions under which news of a major customer data breach at a U.S. retail firm is likely to decrease other U.S. retailers’ shareholder value. Using the massive data breach at Target Corporation as their empirical context, and an event study of 168 publicly listed U.S. retailers as their methodology, the authors find considerable support for their framework. Results indicate that the Target data breach resulted in negative abnormal returns for other U.S. retailers, and that the strength of this contagion effect was moderated by factors related to retailers’ (a) size and product market similarity with Target, (b) governance-related tie-strength with Target, (c) information technology-related ability to prevent a similar breach, (d) marketing ability to respond effectively in the aftermath of a similar breach, and (e) corporate social responsibility. The authors show that although a major retail data breach may result in an intra-industry spillover, managers can use factors related to information technology, marketing, and corporate social responsibility to help insulate their firms from this contagion effect.

Description: In this study, we highlight the need and develop a framework for customer engagement (CE) by reviewing the marketing literature and analyzing popular press articles. By understanding the evolution of customer management, we develop the theory of engagement, arguing that when a relationship is satisfying and has emotional connectedness, the partners become engaged in their concern for each other. As a result, the components of customer engagement include both the direct and the indirect contributions of CE. Based on the theoretical support, our proposed framework elaborates on the components of CE as well as the antecedents (satisfaction and emotion) and consequences (tangible and intangible outcomes) of CE. We also discuss how convenience, nature of the firm (B2B vs. B2C), type of industry (service vs. product), value of the brand (high vs. low), and level of involvement (high vs. low) moderate the link between satisfaction and direct contribution, and between emotions and indirect contribution of CE, respectively. Further, we show how customer engagement can be gained and how firm performance can be maximized by discussing relevant strategies.

Description: As social media gains more importance, managers are challenged to quantify its return on sales. The academic understanding in the effectiveness of social media is limited, and in fact the synergistic effects between social media and traditional marketing efforts have rarely been investigated. Despite the dynamics in marketing effectiveness on sales, the time-varying effectiveness of social media has never been studied either. In this study, we capture the time-varying effects of social media and the time-varying synergistic effects of social media and traditional marketing with a time-varying effect model (TVEM) approach. The empirical analyses of a large U.S. ice-cream brand sales reveal that a) the effectiveness of social media and traditional marketing vary over time, b) the synergistic effects vary over time for social media with product sampling and with in-store promotions, c) the proposed TVEM approach has a higher predictive accuracy than the benchmark models, and d) the proposed TVEM approach saves marketing costs by $0.4 million per year, compared to the time-invariant benchmark model. Overall, this study enables managers to not only better understand the synergistic effects of social media marketing and traditional marketing, but also the time-varying effectiveness of their marketing efforts with TVEM approach for better resource allocation.

Description: The ability of a firm’s managers to understand how its customers view the firm’s offerings and the drivers of those customer perceptions is fundamental in determining the success of marketing efforts. We investigate the extent to which managers’ perceptions of the levels and drivers of their customers’ satisfaction and loyalty align with that of their actual customers (along with customers’ expectations, quality, value, and complaints). From 70,000 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) customer surveys and 1068 firm (manager) responses from the ACSI-measured companies, our analyses suggest that managers generally fail to understand their firms’ customers in two important ways. First, managers systematically overestimate the levels of customer satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty, as well as the levels of key antecedent constructs such as expectations and perceived value. Second, managers’ understanding of the drivers of their customers’ satisfaction and loyalty are disconnected from those of their actual customers. Among the most significant “disconnects,” managers underestimate the importance of customer perceptions of quality in driving their satisfaction and of satisfaction in driving customers’ loyalty and complaint behavior. Our results indicate that firms must do more to ensure that managers understand how their customers perceive the firm’s products and services and why.

Description: The classic model of loyalty proposed by Dick and Basu (1994) assumes that customers can be naturally classified in four loyalty conditions. This model has been tested with cross-sectional data and measures of recalled or retrospective consumer loyalty. Therefore, these studies could not examine whether and why customers move across different loyalty conditions over time, and offer guidance to managers on how to shift customers to the more desirable loyalty conditions. In this paper, we conduct an empirical test of this model and examine the key drivers of shifts in consumers' loyalty conditions over six annual time periods. Based on data from 6,109 households and 23 stores, we find customers can be classified in three loyalty conditions only: (1) the no loyalty, (2) the latent loyalty, and (3) the true loyalty conditions. The spurious loyalty condition is not supported, probably because switching costs are negligible in the grocery retailing industry. However, we find that marketing actions, i.e., private label policy, feature advertising, end-of-aisle product display, and store pricing policy, influence customer transition across loyalty conditions.

