eWOM and the importance of capturing consumer attention within social media

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is widely regarded as one of the most influential factors impacting consumer behavior, yet traditional models were constructed oblivious to the potential of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and social media. In particular, very little is known about the dynamics affecting consumer attention within two-way many-to-many mediated environments even though attention constitutes a critical step. Thus, we construct a conceptual framework that grounds consumer attention within a larger progression of behavioral responses to eWOM. We then conduct an experiment (n = 28) that isolates contextual antecedents of attention to positive, negative, and neutral WOM for both luxury and non-luxury brands within a social media platform. Using behavioral eye-tracking, we find that WOM message valence interacts with brand type to affect attention differently. Implications of these findings for facilitating eWOM are discussed with future research directions suggested.     

Disentangling CEO compensation: A simultaneous examination of time,industry, and firm‐level effects

Despite decades of research, how CEO compensation is determined remains an enigma. Drawing on agency, managerial hegemony, and institutional theoretical perspectives, we use hierarchical linear modelling—a multilevel analytic technique—to examine how firm‐, industry‐, and time‐level effects drive CEO compensation in US corporations. Results show that while cash salary is mostly driven by firm‐specific factors, equity‐based compensation responds to time‐level effects with firm‐ and industry‐level effects playing a marginal role. We argue that such evidence is consistent with the institutionalization of the CEO compensation determination process through the widespread adoption of benchmark peer‐group comparisons. Such practices underlie economy‐wide changes in CEO compensation that are increasingly disconnected from other fundamental firm‐ or industry‐specific factors. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Location Recommender Based on a Hidden Markov Model: Mobile Social Networks

With the development of mobile communication technology and location-based services, people can share information with friends through checking in anywhere, at any time. If we can “speculate” when users will next check in, we can make relevant and useful recommendations. Here, we introduce a new check-in-based hidden Markov model to cope with changing circumstances. A certain check-in-based hidden Markov model for each group is obtained first. The model then analyzes temporal check-in intervals of users before suggesting locations. We also discuss optimal parameter settings for the number of hidden states and the corresponding number of user groups. Experiments show that, given observations of a new entrant, the model is able to predict the most probable time period the user will check in next time. It can also recommend a specific user group for the new entrant. Hence, it enables the recommendation of potential locations of interest for the new entrant.     

Influences of Identified Victim Images on Processing Fluency

The aim of this study was to explore whether identifiable victim and processing fluency effects would be confirmed in the context of a charity ad encouraging viewers to help a victim in need. The processing fluency was examined by both objective fluency data captured by eye movement and subjective experiences of processing fluency. An eye-tracking experiment (N = 197) found a message that was easy to process required little time to process. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance revealed that participants in the identified victim condition experienced a greater fluency. A victim’s sad face versus happy face caused viewers’ emotional contagion into the victim’s negative emotional state, and this negative affect guided information processing. The objective fluency was found to mediate the effect of viewers’ negative affect on their sympathetic state, which in turn led to a greater willingness to help the victim in need.     

Methodological Issues in the Design of Online Surveys for Measuring Unethical Work Behavior: Recommendations on the Basis of a Split-Ballot Experiment

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in unethical work behavior. Several types of survey instruments to collect information about unethical work behavior are available. Nevertheless, to date little attention has been paid to design issues of those surveys. There are, however, several important problems that may influence reliability and validity of questionnaire data on the topic, such as social desirability bias. This paper addresses two important issues in the design of online surveys on unethical work behavior: the response scale for questions regarding the frequency of certain types of unethical work behavior and the location of the background questions in an online survey. We present the results of an analysis of a double split-ballot experiment in a large sample (n = 3,386) on governmental integrity. We found that, when comparing response scales that have labels for all categories with response scales that only have anchors at the end, the latter provided answers with higher validity. The study did not provide support for the conventional practice of asking background questions at the end.     

Asking Questions: A Sine Qua Non of Facilitation in Decision Support?

