Assessing the effect of organic-food short storytelling on consumer response

This study explores the influence of organic food storytelling on consumer response. A random sampling method was used to select organic food retail stores and markets, and then collected 578 valid samples by a quota sampling method. Four storytelling types, including individual story, environmental story, price story, and food therapy story, were based on interview results. Based on partial least squares results, organic food storytelling indeed led consumers to prefer natural food, with food therapy storytelling being the most important factor that influenced their preference for natural food. This was followed by environmental story, price story, with the individual story being the last one. Except for the individual story type, the other three story types established more positive consumer attitudes toward organic food. The preference for natural food increased consumers’ purchase intention, followed by attitude toward organic food, and finally by individual story.     

Telling a different story: How nonprofit organizations reveal strategic purpose through storytelling

Responding to a call for research into storytelling within the nonprofit context, the paper contributes to an emerging research conversation about communicating organizational strategy through storytelling. The research analyses one hundred stories across 10 leading organizations to identify how they are being deployed and what that tells us about the underpinning strategy. Through bringing story character, classification, and content together for the first time, the paper presents a holistic perspective on the story construct. It identifies that, when viewed as a whole, the stories told by organizations can be a powerful communication tool for reaching external audiences. However, the research also identifies that their ability to convey strategic purpose through storytelling is moderated by storytelling capability. It finds that organizations with stronger storytelling capability use this craft to differentiate themselves more effectively. It concludes with contributing a new conceptual model for understanding organizational storytelling and a roadmap for practitioners to strengthen storytelling capability.     

Resituating narrative and story in business ethics

In this article, we resituate a long-standing duality of (Western) narrative tradition over living story emergence and more linear narrative. Narrative, with its focus on linear beginning, middle and end coherence, retrospection and monologic, is too easily appropriated into managerialist projects. We focus on the web of living stories as a Derridian deconstructive move, which allows us to say something important about their relation to narrative and to develop a storytelling ethics. Our thesis is that resituating the relationship between narrative and living story invites exploration of the plurality of narratives that treat living stories as supplementary. We claim that this deconstructive move allows us to rethink politics and ethics anew. Storytelling ethics opens new spaces for marginalized other(s) voices and creates an awareness of our complicity and responsibility for others. Further, storytelling ethics allows for a more nuanced and varied understanding of business ethics and its inherent exclusionary truth and morality claims and paves the way for a more reflexive ethics.     

Negative and positive customer shopping experience in an online context

Underpinned by the Bagozzi and Dholakia (1999) goal setting and striving framework this research firstly develops a negative online customer experience model after which regulatory focus theory is used to compare this model with a positive online customer experience model. Analysis of responses from 201 respondents in the first study shows service failure causes negative affective and cognitive experience and has an impact on dissatisfaction and negative word of mouth in the online retailing context. Moreover, results of a second study among 200 respondents indicates that while customer priority in a successful shopping context is affective experience, in a service failure the customer priority moves from an affective to a cognitive experience. Similarly, compared to cognitive experience, affective experience has a higher impact on customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth in a successful shopping context, while in an unsuccessful shopping context cognitive experience has higher impact on dissatisfaction and negative word of mouth. The findings of this study contribute to customer experience management in both successful and unsuccessful shopping situations.     

What and how to communicate about a corporate brand with the consumers: An exploratory study

The present exploratory study investigates the differential impact of various relevant corporate brand associations on consumers' cognitive (product attitude and purchase intention) and affective responses (affective corporate commitment) in the three sectors, namely durables, services and fast moving consumer goods. The findings reveal that corporate brand associations can be categorised into two categories – universal associations, which are influential in all the sectors, and sector-specific associations, which have a differential effect on consumers in different sectors. Thus, this study reveals that corporate branding is important to consumers in all the sectors, but a single corporate brand story does not work in all the sectors. Further, corporate associations do not always have a positive effect on the consumers; under certain circumstances, these might either have no effect or have a negative effect on the consumers. Finally, there are two routes by which corporate brand associations can influence consumers – by affecting their cognitive responses or by influencing their affective responses towards the company. The recognition of the important corporate brand associations in the three sectors, and the routes (cognitive or affective) through which these associations influence consumer choices would enable marketers to develop more sophisticated corporate communication strategies.     