Description: Despite significant attention from practitioners and broad claims of the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EI), empirical support for its incremental direct effects on outcomes relevant to professional selling has been disappointing. However, little research has included relevant contextual variables or the potential interactions of EI with contextual variables when considering its effects. This contingency view of EI maintains that EI is important in work settings, but only under certain conditions. Drawing on the appraisal theory of emotions, the authors develop a contingency model, which proposes that salesperson EI moderates the harmful effects of role stress on three work outcomes—emotional exhaustion, customer-oriented selling, and sales performance. Using three matched data sources from multiple professional selling workgroups in a business-to-business sales setting, the authors find that EI moderates the relationship between role ambiguity and all three outcome variables.

Description: From a Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL) perspective, employees constitute operant resources that firms can draw to enhance the outcomes of innovation efforts. While research acknowledges that frontline employees (FLEs) constitute, through service encounters, a key interface for the transfer of valuable external knowledge into the firm, the range of potential benefits derived from FLE-driven innovation deserves more investigation. Using a sample of knowledge intensive business services firms (KIBS), this study examines how the collaboration with FLEs along the new service development (NSD) process, namely FLE co-creation, impacts on service innovation performance following two routes of different effects. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results indicate that FLE co-creation benefits the NS success among FLEs and firm’s customers, the constituents of the resources route. FLE co-creation also has a positive effect on the NSD speed, which in turn enhances the NS quality. NSD speed and NS quality integrate the operational route, which proves to be the most effective path to impact the NS market performance. Accordingly, KIBS managers must value their FLEs as essential partners to achieve successful innovation from an internal and external perspective, and develop the appropriate mechanisms to guarantee their effective involvement along the NSD process.

Description: Introducing access as an alternative consumption mode next to ownership constitutes a major business model innovation. Managers need to better understand how to brand these new access offers and how this innovation affects current customers of the parent brand. In a series of experiments, we show that the product brand affects consumers’ access attitude less strongly than the offer’s service convenience in the carsharing context. However, in the fashion context, we find that brand prestige becomes essential for consumers’ access attitude. Regardless of the context, we repeatedly find that owners of a prestige brand evaluate new access offers more favorably than non-owners. In the carsharing context, this effect reverses for value brand owners. Furthermore, we do not find evidence that the access offer affects the parent brand negatively. Instead, we find that the parent brand is considered more innovative when a new access offer is introduced.

Description: Achieving customer loyalty is a primary marketing goal, but building loyalty and reaping its rewards remain ongoing challenges. Theory suggests that loyalty comprises attitudes and purchase behaviors that benefit one seller over competitors. Yet researchers examining loyalty adopt widely varying conceptual and operational approaches. The present investigation examines the consequences of this heterogeneity by empirically mapping current conceptual approaches using an item-level coding of extant loyalty research, then testing how operational and study-specific characteristics moderate the strategy → loyalty → performance process through meta-analytic techniques. The results clarify dissimilarities in loyalty building strategies, how loyalty differentially affects performance and word of mouth, and the consequences of study-specific characteristics. Prescriptive advice based on 163 studies of customer loyalty addresses three seemingly simple but very critical questions: What is customer loyalty ? How is it measured ? and What actually matters when it comes to customer loyalty ?

Description: This research investigates the buyer and seller characteristics that impact overbidding in electronic auctions. Specifically, the empirical analysis shows that customers with more total experience are less likely to overbid and that overbidding is less frequent for auction items with higher face values. When bidder experience pertains to the same product category, the frequency and magnitude of overbids are further reduced. This research also finds that consumers are more likely to overbid as the bidding environment becomes more competitive. Furthermore, auction item attributes, such as starting price, day/time of the auction, and shipping fees, are shown to impact the propensity to overbid and the magnitude of overbidding. The empirical results have important implications for understanding bidder behavior and for assisting online sellers in formulating more profitable selling strategies.

Description: This article offers a new perspective on customer–company identification (CCI) by focusing on CCI’s underlying self-motives: self-uncertainty and self-enhancement. More precisely, an operationalization is proposed in which cognitive (CCI Cog ) and affective (CCI Aff ) dimensions of CCI are driven by different self-motives: CCI Cog by self-uncertainty and CCI Aff by self-enhancement. Focusing on these self-motives reveals that CCI Cog and CCI Aff affect some customer attitudes and behaviors in opposite ways but affect other attitudes and behaviors similarly. A cross-sectional survey that examines outcomes of CCI Cog and CCI Aff supports the proposed conceptualization of CCI and suggests the dimensions differ in how each impacts customer–company relationships. Furthermore, the study suggests that combining the dimensions together in higher order constructs or examining only one dimension can lead to misleading conclusions.

