Words from the Sponsor
I am not talking to you: Partitioning an audience in an attempt to solve the self-promotion dilemma
Francesca Valsesia, Joseph Nunes & Andrea Ordanini
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, July 2021, Pages 76-89
Abstract:
This work investigates self-promotion partitioning, a strategy used in group conversations by self-promoters trying to overcome the self-promotion dilemma - a desire to share self-enhancing information without appearing to be overtly bragging. Self-promotion partitioning occurs when individuals partition their audience by addressing one or more specific recipients, deliberately turning unaddressed recipients into "bystanders." Across a series of experiments and the analysis of secondary data, we show people disproportionally favor partitioning their audience when they face the self-promotion dilemma, both in face-to-face conversations and on social media platforms. They do so because they expect bystanders to believe they were not intended recipients, and in turn be less likely to see the self-promoter as overtly bragging, resulting in a more favorable impression. We also identify an important boundary condition, audience size; when partitioning creates a single bystander, the self-promoter worries partitioning would make the lone bystander feel excluded and ultimately hurt impressions.
Genres, Objects, and the Contemporary Expression of Higher-Status Tastes
Clayton Childress et al.
Sociological Science, July 2021
Abstract:
Are contemporary higher-status tastes inclusive, exclusive, or both? Recent work suggests that the answer likely is both. And yet, little is known concerning how configurations of such tastes are learned, upheld, and expressed without contradiction. We resolve this puzzle by showing the affordances of different levels of culture (i.e., genres and objects) in the expression of tastes. We rely on original survey data to show that people of higher status taste differently at different levels of culture: more inclusively for genres and more exclusively for objects. Inclusivity at the level of genres is fostered through familial socialization, and exclusivity at the level of objects is fostered through formal schooling. Individuals' taste configurations are mirrored in and presumably reinforce their adult social-structural positions. The results have important implications for understanding the subtle maintenance of status in an increasingly diverse and putatively meritocratic society.
Relative Effectiveness of Print and Digital Advertising: A Memory Perspective
Vinod Venkatraman et al.
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
The exponential growth in digital media has recently challenged the value of print media in the overall marketing mix. Across three studies, we evaluated the relative effectiveness of print ads versus digital ads. In Study 1, using eye-tracking and biometric measures during exposure, we found stronger encoding and engagement for print ads over digital ads. A week later, participants showed no significant difference in recognizing ads across format, though print ads showed better memory for the encoding context. Notably, using fMRI, we found greater activation in hippocampus and parahippocampal regions for print ads relative to digital ads. Extending these insights, Study 2 demonstrated better memory for print ads across contents, context, and brand associations when using snippets as retrieval cues. In addition to establishing the robustness of earlier findings, Study 3 provided further evidence that the observed memory advantage for print ads is primarily due to superior encoding during initial exposure. From a practical perspective, these findings suggest that marketers should not discount the value of print media in advertising, despite the rapid growth of digital media and communications.
Is this product easy to control? Liabilities of using difficult-to-pronounce product names
James Leonhardt & Cornelia Pechmann
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, July 2021, Pages 90-102
Abstract:
This research studied difficult-to-pronounce product names which are prevalent in certain product categories. In study 1, consumers tried golf balls that varied in name pronounceability but were otherwise identical and, despite direct experience, concluded balls with difficult versus easy-to-pronounce names were less controllable and less preferable. In study 2, consumers were asked to look for a dog that was highly (less highly) controllable for an urban (rural) setting, and the dog with the difficult-to-pronounce name was viewed as less controllable because it seemed less familiar and was less preferred for the urban setting. Study 3 verified the effects of difficult-to-pronounce names on familiarity and controllability perceptions and found preference effects among those with high trait desire for control. Study 4 documented the prevalence of difficult-to-pronounce names on a popular ecommerce site for tires. Overall, our findings indicate managers should avoid using difficult-to-pronounce product names when consumers strongly desire product controllability.
Leveraging Creativity in Charity Marketing: The Impact of Engaging in Creative Activities on Subsequent Donation Behavior
Lidan Xu, Ravi Mehta & Darren Dahl
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Charities are constantly looking for new and more effective ways to engage potential donors in order to secure the resources needed to deliver their services. The current work demonstrates that creative activities are one way for marketers to meet this challenge. A set of field and lab studies show that engaging potential donors in creative activities positively influences their donation behaviors (i.e., the likelihood of donation and the monetary amount donated). Importantly, the observed effects are shown to be context independent: they hold even when potential donors engage in creative activities unrelated to the focal cause of the charity (or the charitable organization itself). The findings suggest that engaging in a creative activity enhances the felt autonomy of the participant, thus inducing a positive affective state, which in turn leads to higher donation behaviors. Positive affect is shown to enhance donation behaviors due to perceptions of donation impact and a desire for mood maintenance. However, the identified effects emerge only when one engages in a creative activity - not when the activity is non-creative, or when only the concept of creativity itself is made salient.
Consumer Responses to Firms' Voluntary Disclosure of Information: Evidence from Calorie Labeling by Starbucks
Rosemary Avery et al.
NBER Working Paper, July 2021
Abstract:
This paper estimates the impact on consumer behavior of a firm's voluntary disclosure of information. Specifically, we study the impact of Starbucks' disclosure of calorie information on its menu boards in June 2013. Using data on over 250,000 consumers' visits to specific restaurant chains, we estimate difference-in-difference models that compare the change in the probability that consumers recently visited Starbucks to the change in the probability that they recently visited a similar chain that did not voluntarily disclose: Dunkin Donuts. Estimates from difference-in-differences models indicate that we cannot reject the null hypothesis that Starbucks' disclosure of calorie information had no impact on the probability that consumers patronized Starbucks in the past month. However, we find evidence of a transitory negative impact on the probability of visits the first year after disclosure, and evidence that disclosure reduced the probability of visits by men. These results are useful for understanding how consumers respond to the voluntary disclosure of information, a decision faced by many firms.
Crowdsourcing Ideas Using Product Prototypes: The Joint Effect of Prototype Enhancement and the Product Design Goal on Idea Novelty
Niek Althuizen & Bo Chen
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
When soliciting novel product ideas from the "crowd," companies may opt to show a prototype in order to steer the generation of ideas in the desired direction. On the one hand, the more features the prototype incorporates, the larger the potential for activating relevant knowledge in memory that may serve as a basis for generating novel ideas. On the other hand, it increases the risk of fixation on the incorporated features, which may inhibit the generation of novel ideas. Based on the "dual pathway to creativity" theory, which identifies the depth and breadth of exploration of one's knowledge base as cognitive pathways to the generation of novel ideas, we argue that the number (and type) of features included in the prototype in combination with the design goal, that is, generating ideas for functional versus aesthetic product improvements, determines whether the positive effects outweigh the negative effects. With a functional design goal, we find that exposure to a prototype with more features leads to more novel ideas as a result of a more thorough exploration of one's knowledge base. However, with an aesthetic design goal, exposure to a prototype with more features leads to less novel ideas because of a narrower exploration. The latter effect is driven by people's tendency to consider the whole or gestalt of the prototype when generating aesthetic ideas. This negative effect can, thus, be mitigated by stimulating people to employ a nonholistic, piecemeal thinking style.