|
European Journal of Marketing
Journal Prestige (SJR): 0.971  Citation Impact (citeScore): 2 Number of Followers: 21  Hybrid journal * Containing 3  Open Access article(s) in this issue *ISSN (Print) 0309-0566 - ISSN (Online) 1758-7123 Published by Emerald  [360 journals]
|
- Exploring the dark side of integrity: impact of CEO integrity on firms’
innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Prachi Gala , Saim Kashmiri
Abstract: This study aims to examine the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) integrity on organizations’ strategic orientation. The authors propose that CEOs who have high degrees of integrity tend to negatively influence each of the three core dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) – innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. They also argue that this impact of CEO integrity is likely to be stronger for overconfident CEOs and the CEOs with high power. Furthermore, this negative relationship is expected to attenuate when the firm has high customer orientation and when the CEO is compensated with high equity-pay ratio. Seemingly unrelated regression analysis was conducted on panel of 741 firm-year observations of 213 firms across 2014–2017. CEO integrity and each of the three dimensions of EO were measured using content analysis of CEOs’ letters to shareholders. CEO power was measured using CEO stock ownership and CEO duality. CEO overconfidence was measured by using options-based measure. Customer orientation was measured by using content analyses on annual reports. CEO equity-pay based ratio was measured as sum of value of stock and option awards divided by CEO’s total compensation. This study considered alternative measures and performed treatments for potential endogeneity, sample selection bias and outliers. The research findings conclude that organizations with CEOs who have high integrity tend to have lower levels of all sub-dimensions of EO – innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. Further, the results indicate that the negative effect that CEO integrity has, affects one of its dimensions – proactiveness, such that the relation is strengthened when the CEO has high power and is highly overconfident. This negative effect weakens when the CEO is compensated with high equity-pay ratio. The results also indicate that the negative effect of integrity and innovativeness and risk-taking weakens when the firm has high customer orientation. The research contributes to upper echelon theory literature by adding to the discussion of how business executives’ psychological traits map onto firm behavior. This research also finds common ground between literature on innovation and upper echelons, contributing to awareness about the drivers of firms’ EO. This research addresses the question of firm relation to EO by highlighting that firms’ EO is also shaped by the psychological traits of their CEOs and the interaction of these traits with CEOs’ cognitive biases. Thus, board members of firms led by CEOs with high integrity can limit CEO’s risk-averse behavior by focusing on their training and by creating incentive systems. It is also advantageous for CEOs to understand that integrity is a double-edged sword, thus leveraging the strengths of their integrity, while simultaneously using tools such as training to diminish its negative aspects. This paper fulfils a twofold identified need to: study the antecedents of each of the three dimensions of EO, not limited to corporate governance; and unearth the counterproductive behaviors associated with bright traits that make up their dark side
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-06-29
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-02-2021-0095
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- My dear handbags: materiality and networked constellations of consumption
collections-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Jamal Abarashi , Prabash Aminda Edirisingha
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to go beyond the market–consumer intersection and investigate consumer collecting as a network constellation, which includes a range of material and human actants. This research adopts a qualitative research process that includes non-participatory netnography and semi-structured online interviews to collect both textual and visual data. Researchers drew from the field of visual anthropology to analyse the visual data. In addition, thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and report the patterns within textual data. Findings of this research reveals key agentic properties of collection constellations and explains how they contribute to the development of seriality and the experience of novelty by shaping curatorial practices within collection pursuits. From the time a collection has been assembled to its countless re-configurations, the network that is composed of a focal collector and a host of other actants interacting within a particular collecting ecology plays an essential role in challenging the agency of the market and the individual collectors. Although this research investigated consumer collecting from a network perspective, it did not explore changes within those constellations and how such changes implicate collecting behaviour. Therefore, future research may benefit from investigating network transformations on consumer collecting, particularly on curatorial practices and how they shape the trajectory of consumer collections. Understanding collecting as a relational and iterative “network constellation” enables marketers to engage with their consumers in a more meaningful way. By actively seeking to use the network agentic properties, brands can aid avid handbag consumers and passionate collectors to keep their collections relevant and meaningful. It allows brands to play a role beyond the purchasing stage that characterises the market–consumer intersection and build comprehensive relationships with their consumers. Particularly, by adopting a networked approach, brands can provide collectors with privileged and scientific brand knowledge to help them caretake and experience their cherished possessions. This study goes beyond the market–consumer intersection and atomistic explanations of collecting phenomena in its investigation and theorises collecting as a relational and iterative “network constellation”. It challenges the subject-oriented ontology of collections literature through explaining how such network interactions inspire collecting behaviours, help collectors maintain and celebrate their cherished collections and change the trajectory of collections pursuits.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-06-29
