To pay or not to pay: understanding mobile game app users' unwillingness to pay for in-app purchases

PurposeWorldwide In-app Purchase (IAP) revenues reached almost US$37 billion in 2017 and doubled that in 2020. Although the revenue from IAPs exceeds those from paid apps, only 5% of total app users make any IAPs. This paper investigates why some users will not make IAPs and develop a novel concept of users' Perceived Aggressive Monetization of IAPs as an alternative framework to explain IAP behavior.Design/methodology/approachGiven the newness of IAPs, this study uses qualitative research to understand the phenomenon and develop a model to explain the decision to spend on IAPs. In total, this study collected 4,092 unique user-generated comments from app user review sites and social media webpages where users discuss in-app purchasing.FindingsThe analysis reveals recurring themes that explain user unwillingness to make in-app purchases, such as conflicting meanings of free-to-play, perceived unfairness and aggressive monetization of IAP by app publishers, and self-control issues. Subsequent user interviews support the themes and suggest that IAP spending might be more impulsive.Originality/valueThe paper develops a new concept of perceived aggressive monetization. Additionally, it proposes a novel theoretical framework that future researchers can use to understand why some mobile game users are unwilling to pay for IAPs.

A Qualitative Study of Unfairness and Distrust in Smoke-free Housing

Objectives: Whereas smoke-free housing (SFH) has the potential to protect residents from tobacco smoke, evidence suggests that SFH could lead to increased indoor smoking. In this study, we examine how perceptions of a residential smoking ban could be related to non-compliance. Methods: We conducted 8 focus group interviews of low-income housing residents living in Norfolk, Virginia (N=53). Interviews were semi-structured and based on a list of guided questions related to SFH compliance, developed in partnership with a standing community advisory board comprised of low-income housing residents. Results: Several themes emerged, including pervasive non-compliance, perceived unfairness and shame, barriers to compliance, and distrust of the housing authority. Smokers reported behavior primarily motivated by punishment avoidance, rather than out of any perceived obligation to comply with the ban. Conclusions: Results led us to consider Procedural Justice Theory as a conceptual framework, in which compliance is directly related to perceptions about the legitimacy of a rule or authority. When compliance is low due to a lack of perceived legitimacy, SFH should be adapted to promote changes in smoking behavior. We offer specific theory-supported adaptations to SFH focused on trust-building and improving perceived fairness.

Perceived unfairness of revenue management pricing: developing a measurement scale in the context of hospitality

Purpose This paper aims to offer a multi-dimensional scale for measuring the concept of perceived unfairness of revenue management pricing (RMP) in the context of hospitality. Design/methodology/approach To develop a measurement scale for the perceived unfairness of RMP, the authors conducted a qualitative study using the critical incident technique to identify the key components of our measurement tool. They then collected two samples of quantitative data enabling them to have compelling evidence of the scale’s reliability and validity. Findings This research identified three dimensions of perceived unfairness of RMP in the context of hospitality: perceived normative deviation, perceived opacity and negative effects. The new scale proposed here is an alternative measurement instrument that could be useful for detecting and correcting some negative aspects of RMP. Practical implications This measurement scale will help hotel managers to detect potential feelings of unfairness in relation to the RMP policies. It might also be used within the framework of market analyses and pricing strategy plans. Finally, the results of this research show that transparency, fairness and ethics based pricing could help hotel managers increase their revenue-per-available-room during and post COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value This research develops a complete measurement scale for perceived unfairness of RMP, including cognitive and affective dimensions. The richness of this scale will help hospitality companies effectively identify the indicators that denote perceived unfairness of RMP, making them better equipped to handle customer dissatisfaction.

Malicious and benign maternal envy in Chinese childrearing

Mothers utilize social comparisons to other parents to calibrate evaluations of themselves and their children, and these comparisons might prompt feelings of envy. Envy can either be malicious and destructive, or relatively more benign and constructive. This research examined distinctions between malicious and benign envy among Chinese mothers, differences from related emotions (i.e., resentment and admiration), and themes present in these experiences. An online sample of 152 Mainland Chinese mothers ( Mage = 46.91, SD = 2.26) recalled malicious and benign envy, admiration, and resentment experiences toward other parents and reported associated appraisals, motivations, and action tendencies. Results showed distinctions between malicious and benign maternal envy. Malicious envy included lower perceived control, higher perceived unfairness, and more desire to degrade the other than benign envy. Benevolent feelings toward the envied target characterized benign envy. Both forms of envy were linked to self-improvement motivation. Personal characteristics and achievements of both other parents and other children were prominent themes in mothers’ experiences of various emotions. This research provides insights into how and why Chinese mothers experience different forms of envy, and has implications for research on social comparisons made in parenting contexts.

Use it or lose it: point expiration and status demotion

Purpose In managing hierarchical loyalty programs (HLP), firms often use a reward point expiration and status demotion policy to reduce financial liability and to encourage repeat purchases. This study aims to examine how point expiration and status demotion policies affect customer patronage, the role of extension strategies in mitigating the negative effects of these policies on customers and the moderating role of status endowment in the effect of point expiration on customers patronage following status demotion experience. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted using the hotel industry as the context. The hypothesized relationships were tested using ANOVA and a serial moderated mediation analysis using SPSS PROCESS Macro. Findings Customers subjected to reward point expiration exhibited a higher level of anger and perceived severity of the problem than those subjected to status demotion in HLP. Consequently, when customers experienced both point expiration and status demotion, the point extension strategy rather than the status extension strategy was found to be a more effective remedy for reducing perceived unfairness, although there was no change in the level of patronage reduction between the two extension strategies. Importantly, the effect of point expiration on patronage reduction was stronger among endowed-status customers than earned-status customers, serially driven by heightened feelings of embarrassment and perceived unfairness. Originality/value The study adds to the existing literature on HLP by comparing the effects of point expiration and status demotion on customer patronage with practical insights for HLP managers.

