A Study on the Moderating Effects of Maximization Tendency and Information Processing Styles on Consumer Responses toward Comparative vs. Noncomparative Ad

Purpose Most of the research on collaborative consumption platforms (CCPs) has focused on motivational drives, and little research has been conducted on the problem of unbalanced information sharing, also known as the “lemons problem,” and signals. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a netnography and an experiment. Findings The netnographic study showed that participants tend to use low ratings and negative reviews as cues implying more searches, use ratings as an anchor to adjust other information, and employ differing cognitive information-processing styles. The experimental results show that, in a normal environment (when ratings are high), visualizers (verbalizers) have more of an intention to use CCPs when they are exposed to abundant pictures (textual cues); however, when the cues lead to a further information search (when the ratings are low), this search behavior pattern is reversed: visualizers (verbalizers) have more of an intention to use CCPs when they are exposed to abundant textual cues (pictures). Research limitations/implications This study extends previous research by showing that people frequently use differing heuristics depending on the context; that ratings have an anchoring effect and guide people in selecting a signal to use and condition how they use it; and that visualizers prefer text cues to pictorial cues when trying to make informed decisions under a condition that points to a further information search. These results are opposite of previous assertion. Practical implications Marketers are advised to provide a mechanism by which users can extract the cues they need and reduce the less urgent ones; devise a mechanism that screens participants and divides them into two categories: those who post honest evaluations and those who do not; and reduce the opportunistic behaviors of partners on both sides. Originality/value The current study addresses consumers’ use of information posted by other consumers on CCPs and demonstrates that participants use low ratings and negative reviews as cues implying more searches, use ratings as an anchor to adjust other information, and employ differing cognitive information-processing styles. Previous research rarely addressed these information search behaviors of consumers on CCPs.

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Pro-veganism on Instagram

Online Information Review ◽

10.1108/oir-06-2019-0213 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 685-704

Author(s):

Joe Phua ◽

S. Venus Jin ◽

Jihoon (Jay) Kim

Keyword(s):

Information Value ◽

Health Issues ◽

Moderating Effects ◽

Content Type ◽

Consumer Responses ◽

Message Type ◽

Source Type ◽

Health Marketing ◽

Positive Attitudes ◽

Main Effects

PurposeThrough two experiments, this study assessed source and message effects of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages.Design/methodology/approachExperiment 1 (N = 294) examined effects of organization (brand vs nonprofit) and message types (egoistic vs altruistic) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content. Experiment 2 (N = 288) examined effects of source type (celebrity vs noncelebrity) and message valence (positive vs negative) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content.FindingsResults demonstrated significant main effects of organization type, with consumers indicating more positive attitudes and higher credibility toward the brand. Significant main effects of message type were also found, with altruistic messages eliciting higher perceived information value than egoistic messages. Subjective norms had moderating effects on attitude toward the organization, while attitude toward veganism had moderating effects on perceived information value. Results also indicated significant main effects of message valence on perceived information value of pro-veganism Instagram posts and significant interaction effects of the two manipulated factors on intention to spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about pro-veganism.Originality/valueImplications for use of Instagram-based health marketing communication about veganism were discussed. Specifically, organizations looking to use social media to influence attitudes and behavioral intentions toward health issues should seek to reach their target audiences through selecting endorsers and messages that will optimally present the health issue in a relatable and engaging way.