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-10-2020-0785
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Customer brand engagement and co-production: an examination of key
boundary conditions in the sharing economy-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Riza Casidy , Civilai Leckie , Munyaradzi Wellington Nyadzayo , Lester W. Johnson
Abstract: Digital platforms have transformed how brands engage with collaborative consumption actors, such as prosumers. This study aims to examine the role of customer innovativeness and perceived economic value as important boundary conditions on the effects of customer brand engagement behavior on co-production, which subsequently influences customer satisfaction. The authors test the model using survey data from 430 users of a digital platform (i.e. UBER) in Australia. Hypotheses were tested using the bias-corrected bootstrapping method. The findings suggest that customer innovativeness and perceived economic value positively moderate the effects of customer brand engagement behavior on co-production. Further, the mediating effects of co-production on satisfaction are stronger for highly innovative customers and for those who associate high perceived economic value with the brand. This study provides novel insights on the boundary conditions of the effects of customer brand engagement behavior on co-production. Future research could apply this study’s conceptual framework to other digital platforms to extend the generalizability of this framework. This study provides managerial insights into how firms can customize marketing strategies to encourage customers as prosumers in co-production by targeting highly innovative customers and focusing on perceived economic value. This study builds on service-dominant logic and social exchange theory to examine the role of customer innovativeness and perceived economic value as novel boundary conditions in digital platform ecosystems.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-06-29
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-10-2021-0803
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Review platforms as prosumer communities: theory, practices and
implications-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Haksin Chan , Kevin J. Zeng , Morgan X. Yang
Abstract: This article aims to advance a new theoretical perspective on the basis of prosumption theory, namely, that online review platforms can be conceptualized as prosumer communities (and online reviews as prosumer-generated content). This perspective meshes with message tuning research to suggest specific mechanisms through which peer-to-peer prosumption takes place in online review communities. Overall, this article enriches and deepens theoretical understanding of prosumption behavior in the product review context and offers practical advice for inducing high-value, prosumer-generated content in online communities. Exploratory observations of current practices across a wide spectrum of review platforms were conducted. The observed platforms include independent review sites (e.g. Yelp) and review sites affiliated with e-tailers (e.g. Amazon), general review sites (e.g. Viewpoints) and product-specific review sites (e.g. Healthgrades), large-scale review sites (e.g. TripAdvisor) and review sites of a smaller scale (e.g. Judy’s Book) and review sites based in different geographic regions, including Australia (e.g. Productreview.com.au), China (e.g. Taobao), Europe (e.g. Reevoo), India (e.g. Zomato) and North America (e.g. Foursquare). Theoretical analysis suggests that high-quality review content is the result of collaborative prosumption characterized by three distinct value-adding processes: history-based message tuning, audience-based message tuning and norm-based message tuning. In-depth observations reveal that today’s review platforms are leveraging these value-adding processes to varying degrees. The overwhelming diversity of the observed platform features points to the need for more research on platform design and management. This research identifies three distinct dimensions of review quality – novelty, relevancy and congruency – that can be systematically managed through platform design. The exploratory nature of this research necessitates follow-up work to further investigate how high-quality review content emerges in the historical, interpersonal and cultural contexts of online prosumer communities. The prosumption-inducing mechanisms identified in this research have major consumer welfare and strategy implications. First, they may lead to novel, relevant and congruent consumer reviews. Second, they may enhance the value of brand communities (which rely heavily on collaborative prosumption). This research addresses two intriguing questions pertinent to marketing theory and practice in the digital era. First, how do high-quality reviews emerge on product review platforms (which consist of ordinary consumers)' Second, what constitutes high-quality review content and how can platform managers facilitate the collaborative creation of high-quality review content by ordinary consumers'
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-06-14
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-10-2021-0819
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Tackling obesity in aged-care homes: the effects of environmental cues
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Joyce Hei Tong Lau , Huda Khan , Richard Lee , Larry S. Lockshin , Anne Sharp , Jonathan Buckley , Ryan Midgley
