{"title":"Accountability and referent Selection: Evidence from Chinese mutual funds","authors":"Zian Yang, Zhi Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115368","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115368","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Managers select referent organizations for accurate feedback, and also for favorable interpretations. Using Chinese mutual fund data, this study investigates the effect of manager accountability on referent selection. We find that fund managers with higher accountability pressure tend to select worse-off performing referents to show positive comparison results. Moreover, our results suggest that focal fund performance weakens the relationship between fund managers’ accountability pressures and the selection of worse-off referents. Finally, our results suggest that fund manager power weakens the relationship between accountability pressure of fund managers and the selection of worse-off referents. Our findings contribute to referent selection research on the Behavioral Theory of the Firm and enrich our understanding of how accountability influences managers’ self-evaluation processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115368"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143821392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The evolution of modern branding: Historical origins, current perspectives, and future directions","authors":"Kevin Lane Keller","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115359","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115359","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Brands and branding have become an essential component to our economy and society, growing in importance through the years. To provide some context to that evolution, the last seven decades of branding and branding research can be roughly divided into three main eras: 1) Roots of modern branding (1955–1979); 2) Growth of branding as a management priority (1980–1999); and 3) Personal, social, cultural and digital dimensions of branding (2000–2025). After briefly highlighting some noteworthy marketplace and research developments in each era, current trends and new directions in branding are discussed in detail. Specifically, five important branding topics in need of in-depth research investigation are reviewed: 1) AI and brands; 2) The role, function, and scope of branding; 3) Brand platforms; 4) Brand journeys; and 5) Brand value and attribution. For each topic, key theoretical and managerial issues are considered and promising future research opportunities are suggested.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115359"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trademark intensity and firm performance in family versus non-family firms: The role of organizational and knowledge capital","authors":"Pankaj C. Patel , Alfredo De Massis","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115372","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115372","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the differential effects of trademark intensity on firm performance between family and non-family firms, examining how distinct organizational configurations and management approaches influence performance outcomes. Drawing on resource-based view theory and socioemotional wealth insights, we analyze whether the relationship between trademark intensity and firm financial performance differs between family and non-family firms, as well as the effect of organizational capital and knowledge capital on this relationship. We analyze a sample of 753 firms from 2007 to 2017. Our results show that in family firms, higher trademark intensity is positively associated with firm performance, suggesting that organizational capital and knowledge capital have ameliorative effects in improving returns to trademark intensity for family firms as compared to non-family firms. These findings remain robust to various controls, including alternative family firm definitions and proximity to bankruptcy. This study advances our understanding of how family firms leverage intangible resources for competitive advantage and highlights the complex interplay between trademark strategies and other forms of intangible capital in the family firm context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115372"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovations in Healthcare: A systematic literature review","authors":"Sandhya Mishra, Karuna Jain","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115364","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115364","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The contemporary landscape demands innovations that make quality healthcare accessible and cost-effective for end-users while remaining economically viable for care providers. To understand how healthcare innovations address this dual challenge of quality and cost, we review the available evidence from a management perspective. By classifying healthcare innovations into three categories—consumer-focused, business model, and technological—we examine the literature via bibliometric and content analysis techniques based on protocol-search-appraisal-synthesis-analysis-report (PSALSAR) framework. Our findings indicate that with value co-creation as a key driver, all three types of innovations benefit both patients and healthcare providers. Consumer-focused innovations enhance care quality by incorporating patients’ perspectives, while business-model innovations address both patient satisfaction and the economic viability of care delivery. Technological innovations, too, target improved patient outcomes and reduced operational costs. This study contributes by synthesizing these insights into an integrated framework of healthcare innovations, potentially offering a roadmap for future solutions to transform healthcare delivery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115364"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Intermediaries that facilitate university–industry research partnerships: A systematic literature review","authors":"Jinghong Sun , Xuefeng Liu , Jing Cai","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115365","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115365","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on intermediaries facilitating university–industry collaboration (UIC) has grown substantially in recent decades. However, existing reviews predominantly focus on intermediaries supporting commercialization, neglecting those facilitating university–industry research partnerships, another distinct UIC channel that involves deeper interactions and the exchange of tacit knowledge. Given the fragmented state of the relevant literature, we perform a systematic review to provide a coherent understanding of intermediaries in research partnerships. Five types of intermediaries operating at organizational and individual levels emerge through reviewing 69 articles. We contribute by (1) proposing a process model outlining their roles and activities across partnership stages and (2) presenting a framework that discerns partnership development- and partnership participants-related consequences of intermediary involvement and categorizes factors affecting their effectiveness into internal, external, and inter-organizational levels. Based on integrated insights, we formulate a future research agenda in seven areas and discuss practical implications for leveraging intermediaries to catalyze partnership development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115365"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vincenzo Butticè , Angelo Natalicchio , Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli
