Goal specificity or ambiguity? Effects of self-quantification on persistence intentions

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haijiao Shi ◽  
Rong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Goal Specificity ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Personal Performance

PurposeThe current study implies self-quantification to consumer behavior and investigates how self-quantification influences consumers' persistence intentions, then indicates the underlying mechanism and examines the role of sharing in social media context.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses are tested by three experimental studies. In study 1, the authors test the main effect of self-quantification on persistence intentions and demonstrate goal specificity as the mediator. In study 2 and 3, the authors explore sharing and sharing audience as the moderators.FindingsThe current research demonstrates that quantifying personal performance increases consumers' persistence intentions because self-quantification makes the focal goal more specific. However, sharing self-quantification performance with others has a negative effect on the relationship between self-quantification and persistence intentions. Building on goal conflict theory, sharing diverts consumers' focus away from the goal itself and toward others' evaluation and judgment, which makes the focal goal more ambiguous. Moreover, the negative effect depends on who is the sharing audience. When consumers share with close others who hold a similar goal with them, the negative effect of sharing is dramatically reversed.Practical implicationsThe present research offers guidelines to managers about how to design self-tracking system to increase user's engagement and how to establish social community on social media platform to motivate users' goal pursuit.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the research of self-quantification from consumer behavior perspective. It also enriches interactive marketing literature by broadening self-quantification relevant research from social interaction dimension.

Social media as complementary consumption: the relationship between consumer empowerment and social interactions in experiential and informative contexts

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mujde Yuksel ◽  
George R Milne ◽  
Elizabeth G Miller
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Consumer Empowerment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Responses ◽  
Complementary Role

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the interaction between consumer empowerment and social interactions as fundamental social media elements. It demonstrates their relationship in both experiential and informative social media setting where social media complements an offline consumer activity. The study aims to contribute to the literature on social media by demonstrating its complementary role on offline activities through these fundamental elements. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports three experimental designs that manipulate the empowering and the socializing elements of complementary activities to show their effects on both the complementary online and the complemented offline activities. Findings – The paper presents three empirical studies that reveal the effects of two fundamental social media elements (i.e. empowerment and socialization) on consumers’ responses toward consumption episodes that consist of complementary online and complemented offline activities. It reveals that that these elements increase positive consumer responses toward both the online and the offline activities through psychological empowerment. However, the interaction between the elements changes with respect to specific empowerment types. Research limitations/implications – The paper contributes to the literature on social media by demonstrating its complementary role on offline activities through its empowering and socializing elements. It bridges research on consumer empowerment and socialization in a way that reveals their interaction beyond the extant definitions of empowerment resulting from enhanced communication among consumers. The paper also demonstrates the complementary role of social media on offline consumer behaviors through the effects of these two fundamental elements.The participants of the experimental studies are presented with hypothetical scenarios and asked about their behavioral intentions. Thus, future studies should address the research questions in real-world settings. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for social media usage as a complementary activity to offline real-life consumer behavior through the effects of consumer empowerment and social interactions. Thus, it may benefit marketers seeking to optimize the empowering and socializing components of their social media strategies. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified need to study how social media may affect real-life consumer behavior. It also identifies the interaction between the empowering and the socializing elements of social media offerings in both experiential and informative settings.

The interactive effect of insight and cuteness in driving purchase likelihood: a lay belief of creativity

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Septianto ◽  
Rokhima Rostiani ◽  
Widya Paramita
Keyword(s):  
New Products ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
New Product ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Narrative Study ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Purchase Likelihood

PurposeWhile new product introductions can potentially promote growth and benefit for brands, it remains unclear how marketers can develop effective communication strategies to increase the chance of success for new products. The present research investigates the role of cuteness in leveraging the effectiveness of a narrative emphasizing an insight versus an effort in this regard.Design/methodology/approachThis research presents two experimental studies. Study 1 examines the moderating role of cuteness on the likelihood of purchasing a new product featuring an insight-based (vs effort-based) narrative. Study 2 extends the findings of Study 1 using different stimuli and establishes the underlying mechanism.FindingsResults show that when a cuteness appeal is present, an insight-based (vs effort-based) narrative will lead to a higher purchase likelihood. However, these differences do not emerge when a cuteness appeal is absent (a control condition). Further, perceived brand creativeness will mediate this effect.Originality/valueThe findings of this research contribute to the literature on lay belief of creativity, cuteness, and product narrative, as well as managerial implications on how to promote new products.

