An agentic perspective of resourcefulness: Self-reliant and joint resourcefulness behaviors within the entrepreneurship process

We integrate social cognitive theory, and its tenets of personal and collective agency, to develop an individual-level perspective on entrepreneurs' resourcefulness behaviors that illustrates how resourcefulness behaviors can be classified as ‘self-reliant behaviors’ or ‘joint resourcefulness behaviors’. Using this novel cognitive theoretical approach, we provide and test a framework that explains how dispositional, perceptual, and behavioral factors interact in the enactment of purposeful action with regards to entrepreneurs' resourceful behaviors. Consistent with our hypotheses, results from a quantitative study of entrepreneurs (N = 178), as well as a supplemental study involving qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs (N = 15), highlight that entrepreneurs higher in frugality tend to perceive higher levels of environmental hostility. This relationship, in turn, leads to higher amounts of self-reliant resourcefulness behaviors (i.e., customer-related and internal self-financing bootstrapping behaviors) but not joint resourcefulness behaviors. Multiple theoretical and practical contributions emerge from our findings as the extant literature does not yet account for human agency as a reason why some entrepreneurs may choose to engage in certain resourceful behaviors relative to other behaviors.     

Rags to riches? Entrepreneurs' social classes,resourceful time allocation,and venture performance

Social classes shape entrepreneurial pursuits in that entrepreneurs from lower social class groups face more resource deficiencies compared to those from higher social class groups. In this study, we theorize that being resourceful with a particular resource—time—helps ventures run by lower-class entrepreneurs achieve better performance. However, we further argue that the extent to which entrepreneurs use time resourcefully is affected by the cognitive schemas stamped on them by their social class backgrounds. Our empirical analysis of 8663 Chinese private entrepreneurs between 2006 and 2010 lends robust support to these arguments. By revealing both material and cognitive constraints stemming from entrepreneurs' social classes, our study contributes to research on social classes and entrepreneurial resourcefulness and has important implications for understanding the persistence of inequality in entrepreneurship.     

The unexpected effect of frugality on green purchase intention

Frugality is frequently associated with sustainable consumer behavior which contributes to a growing resource saving. In this study, we challenge the prevailing view. Compared to the positive effects of frugality, little work has focused on its negative effects. Thus, this study presents a research model which explores whether and how frugality influence green purchase intention. With data collected from 369 participants, the results report that frugality has a negative effect on green purchase intention. It is significantly mediated by motivation to save. In addition, green concern negatively moderates the relationship between frugality and purchase intention, and that between motivation to save and purchase intention. The study provides a deeper understanding of frugality, and develops an avenue to promote sustainable consumption.     

Partnerships as an enabler of resourcefulness in generating sustainable outcomes

Resourcefulness research has provided many insights into how entrepreneurs do more with less, yet these studies are focused primarily on resourceful behaviors undertaken by singular actors. However, partnerships may also behave resourcefully to positively influence venture growth and sustainable outcomes. Through a qualitative study of 11 small enterprises in business partnerships with a common resource-rich partner in Mexico, we show how such partnerships yield uniquely resourceful behaviors. Our analysis also reveals that such partnership-based behaviors require distinct capacity building for resourcefulness. We thus extend theory by creating a process model in which resourcefulness mediates the relationship between nonmarket logics/informal governance and sustainable outcomes.     

Consumer choices under product option framing: Loss aversion principles or sensitivity to price differentials?

The effects of options framing can be theoretically explained by loss aversion principles as well as by potential alternative explanations (e.g., sensitivity to price differentials). This paper examines the interaction effects between option framing and two types of cognitive constraints (availability of cognitive resources and additional redundant product information) on consumer choices for adding or deleting optional product features. In the process, the research attempts to provide empirical support for one theoretical model (e.g., loss aversion principles) versus the other (e.g., sensitivity to price differentials). The results support the hypotheses that consumers choose a higher number of product options when starting from a fully loaded model than from a base model, and that this effect is magnified when consumers make choices under high cognitive constraints. In essence, the results empirically support the theoretical premise of the effects of option framing being driven by loss aversion principles than by diminished sensitivity to price differentials. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Who needs a reason to indulge? Happiness following reason-based indulgent consumption

While consumers and marketers perpetuate the lay theory that indulging with a reason is more pleasurable and makes everyone happier, this research identifies a condition under which indulging without a reason “feels right” and produces a more positive emotional reaction. The authors show that indulging with or without a reason and consumers' trait self-control interact to influence happiness felt following an indulgent purchase. While high self-control consumers are happier when they have a reason to buy indulgent products (e.g., when they can justify the indulgence), low self-control consumers are happier when they do not have a reason to indulge. That is, indulging with a reason is less pleasurable for consumers with low self-control. This effect on happiness has an impact on downstream judgments about the product and yields important implications for consumer welfare as well as marketing managers. Across four studies we show the effect on consumption happiness, examine consequences of the effect, and report evidence for the underlying process.     