Short brand stories on packaging: An examination of consumer responses

The persuasiveness of stories and their influence on consumers have been acknowledged in marketing, particularly within the advertising field. In marketing practice, brand stories are increasingly also appearing on product packages. However, packages differ from ads in significant ways as communication channels; for example, the space for messages on a package is limited by the size of the package. This study reports findings from two experiments comparing consumer responses to fast‐moving consumer good (FMCG) packages with and without short brand stories. The findings show that even a short brand story included on FMCG packaging has a positive impact on consumers’ affective, attitudinal, product value, and behavioral intention responses to the brand.     

Understanding the influences of story elements in service businesses

With the advances of the roles of business stories in marketing, two issues remain unclear: How do consumers evaluate story elements on services? Do usefulness and affect mediate the relationships between business story elements and brand attitude in services? Therefore, to answer these questions, this study conducted between-subjects experiments to investigate the roles of business story elements, usefulness, and affect in financial and restaurants services. The results indicate that the elements of authenticity, reversal, and humor are generally useful in engaging consumers’ usefulness and affect; besides, conciseness is useful in engaging consumers’ usefulness but is not for affect and brand attitude; finally, usefulness and affect are mediators of the relationship between business story elements and brand attitude. These findings provide a framework to design business story and investigate the mediation of usefulness and affect on the relationship between business story elements and brand attitude for services and practitioners.     

How to Influence the Brand Attitude of the Audience by Micro-Films

Internet media is widely spread and able to instantly share messages. This feature accelerates the prevalence of using micro-film as a compelling tool for branding. Based on the storytelling theory of emotional responses, sympathy and empathy, and the persuasion theory of elaboration likelihood model, this study develops hypotheses to test the relationship between the storytelling power embedded in micro-films on brand attitude and the moderating effect of cognitive involvement on the overall effect. The data collected from YouTube users in Taiwan has confirmed the positive relationship between sympathy and empathy on brand attitude, and the moderating effect of cognitive involvement. Implications are discussed.     

Case study competitions and perceptions of learning among undergraduate students in the United Arab Emirates

Higher education institutions are increasingly employing competitive formats such as case study competitions in business education to enhance students’ learning experience. The authors explore students’ perceptions and experiences regarding affective, cognitive, and skills development factors and whether these perceptions and experiences determine students’ participation in case study competitions in the United Arab Emirates. The authors attempt to contribute to the rather nascent body of literature on case study competitions. The results highlight statistically significant differences between perceived and actual learning with respect to cognitive and affective benefits. Furthermore, a significant positive association is found between participation in case study competitions and respondents’ perceptions and real experiences about various aspects of learning.     

The story and the storyteller: Strategic storytelling that gets human attention for entrepreneurs

As a captivating way to engage, inform, and persuade one’s audiences, storytelling can serve as a strategic skill in an entrepreneur’s arsenal. Although entrepreneurs often use storytelling to mobilize financial resources from external stakeholders, less attention has been paid to how entrepreneurs can leverage this powerful tool to gain strategic partnerships. As such, there is little practical guidance on utilizing storytelling to gain a competitive advantage. In this article, we use wisdom from the academic and practical world to illuminate the science of storytelling, identify the type of stories that entrepreneurs may narrate (or refrain from telling), and understand the mechanism through which stories engage and persuade external stakeholders. We also highlight Freytag’s Dramatic Arc, which can teach entrepreneurs how to frame profound stories that gain attention from external stakeholders. We offer practical guidelines for entrepreneurs interested in learning and harnessing the power of compelling storytelling for strategic partnerships.     