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Consumer reactions to food safety scandals: A research model and moderating effects

A Handbook of Food Crime ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447336013.003.0024 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 385-402

Author(s):

Camilla Barbarossa

Keyword(s):

Food Safety ◽

Purchase Intention ◽

Word Of Mouth ◽

Moderating Effects ◽

Consumer Responses ◽

Blame Attribution ◽

Behavioural Responses ◽

Psychological Mechanisms ◽

Safety Incident ◽

Attributions Of Blame

Food safety scandals are recurring events in the food industry worldwide. Consumers and companies are not immune to these incidents. However, there is a paucity of studies that examine consumer responses toward food companies involved in food safety scandals. This chapter attempts to address these issues. First, it provides theoretical bases for the psychological mechanisms through which consumers form judgments of blame toward food brands involved in food safety scandals. Second, it clarifies how attributions of blame negatively affect relevant consumer non-behavioural responses (emotions and attitude) and behavioural responses (purchase intention, word-of-mouth, and boycott) toward faulty food brands. Third, it provides a literature review of the most relevant consumer-related, brand-related, and context-related variables, which may influence the psychological mechanisms of blame attribution, and subsequent non-behavioural and behavioural responses, in the context of a food safety incident.

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Life Management Strategies as Mediators Between Information Processing Style and Subjective Well-Being

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/2158244020962806 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 215824402096280

Author(s):

Maysam Shirzadifard ◽

Ehsan Shahghasemi ◽

Elaheh Hejazi ◽

Shima Aminipour

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Satisfaction With Life ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Significant Proportion ◽

Well Being ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Processing Style ◽

Processing Styles ◽

Life Management

This study investigates the mediating role of life management strategies to see how information processing styles indirectly influence subjective well-being. Participants were 440 university students (female = 202, male = 238) ranging in age from 18 to 50 years from all levels and all majors from universities in Quchan, Iran. In a nonexperimental design and by using path analysis, we found that selection, optimization, and compensation fully mediated the relationship between information processing styles and subjective well-being. Our proposed model fitted well to the data and could account for a significant proportion of variance in satisfaction with life, positive affects, and negative affects’ scores (42%, 51%, and 35%, respectively). These results provide empirical evidence that rational information processing style is a defining factor for planning, and its impact on subjective indicators of well-being operates indirectly and through life management strategies. This model, with a more active approach, has implications for both theory and practice in psychotherapy.

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Effects of country-of-origin stereotypes on consumer responses to product-harm crises

International Marketing Review ◽

10.1108/imr-06-2016-0122 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

pp. 362-389 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Camilla Barbarossa ◽

Patrick De Pelsmacker ◽

Ingrid Moons

Keyword(s):

Country Of Origin ◽

Product Category ◽

Moderating Effects ◽

Content Type ◽

Consumer Responses ◽

Consumer Ethnocentrism ◽

Blame Attributions ◽

Psychological Mechanisms ◽

Consumer Country ◽

A Company

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate “how” and “when” the stereotypes of competence and warmth, that are evoked by a foreign company’s country-of-origin (COO), affect blame attributions and/or attitudes toward a company’s products when a company is involved in a product-harm crisis. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 (n=883) analyzes the psychological mechanisms through which perceived COO competence and warmth differently affect blame attributions and evaluative responses. Study 2 (n=1,640) replicates Study 1’s findings, and it also investigates how consumer ethnocentrism, animosity toward a country, and product category characteristics moderate the hypothesized COO’s effects. Findings COO competence leads to more favorable attitudes toward the involved company’s products. This effect increases when the company sells high-involvement or utilitarian products. COO warmth leads to more favorable attitudes toward the involved company’s products directly as well as indirectly by diminishing blame attributions. These effects increase when consumers are highly ethnocentric, or the animosity toward a foreign country is high. Originality/value This paper frames the investigation of COO stereotypes in a new theoretical and empirical setting, specifically, a product-harm crisis. It demonstrates that consumers differently evaluate a potential wrongdoing company and its harmful products in a product-harm crisis based on their perceptions of a company’s COO competence and warmth. Finally, it defines the moderating effects of individual, consumer-country-related and product characteristics on the hypothesized COO effects.

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The moderating effects of prior trust on consumer responses to firm failures

Journal of Business Research ◽

10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.08.059 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 122 ◽

pp. 24-37

Author(s):

Sekar Raju ◽

Priyali Rajagopal ◽

Mitchel R. Murdock

Keyword(s):

Moderating Effects ◽

Consumer Responses

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