{"title":"Effects of Luxury Brand Attachment and Perceived Envy on Schadenfreude: Does Need for Uniqueness Moderate?","authors":"Anwar Sadat Shimul, B. Sung, I. Phau","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3924163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3924163","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to investigate how luxury brand attachment (LBA) and perceived envy may influence schadenfreude. In addition, the moderating influence of consumers’ need for uniqueness (CNFU) and private vs public consumption is examined.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Data were collected from a consumer panel in Australia. A total of 365 valid and useable responses were analysed through structural equation modelling in AMOS 26.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The results show that LBA has a significant impact on perceived envy. Consumers’ perceived envy also results in schadenfreude. However, LBA did not have any significant impact on schadenfreude. The moderating influence of CNFU is partially supported. This research further confirms that consumers’ public consumption has more relevance to visible social comparison and potential feelings of malicious envy towards others.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000The research model may work as a strategic tool to identify, which group of consumers (e.g. high vs low attachment) displays stronger envy and schadenfreude. Brand managers can also explore the personality traits and psychological dynamics that influence the consumers to express emotional bonds and malicious joy within the context of consumer-brand relationships.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This is one of the first few studies that have examined the relationships amongst consumers’ brand attachment, perceived envy, schadenfreude and need for uniqueness within a luxury branding context.\u0000","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114200180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Giovanni Compiani, Gregory Lewis, Sida Peng, Will Wang
{"title":"Online Search and Product Rankings: A Double Index Approach","authors":"Giovanni Compiani, Gregory Lewis, Sida Peng, Will Wang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3898134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3898134","url":null,"abstract":"We develop a flexible yet tractable model of consumer search and choice, and apply it to the problem of product rankings optimization by online retail platforms. In the model, products are characterized by an observable search index, which governs what consumers search; and a utility index, which governs which of the searched options is purchased. We show that this framework generalizes several commonly used search models. We then consider how platforms should assign products to search ranks. To optimize consumer surplus, platforms should promote “diamonds in the rough,” products whose utility index exceeds their search index. By contrast, to maximize static profits, the platform should favor high-margin products, creating a tension between the two objectives. We develop computationally tractable algorithms for estimating consumer preferences and optimizing rankings, and we provide approximate optimality guarantees in the latter case. When we apply our approach to data from Expedia, our suggested ranking achieves both higher consumer surplus and higher revenues than is achieved by the Expedia ranking, and also dominates ranking the products in order of utility.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122361417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Who Buys Portion-Controlled Sizes of Full Calorie Soda? Evidence from Scanner Data","authors":"T. Panchalingam","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3839058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3839058","url":null,"abstract":"I investigate what characteristics of households, if any, that predict purchase of portion-controlled sizes of full calorie carbonated beverages (i.e., soda sold in less than 12 oz containers) and whether this behavior is associated with other healthy dietary habits. I find that household demographics including income, education, and presence of children or elderly are not associated with the purchasing behavior of full calorie carbonated beverages that are less than 12 oz. However, this behavior is negatively associated with the share of carbonated beverages that are diet and positively associated with the share of food expenditure dedicated to fresh produce, which are proxies used to capture healthy dietary habits. Overall, the findings suggest that there is an association between purchases of less than 12 oz of regular carbonated beverages (i.e., the portion-controlled sizes) and portion control behavior.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125994887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Should Football Fans Pay for Security? Effects of a Security Fee","authors":"Christian J. Sander, Stefan Thiem","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3073012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3073012","url":null,"abstract":"There is a lively debate on whether football fans should pay an additional security fee, added to the price of tickets, to finance police activities on match days. This paper investigates the price effect on the demand for tickets in a dynamic setting, by considering two subgroups of spectators, namely fans and hooligans. In contrast to the previous literature, we analyze a situation in which the demand from each subgroup causes a negative social externality for members of the other group but, simultaneously, a positive one for members of the same group. We show that charging a security fee may start a dynamic process, leading to fewer fans and more hooligans attending matches and thus, counterintuitively to even more violence. Therefore, the present study provides an argument to refrain from charging a security fee. As an alternative economic solution, we discuss the strategy of outpricing hooligans.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123330084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consumer Preferences, Gross Values and Depreciation as Value Transfer","authors":"A. S. Korkotsides","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3796457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3796457","url":null,"abstract":"Interpreting depreciation as transfer of value from capital to produced items connects a large part of consumer preferences with the producing structure and sets a two-way relationship between the individual and the economy. Capital imbues commodities with modernity and signification qualities which are needed for social empowerment and self-advancement, helping consumers gain acceptance, earn incomes and improve their place in the social hierarchy. By pursuing modernity consumers adjust their preferences to this structure and thus stretch their purchasing power, setting in motion and in this sense claiming more gross value with each unit of expended income. Structurally informed preferences cluster around the proportions of greatest amplification, contributing a significant component to the overall distribution. Paired with the producers’ penchant for profits such behavior imputes income to industries in proportions which expedite growth by requiring greater use of capital inputs.