The half life of economic injustice

This paper addresses a question which is fundamental to the perceived legitimacy of the distribution of resources today: to what extent does unfairness in how assets came to be acquired in the past affect incomes and wealth now? To answer that question requires two things: first, a principle to determine what is, and what is not, a just acquisition of wealth or a just source of income; second, a means of using that principle to estimate what fraction of wealth and income is now unjust. I use a principle put forward by Robert Nozick to provide the first of these things and then use a model of wealth accumulation and economic growth to illustrate its implications for the scale of unfairness today. The greater is depreciation of assets, the higher are saving rates out of labour income and the less important is human capital the more transient are the effects of past economic injustices. I use data on the perceived unfairness of economic outcomes to see if there is any evidence that those features which the model implies should influence the durability of injustice help explain cross-country differences in attitudes towards unfairness.

Equity-based incentive to coordinate shareholder-manager interests under information asymmetry

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>The shareholder's interest oriented from business operation relies on opportunism regulation of the manager under asymmetry. Effective motivation incentives should be exploited to facilitate the manager's effort devotion enthusiasms. This paper establishes a theoretic model in which the shareholder offers equity-based incentive to a fairness-preferred manager to coordinate their interest conflicts and maximize her expected revenue. The manager exerts unverifiable levels of efforts toward both decision and coordination tasks making the most of his private information about fairness preference. Two interrelated performance measures on different hierarchical levels are considered for contracting purposes. In each situation, we derive the equilibrium effort choices and incentive coefficients of both participants, and investigate how these decisions are affected by fairness preference. Research findings suggest that the incorporation of firm equity dominates pure profit incentive in eliciting high effort levels toward two distinctive managerial tasks. Besides, the equity-based incentive weakens the perceived unfairness and facilitates the participants' expected revenue. Comparative statics and numerical analysis are conducted to demonstrate our results and the effectiveness of the proposed equity-based incentive. Finally, we summarize the contributions of this paper and put forward directions for further study.</p>

The association of unfairness with mental and physical health in a multi-ethnic sample of Michigan adults. (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Two psychosocial constructs that have shown a consistent associations with negative health outcomes are discrimination and perceived unfairness. OBJECTIVE The current analyses report the effects of discrimination and unfairness on medical, psychologic, and behavioral outcomes from a recent cross-sectional survey conducted in a multi-ethnic sample of adults in Michigan. METHODS A cross section survey was collected using multiple approaches, 1) Community Settings, 2) Telephone listed sample, and 3) Online panel. Unfairness was assessed with a single-item previously used in the Whitehall Study, and everyday discrimination was assessed with the Williams 9-item scale. Outcomes included mental health symptoms, past month cigarette use, past month alcohol use, past month marijuana use, lifetime pain medication use, and self-reported medical history. RESULTS A total of 2,238 usable surveys were collected. In bivariate analyses, higher unfairness values were significantly associated with lower educational attainment, lower age, lower household income, and being unmarried. Highest unfairness values were observed for Black and multiracial respondents followed by Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) participants. Unfairness was significantly related to worse mental health functioning, net adjustment for sociodemographic variables and everyday discrimination. Unfairness was also related to self-reported history of depression and high blood pressure although after including everyday discrimination in the model, only the association with depression remained significant. Unfairness was significantly related to 30-day marijuana use, 30-day cigarette use, and lifetime opiate use. CONCLUSIONS Our findings of a generally harmful effect of perceived unfairness on health are consistent with prior studies. Perceived unfairness may be one of the psychologic pathways through which discrimination negatively impacts health. Future studies examining the relationships we observed using longitudinal data and including more objective measures of behavior and health status are needed to confirm and extend our findings.

Interests Under Construction: Views on Migration from the European Union’s Southern External Border

What do people think about unauthorised migrants reaching their shores? This article examines ethnographically what and how Maltese citizens think about recent migrant arrivals from northern Africa. This case study adds to research on public opinion formation in migrant-receiving societies in the European Union, offering perspectives from a small state tasked with enforcing the European Union’s external border in which migration is viewed critically. Embedding our research within constructivist institutionalism – which assumes that self-interest is not pre-determined but rather constructed – we are the first authors to take up Colin Hay’s call for ethnographic analysis in this field. We suggest that criticism of migration to Malta was grounded in fears and beliefs associated with unorderliness of migration management, perceived unfairness of EU requirements, uncertainty of the future, and a loss of control of being able to determine one’s own cultural identity.

Revenue management pricing in the hotel sector: Reducing perceived unfairness to encourage willingness to pay

In a context of ever-increasing competition, revenue management pricing (RMP) has become a strategic tool for companies with limited capacity. However, despite its considerable appeal, studies show that RMP has mixed reactions from consumers. The aim of this research is to test levers of actions that can help reduce the perceived unfairness of RMP and thus promote willingness to pay (WTP). Two quantitative samples ( N1 = 325; N2 = 280) allowed us to validate the measurement instruments for the concepts mobilized and to test two explanatory ‘fairness-based pricing’ models. The results show that fairness and transparency have strong positive individual and interaction effects on reducing the cognitive dimensions of perceived unfairness and on reinforcing WTP. However, the effects on the affective dimensions are not confirmed in the two models tested.