Brand promotions as a lottery

This paper shows that imprecisely stated discounts in brand promotions offered in the form of a low-probability lottery can lead to higher sales (purchase intentions) and consequently profits than equally costly conventional promotions offering a precise discount on the entire stock. Results from two different experimental studies support our findings. For high-probability lottery-like promotions, imprecise discounts lead to a lower performance for the brand than conventional promotions. We attempt to explain the findings by drawing on the behavioral decision theory literature.     

When giving money does not work: The differential effects of monetary versus in-kind rewards in referral reward programs

Customer referral reward programs have recently gained popularity as beneficial customer acquisition tools. This research aims to explore the impact of reward type, specifically with regard to the differential effects of monetary versus in-kind rewards, on referral success. We find that although consumers prefer monetary rewards to in-kind rewards because of the greater economic value of monetary rewards, the higher social costs associated with money offset this benefit and even render money an inferior incentive when the recommendation is not well justified. Through four experiments, we demonstrate that monetary rewards (vs. in-kind rewards) lead to less referral generation and acceptance, especially when the recommended brands are weak (Studies 1 and 4), and that perceived social costs mediate the interactive effect of reward type and brand strength (Studies 1 and 3). Moreover, by increasing the economic benefit or decreasing the social costs associated with monetary rewards, we restore the effectiveness of monetary rewards as incentives. Compared with in-kind rewards, monetary rewards perform equally well when the reward is sufficiently large (Study 2), and they perform even better when both the recommender and the receiver are rewarded (Study 3). This research extends the literature on the psychological consequences of money and provides novel insights into the customer referral process.     

Power-Base Effects on Salesperson Motivation and Performance: A Contingency View

Purpose: The sales literature shows that motivation is a key determinant of salesperson performance. The literature also suggests that how managers use social power will have an effect on important organizational outcomes, including salesperson performance. This study examines the five bases of social power that sales managers use (reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert) as moderating influences in the salesperson motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic)—salesperson performance linkage.

Methodology/approach: Data was collected from 128 salespeople using a cross industry survey. Eight hypotheses were developed and tested using SmartPLS (partial least squares).

Findings: The authors found support for five of eight hypotheses. Results and significant findings suggest that sales managers can impact sales performance in extrinsically motivated salespeople by using coercive and legitimate power. For intrinsically motivated salespeople, sales managers can impact sales performance by using coercive, legitimate, and referent power.

Research implications: Related to social power theory, the study suggests that salesperson performance is dependent upon a salesperson’s combined motivation orientation and the base of power used by the sales manager. The study also sets the stage for subsequent research on how managerial power can be studied as a moderator for other personal salesperson characteristics (e.g., self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control) and salesperson performance. In addition, understanding how these other personal characteristics interact with managerial bases of power to produce other organizational outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment) are questions that sales researchers may wish to pursue via further study.

Practical implications: For practicing sales managers, the research study can provide guidance as to how they may tailor their use of power to best impact salesperson performance. For a manager to understand the motivational makeup of each salesperson, open communication and dialogue must occur at the onset of their relationship. Having the knowledge of what drives each salesperson, a manager can modify their leadership style (and choice of power base) to suit the situation. Customizing these sales management approaches may also have long-term benefits for the organization as studies show that doing so can lead to reduced levels of turnover as well as increased levels of performance.

Contribution of the article: This study is important to sales research, theory, and practice. The authors contribute to the selling and sales management literature by extending motivation and social power theories into the sales domain by showing that managerial power may be a key moderating determinant between a salesperson’s motivation and his/her sales performance. For practicing sales managers, we provide some insight and guidance for understanding how to throttle or moderate their use of various social power bases when dealing with individual salespeople who may differ in their motivation orientation, age, and degree of selling experience.     

Toward fairer global reward: Lessons from international non-governmental organizations

Global reward management plays a fundamental role in supporting the attraction, motivation and retention of employees, and yet recent research has underscored limitations of the dominant balance sheet approach, including inequity between host country national and expatriate staff. To shed light on how reward in international contexts can be structured to address issues of fairness and equity, this study explores approaches to global reward in international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), an underexplored context where fairness may be particularly salient. Through an inductive study of 15 INGOs, we show how organizations are reconceptualizing global reward systems by questioning dominant assumptions of the expatriate workforce and the jobs they do, and broadening consideration of reward to include both monetary and non-monetary components. Doing so enables incremental shifts toward strategic alignment of global reward with underlying social values. Our findings provide important insights for organizations operating internationally about how global reward can be structured to address concerns of fairness, while still enabling organizations to meet their demands for particular skills.     