This paper reflects our ongoing interest in discovering essential elements of facilitation in decision support for groups with members having different perspectives on a strategic problem. We investigated questioning behaviour, a critical aspect of microlevel behaviour, of the facilitator in a classroom experiment with five-person groups (N?=?26). The supported groups used a facilitated modelling approach, that is, group model building, which is based on system dynamics. In the control condition, one of the participants led the group discussion in the role of chairperson. As expected, we found that the facilitator asked more questions than the chairperson. Subsequently, based on proposed functions of questions by discussion leaders in group decision making, we distinguished three categories of questions; related to (a) rational and social validation, (b) reflection, and (c) information management. Analysis of question type frequencies revealed that facilitators mainly ask questions from the rational and social validation category, and that this question type declines over the course of the discussion process. Questions prompting reflection increased over time. Information management questions were mostly used in the beginning and middle part of the session. In the groups led by a chairperson, a less clear picture emerged. There was a great variety between groups with respect to type of questions and sequence in which the chairperson asked questions. The only consistent result for unsupported meetings is that information management primarily took place at the end of the sessions.     

How coviewing reduces the effectiveness of TV advertising

In the present study – a naturalistic laboratory experiment – coviewing of TV commercials reduced their effectiveness (delayed proven ad recall) from 63%, obtained by single viewers, to 43%, for both coviewers. During coviewing, the ‘mere presence of another’ apparently distracts each coviewer's attention from the screen. The reduction in TV ads' effectiveness due to coviewing is equivalent to the loss from channel-change zapping, which reduces ad recall to 45%. More deleterious but less prevalent modes of digital video recorder-enabled ad avoidance are skip-button zapping, which reduces recall to 35%, and moderately fast zipping ( × 8 fast forward), which reduces ad effectiveness almost entirely, leaving only 6% recall. This study concludes with some practical suggestions for improving the effectiveness of TV commercials seen by a coviewing audience.     

适用于小型企业的简单交易构件模型的实现

开发了适用于小型企业的简单交易处理构件模型，它能够在客户和服务器之间提供同步和异步的连接，并且在任何时刻都可以将交易进行传送或者存储转发。这种构件模型开发时间短，使用灵活，适用于需要在多个进程之间进行可靠数据传送的分布式环境。     

Simulating in-store lighting and temperature with visual aids: methodological propositions and S–O–R effects

Lighting and temperature are two important stimuli in sensory marketing. However, these stimuli have not yet been studied in controlled retail environments. The objective of this research is twofold: (1) to propose a methodology to infer the effect of different levels of lighting and temperature in a controlled environment with visual aids and (2) to test the impact of these simulated stimuli on environmental perceptions and behavioral intentions, following a Stimulus–Organism–Response model. This model postulates that stimuli should influence internal responses which in turn shall have an impact on behavioral responses. This research is based on the encoding and retrieval literature as well as the literature in physics, ergonomics and environmental psychology. In Study 1, we manipulated lighting and temperature levels in digital photographic images, using relevant cues (illuminance and color temperature for lighting; clothing and activity level for temperature). A between-subjects design experiment was carried out over 387 respondents: two simulated levels of lighting (bright cool light and soft warm light) × two simulated levels of temperature (slightly warm temperature and slightly cool temperature) × three types of stores (jeans store, bookstore, and furniture store). We found that under these simulated conditions, the participants accurately perceived the differences of lighting and temperature levels, as we predicted. In Study 2, the same photographs were used in a within-between subjects design over 110 participants and 330 observations. We tested the impact of these simulated stimuli on environmental perceptions (stimulating and relaxing) and behavioral intentions (intention to buy and intention to spend time in the store). Both a bright cool light and a slightly warm temperature had a stimulating effect on participants’ store perception. Under these conditions, participants also increased their intentions to buy and to spend time in the store. The stimulative perception mediates the relationship between (1) lighting and both intention to spend time in the store and purchase intention and (2) temperature and intention to spend time in the store. These results confirm the benefit of using digitally manipulated stimuli with photographs in controlled environments.     

