{"title":"Customer traffic and customer experience: Creating a contrived similarity to address the crowding dilemma","authors":"Lili Wenli Zou , Chi Kin (Bennett) Yim","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.07.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.07.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Improving customers’ experiences by reducing their negative reactions to a crowded environment continues to be a challenge for brick-and-mortar stores. Drawing from the social identity theory, this research proposes that stores could mitigate customers’ crowding perceptions in a high customer density environment by creating a contrived similarity shared among customers that is assigned, observable, and trivial. A total of seven studies (N = 3,343), including two field experiments, one simulated study, and four online experiments, affirm the contrived similarity effect on alleviating customers’ perceptions of crowding when customer density is high, and this effect is mediated by eliciting a situational in-group identification among customers and moderated by customers’ perceived self-uncertainty. This research enriches the literatures on crowding and similarity, as well as social identity theory. Its results also provide implications for service managers facing the crowding dilemma, who must find ways to manage customer traffic and customer experience effectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 133-152"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141945414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alain Debenedetti , Déborah Philippe , Delphine Dion
{"title":"Balancing exclusivity and inclusivity through the strategic domestication of the luxury retail experience","authors":"Alain Debenedetti , Déborah Philippe , Delphine Dion","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.05.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.05.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The mass-marketization of the luxury field results in a conundrum for brands: how to sell to the new mass of luxury consumers while continuing to conform to expectations of a singular, exclusive, and elitist experience. In contrast with prior research, which primarily focuses on understanding how luxury brands maintain their exclusivity despite market pressures toward “mass-marketization”, we draw on the institutional logics framework to explore how luxury mobilizes domestic elements in the service encounter to manage inclusivity and exclusivity imperatives in a context of massification. We show that the strategic mobilization of the domestic logic and its articulation with the market logic enable luxury brands to balance these contradictory imperatives. We identify three strategies that brands deploy in their retail stores: disguise (camouflaging the market logic under layers of domesticity), hybridization (blending domestic and market logics), and juxtaposition (partitioning domestic and market logics). Our findings suggest that domesticity can be mobilized both as an integration and a separation mechanism and that the “domestication” of the luxury retail experience enables brands to situate their customers at different levels of the consumption experience. Building on these findings, we give brands and operational managers working in luxury firms several avenues for improving the way they manage customer experience and service encounters.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 32-54"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141043735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Value outcomes in Airbnb as a chronotopic service","authors":"Marian Makkar , Samuelson Appau , Russell W. Belk","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.05.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.05.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many types of consumption—including events, traveling, and accommodation—primarily focus on selling time in space to consumers. That is, their business model is based on charging consumers for spending time in provided spaces (or places), with prices varying depending on the type of space and how much time consumers spend in that space. Using Bakhtin’s notion of chronotopes, we develop the concept of chronotopic services to describe these types of services that primarily sell time-in-space to consumers. Airbnb is an example of a chronotopic service. In a six-year multimethod qualitative study of consumers’ experiences with Airbnb we examine how such chronotopic services occur and how they shape consumption value outcomes in Airbnb. We conceptualize chronotopic services by noting three affordances that characterize Airbnb—temporal, spatial, and spatiotemporal affordances. We show how these three chronotopic affordances enable the orchestration of consumption value outcomes through heterotemporality, heterotopia, and hybridity. We contribute to services and consumer research on the role of space and time in the consumption of services by demonstrating how chronotopic affordances shape consumption outcomes and consumer experiences. This research also highlights the implications of the time-in-space aspects of chronotopic services and how value is created and destroyed because of its chronotopic nature. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the consumption of other chronotopic services and how chronotopic affordances shape other forms of consumption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 55-73"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141398870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring the long-term impact of business school research on academia, teaching, society and decision makers","authors":"Michael Haenlein , Andrew Jack","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.10.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.10.