The current and future sales impact of a retail frequency reward program

This research presents an empirical study of the impact of a retail frequency reward program on store sales. We examine both the “points pressure,” or short-term impact, and the “rewarded behavior,” or long-term impact. The points-pressure impact is due to forward-looking customers increasing their purchase levels in order to earn the reward. The rewarded-behavior impact is evidenced as purchases above baseline levels after an individual has received a reward and could result from either behavioral learning reinforcement or positive affect resulting from the reward. We investigate a turkey reward program that awarded free turkeys to shoppers who accumulated the required sales levels during an 8-week period. We find both a points-pressure and rewarded-behavior impact. These effects are statistically significant and managerially relevant in that the program is apparently profitable. The points-pressure impact is especially strong among customers who do not place value on frequent shopper programs that in general deliver immediate price discounts. The key implications are that frequency reward programs of the form, “buy x, then receive xx” can be profitable, are segmentation strategies, and can complement a store's overall frequent shopper program.     

Consumer Motivation for Reward Pursuit: A Culture-Based and Progress-Based Model of Loyalty Program Effectiveness

Aided by the exponential rate of globalization and digitalization, reward or loyalty programs (LPs) have attained global reach. Paradoxically, however, dropout rates of LPs have averaged over 75%. This disconcerting statistic, coupled with the lack of culture-specific insights in the literature, points to a research area of great theoretical and practical importance. To address the aforementioned issues, we develop a culture-based and progress-based model of consumer motivation that is especially applicable to LP members. Drawing on cross-cultural literature and goal pursuit theory, our research enriches a field that is inherently global in nature. Through a series of research propositions that elucidate how Western individualist (vs. Eastern collectivist) consumers are differentially motivated to pursue LP rewards, we advance theoretical understanding of reward-induced behavior across cultures and offer useful insights for global managers of LPs.     

The reward gap in hierarchical loyalty programmes: how to enhance bottom-tier customers’ loyalty without alienating top-tier customers

ABSTRACT

Reward gap is the difference in the number and nature of rewards allocated to specific customer groups (or tiers) in a hierarchical loyalty programme. Building on the social comparison, equity and attribution theories, and two experiments conducted in a retailing context, we investigate the effect of reward gap size and visibility on both bottom-tier (BT) and top-tier (TT) customers. Findings from Study 1 show that a large reward gap reduces loyalty to the programme in BT customers, while it enhances it in TT customers. These effects are mediated by perceived fairness and perceived control. Findings from Study 2 show that a non-visible large reward gap increases loyalty to the programme in BT customers without affecting it in TT customers. This effect is mediated only by perceived fairness. Altogether, the findings highlight the mechanisms that explain the effect of the reward gap on BT and TT customers’ loyalty to the programme.     

Looking forward,looking back: The impact of goal progress and time urgency on consumer responses to mobile reward apps

The authors conduct two studies to examine how time urgency affects consumer responses to mobile reward apps. For participants who have made high progress toward reaching goals, short expiration dates (“collect 10 stamps for a free coffee by tomorrow”) cause to-go framing (”2 more stamps to go”) to be more effective than to-date framing (”8 stamps collected so far”), but for participants who have a long way to go before reaching the goal, short expiration dates cause to-date framing to be more effective than to-go framing. However, a long expiration date produced no difference between to-go and to-date framings, under both high and low progress.     

Warranty as a Signal of Quality: The Moderating Effect of Consumer Knowledge on Quality Evaluations

Prior research has shown that consumers use warranties as a signal of quality. This article explores whether prior knowledge moderates consumers' utilization of warranty information in evaluating product quality. In particular, we examine how prior knowledge impacts the relative use of warranty information when consumers are already aware of firm reputation. Indeed, we find that the extent to which warranty information is used in quality evaluations varies with prior knowledge. We report the results of two experiments, which somewhat surprisingly suggest that, for experts, a better warranty leads to perceptions of higher quality, regardless of firm reputation. Novices on the other hand, tend to perceive a better warranty as a signal of higher quality only when the firm is reputable but not when its reputation is low.     