Description: Building on the meta-analytic model suggested by Palmatier et al. Journal of Marketing, 70, 136–153, ( 2006 ), this study extends the relationship marketing framework to the domain of online retailing to identify what strategies help build relationships with online customers. Specifically, this meta-analytic study identifies key antecedents and consequences of relationship marketing in online retailing. The study also examines the relationship between the four mediators—trust, commitment, relationship quality, and relationship satisfaction— and the antecedents and consequences of relationship marketing. Similarity and seller expertise were found to have the strongest impact on relational mediators, and word of mouth was the most critical outcome of relationship marketing efforts. The model proffered in this study will motivate hypotheses to be examined by future researchers. The model also helps managers to identify the key drivers of relationship marketing in online retailing.

Description: In business-to-business relationships, sellers are often faced with instances of contractual breaches by buyers. In many cases, relationship factors preclude legal enforcement of contract terms, requiring sellers to explore alternate resolution options. Literature on contractual breaches has primarily focused on enforcement options based on terms specified in the contract. However, little is known about how companies deal with contractual breaches by their customers when legal enforcement is not a viable option. The authors use a grounded theory approach to investigate this important issue. Based on in-depth interviews with 40 supplier managers and executives in multiple industries, the authors identify: (a) types of out-of-contract alternatives for resolving breaches, (b) factors that lead to use of enforcement options outside the terms specified in the contract, (c) contextual influences, and (d) individual and firm-level consequences of outside-of-contract enforcement.

Description: In this digital era, marketing theory and practice are being transformed by increasing complexity due to information availability, higher reach and interactions, and faster speeds of transactions. These have led to the adoption of intelligent agent technologies (IATs) by many companies. As IATs are relatively new and technologically complex, several definitions are evolving, and the theory in this area is not yet fully developed. There is a need to provide structure and guidance to marketers to further this emerging stream of research. As a first step, this paper proposes a marketing-centric definition and a systematic taxonomy and framework. The authors, using a grounded theory approach, conduct an extensive literature review and a qualitative study in which interviews with managers from 50 companies in 22 industries reveal the importance of understanding IAT applications and adopting them. Further, the authors propose an integrated conceptual framework with several propositions regarding IAT adoption. This research identifies the gaps in the literature and the need for adoption of IATs in the future of marketing given changing consumer behavior and product and industry characteristics.

Description: This conceptual paper argues that the marketing discipline should move away from its rather restrictive focus on customers toward a view of marketing that acknowledges the interrelatedness of stakeholders. Building on multiplicity theory, this paper presents stakeholder marketing as a revised perspective on marketing that views stakeholder networks as continuous instead of discrete multiplicities. This revised perspective offers a better understanding of stakeholder networks where (1) value exchange has become complex rather than dyadic, (2) tension between stakeholder interests has become explicit rather than implicit, and (3) control over marketing activities has become dispersed rather than centralized. The paper conceptualizes capabilities required by firms for dealing with each of these three transitions: systems thinking, paradoxical thinking, and democratic thinking. The paper discusses implications for firm performance, marketing theory, empirical research, and marketing practice and argues that embracing stakeholder marketing helps to reclaim territory for marketing in academia and business.

Description: Despite evidence suggesting a growing incidence of brand architecture strategies beyond the branded house (e.g., Boeing and IBM) and house-of-brands (e.g., P&G with Tide and Cheer), and recognition that in practice these strategies are very different, there is still a need for research on how financial markets value the full range of brand architecture strategies pursued by firms. We replicate and extend Rao et al.’s ( Journal of Marketing, 68 (4), 126-141, 2004 ) investigation of brand portfolio strategy and firm performance by (1) adding sub-branding and endorsed branding architectures, (2) clarifying the “mixed” architecture to constitute a BH-HOB hybrid and remove sub- and endorsed branding variants, and (3) quantifying the impact of a company’s brand architecture strategy on stock risk in addition to returns. To explore the risk profiles of these five different strategies, we offer a brand-relevant conceptualization of the sources of idiosyncratic risk that may be exacerbated or controlled through brand architecture strategy: brand reputation risk, brand dilution risk, brand cannibalization risk, and brand stretch risk. We demonstrate superior results in terms of model performance using the expanded five-part architecture categorization and conclude with implications for practice. Our results show that risk/return tradeoffs for sub-branding, endorsed branding, and the BH-HOB hybrid differ significantly from what common wisdom suggests.

Description: Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon of open innovation (OI), empirical evidence documenting the link between new product development capabilities, OI practices, and new product innovativeness is scarce. Eminent scholars have called for large-scale studies that systematically investigate the OI paradigm. Drawing on the knowledge-based view of the firm, new product development, and NPD capabilities literature streams, we conceptualize a framework in which OI practices are disentangled according to the stage of the new product development process in which they occur (development stage or commercialization stage). We identify two major types of OI practices: development-centric OI (which occurs in the development stage) and commercialization-centric OI (which occurs in the commercialization stage). Specific types of NPD capabilities—R&D, market information management, and launch—are expected to both influence the extent to which each OI practice is implemented and moderate the effect of each OI practice on product portfolio innovativeness and firm performance. The empirical analysis combines primary data from a survey of 239 firms with secondary data on innovation and financial outcomes. Our results support our hypotheses and indicate a need to differentiate among the different kinds of OI practices while elaborating on the complex role played by NPD capabilities in influencing OI practices.