Changes in consumption patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic: Analyzing the revenge spending motivations of different emotional groups

People tend to alleviate their negative emotions by shopping. Considering the change of shopping behavior during COVID-19 outbreak, negative emotions are the key contributors to this change. In this light, this study aims to investigate how negative emotions caused by COVID-19 affect shopping behaviors. This study classified consumer groups based on their perceived negative emotions (i.e., anxiety, fear, depression, anger, and boredom). By clustering analysis, four groups (i.e., group of anxiety, depression, anger, and indifference) were derived. Then, this study examined how each of the emotional groups differently affect the shopping-related motivations (i.e., mood alleviation, shopping enjoyment, socialization seeking, and self-control seeking) and shopping behaviors (i.e., shopping for high-priced goods and buying of bulk goods). Results revealed all emotional groups affect socialization seeking and influence high-priced shopping intentions. However, depression and indifference are positively associated with socialization seeking and influence bulk shopping intentions. In addition, other emotions except for anxiety affect mood alleviation and influence high-priced shopping intentions. Finally, anger is associated with self-control seeking and affects bulk shopping intentions. This study enables practitioners and researchers to better understand how people control negative emotions by shopping in pandemic situations such as the current COVID-19 crisis.     

It is all about our impulsiveness – How consumer impulsiveness modulates neural evaluation of hedonic and utilitarian banners

The increasing number of active Internet users has encouraged companies to compete to design the most efficient online ads for their target audience. While some companies build their ads based on the functional and instrumental benefits of their advertised products (i.e., utilitarian banners), others emphasize the experiential, personal, and emotional advantages of purchasing their product (i.e., hedonic banners). This is the first study to use neuroimaging to address the debate in the literature regarding the processing and effectiveness of these types of messages. By means of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we explored the neural mechanisms by which an individual consumer trait, namely consumer impulsiveness, influences the evaluation of hedonic and utilitarian banners. The neural results revealed that more impulsive consumers exhibit a higher level of activation in brain regions linked to reward, trust, emotion, as well as a reduction of activity in self-control brain networks, when viewing hedonic banners. Consumers reporting lower levels of impulsiveness (i.e., prudent users), in turn, exhibited stronger activation in brain regions associated with self-control and cognition when evaluating utilitarian banners. Consequently, on the basis of an objective and neuropsychological approach, these results can be used to inform companies about the type of online advertising they should use based on the characteristics of their target audience.     

About to Burst: How State Self-Regulation Affects the Enactment of Bullying Behaviors

Past research has demonstrated that employees’ perceptions of abusive supervision are positively associated with the enactment of bullying behaviors. However, an investigation of the factors influencing employees’ decision to bully others at work has yet to be completed. In this study, we propose that the relationship between perceptions of abusive supervision and the enactment of bullying behaviors is mediated by state self-regulation, and that active coping moderates the relationship between state self-regulation and bullying. Further, we analyze how the situational context (e.g., positive or negative) affects employees’ levels of self-regulatory resource depletion and ultimately, the extent to which they engage in bullying behaviors. A moderated mediation analysis using time-separated data (N = 136) provided support for our hypotheses, suggesting that employees’ state self-regulation helps explain why abusive supervision is associated with bullying and that active coping helps to reduce bullying behaviors. Further, the results suggest that negative environments are associated with more bullying. Contributions, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed.     

Does the devil wear Prada? Luxury product experiences can affect prosocial behavior

Despite the explosive growth of luxury consumption, researchers have yet to examine how the experience of using luxury products affects us both psychologically and behaviorally. In this research, we explore how the experience of using a luxury product can alter a user's perceptions of themselves and their behavior toward other people. We gave women either a luxury product (e.g., Prada handbag) or a non-luxury product (e.g., unbranded handbag) to use, and afterwards, we presented women with opportunities to exhibit either selfish or generous behaviors toward others. We found that, after using a luxury product, women exhibited more selfish behavior, such as sharing fewer resources with others and contributing less money to charity than women who used a non-luxury handbag. We also found this pattern can be reversed, with luxury users exhibiting more generous behavior when the generous behavior can be performed in front of other people. Further, we show that these patterns of selfish and generous behaviors are mediated by changes in perceived status and superiority that are triggered when women experience using a luxury product.     