Exploring convenience orientation as a food motivation for college students living in residence halls

The main objective of this paper is to study the concept of convenience orientation among young adults. A project was conducted among students living in residence halls, where information on their food motivation and behaviour was obtained. Data were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire filled out by 319 students. Convenience ap‐pears to be the most important food motivation followed by price, pleasure, health and concern about weight. Positive correlations were obtained between convenience and: deciding what to eat, having a varied diet and lack of time, all of which were considered to be difficulties associated with living in residence. Negative correlations were obtained between convenience and total time spent cooking per day and having learned to be autonomous in the kitchen. For male, the perception of eating well, having a varied diet, and maintaining weight were negatively correlated to convenience. For female, the correlation between convenience and the difficulty of eating enough was significant and positive. Negative correlations were obtained between convenience and fresh vegetables, potatoes, eggs, fresh meat, fresh fish and fresh poultry, herbal tea and alcohol. Positive correlations were obtained between convenience, frozen foods and foods brought from the parents’ home. Findings are discussed from both a health and a family perspective.     

Sovereign debt as a contingent claim: a quantitative approach

We construct a dynamic equilibrium model with contingent service and adverse selection to quantitatively study sovereign debt. In the model, benefits of defaulting are tempered by higher future interest rates. For a wide set of parameters, the only equilibrium is one in which the sovereign defaults in all states; additional output losses, however, sustain equilibria that resemble the data. We show that due to the adverse selection problem, some countries choose to delay default to reduce loss of reputation. Moreover, although equilibria with no default imply greater welfare levels, they are not sustainable in highly indebted and volatile countries.     

Expansion within the Single European Market:a motivational structure

This paper considers the motivational context in which internationalization occurs. The paper considers the recent research of Pellegrini (1994) and Williams (1992a, 1992b) and addresses the fundamental question concerning the nature of internationalization raised by Brown and Burt (1992). The paper reports on, and uses findings from, a survey carried out in July 1993 which focused on retail expansion within the Single European market (SEM). The relative importance of motivations is considered in the context of retailers' attitudes to the SEM. These results are placed in the context of previous research findings and the theoretical literature on international retailing. On the basis of UK retailers' attitudes to expansion in the SEM and in the light of previous research work, this paper discusses the positions adopted by retailers in relation to internationalization. A matrix representing these positions is proposed and discussed.     

Understanding Customers' Intention to Seek for a Better Deal in Electronic Marketplace: The Role of Tolerance for Sacrifice Gap

ABSTRACT

Online consumers make frequent use of the Internet to search for product and price information. In this study, an online model is proposed and empirically tested in investigating the role of tolerance for sacrifice gap in understanding customers' intention to seek for a better deal. Data was collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses. The results show that tolerance for sacrifice gap was not only a strong predictor of intention for continuing search but also itself being related to consumer product knowledge, perceived control, and consumer product involvement. Direct relationship between another construct “perceived reduction in sacrifice gap” and “intention to seek for a better deal” was also found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Beyond Achievement: Entrepreneurship as Extreme Experience

How do entrepreneurs experience entrepreneurship, and what are the implications? The cognitive and emotional experiences of the entrepreneur as he/she performs the tasks associated with venture creation and high growth have received limited attention from researchers. The entrepreneurial context can be characterized in terms of peaks and valleys, or periods of relatively high pressure, stress, uncertainty, and ambiguity and periods of relative stability and predictability. Three inter-related psychological variables are investigated to determine their applicability in an entrepreneurial context: peak performance, peak experience, and flow. Results are reported of a series of in-depth, structured interviews conducted with two samples of entrepreneurs. Both qualitative and quantitative evidence is provided of the relevance of all three variables to entrepreneurs, with the highest scores for each variable demonstrated by entrepreneurs in high growth ventures. A number of implications are drawn for ongoing research and entrepreneurial practice, most notably in the area of entrepreneurial motivation. The findings suggest that entrepreneurship be approached as a vehicle for optimal human experiencing.     

Observation of other's preferential treatment as a constructive catalyst for improved repatronize intentions

Observing others receive preferential treatment has been found to provoke bystanders' negative reactions. However, seeing others treated better may also inspire bystanders to increase their repatronize intentions. Drawing upon theories of social comparison and goal-setting, this study investigates the condition when watching another's preferential treatment acts as a catalyst to enhance bystanders' repatronize intentions and the mechanism by which the constructive effect appears. The results indicate that when bystanders witness similar others' preferential treatment and believe that they can attain comparable treatment, their goal-setting motivation is more activated and consequently they are more committed to goal-relevant behavior (i.e., repatronize intentions).     