Description: The authors conduct a meta-analysis to examine dependence and interdependence in marketing relationships. Analyses reveal that dependence affects performance primarily through relationship quality and cooperation, while interdependence has substantial direct effects as well as effects mediated through relationship-specific investments and cooperation. Regarding relationship context, effects of dependence are stronger in channel relationships than end-user relationships and for services than goods; interdependence does not display the same pattern. Regarding methodological context, dependence measures that emphasize relationship value versus switching costs have different moderating effects; greater general dependence content is associated with weaker effect sizes for dependence but conversely greater effect sizes for interdependence. These results suggest that new insights can be gained by distinguishing relationship value and switching cost components of dependence and by investigating the possibility that the conceptual domain of interdependence differs from that of dependence. Future research that strives for greater precision in the measurement of dependence and interdependence constructs and that simultaneously examines dependence and interdependence is recommended.

Description: The results of this research suggest a new mandate for discriminant validity testing in marketing. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that the AVE-SV comparison (Fornell and Larcker 1981) and HTMT ratio (Henseler et al. 2015) with 0.85 cutoff provide the best assessment of discriminant validity and should be the standard for publication in marketing. These conclusions are based on a thorough assessment of the literature and the results of a Monte Carlo simulation. First, based on a content analysis of articles published in seven leading marketing journals from 1996 to 2012, the authors demonstrate that three tests—the constrained phi (Jöreskog 1971), AVE-SV (Fornell and Larcker 1981), and overlapping confidence intervals (Anderson and Gerbing 1988)—are by far most common. Further review reveals that (1) more than 20% of survey-based and over 80% of non-survey-based marketing studies fail to document tests for discriminant validity, (2) there is wide variance across journals and research streams in terms of whether discriminant validity tests are performed, (3) conclusions have already been drawn about the relative stringency of the three most common methods, and (4) the method that is generally perceived to be most generous is being consistently misapplied in a way that erodes its stringency. Second, a Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to assess the relative rigor of the three most common tests, as well as an emerging technique (HTMT). Results reveal that (1) on average, the four discriminant validity testing methods detect violations approximately 50% of the time, (2) the constrained phi and overlapping confidence interval approaches perform very poorly in detecting violations whereas the AVE-SV test and HTMT (with a ratio cutoff of 0.85) methods perform well, and (3) the HTMT .85 method offers the best balance between high detection and low arbitrary violation (i.e., false positive) rates.

Description: Many firms use online brand communities to support the launch of their new products. This study proposes a typology of firm-hosted online brand communities and examines whether such a classification system can improve predictions of new product success. A cross-industry analysis of 81 firm-hosted online brand communities shows that these communities reflect three archetypes. A subsequent survey of 170 community-hosting firms in the consumer durable goods industry reveals that the three types of communities are not equally important for new product success. Moreover, one archetype generally underperforms the other two as a new product support mechanism. Overall, the results demonstrate that firm-hosted online brand communities can be a predictor of new product success.

Description: The interaction between market orientation and facets of the environment is theoretically compelling and is hence the primary interaction studied in market orientation literature. Yet empirical literature offers mixed findings regarding these interaction effects. We suggest that these mixed findings may result from the failure of extant research to control for unobserved heterogeneity that may mask the true relationships among market orientation, facets of the environment, and firm outcomes. Such unobserved heterogeneity might arise due to presence of higher order (e.g., three-way, four-way) moderators (e.g., firm size and innovativeness). To illustrate our assertions on unobserved heterogeneity and the role of firm size and innovativeness, we present two studies that use firm performance or new product performance as the outcome variable; the studies (1) include market orientation, two facets of the environment (technological turbulence and market dynamism), and the interactions between market orientation and facets of the environment as explanatory variables, (2) employ finite mixture regression models to estimate the relationships of interest while explicitly accounting for unobserved heterogeneity in the form of latent regimes (segments), and (3) use firm size and innovativeness as concomitant profiling variables in the finite mixture model specification. The results indicate that disaggregate models (i.e., multi-regime solutions) offer the best fit in both studies. The effects across the latent regimes differ, demonstrating the possibility of an aggregation bias in empirical literature and suggesting the need for using disaggregated analyses to study important marketing phenomena. In theoretical terms, these results also suggest the possibility of developing theories that incorporate unobserved heterogeneity and perhaps higher order (e.g., three-way) interaction effects.