{"title":"Looking at the Stars: Status shifts after collective achievements","authors":"Vincenzo Butticè , Angelo Natalicchio , Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115356","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115356","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We analyze how collective awards shape status shifts within teams. Integrating the relational and the public recognition perspectives on status formation, we argue that status shifts arise from both internal team composition and external recognition. The presence of a high-status member amplifies audience arousal, leading to a disproportionate attribution of the award’s value. This heightened arousal also strengthens audience memory, resulting in more persistent status gains for all team members. Our analysis is grounded in the film industry and based on a sample of 6,632 actor-film pairs related to the period 2000–2013. Results show that all team members experience a positive status shift after receiving a collective award. However, high-status members experience a higher positive status shift compared to the others. Results highlight that the positive status shifts due to the collective award winning tend to last after some time, in the presence of high-status members in the team.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115356"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143808062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nima Heirati , Valentina Pitardi , Jochen Wirtz , Chanaka Jayawardhena , Werner Kunz , Stefanie Paluch
{"title":"Unintended consequences of service robots – Recent progress and future research directions","authors":"Nima Heirati , Valentina Pitardi , Jochen Wirtz , Chanaka Jayawardhena , Werner Kunz , Stefanie Paluch","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115366","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115366","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This editorial article provides a comprehensive review of the literature on the unintended consequences of service robots, examining past developments, current trends, and future directions. It begins by identifying six key themes in the field: (1) customers’ emotional responses, (2) customer misbehavior, (3) employee technostress, (4) privacy, ethics, and fairness concerns, (5) post-purchase behaviors and brand evaluations, and (6) negative aspects in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. We then relate the six articles featured in this special issue to these themes and detail the unique contributions of each. Finally, we outline the gaps in the literature and propose future research directions for each theme.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115366"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Affiliative or self-defeating? Exploring the effect of humor types on customer forgiveness in the context of AI agents’ service failure","authors":"Yuguang Xie , Peiyu Zhou , Changyong Liang , Shuping Zhao , Wenxing Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115381","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115381","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Service failures of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) agents are common in real-world interactions. How to mitigate the negative impact of AI agent failures and improve customer forgiveness is imperative. In this study, we construct a model of the influence mechanism of affiliative and self-defeating humor types on customer forgiveness. Through four experimental studies (N = 1919), we find that AI agents expressing humor can effectively enhance customer forgiveness during service failures, with self-defeating humor having the best effect. Moreover, affiliative and self-defeating humor types can improve customers’ positive emotion and allow them to experience relief. The positive impact of AI agents expressing humor persisted in the low-severity failure condition but disappeared in the medium- and high-severity conditions. These findings extend the existing literature on AI agents expressing humor and guide online service providers to mitigate and minimize the negative effects of AI agents’ service failures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115381"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Henna Syrjälä , Carlos Diaz Ruiz , Hanna Leipämaa-Leskinen , Harri T. Luomala
{"title":"From consumers to consumption: The socio-technical assemblage of the persona in market segmentation","authors":"Henna Syrjälä , Carlos Diaz Ruiz , Hanna Leipämaa-Leskinen , Harri T. Luomala","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115387","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115387","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Market segmentation is a fundamental concept in marketing research and practice, which, over the past seventy years, has become synonymous with customer segmentation—the act of classifying homogeneous consumer groups and representing them as idealized personas. However, customer segmentation and market segmentation are not identical, as the former focuses on different groups of people and the latter on strategically distinct markets. To address this issue, this paper contributes to marketing research by reclaiming market segmentation’s original meaning: distinguishing markets. Using assemblage thinking as an analytical tool, the paper proposes that socio-technical personas are proxies that represent markets as assemblages constituted by people (consumers), spaces, devices, and agendas that afford recurring practices (consumption). Drawing from an illustrative case of chocolate consumption, the study builds upon a recent ontological shift in consumer research and strategy that distributes agency from the consumer to a socio-technical assemblage that intertwines as a consumption practice is actualized.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115387"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When thinking you’re good makes you dumber: An investigation of consumers’ earned dogmatism","authors":"Damien Chaney, Magali Trelohan, David Moroz","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115351","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115351","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While dogmatism has been regarded as a personality trait in consumer research, this study delves into earned dogmatism, specifically dogmatism acquired by consumers through the accumulation of knowledge on a particular subject, leading to closed-minded cognition. Through a series of experiments, we demonstrate that subjective knowledge correlates with closed-mindedness. The data also indicate that objective knowledge moderates the relationship between subjective knowledge and closed-minded cognition, such that individuals exhibiting the highest degree of closed-mindedness are those with a significant miscalibration of their knowledge, characterized by low objective knowledge and high subjective knowledge. Finally, our findings underscore the paradox in which dogmatic individuals engage in word-of-mouth about a subject despite their closed-mindedness toward it. While previous research has demonstrated that consumer knowledge can have negative consequences for individuals, we suggest that these detrimental effects may also extend to the brands themselves, potentially leading to the dissemination of outdated or misleading information.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 115351"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}