EXPRESS: A New Livestream Retail Analytics Framework to Assess the Sales Impact of Emotional Displays

2021 ◽  
pp. 002224292110130
Author(s):  
Neeraj Bharadwaj ◽  
Michel Ballings ◽  
Prasad A. Naik ◽  
Miller Moore ◽  
Mustafa Murat Arat
Keyword(s):  
Closed Form ◽  
Optimal Allocation ◽  
Performance Appraisals ◽  
Emotional Displays ◽  
Emotional Display ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Retail Analytics

At the intersection of technology and marketing, the authors develop a framework to unobtrusively detect salespersons’ faces and simultaneously extract six emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, and disgust. They analyze 99,451 sales pitches on a livestream retailing platform and match them with actual sales transactions. Results reveal that each emotional display, including happiness, uniformly exhibits a negative U-shaped effect on sales over time. The maximum sales resistance appears in the middle rather than at the beginning or the end of sales pitches. Taken together, in one-to-many screen-mediated communications, salespersons should sell with a straight face. In addition, the authors derive closed-form formulae for the optimal allocation of the presence of a face and emotional displays over the presentation span. In contrast to the U-shaped effects, the optimal face presence wanes at the start, gradually builds to a crescendo, and eventually ebbs. Finally, they show how to objectively rank salespeople and circumvent biases in performance appraisals, thereby making novel contributions to people analytics. This research integrates new types of data and methods, key theoretical insights, and important managerial implications to inform the expanding opportunity that livestreaming presents to marketers to create, communicate, deliver, and capture value.

Intertemporal Content Variation with Customer Learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Bernstein ◽  
Soudipta Chakraborty ◽  
Robert Swinney
Keyword(s):  
Lower Bound ◽  
Dynamic Pricing ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Optimal Allocation ◽  
Planning Horizon ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Allocation Policy ◽  
Content Variation ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Over Time

Problem definition: We analyze a firm that sells repeatedly to a customer population over multiple periods. Although this setting has been studied extensively in the context of dynamic pricing—selling the same product in each period at a varying price—we consider intertemporal content variation, wherein the price is the same in every period, but the firm varies the content available over time. Customers learn their utility on purchasing and decide whether to purchase again in subsequent periods. The firm faces a budget for the total amount of content available during a finite planning horizon, and allocates content to maximize revenue. Academic/practical relevance: A number of new business models, including video streaming services and curated subscription boxes, face the situation we model. Our results show how such firms can use content variation to increase their revenues. Methodology: We employ an analytical model in which customers decide to purchase in multiple successive periods and a firm determines a content allocation policy to maximize revenue. Results: Using a lower bound approximation to the problem for a horizon of general length T, we show that, although the optimal allocation policy is not, in general, constant over time, it is monotone: content value increases over time if customer heterogeneity is low and decreases otherwise. We demonstrate that the optimal policy for this lower bound problem is either optimal or very close to optimal for the general T period problem. Furthermore, for the case of T = 2 periods, we show how two critical factors—the fraction of “new” versus “repeat” customers in the population and the size of the content budget—affect the optimal allocation policy and the importance of varying content value over time. Managerial implications: We show how firms that sell at a fixed price over multiple periods can vary content value over time to increase revenues.

scholarly journals Evolving user needs and late-mover advantage

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrien Querbes ◽  
Koen Frenken
Keyword(s):  
User Needs ◽  
Nk Model ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
First Mover ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Late Movers

We propose a generalized NK-model of late-mover advantage where late-mover firms leapfrog first-mover firms as user needs evolve over time. First movers face severe trade-offs between the provision of functionalities in which their products already excel and the additional functionalities requested by users later on. Late movers, by contrast, start searching when more functionalities are already known and typically come up with superior product designs. We also show that late-mover advantage is more probable for more complex technologies. Managerial implications follow.

scholarly journals Seven- to 11-Year-Olds’ Developing Ability to Recognize Natural Facial Expressions of Basic Emotions

Perception ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 1077-1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Kang ◽  
Laura Anthoney ◽  
Peter Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Real Life ◽  
New Technique ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Emotional Displays ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Emotional Display ◽  
A New Technique

Being able to recognize facial expressions of basic emotions is of great importance to social development. However, we still know surprisingly little about children’s developing ability to interpret emotions that are expressed dynamically, naturally, and subtly, despite real-life expressions having such appearance in the vast majority of cases. The current research employs a new technique of capturing dynamic, subtly expressed natural emotional displays (happy, sad, angry, shocked, and disgusted). Children aged 7, 9, and 11 years (and adults) were systematically able to discriminate each emotional display from alternatives in a five-way choice. Children were most accurate in identifying the expression of happiness and were also relatively accurate in identifying the expression of sadness; they were far less accurate than adults in identifying shocked and disgusted. Children who performed well academically also tended to be the most accurate in recognizing expressions, and this relationship maintained independently of chronological age. Generally, the findings testify to a well-developed ability to recognize very subtle naturally occurring expressions of emotions.