Description: The extant literature contends that a new product extension’s success is an increasing function of the parent brand’s quality and the degree of fit between the parent brand and extension. We develop theory to explore relationships between parent quality, image fit and functional fit. Each of these components should trigger positive pre-purchase associations from the parent. However, at the point of sale, high levels of functional fit are expected to increase the probability of substitution between parent and extension. To test this and related assertions, we augment UPC scanner data with perceptual measures for 42 matched parent–extension pairs. Findings confirm that high parent quality negatively impacts an extension’s sales when functional fit is high. Equally telling, low parent quality can actually increase an extension’s sales in some cases. We use our fitted model to present counter-factual experiments to show the magnitude of these increases or decreases under combinations of our key variables and extension type, line or brand. The combinations we explore occur frequently in-market.

Description: Because extant literature on the service logic of marketing is dominated by a metaphorical view of value co-creation, the roles of both service providers and customers remain analytically unspecified, without a theoretically sound foundation for value creation or co-creation. This article analyzes value creation and co-creation in service by analytically defining the roles of the customer and the firm, as well as the scope, locus, and nature of value and value creation . Value creation refers to customers’ creation of value-in-use; co-creation is a function of interaction. Both the firm’s and the customer’s actions can be categorized by spheres (provider, joint, customer), and their interactions are either direct or indirect, leading to different forms of value creation and co-creation. This conceptualization of value creation spheres extends knowledge about how value-in-use emerges and how value creation can be managed; it also emphasizes the pivotal role of direct interactions for value co-creation opportunities.

Description: Despite widespread pro-green attitudes, consumers frequently purchase non-green alternatives. One possible explanation for this value–action gap is the tradeoffs that green products often force on their users: higher prices, lower quality, and/or reduced performance. The current study uses conjoint analysis to uncover the attribute preferences of car and TV buyers when green attributes are negatively correlated with conventional attributes. These attribute preferences are then used to predict choice among sets of green and less green alternatives currently sold in the marketplace. Strong preferences for green products are found when tradeoffs are not apparent, but preference shifts significantly to less green compromise alternatives when the actual attribute tradeoffs are considered. Although general preference is reduced by tradeoffs, a green product offering some compensatory advantage on a conventional attribute does attract a broader spectrum of consumers, while only “dark green” consumers are willing to pay the price to go green when the product offers few compensatory qualities. In all cases, however, predicted buyers of the greenest technologies offset some of their environmental benefits by choosing more energy-thirsty specifications on negatively correlated conventional attributes. Managerial and public policy implications of the findings are then discussed.

Description: This study examines the dynamics of consumer–brand identification (CBI) and its antecedents in the context of the launch of a new brand. Three focal drivers of CBI with a new brand are examined, namely: perceived quality (the instrumental driver), self–brand congruity (the symbolic driver), and consumer innate innovativeness (a trait-based driver). Using longitudinal survey data, the authors find that on average, CBI growth trajectories initially rise after the introduction but eventually decline, following an inverted-U shape. More importantly, the longitudinal effects of the antecedents suggest that CBI can take different paths. Consumer innovativeness creates a fleeting identification with the brand that dissipates over time. On the other hand, company-controlled drivers of CBI—such as brand positioning—can contribute to the build-up of deep-structure CBI that grows stronger over time. Based on these findings, the authors offer normative guidelines to managers on consumer–brand relationship investment.

Description: This paper addresses the question of how an established firm can successfully defend its market against current and future competitors. Previous studies on this issue are surprisingly scarce and typically concentrate on only a single generic defense strategy. Thus, little is known about the degree and the manner in which different generic defense strategies, such as a deterrence strategy (pursued before competitor market entry) and a shakeout strategy (pursued after competitor market entry), differ in effectiveness and efficiency and about the corresponding role of product and market conditions. As these strategies tend to be costly, an established firm must decide which of these strategies to focus its scarce resources on. Drawing on evolutionary game theory and an empirical calibration and validation study, this paper seeks to fill these research gaps. While both strategies turn out to be viable options for market defense, the authors find that in general, a shakeout strategy tends to be superior to a deterrence strategy. However, the authors also identify product and market conditions under which an established firm is better off focusing on a deterrence strategy. In methodological respects, the paper contributes to the marketing discipline by introducing evolutionary game theory, which has not been used previously for analyzing marketing issues, as well as an evolutionary approach to research on market defense.

Description: The viability of online dynamic pricing, or differential pricing for the same product from the same seller, is still debatable given the contradictory findings reported in both modeling and behavioral price research. This paper examines tactical ways for online merchants to mitigate consumers’ negative reactions when adopting dynamic pricing strategies. In three experiments, we show that using various price-framing tactics, compared to no framing, can induce price-disadvantaged consumers to perceive their ostensibly similar transactions differently relative to their comparative other parties. As the degree of perceived transaction dissimilarity increases, price-disadvantaged consumers’ perceived price fairness, trust, and repurchase intentions are enhanced. We further compare different price framing tactics and demonstrate that they have different effects on consumers across different product price levels, customer segments, and framing formats. The paper concludes with theoretical and managerial implications of the research.