Abstract: Obesity among elderly consumers precipitates undesirable health outcomes. This study aims to investigate the effects of environmental cues on food intake of elderly consumers in an aged-care facility. A longitudinal study conducted over 17 weeks in situ within an aged-care facility with 31 residents investigated how auditory (soothing music), olfactory (floral-scented candle) and visual (infographic on health benefits of the main meal component) cues influenced food intake quantity during a meal, while accounting for portion size effect (PSE). Analysing the cross-sectional results of individual treatments and rounds did not reveal any consistent patterns in the influence of the three environmental cues. Longitudinal analyses, however, showed that the presence of auditory and olfactory cues significantly increased food intake, but the visual cue did not. Moreover, PSE was strong. Extending research into environmental factors from a commercial to a health-care setting, this study demonstrates how the presence of auditory and olfactory, but not cognitive cues, increased food intake behaviour among elderly consumers. It also shows that a cross-sectional approach to such studies would have yielded inconclusive or even misleading findings. Merely serving more would also lead to higher food intake amount. Environmental factors should be a part of health-care providers’ arsenal to manage obesity. They are practical and relatively inexpensive to implement across different health-care settings. However, the same environmental factors would have opposite desired-effects with normal or underweight residents, and hence, aged-care facilities need to separate the dining experience (or mealtime) of obese and other residents. Quantity served should also be moderated to discourage overeating. While studies into managing obesity, particularly among older adults, have mainly focused on techniques such as pharmacotherapy treatments with drugs, dietary management or even lifestyle change, less attention has been given to the influence of environmental cues. This study, executed in situ within an aged-care facility, provided evidence of the importance of considering the impact of environmental factors on food intake to help reduce obesity.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-31
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-07-2021-0512
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Customer engagement with service providers: an empirical investigation of
customer engagement dispositions-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Max Sim , Jodie Conduit , Carolin Plewa , Janin Karoli Hentzen
Abstract: While businesses seek to engage customers, their efforts are often met with varied results, as some customers are more predisposed to engage than others. Understanding customers’ dispositions to engage is central to understanding customer engagement, yet research examining customer engagement dispositions remains sparse and predominantly focused on personality traits. This paper aims to consider the general nature of a disposition and draws on qualitative findings to depict a framework for customer engagement dispositions. To investigate customer engagement dispositions comprehensively and in-depth, an exploratory qualitative approach was adopted. In total, 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with customers in ongoing relationships with financial planners residing in Australia. Nine attributes reflecting customer engagement dispositions emerge from the data. These include the customer’s internal tendency to engage (confidence, desire for control, extroversion and enthusiasm); a tendency to engage determined in the interaction with the service provider (sense of similarity, sense of social connection and trust in the service provider); and the capacity to engage (expertise and knowledge and time availability). This study provides a conceptual foundation for future empirical measurement of customer engagement dispositions and their nomological network. This study establishes a foundation for managers to build distinct engagement disposition profiles and segments and target initiatives to maximize engagement activity. This research challenges the view of customer engagement dispositions as largely personality factors, or exclusively cognitive and emotional dimensions of engagement, and offers a comprehensive framework reflecting a customer’s disposition to engage with a service provider.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-27
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-12-2020-0879
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Slicing vs chunking product-harm crisis: antecedents and firm performance
implications-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Ljubomir Pupovac , François Anthony Carrillat , David Michayluk
Abstract: The high prevalence of product-harm crises (PHC) represents a continuing challenge to which firms sometimes react by announcing several smaller recalls (i.e. slicing) but at other times by announcing the recall of all faulty products at once (i.e. chunking). The slicing vs chunking phenomenon has not been identified by prior literature; this study aims to explore two research questions: Why do firms sometimes slice and other times chunk PHC' Do slicing and chunking affect firm performance differently' The authors examined recall guidelines from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and conducted expert interviews as well as a quantitative analysis of 378 product recalls to determine the antecedents of slicing vs chunking. The authors further performed an event study to examine the impact of slicing vs chunking PHCs on firms’ financial performance. The authors find that slicing vs chunking is not a deliberate strategy but rather the consequence of firms’ resource availability and constraints. Furthermore, the authors show that larger firms have a lower likelihood of slicing versus chunking. By contrast, larger R&D expenditures, and greater reputation, as well as larger recall sizes, increase the likelihood of slicing versus chunking. Finally, the results reveal that, compared to chunking, slicing PHC has a strong negative impact on firms’ stock value. The authors relied on recalls in the US automobile industry. A possible extension would be to study the same phenomenon in other industries or other geographical areas. In addition, the results need to be generalized to other types of negative news that can be either decoupled (slicing) or coupled (chunking), especially negative news for which firms have more discretion regarding the timing of their announcements than for product recalls. As shown by prior research (Eilert et al., 2017), firms should aim to announce recalls quickly in the wake of a PHC. Importantly though, the results indicate that speed should not come at the expense of comprehensiveness in identifying all defective products, so that only one recall is needed. As suggested by our findings about PHC, investors may react negatively to the slicing of other types of negative news; thus, the results suggest how to best communicate to external stakeholders during crises in general. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines why firms sometimes slice and at other times chunk PHC and identifies the performance implications of these two types of recalls in response to PHC.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-26
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-01-2021-0024
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Toward a goal-based paradigm of contagion
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: TaeWoo Kim , Adam Duhachek , Kelly Herd , SunAh Kim
Abstract: This study aims to extend the previous research on contagion and proposes an integrative paradigm in which consumer goals and contagion recipient factors are identified as the key variables leading to the emergence of the contagion phenomenon. When a consumer has an active goal, a product touched by goal-congruent sources leads to positive product evaluation and enhances consumer performance when the product is used. This research conducted five experimental studies in online and offline retail settings to examine the effect of contagion on evaluations of contagion objects and performance in goal-related tasks. Across five studies, the authors demonstrated that the activation of a goal leads to contagion-based product evaluation and performance enhancement effects. The authors theorized and showed that the contagion-based process triggered during goal pursuit led to a more favorable evaluation of contagion products (Studies 1, 2 and 3). The authors also showed that enhanced consumers’ commitment toward a goal, which in turn led to enhanced performance in a real task that contributed to achieving one’s goal (Study 4). These effects emerged only when the object was physically touched by a goal-congruent contagion source and were more pronounced for the consumers who experience a high (vs low) degree of goal discrepancy (Study 5). The current research examined the contagion phenomenon in a few predetermined goal domains (e.g. health improvement goals, career success goals, marriage success goals). Although the authors found consistent effects across different types of goals, future research can examine a more comprehensive set of consumer goals and improve the limitation of the current research to generalize the goal-based contagion phenomenon to various consumer goals. This study suggests that it is important for retailers, in particular sellers and buyers in the secondhand markets, to understand consumer goals and prepare an appropriate contagion environment for favorable evaluation of their offerings. One possible implication is that sellers may be best served as priming certain goals. The findings also indicate that secondhand sellers may be well served to emphasize seller characteristics in certain instances and de-emphasize them in others to maximize sales. This research proposes a new variable, namely, goal activation, and presents an integrative contagion paradigm that not only helps explain previous research findings but also offers a new perspective on the contagion phenomenon.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-26
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-03-2021-0148
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- How posting in social networks affects employee-based brand equity
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Andreas Hesse , Holger J. Schmidt , Ronja Bosslet , Mariella Häusler , Aileen Schneider
Abstract: Though employees are important stakeholders of a brand, their role in building brand equity has long been neglected. This study aims to deepen the understanding of employees’ brand co-creation efforts and their contribution to employee-based brand equity (EBBE). The study analyses implicit and explicit communication activities by employees on the social media network LinkedIn and quantifies the contribution of their posts to EBBE. Data has been gathered from more than 1,300 posts and 130 private accounts, representing different employee groups of five corporate brands. The investigation illustrates the high importance of brand co-creation in social networks by employees and helps practitioners to better understand the underlying processes. Case-study research has limitations of generalisability. However, the authors unveil important limits to exploiting the autonomy of employees’ word-of-mouth communication. Under a co-creative perspective, every social media activity of an employee can be a positive contribution to a brand’s equity. Therefore, companies should closely monitor EBBE. The authors draw on basic conceptual insights and empirical work by other researchers but extend and interpret them in a new context. The study provides initial indications of key antecedents of and barriers to successful management of employees’ brand co-creation activities.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-26
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-06-2021-0396
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Prosumption through advergames: leveraging on advergame format and reward
elements to create a sacred brand-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Juhi Gahlot Sarkar , Abhigyan Sarkar , Sreejesh S.