Trust mechanisms underlying the self-efficacy-rumour use relationship

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Wang ◽  
Yixia Hu ◽  
Qiao Li ◽  
Hanqin Yang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online News ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumptive Use ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Journalism Students ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences

Purpose Journalism students, a special user group with the dual perspective of both social media general users and online journalists, and their trust in rumours is a valued but understudied topic in relation to preparing rational information users and professionals for rumour control. To reveal these trust mechanisms, this paper aims to identify salient psychological and behavioural factors related to journalism students’ different levels of trust. Design/methodology/approach Using structural equation modelling to analyse the survey data of 234 journalism students, this paper tested a theoretical model that considers self-efficacy and the expressive and consumptive use of social media rumours as the antecedents and consequences of trust belief and trust action, respectively. Findings Self-efficacy has a positive effect on trust belief but a negative effect on trust action. Trust belief positively affects expressive use of rumours, whereas trust action negatively affects consumptive use. Practical implications This study contributes to the cultivation of future online news gatekeepers. Originality/value This paper distinguishes journalism students’ trust mechanisms from those of general users and online journalists. The integration of dual process theories provides insights into trust-building processes related to rumours and advances the understanding of the anchoring and adjustment effects of self-efficacy on trust.

Brand crisis communication through social media

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Brand Management ◽  
The Body ◽  
Advertising Campaign ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Brand Crisis ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Corporate Crisis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies make use of social media communication to turn crises into opportunities and how consumers respond to this brand management strategy, and evaluate the effects of this kind of advertising campaign. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses the textual analysis method to examine the verbal fight between two brand competitors on Sina Weibo. An interpretative analysis approach is adopted to analyze a series of micro-blog messages and relevant responses and comments. A statistical analysis is conducted to reveal the public opinion on this case. Findings – The brand crisis due to trademark dispute has been successfully turned into an advertising campaign, which received eager and favorable responses from the consumers. In the name of making apologies, the company in crisis availed itself of the Weibo platform to make a veiled protest against the verdict of the Court. The technique “acting cute” was proved to be effective in diminishing the negative effect of a brand crisis and winning public sympathy and support. Research limitations/implications – The research findings may provide insights into the interplay between brand advertising and corporate crisis communication on the platform of social media. Practical implications – This study can inform practitioners of useful techniques to deal with brand crises via social media. Originality/value – The value of this study lies not only in its contribution to the body of knowledge on online crisis management with a case of Chinese companies, but also in its validation of the interplay between crisis communication and advertising.

Mixed emotional appeal enhances advertising effectiveness of pro-environmental luxury brands: the mediating role of cognitive flexibility

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaushalya Nallaperuma ◽  
Felix Septianto ◽  
Argho Bandyopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Advertising Effectiveness ◽  
Luxury Brands ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mixed Emotions ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Emotional Appeal ◽  
Emotional Appeals

PurposeThe concepts of luxury and pro-environment may be viewed as being in contradiction with each other. Consequently, it is unclear how to promote pro-environmental luxury brands. The present research seeks to develop effective advertising strategies for pro-environmental luxury brands by employing mixed emotional appeals.Design/methodology/approachTwo experimental studies were conducted to test two hypotheses. Study 1 examines the effects of mixed emotions (happiness and sadness vs. happiness alone) on intentions to purchase a pro-environmental luxury product. Study 2 replicates the findings of Study 1 using a different product and extends it by establishing the underlying mechanism.FindingsThe results reveal that an advertisement featuring mixed emotions of happiness and sadness (vs. happiness alone) enhances intentions to purchase a pro-environmental luxury product. Further, the effect is mediated by cognitive flexibility.Originality/valueThe present research tests a novel perspective on how mixed emotional appeals can leverage the advertising effectiveness of pro-environmental luxury brands.