Description: Inertia reflects a firm’s inability to change or innovate and may be fostered by many sources. Though researchers have focused on internal inertia factors, we examine inertia factors within a firm’s customer base: switching costs, customer preference stability, and network externalities. New products at 279 firms are examined to assess the role of these demand-side inertia factors in determining innovativeness and, ultimately, financial performance. The inertia factors are hypothesized to have differential innovativeness effects for early and late entrants. Overall, demand-side factors affect innovativeness positively, contrasting with firm-based factors (e.g., routines or assets), which typically inhibit innovativeness. Consumer preference stability is the only factor negatively related to innovativeness, though only for early entrants. Network externalities and switching costs increase innovativeness (particularly for early entrants). Demand-side inertia factors are critical determinants of innovativeness and may now be placed within the previously internally focused set of factors engendering early mover advantage.

Description: Innovation serves as a foundation for sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, it is no surprise that firms seek to build an innovation base—a reservoir of inventions, ideas, and discoveries that serve as a platform for their innovation efforts. One approach for building an innovation base is acquisitions, though extant research reveals an equivocal verdict on whether acquisitions influence post-acquisition inventions. In this research, the authors focus on type of acquisition, acquisition behavior over time, and invention characteristics to investigate how acquisition behavior influences post-acquisition inventions. Analysis of 352 firms across five industries and 17 years reveals that firms who make acquisitions produce a stronger innovation base than those who make no acquisitions. Moreover, comparing effects across vertical and horizontal acquisitions, results indicate that the acquiring firm’s knowledge breadth plays an important role in determining which type of acquisition behavior generates the strongest influence on a firm’s innovation base.

Description: This issue of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science ( JAMS ) is the final of my term as editor of the journal, although the next several issues will contain articles accepted during my time as editor. It has been a privilege to continue my predecessors’ editorships, most immediately following David Stewart, and to now hand over the reins to Robert Palmatier, as my editorial successor. This editorial is a brief account of my JAMS editorial experiences and statistics, along with an overview of literature themes and the intellectual structure of the 2010–2015 articles in JAMS .

Description: High-pressure sales tactics may result in short-term increases in sales; however, the long-term effect of employing these tactics on the relationships among the customer, the salesperson, and the firm is generally negative. Despite this widely held view, research on sales pressure has been limited to examining the selling orientation of the salesperson and/or the firm. As such, consumer perceptions of sales pressure have been neglected, and how the consumer experiences and reacts to pressure is not well understood. A structural model of antecedents and outcomes of perceptions of sales pressure is tested using a quota sample of consumers. To facilitate this test, the authors develop and validate a scale to measure consumer perceptions of sales pressure. The resulting scale consists of two factors, aggressive sales pressure and directive sales pressure. While aggressive sales pressure results in negative satisfaction and trust outcomes, directive sales pressure does not. These results underscore the assertion that some perceived pressure on the part of the buyer, assuming there is a directive element present, may not result in negative results for the salesperson and firm.

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Firms may profit from responding to competitors’ product recalls, but relatively little is known about the nature and efficacy of these reactions. The authors empirically (1) test the link between a major recall (by Toyota) in the automobile context and competitors’ promotional responses and (2) assess the effectiveness of promotional responses and how it varies across brand tiers. They find that though Toyota recalls induced competitive promotions of approximately $850 on average, the competitive promotional reactions did not significantly affect sales on average. However, the results differ substantially by brand tiers. While 50% of premium brands increased promotions, only 36% of nonpremium brands did so. Among premium brands, 86% benefited from promotional reactions; in contrast, the effects of promotions on sales were nonsignificant or even negative for most nonpremium brands. These findings suggest that well-established results on promotional behaviors and their effectiveness may not hold in the context of recalls.〈/p〉

