{"title":"Financial consequences of adding bricks to clicks","authors":"Erik Maier , Rico Bornschein , Rico Manss , Damian Hesse","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Many e-commerce retailers are adding “bricks to clicks” – that is, opening an offline channel in addition to their digital sales channel(s). Taking the perspective of such an online pure player, this research assesses the effects of offline channel additions on the financial performance (e.g., sales, profits) and customer behavior (e.g., basket size, return rate) in the extended channel network as well as the initial online channel of the retailer. Across two studies, one at the zip code level and the other at the customer level, we find that the channel addition of a fashion and lifestyle retailer is synergistic in terms of increasing not only overall sales but also profits. At the same time, the new offline channel does not significantly cannibalize the existing online shop, as new customers are attracted through the channel addition. The effects of channel additions, however, are influenced by characteristics of customers gained before the channel addition and of the trade area around the newly opened stores: among existing customers, those who bought more in the online channel do not react as positively to the addition of an offline channel, and trade areas with socioeconomic characteristics that are often viewed as disadvantageous for digital retailing (e.g., an older population, lower average income) show a stronger positive sales effect of a brick-and-mortar addition. The attractiveness of the offline channel for these customer segments highlights that adding bricks to clicks might be most attractive for those customers who were previously unwilling to purchase from an online-only retailer.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44502298","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}
Samuel Stäbler , Alexander Himme , Alexander Edeling , Max Backhaus
{"title":"How firm communication affects the impact of layoff announcements on brand strength over time","authors":"Samuel Stäbler , Alexander Himme , Alexander Edeling , Max Backhaus","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Firms usually undertake layoffs to improve financial performance. However, layoffs often have negative effects on various stakeholders, including consumers. In this paper, we examine the magnitude and duration of the potential negative effect of layoff announcements on brand strength. We also examine how a firm's communication accompanying a layoff can potentially counteract the observed negative effect of layoff announcements on brand strength. We compare how advertising communication intensity, social media communication (i.e., brand-initiated tweets), public relation (PR) communication, and communication of CSR initiatives moderate the main effect of layoff announcements on brand strength. Using an error correction model and drawing on 366 announcements of layoff events in Germany, this study identifies the magnitude and duration of the main effect. An examination of five years of weekly consumer brand perception data across multiple industries and domestic and foreign firms shows that advertising communication intensity and social media communication amplify the negative impact of layoff announcements on brand strength. Conversely, PR communication and communication of CSR initiatives help mitigate the negative effect. These findings provide guidance on the best way for firms to design firm communication in the context of layoff announcements.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45796662","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":"How culture shapes consumer responses to anthropomorphic products","authors":"Sara Baskentli , Rhonda Hadi , Leonard Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Anecdotal evidence suggests that Eastern consumers respond more favorably to anthropomorphic products than their Western counterparts. In the present work, we examine the validity of this common intuition and uncover the specific cultural dimension underlying this difference in consumer response. Specifically, across a cross-national field study and three controlled experiments, we demonstrate that collectivistic consumers favor anthropomorphic products more than non-anthropomorphic products, whereas non-collectivistic consumers do not display this relative preference. This interactive effect holds across various product categories, regardless of whether collectivistic thinking is measured, manipulated, or operationalized based on nationality or ethnicity. We offer managerial and theoretical implications that stem from our findings.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44009790","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":"Timing customer reactivation initiatives","authors":"Niels Holtrop , Jaap E. Wieringa","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.05.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.05.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Firms operating in non-contractual settings apply customer reactivation initiatives such as email messages to stimulate customers who have become inactive temporarily or permanently to resume their transaction activities. Thus, firms need to know<!--> <em>which</em> <!-->customers are inactive, and<!--> <em>when</em> <!-->a customer becomes inactive. Existing approaches struggle to distinguish active from inactive customers and do not provide time-scale estimates of when to send reactivation mails. To address these shortcomings, we develop an approach to target and time the sending of reactivation mails. Building on control chart methods, we introduce a gamma–gamma control chart, modelling the average customer interpurchase time and the variation therein to determine activity boundaries. Crossing these boundaries signals a potential change in a customer’s purchasing activity, providing a signal to initiate customer reactivation. A field experiment in the greetings and gifts industry, supported by several additional analyses, illustrates the improved performance of our approach when it comes to signaling customer activity against a wide range of competing models. The improved performance of our method occurs particularly in settings where customers vary strongly in purchase and inactivity patterns.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46195378","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":"The motivational dynamics of arousal and values in promoting sustainable behavior: A cognitive energetics perspective","authors":"Li Yan , Kyle B. Murray","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2022.12.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2022.12.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This research applies Cognitive Energetics Theory (CET) to explain when and why consumers engage in sustainable behavior. Across six studies, we find a positive interaction effect of arousal and openness-to-change on sustainable behaviors. In particular, openness-to-change (vs conservation) increases the likelihood of engaging in effortful sustainable behaviors in a high-arousal state rather than in a low-arousal state. Interestingly, our results reveal that this interactive effect is explained by the tendency of consumers to believe that the target sustainable behavior requires <em>less effort</em>, when they are in a high-arousal state and endorsing openness-to-change. Moreover, perceived effort is positively related to sustainable behavior for experienced consumers but negatively related to the behavior for less experienced consumers. In addition, the effect of value and arousal on perceived effort is stronger among less experienced consumers but attenuated among more experienced consumers. Thus, arousal can serve as a catalyst to enhance value-consistent sustainable behaviors and help the less experienced consumers form habits. These findings contribute to CET by highlighting the important roles that values and arousal play in the motivational forces that drive and restrain sustainable behaviors. The results improve our understanding of how to motivate value-consistent sustainable behaviors, with implications for both marketers and policy-makers.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44939926","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}