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research shapes, in one way or another, the activities of nearly every business school. It is a cornerstone that defines institutional prestige, faculty recruitment, and student demand. However, despite the billions invested annually, much of this research receives limited attention beyond academia. This article introduces a comprehensive conceptual framework that distinguishes between four types of impact, depending on the primary stakeholder group the research addresses. We separate academic, teaching, societal, and managerial impact through its influence on the behavior of fellow academics, consumers/ public policymakers, students, and managers. By proposing a set of short-term impact signals and medium-term impact measures, we map the path from research publication to long-term impact. Our framework offers actionable insights for business school deans, journal editors, and faculty. We identify current challenges in measuring research impact, including output variety, attribution, and data availability. We hope our framework can guide decision-makers seeking to enhance the visibility and real-world influence of business school research. This article accompanies and explains the underlying thinking in an experimental new standalone Financial Times research ranking (<span><span>www.ft.com/bsis</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>)</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143507947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Party over product: People exaggerate the influence of political cues on others’ consumption preferences","authors":"Justin Pomerance , Leaf Van Boven","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.07.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.07.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Consumers often confront offerings that are associated with political cues. For example, a coffee company may tout its liberal relations with employees or suppliers, or may hang bathroom signs that promise to please liberals. In this research, we demonstrate that consumers overestimate how much these partisan cues influence others’ preferences, a pattern we term <em>exaggerated preference polarization</em>. We demonstrate exaggerated preference polarization in five studies, and show that it is robust across a variety of common consumption scenarios. While prior research demonstrates that people often overestimate others’ partisanship, the present research demonstrates that people overestimate the influence of partisan cues on other consumers’ preferences. This research contributes to the literature by identifying a novel way in which political polarization influences consumption behavior, especially for interpersonal decision making. This work also has important implications for firms, who should recognize that people will be more responsive to political signals when choosing for others. We discuss further contributions and directions for future research in the general discussion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 153-170"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lachlan Deer , Susanne J. Adler , Hannes Datta , Natalie Mizik , Marko Sarstedt
{"title":"Toward open science in marketing research","authors":"Lachlan Deer , Susanne J. Adler , Hannes Datta , Natalie Mizik , Marko Sarstedt","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.12.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.12.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The open science paradigm has gained prominence in marketing as researchers seek to enhance the validity, reliability, and transparency of research methods and findings. Journals and institutions increasingly encourage or require open science practices, and many authors have started to adapt to and meet these new research and publishing expectations. We provide guidance for effectively implementing open science practices in empirical marketing research. Our recommendations, are tailored to the unique methodological approaches and challenges of each subdiscipline and their specific research contexts. Successful integration of these practices into academic marketing research will require concerted and collaborative efforts among authors, journals, institutions, and funding agencies. We argue that the gradual, thoughtful adoption of these principles and practices will improve the quality and efficiency of scientific discovery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 212-233"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143508672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introducing specialist private labels: How reducing manufacturers’ competing assortment size affects retailer performance","authors":"Stijn Maesen","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.08.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.08.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Grocery retailers are increasingly introducing specialist private label products, leading to competition with manufacturers’ national brand products. In turn, retailers might consider reducing specialist national brand assortment size, but how this affects retailer performance is unclear. To address this question, this research analyses store-level scanner data before and after the launch of a specialist organic private label (OPL) line in 13 product categories. The results indicate that OPL introduction leads to significant reductions in organic national brand (ONB) assortment size. This amplifies OPL success by strengthening the positive relationship between OPL assortment size and OPL market share. However, while reducing ONB assortment size can amplify OPL success, it decreases overall sales in the category. A key contextual factor is the degree of organic product penetration in the category assortment. When organic penetration is lower, the beneficial effects of reducing ONB assortment size for the OPL line are weaker and the harmful effects for the category stronger. These findings provide novel insight into how disinvesting in national brand assortments when launching specialist private label products helps and harms retailers. That is, retail stores may be better off not reducing national brand assortments because doing so can result in a ‘larger share of a smaller pie’, especially when penetration of products with the specialist attribute is low.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 192-211"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143508671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michiel Van Crombrugge , Niels Holtrop , Kathleen Cleeren , Els Breugelmans