Description: 〈p〉The Area Editor stated in the article note of the original version of this paper is incorrect. It should be: Editor-in-Chief John Hulland accepted the paper for publication.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Drawing on fit theory and the revised achievement goal theory, this study investigates supervisor–sales rep fit for innovation commercialization according to three goal orientations: learning, performance, and failure avoidance orientation. Two large-scale dyadic studies of a total of 387 supervisor–sales rep dyads revealed that supervisor–sales rep fit strongly affects the sales success of innovations but only negligibly influences the sales success of established solutions. Further investigations showed that this difference occurs because both supplementary and complementary relationships between supervisors’ and sales reps’ goal orientations can alter reps’ role stress regarding innovation selling. Moreover, results reveal that firms can magnify the effects of supervisor–sales rep fit on innovation sales success by tying sales reps’ variable compensation more closely to innovation sales. Results also show that firms interested in reducing the negative consequences of a problematic supervisor–sales rep match should facilitate and encourage supervisors’ appreciative communication with the sales reps.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉The technology growth and evolving customer expectations in emerging markets have led firms to search for strategic tools to engage customers. The digital payment industry has seen the emergence of a new mobile-based service called 〈em〉Mwallet〈/em〉: a digital version of a physical wallet. Although there has been excitement, firms lack guidance regarding leveraging the potential of Mwallets. Relying on the extant literature, industry reports, and a qualitative study, we investigate the strategic potential of Mwallets for retailers. We develop a research framework and provide multiple research propositions linking Mwallet integration to customer engagement (CE) and discussing the moderating effects of market, firm, and customer-related factors. We find that Mwallet integration will have an S-shaped relationship with CE. An initial empirical investigation provides evidence for the effect of Mwallet on CE. This research is the first step towards linking Mwallet to a retailer’s performance; it demonstrates academic and managerial relevance.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Recent literature has identified consumers’ fairness and image concerns as the primary drivers of payments under pay-what-you-want (PWYW) pricing. Consequently, managers have employed a variety of design variations to invoke/alleviate these concerns to attract more customers and increase payment magnitudes. We develop a theoretical approach that combines both prosocial and self-interested motives to examine consumers’ four possible responses to design variations in PWYW exchange: (1) opt-out, (2) free-ride, (3) default to recommendation, or (4) other payment. We confirm model predictions using an empirical approach that jointly estimates the multipartite customer response. We report findings pertaining to four managerially controllable variables namely, ‘payment visibility’, ‘information on payment recipients’, ‘timing of payment’, and ‘explicit price recommendations’ using both secondary data and controlled experiments. We show that design variations have a heterogeneous effect on different types of consumer responses leading to countervailing effects on revenues. We derive several actionable managerial recommendations.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Although nutrition information informs consumer decisions at the point of sale in offline stores, it is unclear whether such information affects online food sales. Using a field experiment, we examine three issues: (1) the impact of nutrition information in online food shopping; (2) the interaction effects between nutrition information and seller reputation; and (3) the different effects of healthy and unhealthy food sales. Results indicate that nutrition information significantly increases food sales in online conditions and that seller reputation can strengthen the impact of such information. Furthermore, nutrition information creates more sales of healthy (versus unhealthy) food. Using an eye-tracking experiment to measure whether purchasers pay attention to nutrition information, we find that participants who look at nutrition information longer tend to choose foods with nutrition-fact labels.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉In recent decades, the competitive landscape in many markets (e.g., retailing) and the methods that researchers use to analyze these markets have changed heavily. This has resulted in updates of empirical generalizations in many areas. For cross-price elasticities, however, this update is pending. Hence, it is unclear how these changes have affected cross-price elasticities, a key measure of competitive interaction. To address this void, we conduct a meta-analysis of prior econometric estimates and consider a broad set of determinants that have not been analyzed before in the context of cross-price elasticities. Using 7,264 estimates from 115 studies, we identify six new main empirical generalizations. (1) The mean cross-price elasticity is .26 (median =.10), which is half the magnitude of the previous meta-analytic mean. (2) Cross-price elasticities have decreased over time, and (3) they decrease over the product life cycle. (4) High-stockpiling groceries have the highest cross-price elasticities. (5) Long-term cross-price elasticities are larger than short-term cross-price elasticities. (6) The asymmetric share effect only holds in high-share tiers. We derive implications based on these empirical generalizations.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Different types of crowdfunding backers adopt various social and economic roles, beyond just financial support. Yet the most appropriate message strategy for attracting these different types of backers remains unclear. To fill this gap, using insights into advertising appeals and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we propose a conceptual framework reflecting how the emphasis of the appeals in a crowdfunding message might influence support decisions by two types of backers: consumers and investors. Objective data from a crowdfunding website reveal that appeals that emphasize information (emotion) exert more positive persuasive effects on consumer (investment) backers than on investment (consumer) backers. When devising the appeal emphasis, entrepreneurs thus must make a trade-off while also considering contingent factors such as decision control, social orientation, and reward tangibility. The practical implications of these findings suggest that entrepreneurs should activate backers’ information processing routes differentially, using distinct appeal emphases, rather than relying on an undifferentiated message strategy.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉As emerging market international marketing alliances (E-IMAs) are becoming popular as instruments of growth for firms from the developed markets that are attempting to expand into emerging markets, there is a growing need to understand how these E-IMAs are formed, operate, and even get dissolved in the emerging markets. Extant theories on IMAs, although limited, have primarily focused on alliances that are formed and operate in developing markets. However, as the institutional context of emerging markets differs significantly from that of developing markets, these existing theories are not sufficient to explain and predict phenomena related to E-IMAs. Therefore, using data from in-depth interviews with senior executives from 106 companies involved in marketing alliances, this study develops a new theoretical model based on the awareness-motivation-capability framework that can explain and predict phenomena related to E-IMAs. Related propositions are presented for both researchers and practitioners who are interested in studying or developing E-IMAs.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Grassroots innovation (GRI) that meets the needs of people at the bottom of the pyramid is driven typically by economically disadvantaged people who find practical and creative solutions using indigenous knowledge to solve their localized problems. In this study, we propose a comprehensive framework to describe factors contributing to the feasibility and value of GRI in society. By employing a triangulation approach, we identify the drivers of GRI, develop and define GRI as a multidimensional construct, explain the outcomes, and suggest the moderating factors conducive to GRI success. We then discuss and develop research propositions on the various proposed relationships in the GRI framework. In addition to setting up a foundation for a future research stream based on GRI, this study provides implications for policymakers, mainstream firms, and co-operative societies/non-profit organizations to realize the financial, environmental, and societal benefits from GRI.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉The last decade has seen marketing strategy evolve rapidly in three major directions, which can be summarized in three Ds: digital, data-rich, and developing markets. The first D refers to “digital”; digital marketing strategy deals with firms’ judicious use of digital resources to create differentiated and sustainable value for customers. The second D is “data-rich”; digital marketing has made available to researchers unprecedented data on firm and customer behavior. The third D is “developing markets”; the issue of marketing strategy in a digital and data-rich context is particularly relevant in developing markets such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries. This article formally defines the scopes of the three Ds, identifies opportunities associated with three Ds, and highlights the work published in these areas that will hopefully trigger more research work in D〈sup〉3〈/sup〉 environments.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉Social media allows people to freely interact with others and offers multiple ways for marketers to reach and engage with consumers. Considering the numerous ways social media affects individuals and businesses alike, in this article, the authors focus on where they believe the future of social media lies when considering marketing-related topics and issues. Drawing on academic research, discussions with industry leaders, and popular discourse, the authors identify nine themes, organized by predicted imminence (i.e., the immediate, near, and far futures), that they believe will meaningfully shape the future of social media through three lenses: consumer, industry, and public policy. Within each theme, the authors describe the digital landscape, present and discuss their predictions, and identify relevant future research directions for academics and practitioners.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉The healthcare system is undergoing a fundamental transformation fueled by regulatory shifts that reward value over volume, coupled with unprecedented advances in technological capabilities. To address the processes involved in defining, measuring, and delivering value in this shifting landscape, we develop the framework of value-centered marketing (VCM). Building on existing approaches in both healthcare and marketing, we propose three core dimensions of value in VCM: preferences, precision, and process. We also provide an overview of a trifecta of technological advances including the digital capture of health data, improvements in methodologies for data analysis, and exponential increases in processing power and storage capacity, which have created a perfect storm of opportunity for VCM. We describe how these emerging technologies can be combined with insights from marketing science to develop successful VCM strategy and highlight critical research questions. Finally, we discuss potential unintended consequences in the use of tech- and analytics-enabled healthcare.〈/p〉