Abstract: This study aims to examine how brands can leverage on advergames as an interactive marketing tool to foster prosumer culture and build a sacred brand. Drawing from game theory, this research scrutinizes how advergame format (cooperative vs noncooperative) influences consumers’ perceived brand sacredness by harnessing positive brand relationship quality (BRQ) and intention to prosume. It also examines how reward types moderate the relationship between advergame format and advergamers’ BRQ. Three different studies were conducted. Study 1 develops a measure to capture advergamers’ intention to prosume. Study 2 uses survey to collect data from brand-controlled gaming community platform. Study 3 is an experiment that uses 2 (game format: cooperative vs noncooperative) × 2 (reward type: hedonic vs utilitarian) between-subject format. Study 1 provides a reliable and valid measure to capture “intention to prosume.” The results of Study 2 elucidate that (non) cooperative advergame format generates strong cold (hot) BRQ, leading to intention to prosume, which, in turn, drives brand sacredness. The results of Study 3 elucidate that using (utilitarian) hedonic rewards strengthens the impact of (non) cooperative advergame format on (cold) hot BRQ. This research has examined the roles of cooperative vs noncooperative game design formats and hedonic vs utilitarian reward formats. Future research may focus on other possible advergame design formats and reward types. This research provides insights to advergame marketers toward designing appropriate hedonic or utilitarian game rewards to strengthen the impact of cooperative vs noncooperative advergame format on brand sacredness through enhancing BRQ and intention to prosume among the target advergamers. This research applies game theory in the advergaming context to manoeuvre game format and rewards so that a sustainable prosumption culture is built, which has strong beliefs about the sacredness of the brand.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-26
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-10-2021-0798
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- When does service employee’s accent matter' Examining the moderating
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Sally Rao Hill , Alastair G. Tombs
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to further our understanding of the effects of service employees’ accents on service outcomes and to investigate the boundary conditions of service type, service criticality and accent-service congruence. This study reports on three scenario-based experiments with between-subject designs to assess customer reactions to service employees with nonstandard accents. The findings revealed that the three service-related extraneous factors investigated in this study influence the direction and strength of accent’s impact. Service employees’ nonstandard accents generally negatively influence customers’ satisfaction with a service provider and purchase intentions. This effect is stronger for credence services than for experience services. While customer satisfaction with the service encounter tends to stay the same regardless of service criticality, they have less purchase intention in high service criticality situations when they deal with service employee with a nonstandard accent. Accent-service congruence enhances both satisfaction and purchase intention. This study makes contributions to the accent in service interaction literature by enabling the authors to have a more complete understanding of how accent effects drive customer satisfaction and purchase intention. Future studies can take customer-related factors such as customer-service employee relationships, customers’ ethnic affiliation and ethnocentrism into consideration when examining the effects of accent in service interactions. Service managers need to be aware when nonstandard accents’ negative effects will elevate – credence service and service with higher criticality are better provided by service employee with a standard accent. A nonstandard accent that matches the service improves customer satisfaction and purchase intention and could be used to its advantage. This study contributes to the service literature about service employees’ interaction with customers and is particularly relevant in multicultural societies with increasingly diverse workforces.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-24
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-09-2020-0707
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Encouraging product reuse and upcycling via creativity priming,
imagination and inspiration-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Liudmila Tarabashkina , Alua Devine , Pascale G. Quester
Abstract: Consumers seldom consider end-use consumption (reuse or upcycling) when products reach the end of their lifecycle. This study shows that end-use consumption can be encouraged if individuals are primed to think creatively, engage in end-use ideation (imagine end-use) and become inspired by more original ideas. Three studies were carried out. Study 1 tested if creativity priming resulted in more effective end-use ideation (greater number of ideas and more original ideas) compared to environmental appeals and no intervention. Study 2 tested the effectiveness of creativity priming in a longitudinal setting. Study 3 demonstrated how creativity priming and end-use ideation could be practically executed using product packaging. Creativity priming represents an effective intervention to stimulate end-use consumption with particularly positive results amongst less creative consumers. However, it was not the number of generated ideas, but their originality during end-use ideation that triggered inspiration. This study demonstrates which interventions are more effective in changing consumer behaviour in favour of more sustainable practices. Increasing environmental degradation requires consumers to change their behaviour by re-consuming products. This study shows that consumers can adopt end-use if they are primed to think creatively, imagine end-use consumption and generate more original ideas. Creative thinking has been leveraged at product development stages, but not at the end of products’ lifecycle. This study integrated creativity priming, consumer imagination and inspiration theories to explain the underlying mechanism behind end-use consumption to scale up its adoption by consumers.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-05-16
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-06-2020-0442
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Assessing the overall fit of composite models estimated by partial least
squares path modeling-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Florian Schuberth , Manuel E. Rademaker , Jörg Henseler
