Statistically significant? Let us recognize that estimates of tested effects are uncertain

Haven’t all of us dreamt of concluding that our results be statistically significant, that is, characterized by a p-value lying below an arbitrary threshold, most often [Formula: see text]? In this article, we, first, deplore that p has been largely misunderstood, and that its misinterpretation has entailed a fallacious dichotomization and an understatement of the uncertainty prevailing about the effect tested. Next, we introduce and explain a brand-new – direct – measure of the plausibility of the effect under study. Then, we illustrate the relevance of this indicator by revisiting a recently published marketing research case. We also insist on the necessity to contextualize it, using complementary credibility intervals graphically contrasted. Beyond making researchers aware of the exact meaning of test-related probabilities, the delineated approach invites them to formulate their inferences with prudence and modesty acknowledging how uncertain these are.

Recherche et Applications en Marketing at the heart of changes in the world of research

This article presents a non-exhaustive overview of recent changes in the academic environment of the journal Recherche et Applications en Marketing. In what follows I successively discuss the changes in higher education and research, the issue of journal ranking, and the shift in open science. These three areas of change raise questions about the future of Recherche et Applications en Marketing, the answers to which lie with its entire community.

Principles, methods, contributions, and limitations of design science research in marketing: Illustrative application to customer journey management

The purpose of this article is to present the principles, application methods, contributions, and limitations of the design science research methodology (DSRM), a research strategy based on design science research (DSR). After presenting the principles of DSRM, we show how to use this method by applying it to the problem of customer journey management. We make practical recommendations for applying the method, and discuss its contributions and limitations. By presenting a method that meets the requirements of both rigor and relevance, this article contributes to the renewal of research methods used in our discipline.

Digital platforms and speed-based competition: The case of secondhand clothing

Recent research studies have explored what digital platforms do as well as the behaviour they generate among users. This article builds on the existing literature by studying how P2P digital platforms are speeding up market activities and how this acceleration is shaping inter-user relationships. A qualitative ethnographic study was conducted on the secondhand clothing market from 2013 to 2020. Drawing on social acceleration theory, we show how the affordances of digital platforms encourage an acceleration in the pace of life, an acceleration in the renewal of items owned, and a technical acceleration across multiple domains. These accelerations are inciting speed-based competition between users, who must now be more responsive, more trend-conscious, and more savvy than others. The platforms also constitute a particular digital space that invites us to rethink the notion of alienation in various forms, specifically spatial and temporal alienation. In addition to these theoretical contributions, this research offers societal insights that will help users become more aware of the scale of their sped-up activities on digital platforms.

What being an owner can also mean: A socio-anthropological study on the development of a forgotten relationship to objects

In a context of ecological crisis, new economic models have developed based on the replacement of ownership by access. While they have been studied at length, the very idea of ownership, which is supposed to be abandoned in this process, has rarely been questioned. This is the aim of our research, which investigates the meanings of the concept of ownership for consumers. A socio-anthropological investigation and an ethnographic study on various sharing systems (for houses, boats and clothes) reveals the development of a relationship to ownership, which differs from the one that prevails in the society. In this paradigm, which questions possessive individualism, the owner appears as the ‘custodian’ of his possessions. The identification of his expectations opens managerial and societal perspectives to build the offers that will enable him to fulfil this role.

Psychological distance as a working tool for managers

This article presents a synthesis of research that has drawn on the concept of psychological distance around questions related to prosocial consumer behavior, digitalization of consumption, and marketing practices. Our study is based on a meta-synthesis of 584 articles from psychology and marketing journals. It consolidates and validates the knowledge of the concept of psychological distance in these different marketing themes. It also shows how psychological distance can be used by managers to improve consumer responses. Managers can act directly on distance by reducing or increasing it to take advantage of the benefits of psychological proximity or remoteness. They can also adjust the variables of the marketing mix according to the psychological distance experienced by the consumer in order to make information processing more fluent and, ultimately, to improve the consumer’s responses.

Foundations and evolution of Recherche et Applications en Marketing: A shared adventure

This article shows how the foundations of the journal Recherche et Applications en Marketing were laid by the AFM (Association Française du Marketing – French Marketing Association). It underlines the context of its creation and recalls the main issues and challenges that successive editors-in-chief, during the launch (1986–1989) and consolidation periods (1990–2010), had to face with regard to the evolution of its environment. It analyzes the positioning of the journal in terms of international academic standards and of content. It raises remnant issues and outlines some perspectives for the future. However, mainly, this article shows how the creation and development of the journal was a shared adventure for the successive editors and the AFM, on the basis of common academic values.

Breaking the ice with a joke: The relief-inducing property of humor and its effect on sellers’ performance

Research has identified humor as a communication technique that can help sellers be more effective during their sales pitches. However, the most developed theory of humor – that is, the arousal-safety (or relief) theory – posits some relieving power of humor but has never been applied to the selling context, although such a power could reveal interesting for sellers. Therefore, in this research, we adopt a seller’s perspective and apply this theory to investigate how sellers’ feelings of relief following their use of humor can positively affect their performance during negotiations. More specifically, we investigate the serial process whereby feelings of relief that emerge from humor increase relationship quality and ultimately performance. Finally, we identify empathy as a boundary condition for the effects of humor and subsequent responses, with humor prompting greater feelings of relief when sellers have little empathy with the purchaser. Using a sample of 200 trained students in B2B sales management and a sample of 157 professional sellers, we empirically test and support these predictions, which serve as a basis for managerial recommendations.

The vulnerability of consumers with disabilities: The benefits of taking time into account

In a society faced with rapid social acceleration, time is a central issue for consumers, especially when they are disabled. This qualitative research therefore proposes to study the way in which time contributes to the vulnerability of these particular consumers. To do this, we consider consumers as being caught up in different embedded, stratified temporalities that need to be synchronised. The analysis of 51 interviews conducted with people with motor or hearing impairments reveals a vulnerability fuelled by problematic individual temporal experiences and by a lack of synchronisation with the time of others and/or with the time of society. These findings contribute to the literature by shedding light on the complex articulation between individual, interpersonal and structural factors at the origin of vulnerability. Managerial recommendations are then formulated in order to help consumers reappropriate their time.