Description: 〈h3〉Abstract〈/h3〉 〈p〉This paper introduces a conceptual framework for understanding new and futuristic in-store technology infusions. First, we develop a 2 × 2 typology of different innovative and futuristic technologies focusing on their level of convenience and social presence for the consumer. Next, we offer a series of propositions based on the idea that convenience and social presence can trigger vividness by enhancing consumer involvement, imagery, and elaboration, which ultimately leads to enhanced sales. Finally, the paper then focuses on four moderating areas—consumer traits, product/service dimensions, mental models and social networks—to understand how they might impact the vividness experienced via the technology.〈/p〉

Description: 〈p〉The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The labels on the x-axis of Figure 3a and 3b is incorrect. Kindly see below correct Figure 3.〈/p〉

Description: Drawing on information processing theory, this study integrates the conflict and learning literatures to examine an under-examined area in sales research: When do sales team task and relationship conflicts influence sales team performance, and what is the underlying process by which this occurs? Although there is burgeoning interest in sales research at the team level, very few empirical studies have shed light on sales team dynamics such as conflict and how they impact sales team performance. This study attempts to address this gap by developing a mediated moderation model and finds that (a) task and relationship conflicts have negative impacts on sales team performance, (b) team information exchange and information interpretation/implementation mediate the negative relationship between task and relationship conflicts and sales team performance, and (c) task and relationship conflicts stifle sales team performance when the team makes little use of a collaborative conflict handling style because this interactive combination (task/relationship conflict–low collaborative conflict handling style) hinders team information exchange and interpretation/implementation. Implications for conflict management in sales teams are discussed.