Abstract: This study aims to examine the role of an overall model fit assessment in the context of partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM). In doing so, it will explain when it is important to assess the overall model fit and provides ways of assessing the fit of composite models. Moreover, it will resolve major concerns about model fit assessment that have been raised in the literature on PLS-PM. This paper explains when and how to assess the fit of PLS path models. Furthermore, it discusses the concerns raised in the PLS-PM literature about the overall model fit assessment and provides concise guidelines on assessing the overall fit of composite models. This study explains that the model fit assessment is as important for composite models as it is for common factor models. To assess the overall fit of composite models, researchers can use a statistical test and several fit indices known through structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables. Researchers who use PLS-PM to assess composite models that aim to understand the mechanism of an underlying population and draw statistical inferences should take the concept of the overall model fit seriously. To facilitate the overall fit assessment of composite models, this study presents a two-step procedure adopted from the literature on SEM with latent variables. This paper clarifies that the necessity to assess model fit is not a question of which estimator will be used (PLS-PM, maximum likelihood, etc). but of the purpose of statistical modeling. Whereas, the model fit assessment is paramount in explanatory modeling, it is not imperative in predictive modeling.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-04-13
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-08-2020-0586
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- A comparative study of the predictive power of component-based approaches
to structural equation modeling-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Gyeongcheol Cho , Sunmee Kim , Jonathan Lee , Heungsun Hwang , Marko Sarstedt , Christian M. Ringle
Abstract: Generalized structured component analysis (GSCA) and partial least squares path modeling (PLSPM) are two key component-based approaches to structural equation modeling that facilitate the analysis of theoretically established models in terms of both explanation and prediction. This study aims to offer a comparative evaluation of GSCA and PLSPM in a predictive modeling framework. A simulation study compares the predictive performance of GSCA and PLSPM under various simulation conditions and different prediction types of correctly specified and misspecified models. The results suggest that GSCA with reflective composite indicators (GSCAR) is the most versatile approach. For observed prediction, which uses the component scores to generate prediction for the indicators, GSCAR performs slightly better than PLSPM with mode A. For operative prediction, which considers all parameter estimates to generate predictions, both methods perform equally well. GSCA with formative composite indicators and PLSPM with mode B generally lag behind the other methods. Future research may further assess the methods’ prediction precision, considering more experimental factors with a wider range of levels, including more extreme ones. When prediction is the primary study aim, researchers should generally revert to GSCAR, considering its performance for observed and operative prediction together. This research is the first to compare the relative efficacy of GSCA and PLSPM in terms of predictive power.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-03-28
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-07-2020-0542
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- A miracle of measurement or accidental constructivism' How PLS
subverts the realist search for truth-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: John W. Cadogan , Nick Lee
Abstract: This study aims to determine whether partial least squares path modeling (PLS) is fit for purpose for scholars holding scientific realist views. The authors present the philosophical foundations of scientific realism and constructivism and examine the extent to which PLS aligns with them. PLS does not align with scientific realism but aligns well with constructivism. Research is needed to assess PLS’s fit with instrumentalism and pragmatism. PLS has no utility as a realist scientific tool but may be of interest to constructivists. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to assess PLS’s alignments and mismatches with constructivist and scientific realist perspectives.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-03-28
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-08-2020-0637
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Stressful eating indulgence by generation Z: a cognitive conceptual
framework of new age consumers’ obesity-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Constantinos-Vasilios Priporas , Durga Vellore-Nagarajan , Irene (Eirini) Kamenidou
Abstract: This study aims to delineate the phenomenon of stressful eating within generation Z due to the times they are living in and to extract propositions which elucidate phases of stressful eating within Zers. Based on relevant literature on consumer obesity, theories of pure impulse buying and reasoned action, cognitive constructs eminent for reasoned conditioned behaviour are extracted. Followed by extraction of the reasoned conditioned behaviour and its cognitive constructs within Zers. Thereafter, a conceptual framework is developed with propositions of stressful eating within Zers. Zers indulge in reasoned conditioned behaviour initially owing to their healthy understanding insights, and the activations of cognitive capacities within them due to the law of effect. The law of effect is cyclical after the first reasoned consumption among Zers, leading to obesity and constricting self-controlling behaviour. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that provides a deep understanding of the cognitive mechanism orienting generation Z’s stressful eating indulgence even though they have higher healthy lifestyle understandings.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-03-08
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-06-2021-0386
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- The interaction of social influence and message framing on
children’s food choice-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Huda Khan , Richard Lee , Zaheer Khan