The “Commitment Projection” Effect: When Multiple Payments for a Product Affect Defection from a Service

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 842-861
Author(s):  
Irit Nitzan ◽  
Danit Ein-Gar
Keyword(s):  
Service Provider ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Payment Method ◽  
Fitness Centers ◽  
The Core ◽  
Lump Sum ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Projection Effect ◽  
Core Service ◽  
Over Time

Many service providers offer supplementary products related to their ongoing services (e.g., fitness centers offer fitness smartwatches). In seven studies, the authors show that the payment method for such supplementary products (multiple payments vs. a single lump sum) affects customers’ tendency to defect from the provider’s core service over time. Specifically, when customers pay for add-ons in multiple payments—provided that (1) they perceive the add-on as being bundled with the core service and (2) the payment period has an end point—they are initially less likely to defect from the service provider than when they pay in a single payment. Over time, however, as payments are made, this gap closes, such that defection intentions under the two payment methods eventually become similar. The authors propose that this phenomenon reflects “commitment projection,” wherein a decrease in customers’ commitment to the add-on product over time is projected onto their commitment to the service provider. These findings carry important managerial implications, given that many service providers offer add-on products in multiple-payment plans and that customers’ defection decisions substantially affect firms’ profitability.

Multi-brand loyalty: when one brand is not enough

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 464-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reto Felix
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Brand Loyalty ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Tradition ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Over Time

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to provide a deeper, constructivist account of multi-brand loyalty. Previous literature has acknowledged the existence of multi-brand loyalty, but described it from a narrow, rational and primarily utilitarian point of view. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on open-ended, depth interviews. Data were labeled, coded and classified into different topics, and thematic analysis was used to identify three dominant themes. Findings – Multi-brand loyalty emerged in three forms: biased, specialized and perfect substitutes. These relationships may undergo dynamic transformations over time. Further, family tradition and perceived freedom were identified as two important motivations for consumers to be loyal to more than one brand. The managerial implications address suggestions on how companies can avoid that consumers become loyal to several brands instead of maintaining single-brand loyalty. Originality/value – The study is the first to address multi-brand loyalty based on a qualitative research approach and provides preliminary insights into occurrences and motivations related to the construct.

scholarly journals Factors influencing managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Du Plessis ◽  
Annelize Van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
Performance Appraisal ◽  
Performance Appraisals ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Employee Support ◽  
Emotional Process ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Appraisal Systems ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Individual

Orientation: Managers often have negative attitudes towards performance appraisal because of its problematic nature, which is influenced by political and social contextual factors. These negative attitudes lead to reduced employee support, inaccurate performance appraisal ratings and, consequently, negative employee perceptions of the performance appraisal process. This state of affairs necessitates a deeper understanding of the factors influencing managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal.Research purpose: The purpose of this research was to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal.Motivation for the study: Previous research has confirmed the importance of performance appraisals in organisations. However, managers’ dislike of and aversion to performance appraisal impact negatively on the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems and ultimately the development and performance of employees.Research design, approach and method: An interpretivist qualitative study was adopted, utilising naïve sketches and in-depth interviews to collect data from eight managers, purposively selected. The data were analysed by using Tesch’s descriptive data analysis technique.Main findings: This study revealed that performance appraisal is fundamentally an uncomfortable and emotional process for managers, which results in their adopting defensive attitudes. Because of many uncertainties, managers do not always display the ability or readiness to conduct performance appraisals. The organisational context might place the individual manager in a position to distort employee ratings, which in turn negatively influences that manager’s attitude.Practical and managerial implications: This study provides insight into the present-day experience of managers in respect of performance appraisal and highlights the factors that influence their attitudes.Contribution: The insight gained from this research into the factors impacting on the attitude of managers towards performance appraisals can assist organisations to better support and empower such managers to be more effective in their approach when conducting performance appraisals.

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