Consumer financial information processing: An integrated approach to examine individual differences

This study applied an integrated approach to construct a hierarchical framework for consumer financial information processing. Individual differences in customers' psychological, cognitive and motivational characteristics were examined as antecedents. Using data collected from a sample of 613 U.S. adults, this study used the structural equation modeling method to identify significant direct and indirect relationships amongst personality traits, financial self-efficacy, financial information-gathering ability, search motivation, financial information sufficiency and the utilization of heuristics and systematic financial information-processing modes. The results showed that consumers' information sufficiency (+) directly explained the application of the heuristic mode, whereas consumers' information gathering ability (+), motivation to search (+) and information sufficiency (+) directly explained the use of the systematic mode. Financial self-efficacy demonstrated positive indirect associations with both heuristic and systematic modes. The results also revealed that personality traits including agreeableness, emotional stability and extraversion indirectly explained the use of information-processing modes. Agreeableness (−) and emotional stability (+) were indirectly associated with both heuristic and systematic information processing modes, whilst extraversion (+) was only indirectly associated with the heuristic mode. Openness (+) was the only trait that was directly associated with the systematic mode. This study contributes to the literature on consumer financial information processing by connecting individuals' psychological, cognitive and motivational characteristics. The findings of this study provide valuable insights and policy and practical implications within the industry.     

打开领导有效性的黑箱:领导行为和领导下属关系研究

This study is an integration of the leader-focused perspective and leader-follower exchange perspective, attempting to understand the relationship between leadership styles, leader-member relationship, and their joint impact on followers’ effectiveness, satisfaction, extra effort and organizational commitment. 615 respondents from five big pharmaceutical companies in China participated in this study. Results show that: (1) transformational leadership has positive influence on followers’ effectiveness, satisfaction, extra effort and organizational commitment; contingent reward has positive influence on effectiveness; management-by-exception leadership has negative influence on satisfaction; laissez-faire leadership has negative influence on effectiveness and satisfaction. (2) Leader-member exchange partially mediates the relationship between transformational, contingent reward, management-by-exception, laissez-faire leaderships and followers’ effectiveness, extra effort, satisfaction and organizational commitment. Translated and revised from Guanli shijie 맜理世界(Management World), 2006, (9): 87–93     

A new perspective on the effects of price promotions in Taiwan: a longitudinal study of a Chinese society

This study investigated the effects of price promotions on consumers’ brand affect. Given the inconsistent findings in previous research, it is proposed that the effects of price promotion depend on two moderator variables: brand image and consumer loyalty. For high loyalty consumers of a prestigious brand, price incentive incompatible with the brand image can hurt the brand affect. When a non‐prestigious brand is involved, brand affect is positively influenced. However, these effects are limited to high loyalty consumers only. There was no effect on low loyalty consumers. In a longitudinal study of the Taiwanese market using emails, these hypotheses were tested and supported.     

企业内部审计需求动机研究:文献综述与未来发展

目前,对内部审计需求动机的研究主要以代理理论为基础,以内部审计规模作为因变量来分析内部审计的需求动机。而内部审计需求动机大致可分为三类:治理动机、管理动机、外部环境动机。治理动机下的内部审计,主要解决第一层代理关系中经理层的道德风险和逆向选择行为;管理动机下的内部审计,主要解决组织内部第二层及以下委托代理关系因分权管理产生的各种复杂问题;外部环境动机下的内部审计,主要为了应对激烈的竞争或降低风险。     

Sales promotions for preorder products: The role of time‐of‐release

Preorder offers are increasingly common for many types of products and services. Sales promotions, such as price discounts and free gifts, are frequently used to raise offer attractiveness and elicit a stronger sales response. Through a series of experiments, we show that a preorder promotion's effectiveness depends on whether it matches the construal level associated with timing of the featured product's release. When a match occurs, it increases consumers’ positive affect leading to higher purchase intention directly or by raising the perceived certainty of new product quality. In addition, we find interesting differences related to promotion type. Specifically, we show that a larger discount promotes low‐level construals, which leads to stronger purchase intentions only when the product is scheduled for near‐future release. Since a gift may elicit either high‐ or low‐level construals, a premium offer of higher perceived value leads to stronger purchase intentions regardless of release timing.