Abstract: Obesity leads to increased mortality and morbidity among children, as well as when they turn adults. Melding marketing theories in social influence and message framing, this study aims to examine how compliance versus conformance social influence, each framed either prescriptively or proscriptively, may guide children’s choice of healthy versus unhealthy food. This study conducted two experiments in a Pakistani junior school. Experiment 1 exposed children to either a prescriptive or a proscriptive compliance influence. Experiment 2 involved a 2 (prescriptive vs proscriptive compliance influence) × 2 (supportive vs conflicting conformance-influence) between-subjects design. Participants in both studies answered an online survey after being exposed to the social-influence messages. Experiment 1 showed proscriptive was stronger than prescriptive compliance influence in nudging children to pick fruits (healthy) over candies (unhealthy). However, frequency of fruits dropped as susceptibility to compliance strengthened. Experiment 2 found that a proscriptive compliance influence reinforced by a supportive conformance-influence led to most children picking fruits. However, a conflicting conformance influence was able to sway some children away from fruits to candies. This signalled the importance of harmful peer influence, particularly with children who were more likely to conform. Childhood is a critical stage for inculcating good eating habits. Besides formal education about food and health, social influence within classrooms can be effective in shaping children’s food choice. While compliance and conformance influence can co-exist, one influence can reinforce or negate the other depending on message framing. In developing countries like Pakistan, institutional support to tackle childhood obesity may be weak. Teachers can take on official, yet informal, responsibility to encourage healthy eating. Governments can incentivise schools to organise informal activities to develop children’s understanding of healthy consumption. Schools should prevent children from bringing unhealthy food to school, so that harmful peer behaviours are not observable, and even impose high tax on unhealthy products or subsidise healthy products sold in schools. This study adopts a marketing lens and draws on social influence and message framing theory to shed light on children’s food choice behaviour within a classroom environment. The context was an underexplored developing country, Pakistan, where childhood obesity is a public health concern.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-02-21
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-07-2021-0505
Issue No: Vol. ahead-of-print , No. ahead-of-print (2022)
-
- Characterizing the spaces of consumer value experience in value
co-creation and value co-destruction
Open Access Article-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Yasin Sahhar , Raymond Loohuis
Abstract: This paper aims to explore how unreflective and reflective value experience emerges in value co-creation and co-destruction practices in a consumer context. This paper presents a Heideggerian phenomenological heuristic consisting of three interrelated modes of engagement, which is used for interpretive sense-making in a dynamic and lively case context of amateur-level football (soccer) played on artificial grass. Based on a qualitative study using ethnographic techniques, this study examines the whats and the hows of value experience by individuals playing football at different qualities and in varying conditions across 25 Dutch football teams. The findings reveal three interrelated yet distinct modalities of experience in value co-creation and co-destruction presented in a continuum of triplex spaces of unreflective and reflective value experience. The first is a joyful flow of unreflective value experience in emergent and undisrupted value co-creation practice with no potential for value co-destruction. Second, a semireflective value experience caused by interruptions in value co-creation has a higher potential for value co-destruction. Third, a fully reflective value experience through a completely interrupted value co-creation practice results in high-value co-destruction. This research contributes to the literature on the microfoundations of value experience and value creation by proposing a conceptual relationship between unreflective/reflective value experience and value co-creation and co-destruction mediated through interruptions in consumer usage situations. This study’s novel perspective on this relationship offers practitioners a useful vantage point on understanding how enhanced value experience comes about in value co-creation practice and how this is linked to value co-destruction when interruptions occur. These insights help bolster alignment and prevent misalignment in resource integration and foster service strategies, designs and innovations to better influence consumer experience in journeys. This study deploys an integral view of how consumer value experience manifests in value co-creation and co-destruction that offers conceptual, methodological and practical clarity.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-04-26
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-04-2020-0313
Issue No: Vol. 56 , No. 13 (2022)
-
- Sticky market webs of connection – human and nonhuman market
co-codification dynamics across social media
Open Access Article-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Jonathan David Schöps , Christian Reinhardt , Andrea Hemetsberger
Abstract: Digital markets are increasingly constructed by an interplay between (non)human market actors, i.e. through algorithms, but, simultaneously, fragmented through platformization. This study aims to explore how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors co-codify markets through expressive and networked content across social media platforms. This study applies digital methods as cross-platform analysis to analyze two data sets retrieved from YouTube and Instagram using the keywords “sustainable fashion” and #sustainablefashion, respectively. The study shows how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors, co-codify markets across two social media platforms, i.e. YouTube and Instagram. The authors introduce the notion of sticky market webs of connection, illustrating how these dynamics foster cross-platform market codification through relations of exteriority. Research implications highlight the necessity to account for all involved entities, including digital infrastructure in digital markets and the methodological potential of cross-platform analyses. Practical implications highlight considerations managers should take into account when designing market communication for digital markets composed of (non)human market actors. Social implications highlight the possible effects of (non)human market co-codification on markets and consumer culture, and corresponding countermeasures. This study contributes to an increased understanding of digital market dynamics by illuminating interdependent market co-codification dynamics between (non)human market actors, and how these dynamics (de)territorialize digital market assemblages through relations of exteriority across platforms.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-04-04