Garrett P. Sonnier , Oliver J. Rutz , Adrian F. Ward
{"title":"Estimating the effect of brand beliefs on brand evaluations when beliefs are measured with error","authors":"Garrett P. Sonnier , Oliver J. Rutz , Adrian F. Ward","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.02.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.02.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We consider the internal validity of estimates of the effects of brand beliefs on brand evaluations when beliefs are measured with error. Consumer research suggests numerous errors that may impact belief measures. However, the literature has not determined precisely why and how myriad types of error matter for the evaluation-belief relationship. Furthermore, the literature has not explicitly considered what is necessary and sufficient to control for different types of belief error when using the latent general factor approach. We show that the important distinction for empirical research is not the origin of the error per se but its relationship to affective evaluation. Error related to brand evaluation has an inflationary effect on estimates of the evaluation-belief relationship while error unrelated to brand evaluation has an attenuating effect. We use a bifactor structural equations model to decompose belief measures into general and specific dimensions. The model uses bias free variation in specific beliefs to identify effects on brand evaluation while controlling for a general belief dimension correlated with evaluation. Compared to models that do not adjust for the bias, estimates of the bias corrected marginal effects are smaller but positive and significant.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44473236","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":"How business-to-business salespeople deal with buying center dissenters","authors":"Jeff S. Johnson","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.02.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.02.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Salespeople routinely sell to multiple members with influence over the purchasing decision in the customer organization. Given these buying center members’ varying needs, wants, perspectives, and motivations, dispositions toward a sales discussion can be heterogeneous. Salespeople may encounter situations in which members of the buying center react positively to the sales discussion, with the exception of a dissenter who exerts a negative impact on the salesperson in the interaction. Through a qualitative research design, this article provides insight into salespeople’s approaches in dealing with a dissenter in the buying center. The findings provide an integrated understanding of salespeople’s experiences of dissent encounters in business-to-business selling. In-meeting mitigation and post-meeting remediation strategies are advanced along with influencing situational factors. In illustrating how salespeople handle dissenters, the article contributes to scholarship, provides managerial guidance, and advances avenues for future research.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44002855","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":"Adverse inclusion of asymmetric advertisers in position auctions","authors":"Zibin Xu , Yi Zhu , Shantanu Dutta","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.01.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.01.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Product listing platforms commonly use generalized second-price auctions to select competing advertisers for limited ad positions. However, when advertisers are asymmetric, position auctions may confound the post-auction competition structure and thus endogenize the bidders’ values of the ad positions. We build an analytical model to examine the impact of position auctions on an asymmetric market structure, which consists of a mass marketer and two specialized advertisers of heterogeneous quality efficiencies. The advertisers bid for two ad slots and then compete for the market in price and quality. We find that the asymmetric market structure may increase the uncertainty of the auction outcomes, which then may induce the advertisers to underbid using a conservative strategy profile in the locally-envy free equilibrium. Consequently, the auction outcome may adversely include the less-efficient specialized advertiser. This result is stronger than the position paradox in the classic auction literature, as the advertiser with a competitive advantage may be driven out and obtain zero profit.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47933217","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}
Yuechen Wu , Ruijuan Wang , Huizhen Jin , Meng Zhu
{"title":"Providing assets in the sharing economy: Low childhood socioeconomic status as a barrier","authors":"Yuechen Wu , Ruijuan Wang , Huizhen Jin , Meng Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>In the past few decades, the modern marketplace has offered consumers a proliferation of models for consumption based on sharing and access. Extant literature provides systematic examinations of motives for consuming products through the sharing economy on the demand side, but factors that affect consumers' asset-providing decisions on the supply side remain understudied. The current paper explores whether the socioeconomic environment one grew up in might produce a long-lasting impact on willingness to sharing one’s unused assets. Results from the analysis of a national-level field dataset and six preregistered studies (combined </span><em>N</em> = 45,289) reveal that lower childhood socioeconomic status can hinder consumers’ asset-providing behavior, an effect that holds beyond the influence of other factors such as current SES and asset availability. We identify greater territorial feelings towards one’s assets as a central mechanism driving the decreased asset-providing behavior of consumers with a lower childhood socioeconomic background, and we show that asset providers’ closeness to potential borrowers attenuates the negative impact of lower childhood SES.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43568861","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":"Understanding the sequential interdependence of mobile app adoption within and across categories","authors":"Xiaochi Sun , Xuebin Cui , Yacheng Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.06.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This research examines the interdependencies in users’ sequential app adoptions within and across diverse app categories. We employ a Zero-inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) model to analyze a unique, granular, and individual-level mobile app adoption dataset, revealing three main findings. First, users’ app adoption decisions are highly history-dependent and category-specific in a nonlinear fashion. Early adoption can enhance subsequent downloads within the same category for app categories with high needs evolvement and horizontal differentiation (e.g., Game and Education apps). However, it may crowd out subsequent downloads in other categories with low needs evolvement and horizontal differentiation (e.g., Communication and Social media apps). Second, these effects are further moderated by users’ individual characteristics such as app usage tenure and phone price. Third, there exist nontrivial app adoption spillovers across app categories. For example, users’ adoptions of apps with relatively high hedonic values (e.g., Game and Music apps) can suppress their subsequent need for apps with relatively high utilitarian values (e.g., Education and Online banking apps), and vice versa. Together, these results offer novel managerial implications for app developers and platforms to promote apps in different categories based on users’ adoption histories.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48298,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Research in Marketing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47621669","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}