<br><br>","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132166711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nash Q-Learning Agents in Hotelling’s Model: Reestablishing Equilibrium","authors":"Jan Vainer, J. Kukacka","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3298510","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3298510","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines adaptive agents' behavior in a stochastic dynamic version of the Hotelling's location model. We conduct an agent-based numerical simulation under the Hotelling's setting with two agents who use the Nash Q-learning mechanism for adaptation. This allows exploring what alternations this technique brings compared to the original analytic solution of the famous static game-theoretic model with strong assumptions imposed on players. We discover that under the Nash Q-learning and quadratic consumer cost function, agents with high enough valuation of future profits learn behavior similar to aggressive market strategy. Both agents make similar products and lead a price war to eliminate their opponent from the market. This behavior closely resembles the Principle of Minimum Differentiation from Hotelling's original paper with linear consumer costs. However, the quadratic consumer cost function would otherwise result in the maximum differentiation of production in the original model. Thus, the Principle of Minimum Differentiation can be justified based on repeated interactions of the agents and long-run optimization.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133303554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A BLP Demand Model of Product-Level Market Shares with Complementarity","authors":"Ao Wang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3785148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3785148","url":null,"abstract":"Applied researchers most often estimate the demand for differentiated products assuming that at most one item can be purchased. Yet simultaneous multiple purchases are pervasive. Ignoring the interdependence among multiple purchases can lead to erroneous counterfactuals, in particular, because complementarities are ruled out. I consider the identification and estimation of a random coefficient discrete choice model of bundles, namely sets of products, when only product-level market shares are available. This last feature arises when only aggregate purchases of products, as opposed to individual purchases of bundles, are available, a very common phenomenon in practice. Following the classical approach with aggregate data, I consider a two-step method. First, using a novel inversion result in which demand can exhibit Hicksian complementarity, I recover the mean utilities of products from product-level market shares. Second, to infer the structural parameters from the mean utilities while dealing with price endogeneity, I use instrumental variables. I propose a practically useful GMM estimator whose implementation is straightforward, essentially as a standard BLP estimator. Finally, I estimate the demand for Ready-To-Eat (RTE) cereals and milk in the US. The demand estimates suggest that RTE cereals and milk are overall complementary and the synergy in consumption crucially depends on their characteristics. Ignoring such complementarities results in misleading counterfactuals.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114772433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Longevity Perceptions and Saving Decisions During the COVID-19 Outbreak: An Experimental Investigation","authors":"Abigail Hurwitz, O. Mitchell, Orly Sade","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3766499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3766499","url":null,"abstract":"We experimentally study individuals' perceptions about and advice to others regarding retirement savings and annuitization during the pandemic. Many people recommend that others save more for retirement, but those most affected by the pandemic tell others to save and annuitize less. We investigate two possible channels for this result and show that the pandemic does not substantially alter optimism regarding survival probabilities. Hence, we conclude that economic factors are driving our results. Consequently, some financial ramifications of the COVID-19 outbreak are yet to be revealed, as the pandemic is having longer-term effects on people's willingness to save and annuitize.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131737579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Examining the Relationship between Cause-Related Marketing Campaigns Dimensions and Consumers’ Purchase Intention","authors":"Rana Essam, A. Mahrous","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3750632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3750632","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study is to identify the main CRM campaign dimensions affecting consumers’ attitude toward firms and purchase intention applied on on-demand ride services in Egypt. <br> <br>A qualitative exploratory study was conducted at first that employed in-depth interviews and one focus group with consumers buying socially responsible products and services. This was followed by a quantitative study which involves a survey-based questionnaire. 270 valid questionnaires were collected through a non-probability convenience sampling technique from on-demand ride services users in Cairo and Giza. The data were analyzed using structural equation modelling (Smart PLS V.3) and SPSS V.20. <br> <br>The study results show that campaign feedback and cause involvement have the strongest favorable impact on attitude toward firm and purchase intention. Degree of participation effort required from consumers and skepticism show a negative significant impact on purchase intention. Moreover, altruistic attribution has a significant impact on consumers’ attitude toward firms. Finally, attitude toward firm didn’t show a significant impact on purchase intention. <br> <br>Thus, managers should inform consumers by how they are using their donations and update them with campaign’s progress and achievements regularly. In addition, marketers should hamper consumers’ skepticism and enhance their trust in the socially conscious firms.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114681649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ERN: ConsumptionPub Date : 2020-11-21DOI: 10.2499/p15738coll2.134161
G. Abate, A. de Brauw, J. Gibson, Kalle Hirvonen, Abdulazize Wolle
{"title":"Telescoping Causes Overstatement in Recalled Food Consumption: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Ethiopia","authors":"G. Abate, A. de Brauw, J. Gibson, Kalle Hirvonen, Abdulazize Wolle","doi":"10.2499/p15738coll2.134161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134161","url":null,"abstract":"Telescoping errors occur if survey respondents misdate consumption or expenditure episodes by including events from outside the reference period in their recall. Concern about telescoping influenced the design of early Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys, which used a two-visit interview format to allow a bounded recall. This design fell out of favor although not for evidence-based reasons. Recent guidelines to harmonize food data collection in low- and middle-income countries by using one-week recall increase the relevance of telescoping because errors spread over a shorter period will loom larger. To provide evidence on telescoping, we conducted a survey experiment in Ethiopia, randomly assigning a balanced sample – either a two-visit bounded recall or a single visit unbounded recall. The average value of reported food consumption is 16 percent higher in the unbounded single visit recall relative to the two-visit bounded recall. Put differently, in this experiment, telescoping errors amount, on average, to an entire extra day worth of consumption being included in the report for the last seven days. Most of the error is explained by difference in reporting of spending on less frequently consumed, protein-rich foods, so apparent diet diversity and dietary quality indicators are likely to be overstated when using unbounded recall.","PeriodicalId":431230,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Consumption","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121667379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}