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-10-2020-0750
Issue No: Vol. 56 , No. 13 (2022)
-
- Optimizing product trials by eliciting flow states: the enabling roles of
curiosity, openness and information valence
Open Access Article-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Raymond Lavoie , Kelley Main
Abstract: Product trials are an effective way to influence consumer attitudes. While research has established several factors that influence whether consumers will try a product or not, it is less understood how marketers can optimize the trial experience itself. The purpose of this paper is to explore flow as an optimal state and the factors that give rise to it during a product trail. This research consists of three experimental studies in which people trial new music. This paper explores the ability of curiosity to optimize consumers’ flow experience during the trial and their attitudes toward the trialed product. This paper manipulates curiosity before the trial using information about the music (Study 1) and music previews (Study 3) and also demonstrates that curiosity is naturally elevated among those high in openness to experience (Study 2). The results demonstrate that curiosity before a product trial fosters an optimal experience during the trial in the form of flow states, defined as an enjoyable state of full engagement, which in turn mediates more positive attitudes toward the trialed product. This paper demonstrates that curiosity can be evoked using product information or a preview of the content and can vary based on individual differences in openness to experience. The relationship between curiosity and flow is moderated by the valence of the information that is used to elicit curiosity, such that negative-valence information thwarts the relationship. While the studies conducted by the authors focus on the positive influence of curiosity in the trial of music, the effects may be different for other products. These studies are also limited to two different manipulations of curiosity. This research has implications for marketers, as it demonstrates the relevance of flow and how to enable it in product trials to optimize effectiveness. The manipulations also demonstrate how to manage the amount of information that is given to consumers before they trial a product. This research reveals that flow states optimize the product trial experience. This research also advances the understanding of the relationship between curiosity and flow by moderating their relationship with the valence of information that elicits curiosity. The findings also broaden the relevance of curiosity and flow in marketing by demonstrating their benefits within product trials.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-03-31
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-05-2019-0415
Issue No: Vol. 56 , No. 13 (2022)
-
- The rise of collaborative engagement platforms
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Hanna Leipämaa-Leskinen , Elina Närvänen , Hannu Makkonen
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to define and analyse the emergence of collaborative engagement platforms (CEPs) as part of a rising platformisation phenomenon. Contrary to previous literature on engagement platforms (EPs), this study distinguishes between formalised and self-organised EPs and sheds light on collaborative EPs on which heterogeneous actors operate without central control by legislated firm actors. Drawing on institutional work theory, this paper explores the institutional rules, norms and practices involved in the emergence of a new platform. This paper implements a longitudinal case study of a local food network called REKO and explores how engagement practices and institutional work patterns catalysed its emergence during 2013–2020. The findings of this study show that actors engaged within the REKO platform participated in institutional work patterns of disruption, creation and maintenance, which drove the development of the platform and ensured its viability. This paper encourages future research to further explore how different types of EPs emerge and function. The rise of CEPs pushes the dominant managerial orientation to progress from the management “of” a platform to managing “within” a platform. For managers, this means developing novel practices for engaging and committing a versatile set of actors to nurture open-ended, multi-sided collaboration. This study contributes by conceptualising different types of platforms with a particular focus on CEPs and explicating the engagement practices and institutional work patterns that catalyse their emergence.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-02-18
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-11-2020-0798
Issue No: Vol. 56 , No. 13 (2022)
-
- When and how brands affect importance of product attributes in consumer
decision process-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
Authors: Hyun Young Park , Sue Ryung Chang
Abstract: This research investigates when and how brands influence attribute importance weights. Most past studies modelling consumer decision processes treated the brand of a product as an attribute parallel to the price, color or size of a product, and as a result, those studies assigned an equal (i.e. non-contingent) importance weight across brands for each attribute. In contrast, this study introduces a brand-contingent attribute-weighting process, in which brand is a higher-order construct that influences attribute importance. This study presents a multi-level choice model in which the importance weight of an attribute can vary across brands. This study then estimates the model using real purchase data and survey data from an airline industry. This study finds that attribute importance weights are contingent upon two aspects of a brand – the perceived relative position of the brand and consumers’ brand usage experiences. Specifically, when consumers perceive a brand to be inferior to its competitors in a given attribute, they generally place greater weight on that attribute for that brand. In contrast, when consumers perceive a brand to be superior to its competitors in a given attribute, only consumers with extensive brand usage experiences place greater weight on that attribute for that brand. The findings provide managerial insights on brand positioning and segmentation strategies using consumers’ brand usage experiences. This study advances the literature on consumer decision processes by modeling an attribute-weighting process that is contingent upon brands. The present study models this process based on consumer behavior theories and estimates the model using real market data.
Citation: European Journal of Marketing
PubDate: 2022-01-27
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-09-2020-0650
Issue No: Vol. 56 , No. 13 (2022)
-
- European Journal of Marketing
-
Free pre-print version: Loading...
-