Consumer Behavior in the Mobile Environment

2016 ◽  
pp. 1168-1182
Author(s):  
Jean-Eric Pelet ◽  
Panagiota Papadopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Mobile Environment ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Business Opportunities ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Mobile Context ◽  
And Behavior

Consumer behavior in the omnipresent mobile environment constitutes a challenge for m-commerce vendors, as they seek to understand factors that affect it, positively and negatively, and to integrate social media in their mobile strategy. This paper presents an exploratory qualitative study about the use of smartphones and social media, in the context of m-commerce. The authors' objective is to facilitate the understanding of consumers' perceptions and behavior in m-commerce and social media and explore the potential of social media for m-commerce purposes. The results of their qualitative analysis show that reputation, design aspects, such as ease of use, as well as privacy and security are important factors for m-commerce and social media adoption and use. Their qualitative results also reveal factors having a negative effect to m-commerce. Business opportunities enabled by social media for m-commerce and how these can be leveraged in this promising mobile context are also discussed.

The matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging on product attitude

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanqiong He ◽  
Qi Zhou ◽  
Shuojia Guo ◽  
Jie Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Processing Fluency ◽  
Mechanism Study ◽  
Matching Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Construal Levels ◽  
Peripheral Locus

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the construal congruence of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging and its underlying mechanism on consumers' product attitude.Design/methodology/approachFour experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 investigated the framing effect of anthropomorphized brand roles (servant vs partner) in consumers' minds. Study 2 examined the matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging on product attitude. 132 students were randomly assigned to a 2 (anthropomorphized roles: servant vs partner) × 2 (product messaging: higher-level construal vs lower-level construal) between-subject factorial design. Study 3 tested the mediation effect of processing fluency underlying the construal congruence mechanism. Study 4 replicated the results of study 3 and further examined the boundary conditions by introducing product innovation locus as a moderator. A total of 218 students were randomly assigned to a 2 (anthropomorphized role: servant vs partner) × 2 (product messaging: higher-level construal vs lower-level construal) × 2 (innovation locus: core innovation vs peripheral locus) between-subjects design experiment.FindingsThe results demonstrate that a construal match between product messaging and anthropomorphized brand roles –anthropomorphized “servant” with higher-level construal messaging and anthropomorphized “partner” with lower-level construal messaging – can positively influence consumers' attitude via enhanced processing fluency. Furthermore, this construal matching effect on product attitude is moderated by the innovation locus of the product.Practical implicationsThis study reveals that anthropomorphized brand roles with compatible product messaging in the associated construal levels lead to more favorable product attitudes. Furthermore, the matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging is stronger for products with peripheral innovation than with core innovation.Originality/valueOur study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides new insights into the construal matching effect of anthropomorphized brand roles and product messaging. Second, it investigates the boundary conditions of the above-mentioned construal fit mechanism.

Shopping online? The role of imagination and gender

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (12) ◽  
pp. 2604-2628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manveer K. Mann ◽  
Yuping Liu-Thompkins
Keyword(s):  
Purchase Intention ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Product Evaluation ◽  
Brand Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Female Consumers ◽  
Product Use ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This study aims to examine gender differences in the impact of imagining product use on purchase decisions. The authors argue that while imagination can enhance purchase intention for female consumers, it can be detrimental to male consumers. This study explores the conditions under which imagination can be turned into a positive device for male consumers. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies were conducted. The first two studies illustrate the differential effects of imagination on males vs females. Given the negative effect found among males, the third study focused exclusively on male consumers to identify conditions under which the negative impact of imagination on these consumers can be alleviated. Findings Studies 1 and 2 show that while an imagination tactic has positive or no effect on female consumers, a generic imagination request lowers male consumers’ purchase intention. Focusing on potential ways of alleviating this negative effect, Study 3 shows that for males without prior brand ownership experience, imagining product use in a less-typical context can increase purchase intention. Research limitations/implications The results provide evidence that gender impacts the effectiveness of imagination in improving product evaluation. Furthermore, the context of imagination and previous brand experience can be used together to determine how male consumers respond to imagination. Practical implications The study’s findings warn against the blind use of imagination tactics. Instead, retailers need to customize imagination tactics based on gender, previous brand experience and product usage context. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first papers to examine the impact of gender on the influence of imagination on product evaluation.