Restaurant franchising and top management team

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how top manager attributes account for the implementation of risk-averse strategy by applying a conceptual framework based on upper echelons theory. We selected franchising as a representative risk-averse strategy based on resource scarcity, agency, and risk-sharing theories. We chose the top management team (TMT) as a proxy for the upper echelon to examine the theoretical argument. The study period was from 2000 to 2013, and 29 restaurant companies were included in the research. Related data were derived from EXECUCOMP, COMPUSTAT, Annual 10-K, and publicly accessible resources (e.g., LinkedIn and Business Week). Feasible generalized least squares and random effect regression models were used to analyze the data. The results suggested that the formal education levels of top managers negatively affected franchising implementation, whereas the tenure of TMT members positively influenced restaurant franchising.     

Delivering Bad News: How Procedural Unfairness Affects Messengers’ Distancing and Refusals

Drawing from a social predicament and identity management framework, we argue that procedural unfairness on the part of decision makers places messengers in a dilemma where they attempt to protect their professional image or legitimacy by engaging in refusals (e.g., curbing explanations) and exhibiting distancing behaviors (e.g., minimizing contact with victims) when delivering bad news. Such behaviors however, violate key tenets of fair interpersonal treatment. The results of two experiments supported our hypotheses in samples of experienced managers. Specifically, we found that levels of messengers’ distancing and refusals were greater when the procedures used by decision makers were unfair rather than fair. Additionally, messengers’ perceptions of a predicament (honesty versus disclosure) mediated these relationships. Implications and future research directions regarding the ethical delivery of bad news in the workplace are discussed.     

Corporate brand and hotel performance: A resource-based perspective

Grounded in resource-based theory (RBT), our study analyzes the conditions that drive the effect of corporate brand on firm performance. Using a five-year panel of Spanish hotels, our results confirm that hotels with a corporate brand have greater profitability. Consistent with RBT, this effect is stronger when the corporate brand is more valuable to customers (e.g., in the lower-quality segment), when it is more difficult to imitate (e.g., older brands), and when it is exploited through specific organizational governance mechanisms (e.g., vertical integration). Contrary to RBT, we found that the effect of corporate brand on hotel's profitability is stronger when the use of corporate brand is less rare (e.g., when more hotels located in close proximity use corporate brands). Thus, the results provide general support for RBT, but also make an important qualification regarding the effect of resource rarity in industries where there may be agglomeration effects.     

Frequent business travelers across Europe: Career aspirations and implications

In human resource management (HRM) and career research, the focus has typically been on traditional expatriates (e.g., Mayrhofer, Sparrow, & Zimmermann, 2008). Even though alternative forms of international mobility, such as flexpatriates (i.e., frequent business travelers and international commuters; Mayerhofer, Hartmann, & Herbert, 2004), have become quite common, this trend still seems to be neglected in research (e.g., Harris, Brewster, & Erten, 2005). This empirical article presents career aspirations of Austrian flexpatriates as well as perceived consequences of frequent flying on future careers, private life, and well‐being. The results are compared with selected theoretical concepts from career and career‐success literature. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis in consumer research: A systematic literature review

The traditional symmetrical methods may not be sufficient for effectively examining the asymmetries that are evident in the real-world complex consumption context in the form of pandemic, and other technological, sociocultural, environmental, and geo-political factors. As a result, the use of innovative and asymmetrical methods such as fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), which draws from the complexity theory could help better predict and explain consumer decisions in the age of disruptions. Through a comprehensive method-based systematic literature review of 129 research articles published in the consumer behavior research literature, this study helps to identify the key trends, leading publication sources and contributors, and the current knowledge structure of consumer research using fsQCA. In doing so, this review also sheds light on the state of diversity within this particular area of research. The findings help identify the key future avenues for utilizing fsQCA within consumer research. This review is a useful resource for practitioners to gain a direct access to key consumer research scholars for identifying the constructs (e.g., antecedents, mediators, moderators, enablers, inhibitors) shaping consumer behaviors to inform strategic decisions.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Leadership: Investigating Their Interactive Effect on Employees’ Socially Responsible Behaviors