{"title":"Does the online direct channel cannibalize or synergize the retail Network? The moderating impact of retailer competitive strength","authors":"Michiel Van Crombrugge , Niels Holtrop , Kathleen Cleeren , Els Breugelmans","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.08.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Manufacturers in the retailing sector extensively use online sales points of their own, known as online direct channels. This form of manufacturer encroachment offers consumers the possibility to purchase directly from the manufacturer and hence may cannibalize retailer sales. However, it may also create synergy effects by increasing brand awareness, which may create additional retailer sales. In this research, we investigate the cannibalistic versus synergetic nature of the relationship between an established online direct channel and the retail network and assess whether retailer characteristics related to competitive strength impact this relationship. Using unique sales data from the toy industry and vector autoregressive modeling, we find that the short-term cross-channel price elasticity of online direct channels on retailer sales is negative and significant, indicating a synergetic relationship on average. However, the impact is heterogenous across retailers. Our analysis reveals that acquisition utility components of competitive strength, such as price and innovativeness, especially for large items, can enhance synergetic effects and mitigate the risk of cannibalization. Transaction utility components, such as online presence or the number of physical stores, do not play a moderating role.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 171-191"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141945413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tunyaporn Vichiengior , Claire-Lise Ackermann , Adrian Palmer
{"title":"When waiting makes sense: How consumer anticipation affects later evaluations","authors":"Tunyaporn Vichiengior , Claire-Lise Ackermann , Adrian Palmer","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.06.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.06.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper addresses a gap in knowledge about consumer anticipation. We build on the negative discount model (<span><span>Loewenstein, 1987</span></span>) which notes that utility may be gained through deferred consumption; the utility of looking forward to, and savoring forthcoming pleasant consumption adds to the total utility of the consumption episode. However, little is known about (1) the mental mechanisms involved in consumer anticipation, and their intensity, that underlie this effect, and (2) how evaluation of the object of anticipated consumption evolves over time, from the beginning of the anticipation period to post-consumption. Specifically, we ground our research in theories of attitude formation and change to investigate the circumstances in which evoking intense anticipation produces long-lasting and robust positive attitude.</div><div>From the literature, we develop hypotheses relating information provision and anticipation intensity to subsequent attitude change between pre- and post-consumption stages. We test hypotheses in five studies, in two cultural contexts involving pleasant anticipated consumption. We use an experimental approach manipulating real consumption experiences, recording attitudes pre- and post-consumption. We find that an “anticipation effect” on subsequent evaluations is explained by intensity of anticipation, which is driven by provision of information. We also note that a long-term desirable effect of anticipation is observed, irrespective of whether the core consumption experience was positive or negative.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 74-94"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141414028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Saeid Vafainia , Robert P. Rooderkerk , Els Breugelmans , Tammo H.A. Bijmolt
{"title":"Decision support system development for store flyer space allocation: Leveraging own- and cross-category sales effects","authors":"Saeid Vafainia , Robert P. Rooderkerk , Els Breugelmans , Tammo H.A. Bijmolt","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.07.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.07.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Print store flyers that feature retailer assortments remain a key retail marketing communication tool, making their space allocation among various product categories a vital decision. Academic research on store flyers has mostly taken a descriptive approach, focused on grocery settings where a large number of (often competing) categories are promoted, neglecting cross-category flyer space effects. We advance the literature by addressing how a <em>non-grocery</em> retailer can best allocate space in a <em>showcase</em> flyer intended to highlight the assortment of a <em>few</em> categories, with the aim of maximizing total store revenue. For this purpose, we have developed a dynamic Decision Support System (DSS) handling own- and cross-category flyer space effects on sales. Our DSS features two components: (1) a sales response model and (2) a store flyer space allocation tool that enlists a custom-built Large Neighborhood Search heuristic to solve the store flyer space allocation problem in less than a minute. Dynamics are captured using time-varying baseline estimates that yield optimal flyers to serve different seasons by limiting the level of overlap in subsequent flyers within the same season. In an empirical application for a furniture and home goods retailer, our optimization generates an overall average expected sales improvement of 13.0% versus this retailer’s actual flyers. By exploiting cross-category effects, store flyers become more thematic as they concentrate on one or two departments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":"42 1","pages":"Pages 113-132"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141839115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}