Product placements in movies and on Broadway

On the basis of 17 characteristics of 100 Belgian radio commercials (amount of information and brand quotes, humour, emotionality, eroticism, music, action-impulse, and so on), three types of radio spot were identified: image-dominant and emotional/creative spots, information-dominant and emotional/creative spots, and information-dominant and non-emotional/not creative spots. The affective and cognitive attitudes towards each commercial, as well as attitudes towards the brands and purchase intentions, were measured in a sample of 100 respondents. Overall, the information-dominant, emotional/ creative type of commercial resulted in the most positive attitudes towards ads and brands. The other two types of ad performed less well. The components of the attitude towards the ads were strongly correlated with the attitude towards the brands. In particular, the affective reactions and, to a lesser extent, the perceived degree of informative-ness of an ad significantly explained attitude towards the brand.     

Does culture affect sentiments expressed in cruise tours’ eWOM?

The study aims to examine the sentiment differences in the content of cruise tour online reviews across North Americans and Europeans, as representing the two largest cruise markets. Dictionary-based sentiment analysis has been carried out on 1127 reviews on guided tours retrieved from TripAdvisor. The results indicate significant differences in the sentiment score of the reviews, with North Americans’ texts being more emotionally charged than the European ones. In addition, North Americans’ reviews conveyed a more positive affect and had a more subjective and intimate tone, while those written by Europeans contained a smaller amount of sentiment-bearing words and their tone was more objective. The study’s contribution lies in (i) providing evidence for the influence of culture on electronic word-of-mouth communication in terms of varying sentiment expression, (ii) demonstrating the effectiveness of sentiment analysis for recognizing cultural differences and (iii) enhancing the current understanding of cruisers’ tour experience.     

Strategic storytelling in the age of sustainability

Sustainability is high on the strategic agenda and is here to stay. While some companies have been sustainable since inception, others are repositioning themselves to be associated with sustainability values. In both situations, communicating about sustainability is key but requires delicate handling to avoid misleading perceptions. Authenticity and emotions are therefore key dimensions of sustainability communication, which match with strategic storytelling elements. Storytelling is discussed in this article as a powerful mechanism to bring about the desired change in individuals, communities, organizations, and society. Drawing from the literature on storytelling, we present, discuss, and illustrate a framework with four strategic elements for companies that want to be successful with sustainability storytelling, which we refer to as the 4 A’s: Aim (the “why” of the story), Actors (actively engaging stakeholders and associating with partners), Aspiration (using an aspirational context), and Action (using the right media to bring your story to life). We also emphasize that a holistic approach is key to doing sustainability storytelling the right way. We conclude with general recommendations that managers must consider when conducting sustainability storytelling.     

Customizing a consumers’ story for you: The impact of protagonist geographical distance on willingness to share

Consumers' stories, which reveal the interactions between consumers and brands from the perspective of consumers, are increasingly prevalent in advertisements and service communications. Although previous research has explored the impact of consumers' story plots, elements, types, and endings on story effectiveness, the connection between the audience and story protagonist is often of greater concern to consumers. This study examines how the geographical distance between audiences and consumers' story protagonists can prompt audiences to share a consumers' story. A dataset was collected from leading social platforms, and four scenario–based experiments were conducted, which demonstrated that the geographical distance between the protagonist and audience enhanced audience–protagonist similarity and interpersonal identity leading to a more positive willingness to share the story. Additionally, the effect of geographical distance on willingness to share is stronger when the story is based on true events; this effect is attenuated when the story is fictitious. The findings provide a proximal protagonist that advertisers can use in a story to prompt audiences to share consumers’ stories.     

How to Align your Brand Stories with Your Products

The role of stories and their influence on communication have been widely discussed, yet despite recent advances, the elements that constitute a good brand story and their alignment with product types remain unclear. This study uses four between-subjects experiments to test hypotheses pertaining to the appropriate stories for both search and experience products. Authenticity, conciseness, reversal, and humor are generally useful in engaging readers, though brand story elements influence customer attitudes differently for search versus experience products. Authenticity is more important for experience than search products; conciseness has a significant influence on brand attitude only for search products; reversal is more critical to improve brand attitude for experience than search products; and humor exerts a relatively greater influence for search than for experience products. These findings provide insights for marketers who want to design brand stories that align with their products.     

