Exploring Attitudes and Affiliation Intentions toward Consumers Who Engage in Socially Shared Superstitious Behaviors: A Study of Students in the East and the West

Existing literature on superstitious beliefs focuses on consumer purchasing behavior. However, little is known about how superstition‐based consumption behaviors are socially perceived. This paper investigates students’ attitudes toward consumers who engage in socially shared superstitious behaviors. Two studies show that students from Eastern and Western countries have negative attitudes and lower affiliation intentions toward consumers engaging in socially shared superstitious behaviors. As predicted by social judgment theory, this effect is driven by perceived low competence but not by perceived warmth. These negative attitudes and lower affiliation intentions are moderated by the student's superstitiousness. The managerial implications of social perceptions regarding consumer superstitious behavior are discussed.     

Retail Ethics as Appraised by Future Business Personnel in Malaysia and the United States

Differences in ethical perceptions among individuals from varying cultures have been suggested as a source of concern for business firms involved in global activities. This study investigates a hypothesis based on the writings of Thorelli, that “lower” ethical perceptions exist among the residents of developing nations. This was accomplished by investigating the retail ethical perceptions of business students from a developing nation and comparing these perceptions with those of business students from a developed nation. The results suggest the retail ethical perceptions of students from different cultures attending collegiate institutions in their home countries differ, supporting the hypothesis. Implications are explored.     

“This is who i am”: Identity expressiveness and the theory of planned behavior

This paper explores the role of self‐identity expressiveness and social identity expressiveness in the context of Multimedia Messaging (MMS) adoption. An extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) including a wider array of identity and social influences is developed and tested. As hypothesized, self‐identity expressiveness and social identity expressiveness prove to be significant determinants of intentions to use. Moreover, the extended TPB model explains 62% of the variance in usage intentions. The paper also investigates the relationship between self identity expressiveness and attitude and between social identity expressiveness and subjective norm. The study results indicate that the concept of subjective norm alone is insufficient to capture the rich universe of identity and social influences driving behavioral intentions. Implications for marketing managers and scholars are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An extension of the Kemp-Wan theorem on the formation of customs unions

Kemp and Wan (1976) proved that nations forming a customs union can always compensate each other so that no nation will be worse off, relative to the pre-union equilibrium. Their proof, however, is existential, giving no clue how to construct such compensation schemes. This paper proposes a particular compensation scheme which is always feasible. Further, there are circumstances where this scheme is the only feasible one. At world prices the arrangement breaks even for each nation. At post-union internal prices, member compensations sum to the union's tariff receipts. The proof that such a scheme is feasible depends upon the Grandmont McFadden theorem.     

Asking sensitive questions: The effects of type of referent and frequency wording in counterbiasing methods

Respondents typically underreport socially undesirable behaviors and overreport socially desirable behaviors because of a social desirability bias. This not only leads to biased data, but also has important implications for health-care marketers interested in encouraging people to perform in more socially desirable ways. This article investigates the effects of providing counterbiasing information on reducing this social desirability bias. Study 1 investigates whether information that a socially desirable behavior is performed less frequently than expected reduces the extent of overreporting. In Study 2, alternative methods of presenting information about the target behavior are studied. The data demonstrate that counterbiasing information is more effective when the referent is a population base rate versus an individual, and is moderated by the wording of the frequency, such that the counterbiasing is more effective when the frequency is worded as an actual number versus a percent. Implicaitons for questionnaire design and health-care marketing are discussed. ©1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The challenge of Chinese state‐affiliated multinationals in benefiting from foreign subsidiary knowledge transfer: A criticism of light‐touch integration

Acknowledging the sharp growth of Chinese state‐affiliated multinationals and their strategic asset‐seeking investments abroad, this study investigates the effects of headquarters' home‐country political ties on the multinational‐wide benefits gained from subsidiary knowledge transfer in Chinese multinationals. It also looks at how these effects are mediated by organizational distance and social integration between headquarters and subsidiary. Based on a survey of 177 subsidiaries of 99 Chinese multinationals, we find that headquarters' political ties trigger organizational distance and hinder social integration between headquarters and foreign subsidiaries and these, in turn, hamper the potential benefits that Chinese multinationals derive from subsidiary knowledge transfer. This study identifies new challenges related to political ties and light‐touch integration in gaining benefits from subsidiary knowledge transfer.     

Hippies,Greenies, and Tree Huggers: How the “Warmth” Stereotype Hinders the Adoption of Responsible Brands

Past research has highlighted the difficulty faced by responsible consumers, individuals who wish to make environmentally and socially responsible consumption choices. Individual buyers, it is argued, act within a network of structural and social relationships that make responsible alternatives intrinsically hard to pursue. This paper maintains that one such barrier is the perception that users of responsible brands are not worthy of social emulation. Consumers are less likely to adopt brands positioned explicitly on their positive environmental or social credentials because of the stereotypes attached to the users of these products. Two empirical studies demonstrate that users of responsible brands are perceived as stereotypically warm. Warmth, however, is not an appealing feature in a consumption context. Warm groups are not envied and envy plays a central role in fueling a desire to emulate a consumption group. The study is the first to examine the possibility that a group‐level stereotype limits the potential attractiveness of responsible brands. The significant implications of this insight for both scholarly research and marketing practice are examined in detail. The presence of a warmth stereotype, which has a negative influence on the social perception of responsible brands, suggests that the development of niches of responsible or ethical consumers is intrinsically problematic.     