This research investigates the interlinkage between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical leadership in inducing employees’ socially responsible behaviors (SRBs). Specifically, building on organizational identification theory and cue consistency theory, we develop and test an integrated moderated mediation framework in which employees’ perception of ethical leadership moderates the mediating mechanism between their perceptions of CSR (i.e., perceived CSR–environment and perceived CSR–community), organizational identification, and SRBs (i.e., green and societal behaviors). The findings highlight the need for consistency between employees’ perceptions of CSR and ethical leadership to foster their propensity to further social good through relationship-building activities with their organization. The results, which largely verify the theoretical framework, contribute to and have implications for both research and practice.     

Taking care of you and me: How choosing for others impacts self-indulgence within family caregiving relationships

Consumers frequently make choices for family members they take care of or from whom they receive care (e.g., their children or partner), yet marketing research has given little attention to how these other-oriented choices might impact the chooser’s self-indulgence. In this research we consider familial caregiving relationships as a relevant and ubiquitous context of other-oriented choices and identify the role of the chooser (i.e., caregiver versus care-receiver) as an important moderator that determines when virtuous other-oriented choices within caregiving relationships lead to licensing and when they encourage consistent virtuous consumption behaviors.Three studies demonstrate that making virtuous food choices for others affect the chooser’s subsequent self-regulatory behavior in two ways: After making a virtuous choice for a care-receiving other (e.g., a young child), caregivers (e.g., parents) are more likely to license, and thus to subsequently self-indulge (Study 1, 3). In contrast, care-receivers are more likely to act consistently with an initial virtuous choice for the caregiver and thus are less likely to self-indulge (Study 2, 3).Our findings extend research on moral licensing and consistency effects by demonstrating that—within familial caregiving relationships—the degree to which one receives and provides care may determine when choosers engage in licensing and when they act consistently with an initial virtuous other-oriented choice.     

Consumer Decision Making on the Web: A Theoretical Analysis and Research Guidelines

Recent empirical data on online shopping suggests that consumers have the potential to make better quality decisions while shopping on the web. But whether such potential is being realized by most consumers is an unresolved matter. Hence, the purpose of this research is to understand how (1) certain features of electronic environments have a favorable effect on the abilities of consumers to make better decisions, and (2) identify information‐processing strategies that would enable consumers to make better quality decisions while shopping online. A cross‐disciplinary theoretical analysis based on constructs drawn from economics (e.g., time costs), computing (e.g., recommendation agents), and psychology (e.g., decision strategies) is conducted to identify factors that potentially influence decision quality in electronic environments. The research is important from a theoretical standpoint because it examines an important aspect of online consumer decision making, namely, the impact of the electronic environment on the capabilities of consumers. It is important from both a managerial and public policy standpoint because the ability of shoppers to make better quality decisions while shopping online is directly related to improving market efficiency and enhancing consumer welfare in electronic markets.     

Cutting the Internet's Environmental Footprint: An Analysis of Consumers' Self-Attribution of Responsibility

This research project investigates consumers' willingness to adopt online pro-environmental behaviors. First, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study that revealed respondents' low awareness of the environmental impact of Internet usage and reluctance to change their online behaviors. Consumers tend to decline all responsibility and expect companies and public authorities to take the necessary measures. Moreover, they are led by contradictory motives: not harming the environment on the one hand and continuing to use the Internet the way they currently do on the other. Based on these findings, two quantitative studies were conducted to investigate the determinants of consumers' self-attribution of responsibility to reduce the digital footprint of their online activity (e.g., using an eco-friendly search engine). Our conceptual model emphasizes the mechanisms of cognitive dissonance and highlights the crucial role of skepticism toward pro-environmental solutions. Implications for IT companies and public policy makers are discussed.     

进口反倾销行为对产业价格指数影响的实证研究——以钢铁行业为例

本文运用反事实的研究方法,构建了反倾销行为对产业价格指数变化影响的研究框架。应用时间序列模型和多元回归模型的组合预测模型,预测出假设不存在反倾销行为时的价格指数,运用分布滞后模型分析价格指数实际值与预测值的差额同反倾销行为的联系,从而建立起反倾销行为同价格指数之间的分析模型。以钢铁产业为例,测度了钢铁产业进口反倾销行为对价格指数的影响程度。