Risk factors for injury in community-level football: a cohort study

We investigated the independent effect of commonly postulated risk factors on injury incidence in amateur football (soccer), using a prospective cohort design with follow-up over two seasons. A total of 1702 male and female players aged 13 years or older contributed information on 21,797 player-matches. Confirmed, were the effect of male vs. female sex (injury rate ratios (IRR) = 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.67–0.97), older age (increasing IRR gradient), New Zealand European ethnicity (IRR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.74–1.01), being taller (180–189 cm: IRR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.06–1.63), previous injury (IRR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.12–1.57), playing against medical advice (IRR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.03–1.49), playing while recovering from injury (IRR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.20–1.49), history of cigarette smoking (IRR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.00–1.61) and time of season (IRR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.96–0.98). Female, adult, non-European and taller players could be paid particular attention in injury prevention programmes. The need for effective injury management is reinforced. Adding physical conditioning to pre-season training may be required.     

The Influence of Decision Frames and Vision Priming on Decision Outcomes in Work Groups: Motivating Stakeholder Considerations

Organizational leaders are increasingly emphasizing a stakeholder perspective in order to address concerns about business ethics. This study examined the choices of 94 groups in the context of a business decision-making simulation to determine how specific actions and communications can facilitate the consideration of different stakeholder perspectives. In particular, we examined whether generally framing the business situation as one involving diverse stakeholders versus a primarily profit-driven operation (referred to as framing), and whether specific suggestions that participants consider the concerns of stakeholders versus stockholders in maximizing the value of the firm (referred to as vision priming), would influence group choices and decision outcomes. We tested four experimental conditions against a control in a 2 × 2 experimental design to determine the effects that group choices had on decision outcomes when groups were exposed to stakeholder versus stockholder decision framing and stakeholder versus stockholder vision priming. The results revealed that the consistent conditions outperformed the control condition and that vision priming has a greater impact on decision outcomes than decision framing.     

The Effects of Current Income Attributes on Nonprofessional Investors’ Say-on-Pay Judgments: Does Fairness Still Matter?

The say-on-pay (SOP) regulation in the Dodd-Frank Act (Public L. no. 111–203, H.R. 4173 2010) requires publicly-traded U.S. firms to hold a nonbinding, advisory shareholder vote on executive compensation. Advocates claim that SOP voting gives shareholders a mechanism to hold managers and boards more accountable. Critics contend that SOP votes may simplistically reflect shareholders’ reactions to the overall value of CEO compensation or the firm’s net income. However, based on prior research, we contend that market participants’ SOP votes are likely to consider current income attributes. For example, the market punishes firms that do not meet or beat benchmarks such as analyst earnings expectations, and that shareholders scrutinize the quality of the income sources of firms that consistently meet/beat analyst expectations. We thus expect that more shareholders will provide ‘agree’ SOP votes for a firm that consistently meets/beats analyst forecasts and does so when net income does not include (rather than includes) nonrecurring gains. Further, we consider whether perceptions about the fairness of CEO compensation play a mediating role in the relationship between the interaction of these two current income attributes and SOP votes. Results from an experiment using evening MBA students as participants indicates that the two current income attributes significantly interact with respect to the percentage of agree SOP votes, and that compensation fairness perceptions fully mediate this relationship. Further, the mediating effect of compensation fairness perceptions is robust to including CEO-level and other determinants found in prior research. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and their implications for public policy and research.     