The negative spillover effect in sports sponsorship

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaofeng Yuan ◽  
Chunhui Huo ◽  
Tariq H. Malik
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Brand Trust ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sports Sponsorship ◽  
Sports Team ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Negative Spillover

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a possible negative spillover effect in sports sponsorship to answer whether the sponsored team’s poor performance will have a negative effect on audiences’ trust in its sponsor’s brand. The authors further analysed whether the audience’s attitude towards the team plays a mediating role and whether the audience’s personality type (active vs passive) plays a moderating role in this negative spillover effect. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies were conducted with 380 Chinese undergraduates and MBA student participants over two years. The authors designed the experiment as a computer-mediated intervention in which good, poor and neutral performance groups were compared. After the respondents were exposed to the intervention, we asked them to answer questions using a computer terminal. We analysed the data from the three experiments through analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression analysis and a bootstrap. Findings The audiences who were exposed to a team’s poor performance condition reported less trust in the sponsor’s brand relative to those exposed to a good performance condition, and the brand trust was even lower than for those who were exposed to a control condition (no performance information). Further, the audience’s negative attitude towards the sports team mediated the negative effect of the team’s poor performance on its sponsor’s brand trust. The negative effect was more obvious for individuals with Type A personalities (active) than for those with Type B personalities (passive). Originality/value The prior literature has neglected a possible negative effect of a sports team’s performance on its sponsor’s brand trust. In particular, questions of whether, how and when this negative effect occurs are critical for sponsors, teams, and audiences. Since sports team sponsorship is burgeoning in China, the negative implications are unclear in this new context. Thus, the revelation that the negative spillover effects of a team’s poor performance on audiences’ trust in the sponsor’s brand provides two original contributions. First, the negative effect reveals value for multiple sponsorship stakeholders. Second, the Chinese context in this study adds value for future research and practice regarding both Chinese-foreign and domestic Chinese decisions.

Authentically, proudly ethical

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Septianto ◽  
Fandy Tjiptono ◽  
Denni Arli
Keyword(s):  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Consumer Acceptance ◽  
Behavioral Measure ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Serial Mediation ◽  
Moral Decoupling ◽  
Authentic Pride

Purpose Prior research suggests that consumers can engage in moral decoupling by separating their judgments of morality from their judgments of performance. Hence, they might rationalize the benefits of unethical behavior without condoning the behavior itself. This paper aims to study how a discrete positive emotion, such as authentic pride, can mitigate moral decoupling. Design/methodology/approach Using three experimental studies, this research investigates and tests the underlying mechanism driving authentic pride, its effects and its key moderator. The results are analyzed using ANOVAs, regression-based serial mediation and moderated mediation analyses. Findings The results show that authentic pride decreases consumer acceptance of unethical behavior across different contexts, including purchase intentions for unethically manufactured products (Study 1), evaluations of the corporate social responsibility activities of a tobacco company (Study 2) and acceptance of questionable consumer behavior in daily situations (Study 3). Research limitations/implications This research explores attitudes and behavioral intentions as dependent variables. It would thus be of interest for future research to examine a behavioral measure. Practical implications Given the potential problems of moral decoupling among consumers, marketers can devise effective strategies to reduce this problem using authentic pride appeals. Originality/value This research demonstrates how authentic pride can decrease consumer acceptance of unethical behavior. More importantly, this research enriches our understanding of the underlying mechanism driving the influence of authentic pride such that it increases the belief in a just world, which in turn lowers moral decoupling (a serial mediation).

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