‘If I Should Fall From Grace…’: Stories of Change and Organizational Ethics

Although studies in organizational storytelling have dealt extensively with the relationship between narrative, power and organizational change, little attention has been paid to the implications of this for ethics within organizations. This article addresses this by presenting an analysis of narrative and ethics as it relates to the practice of organizational downsizing. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s theories of narrative and ethics, we analyze stories of organizational change reported by employees and managers in an organization that had undergone persistent downsizing. Our analysis maintains that the presence of a dominant story that seeks to legitimate organizational change also serves to normalize it, and that this, in turn, diminishes the capacity for organizations to scrutinize the ethics of their actions. We argue that when organizational change narratives become singularized through dominant forms of emplotment, ethical deliberation and responsibility in organizations are diminished. More generally, we contend that the narrative closure achieved by the presence of a dominant narrative amongst employees undergoing organizational change is antithetical to the openness required for ethical questioning.     

The advertising effectiveness of different levels of intensity of humour and warmth and the moderating role of top of mind awareness and degree of product use

Responses to three different intensity levels of warmth (none, moderate and high) and three different levels of humour were investigated as well as the moderating role of top of mind awareness and degree of product use. Affective responses, attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) and the brand (Ab) and the favourableness of advertisement-related cognitions were enhanced by the use of warmth although the intensity level (moderate versus high intensity) did not seem to matter. As far as humour was concerned, a high-intensity humorous appeal induced most favourable affective responses, Aad and advertisement-related cognitions, while a moderate level of humour was most conducive for a favourable Ab and brand-related cognitions. Significant interaction effects suggested that the most positive advertisement effects can be obtained by combining high levels of warmth with high levels of humour, while the most positive brand effects can be obtained by combining high levels of warmth and moderate levels of humour. Emotional executions of high intensity led to the most positive affective and cognitive reactions in the case of brands that are not top of mind and to the most positive cognitive reactions in the case where the respondent was a heavy user of the product category. In particular the intensity level of humour led to significant communication effects.     

The dimensions of storytelling by retail salespeople

This paper explores storytelling in retail sales to develop a more nuanced understanding of the dimensions of retail storytelling and their importance in influencing consumer behavior. A mixed-method approach is taken to first qualitatively develop understanding of the structure of storytelling in a retail context and then quantitatively test the impact of various storytelling dimensions on consumer purchase intentions. Storytelling is common in retail sales encounters and consumers perceive multiple dimensions of storytelling. Some of these dimensions – story relevance, story humor, and storytelling ability – influence consumers' consumption behavior. This research begins to establish parameters for future examination of the use of storytelling in retail selling and informs managers of specific elements of storytelling on which to focus future training efforts.     

Children and advergames: the role of product involvement,prior brand attitude,persuasion knowledge and game attitude in purchase intentions and changing attitudes

The central aim of this study is to build upon previous research by investigating the role of product involvement, prior brand attitude, persuasion knowledge and game attitude in the brand attitude changes and purchase intentions of children after playing an advergame. In all, 279 respondents between the ages of 10 and 12 years participated in the study. First, they were asked to complete a pre-test survey addressing product involvement and prior brand attitude towards several products and brands. Two weeks later, the respondents were asked to play an advergame and complete a survey addressing brand attitude, purchase intention, persuasion knowledge and attitude towards the game. Our analysis reveals that a positive attitude change is more likely when the game player has already evaluated the brand positively. Furthermore, game attitude is positively related to attitude changes towards the advertised brands, consistent with affect transfer theory. Counterintuitively, a higher level of persuasion knowledge is associated with a higher intention to buy the advertised product. Finally, children who had a more positive attitude towards the game were more likely to report higher purchase intentions, indicating that games which provide good experiences positively influence behavioural intentions. We conclude the paper by discussing the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.