How to Spot a Careerist Early On: Psychopathy and Exchange Ideology as Predictors of Careerism

Careerism refers to an individual’s propensity to achieve their personal and career goals through nonperformance-based activities (Feldman, The Indus Org Psychol 39–44, 1985). We investigated the role of several dispositional predictors of careerism, including Five-factor model (FFM) personality traits, primary psychopathy, and exchange ideology. Based on data from 131 respondents, as expected, we observed that emotional stability was negatively correlated with careerism. Primary psychopathy and exchange ideology explained additional variance in careerism after accounting for FFM traits. Relative importance analyses indicated that psychopathy (relative weight percentage of explained variance = 42.1 %) and exchange ideology (relative weight percentage = 44.1 %) were equally important in predicting careerism. We highlight the need for future research efforts investigating the combined effects of contextual factors—particularly, human resource practices—and individual differences to understand careerism in the workplace.     

Do We Follow the Leader or the Masses? Antecedents of the Willingness to Pay Extra for Eco‐Products

This paper reports on an experiment that tests for the existence of peer effects in consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable products. More specifically, we investigate whether the premium for an eco‐labeled laundry detergent is sensitive to receiving information about the premium paid by other members of one's social group. The information manipulations in the experiment test for two distinct types of social influence, i.e., conformist and payoff‐biased transmission. We find strong empirical evidence for a conformist transmission. Participants informed about the positive premium paid by the majority of their peers reported a higher premium than individuals not receiving any information. This result shows that previous studies on the WTP for sustainable products, which explain premiums by attitudinal measures and sociodemographic traits, unwarrantedly provide an under‐socialized account. The inclusion of social influence variables significantly increases the explanatory power of the model.     

Collective Choices Under Ambiguity

We investigate experimentally whether collective choice environments matter for individual attitudes to ambiguity. In a simple two-urn Ellsberg experiment, one urn offers a 45 % chance of winning a fixed monetary prize while the other offers an ambiguous chance. Participants choose either individually or in groups of three. Group decision rules vary in the level of individual responsibility for the others’ payoffs: the collective choice is taken by majority, randomly delegated to two group members, or randomly delegated to a single group member. Although most participants display consistent ambiguity attitudes across their decisions, taking responsibility for the others tends to foster ambiguity aversion.     

Is there Informational Value in Corporate Giving?

In this article, we propose that giving in cash and non-cash (in-kind) differ in their relation with the giving firm’s future corporate financial performance (CFP) and only cash giving is associated with future CFP. Using a novel dataset from ASSET4 that differentiates corporate giving over a sample period of 2002–2012, we examine three competing hypotheses: (1) agency cost hypothesis that cash giving reflects agency cost and destroys value for shareholders, (2) investment hypothesis that cash giving is an investment by management that aims for better future return, and (3) information hypothesis that cash giving has informational value to shareholders as cash is a critical resource at a firm and giving is a decision by managers who are insiders. We find that indeed, only cash giving is positively associated with future CFP and firm value, measured by Fama–French five-factor abnormal risk-adjusted stock returns, future return on assets, and Tobin’s Q. In addition, we find that the positive association exists only between excess, i.e., unexpected, but not expected cash giving and future CFP. Our empirical findings support the information hypothesis, but neither the agency hypothesis nor the investment hypothesis, and are robust to a number of endogeneity tests, including orthogonalized cash giving, instrumental variable regression using geography-based instruments, and propensity score matching. Furthermore, we show that the positive association between future CFP and unexpected cash giving is only pronounced at firms with good governance and relatively higher sales growth where agency problems are less likely, and at firms with no alternative mechanisms to demonstrate the strength of cash flow. Additionally, we do not find evidence that suggests in-kind giving to possess any informational value.     

Dirty Hands Make Dirty Leaders?! The Effects of Touching Dirty Objects on Rewarding Unethical Subordinates as a Function of a Leader’s Self-Interest

We studied the role of social dynamics in moral decision-making and behavior by investigating how physical sensations of dirtiness versus cleanliness influence moral behavior in leader–subordinate relationships, and whether a leader’s self-interest functions as a boundary condition to this effect. A pilot study (N = 78) revealed that when participants imagined rewarding (vs. punishing) unethical behavior of a subordinate, they felt more dirty. Our main experiment (N = 96) showed that directly manipulating dirtiness by allowing leaders to touch a dirty object (fake poop) led to more positive evaluations of, and higher bonuses for, unethical subordinates than touching a clean object (hygienic hand wipe). This effect, however, only emerged when the subordinate’s unethical behavior did not serve the leader’s own interest. Hence, subtle cues such as bodily sensations can shape moral decision-making and behavior in leader–subordinate relationships, but self-interest, as a core characteristic of interdependence, can override the influence of such cues on the leader’s moral behavior.     

