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The Development of an Issue Public: Evidence from The Eras Tour
Erin Leigh Rossiter & Jeffrey Harden
Journal of Politics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Scholars describe the American electorate as generally uninformed about politics, but segmented into “issue publics” with structured preferences on specific issues. These groups may ameliorate the democratic dilemma, but theory and evidence on how individuals join them lag behind that ambitious claim. We propose a two-stage theory of issue public development. It begins with potential issue publics -- groups with highly-valued interests or identities that hold latent connections to political issues. A pivotal circumstance then activates an issue’s political relevance for individual members. We test this theory with an instructive case: Taylor Swift fans’ attempts to purchase high-demand concert tickets in November 2022. Website errors created as-if random ticket allocation, personalizing the politics of economic fairness for unlucky fans. Survey evidence supports our preregistered expectations: fans’ ticket-buying fates caused noteworthy attitudinal and behavioral differences toward event ticketing politics. We conclude that highlighting the unrealized political relevance of interests could facilitate democratic accountability.
Picture Perfect: Engaging Customers with Visual Generative AI
Mark Heitmann et al.
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform how brands communicate with consumers. Recent research demonstrates AI’s benefits in producing text, but marketing research has not yet explored how marketers can leverage AI to create visual advertising. Despite their impressive capabilities, “off the shelf” generative AI models are not aligned with marketing objectives, raising the question whether fine-tuning generative AI directly on conventional advertising objectives like evoking attention or driving interest is possible. In this research, we train an open-source generative AI model on marketing mindset metrics and show that the resulting visual content can match and even exceed conventionally produced advertising content in associated performance metrics. We also demonstrate that generative AI can be fine-tuned on multiple communication objectives simultaneously and adapted to specific audiences. In addition to highlighting generative AI’s potential in marketing, we probe the limitations of aligning visual generative AI with marketing objectives.
The Asymmetric Effects of Posting an Online Review on Future Spending and the Dark Side of Solicitations
Hülya Karaman
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Motivated by the prevalence of online review creation and solicitation, this paper examines whether posting an online review impacts the reviewer’s future spending on the reviewed brand. Identifying the causal effects of posting an online review is challenging because reviewers self-select into posting, making it an endogenous decision. I overcome this challenge by using randomized online review solicitations as an instrument for the endogenous treatment variable of posting an online review and establish that doing so decreases the average future spending by the reviewers on the reviewed brand. Additionally, I show that soliciting customers to post increases their propensity to write a review and thus in turn reduces their average future spending on the solicited brand. From a managerial standpoint, this finding suggests that online review solicitations can backfire, decreasing the average future spending by solicited customers. I therefore investigate whether the impact of posting (and hence soliciting) is heterogeneous with respect to customer satisfaction and loyalty. At the highest satisfaction level, posting does not change future spending regardless of customer loyalty. However, posting has a detrimental impact on future spending by dissatisfied reviewers. These adverse effects of posting emerge in the most loyal customers as soon as their satisfaction deviates from a perfect score (despite writing a positive review) and carry over to their future spending, even on nonreviewed brands of the company. Based on my findings, I present a set of guidelines for managers to follow when soliciting online reviews and responding to reviewers.
Who Will I Be With(out) You? Consequences of Perceived Romantic Relationship Status Stability on Product Rentals
Yuechen Wu, Jared Watson & Ali Faraji-Rad
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current research identifies perceived romantic relationship status stability (RSS) -- the degree to which one anticipates their current relationship status to remain unchanged in the foreseeable future -- as a significant factor that impacts consumers’ likelihood of renting products. Analyses of field data and experimental studies reveal that low (vs. high) RSS increases consumers’ preference for renting, but not purchasing, products. The effect holds both for low-risk products consumed individually (i.e., when a romantic partner or relationship status is less likely to matter in the acquisition decision) and for high-risk acquisitions such as owning vs. renting a home across representative samples of the US population. The effect occurs because low RSS, an indicator of lower perceived self-concept continuity, heightens the motivation for self-expansion. In contrast to purchasing, renting is a flexible and low-commitment acquisition method that helps consumers self-expand by exploring new products while not inhibiting future explorations. As such, the heightened motivation for self-expansion caused by low RSS increases consumers’ preference for renting but does not influence their preference for purchasing. Managerially, our findings present marketers with insights on to whom and/or when to provide rental versus purchase options, and how to communicate these options to different consumer segments.
Creativity Connects: Generating Creative Ideas on Behalf of a Brand Increases Feelings of Connection
Sahoon Kim, Maria Rodas & Jack Goncalo
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
People are increasingly asked to generate creative ideas for brands in campaigns intended to generate new ideas. We draw on and extend a growing stream of research suggesting that being creative can foster social connection by showing that generating creative ideas for a brand can strengthen self-brand connection. In six pre-registered experiments (N = 1,635), participants worked on either a creative or less-creative product idea generation task. Creative (vs. less-creative) idea generators reported feeling more connected to the brand (Studies 1A and 1B), and these effects manifested in real product choices (Study 4). The underlying psychological mechanism, perceived self-disclosure, emerged via both mediation (Study 2) and moderation (Study 3). In a high-powered replication (Study 5), we addressed alternative explanations including effort, engagement, brand liking, and willingness to pay. We discuss the implications of our findings for the broader possibility that being creative can foster social connection -- a source of psychological well-being.