How Economic Incentives May Destroy Social,Ecological and Existential Values: The Case of Executive Compensation

Executive compensation has long been a prominent topic in the management literature. A main question that is also given substantial attention in the business ethics literature—even more so in the wake of the recent financial crisis—is whether increasing levels of executive compensation can be justified from an ethical point of view. Also, the relationship of executive compensation to instances of unethical behavior or outcomes has received considerable attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the social, ecological, and existential costs of economic incentives, by discussing how relying on increasing levels of executive compensation may have an adverse effect on managerial performance in a broad sense. Specifically, we argue that one-dimensional economic incentives may destroy existential, social, and systemic values that influence the manager’s commitment to ensure responsible business conduct, and have negative spillover effects that may reduce the manager’s performance. There are well-documented findings that demonstrate that reliance on sources of extrinsic motivation (such as economic incentives) may displace intrinsic motivation. Our perspective is a holistic one, in the sense that we will explore the influence of sources of extrinsic motivation on the manager’s intrinsic commitment to different types of values. We will in particular investigate how it may influence the manager’s ethical reflection and behavior or lack thereof.     

Processes and effects of targeted online advertising among children

Increasingly, information from children's profile pages on social network sites is being used to target online advertising, a phenomenon known as profile targeting. This practice has raised concerns in society and academia; however, its effects among children remain unstudied. Therefore, we investigated the effects of profile targeting on children's brand responses (i.e., brand attitude and purchase intention). We examined two types of targeting: targeting of product and of form (i.e., color). In addition, we tested three underlying mechanisms: liking the advertisement, perceived personal relevance of the advertisement, and recognizing the targeting aspect of the advertisement (targeting recognition). A between-subjects experiment among 231 children aged 9–13 years showed that targeting the product leads to more positive brand attitudes and purchase intentions. In addition, the effects were explained by ad liking and not by perceived personal relevance or targeting recognition. These findings suggest that, unlike adults, children do not process profile targeting on an elaborate critical level. Rather, the processing seems to be less elaborate.     

Salesforce Compensation: An Analytical and Empirical Examination of the Agency Theoretic Approach

Since the papers of Basu et al. (1985) and Lal and Srinivasan (1993), marketing academics have been interested in the design and implementation of optimal compensation plans. The literature has focused on agency theory as a foundation to help describe and understand this process. Although there has been much theoretical work on this topic, empirical evidence to support this theory remains sparse. Studies by Coughlan and Narasimhan (1992) and John and Weitz (1988, 1989) have found some early evidence that supports agency theory.In this paper we revisit the issue of salesforce compensation on both theoretical and empirical fronts. On the theory side we build a game theoretic model of salesforce compensation that accounts for risk aversion on the part of both the principal and the agent. We further show that accounting for the firm size within the analytical framework yields new insights into the nature of compensation design.The results obtained from our model, while substantiating past findings, offer some new insights into the compensation design process. In particular we find that firm demographics play an important role in the design of the optimal compensation scheme. We then use two datasets collected ten years apart by the Dartnell Corporation to investigate and test hypotheses generated by our model and the extant literature. Our results show that the basic tenets of agency theory continue to hold over time and that our new theoretical hypotheses are consistent with the data. Using the two datasets we also find that inter-temporal changes in salesforce compensation coincide with the advent and adoption of new technologies. Our research thus adds to our substantive knowledge of the drivers of salesforce compensation, while adding to the theoretical structure through taking account of the possibility of principal risk aversion.