A cross‐cultural exploration of materialism in adolescents

To date, few studies have empirically examined specific values with respect to the global teenager hypothesis. In testing the global teenager hypothesis, this study investigates similarities and differences in materialism among 14‐ to 17‐year olds in China, Japan and the USA. Significant differences were found between respondents from the three nations for materialism and discretionary spending power. Discretionary spending power had a significant effect on materialism across nations. In addition, evidence supports cross‐national differences in the psychological structure of the materialism construct. While personal gain and social gain explain two materialism dimensions for the Japanese and American samples, factor analysis results suggest materialism may have alternative conceptual underpinnings in China. The findings of this study generally fail to support the global teenager hypothesis as it relates to the value of materialism.     

Does Latin America Comprise Transnational ‘Subregions’?

We live in a world of nations, but also one of multi‐nation systems. These systems, or transnational regions, affect global economics, politics and diplomacy. Latin America is a widely recognised and documented transnational region. It contains subregional nation systems that might have all of the characteristics and significance of regions and might also affect the broader integration of Latin America. The author defines regionality on the basis of economic integration and measures it with two methods for Latin America, North America, three Latin American subregional systems and one arbitrarily defined nation system within Latin America. He finds a high degree of integration in Latin America, the Andean nations and the Southern Cone of South America. He finds only a modest degree of integration in North America and not significantly greater integration in South America than in Latin America. The division of Latin America into subregions is consistent with the incidence of sub‐regional trade initiatives in the past two decades and might be at least partly responsible for the limited progress to date towards Latin America‐wide integration. Latin American subregions might now be providing a foundation on which to build regionalism in the future.     

Understanding instrumental motivations for social responsibility engagement in a micro‐firm context

Firms engage in social responsibility activities for diverse reasons. This study focuses on understanding firms' instrumental motivations for engaging in socially responsible activities. We suggest that the instrumental motivations underlying firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement are associated with their market, learning, and risk‐related behaviors; thus, we identify market orientation, learning orientation, and risk‐taking attitudes as three constructs that influence firms' CSR engagement. This research was conducted in the Norwegian firewood sector, in which CSR expectations are high and in which we expect CSR engagement to be encouraged by both instrumental and normative motivations. The firms in this study are micro‐firms with fewer than 10 employees and represent an important but highly neglected segment of firms in CSR research. Data obtained from 230 firms were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our results indicate that market orientation, learning orientation, and risk‐taking attitudes affect social responsibility toward different stakeholder groups in different ways. In some cases, the size and age of firms also affect these relationships.     

Consumers’ Social Media Brand Behaviors: Uncovering Underlying Motivators and Deriving Meaningful Consumer Segments

The current research identifies the range of social media brand behaviors (i.e., brand touch points) that consumers can exhibit on social media, and subsequently queries a representative sample of consumers with regard to such behaviors. The analysis reveals four underlying motivators for consumers’ social media behaviors, including brand tacit engagement, brand exhibiting, brand patronizing, and brand deal seeking. These motivators are used to derive meaningful consumer segments identified as content seekers, observers, deal hunters, hard‐core fans, posers and, respectively, patronizers, and described through co‐variates including brand loyalty, brand attachment, and social media usage. The findings are critically discussed in the light of literature on the needs that consumers meet through brand consumption and on the types of relationships consumers build with brands. Not least, the managerial implications of the current findings are debated.     

“Harm or Good?”: Consumer Perceptions of Corporate Strategic Giving in Schools

This paper reports on consumer perceptions of an in‐school strategic giving initiative as a form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to consider its social implications and to understand the complexity of children's vulnerability in this context. Results suggest that corporate benefits are not balanced by welfare gains to the children and this creates a tension between positive perceptions of the initiative and negative concerns with its targeting of children. This raises a number of ethical issues related to corporate marketing in schools and provides empirical support for earlier theoretical work in this area. The paper contributes to CSR literature by suggesting that opinions towards corporate giving are determined both by perceptions of their underlying motives and in relation to the benefits they provide to stakeholders. Finally, we provide support for the need for policy and regulatory revision with regard to children's vulnerability to in‐school marketing.     

Development and validation of a scale measuring approaches to work‐related informal learning

Social approaches to work‐related informal learning, such as proactive feedback‐seeking, help‐seeking and information‐seeking, are important determinants of development in the workplace. Unfortunately, previous research has failed to clearly conceptualize these forms of learning and does not provide a validated and generally applicable measurement instrument. We set out to develop and validate such a scale measuring social approaches to work‐related informal learning. We collected data in four organizations in Austria and the Netherlands, with a total sample size of 895 employees. These data were used to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which showed four distinct factors: feedback‐seeking from the supervisor, feedback‐seeking from colleagues, help‐seeking and information‐seeking. In conclusion, the scale we developed is valid in a range of contexts and thus is an appropriate tool for research as well as human resource development practice.     

Institutional conditions,economic policy uncertainty and foreign institutional investment in China

This paper investigates the influence of host and home country institutional conditions on foreign institutional investment. Utilizing longitudinal and multilevel data on foreign institutional investment in Chinese listed firms between 2004 and 2017, we document that foreign institutional investment decreases with increasing economic policy uncertainty in the host nation. We also find that foreign institutional investors respond more strongly to local economic policy uncertainty when their home nations are closer to China, are culturally and administratively similar to China, operate a smaller domestic stock market, and have weaker minority shareholder protection. The impact of economic policy uncertainty on foreign institutional investment is also stronger when the host nation institution is more developed and open.. Moreover, we reveal the mediating role of stock market volatility on this relationship. Overall, we document that foreign institutional investment is not only shaped by institutional conditions in the host country but also influenced by home country characteristics that define geographical and institutional distance between home and host nations.     

Evaluating Advice: Self‐Presentational Biases between High and Low Self‐Monitors

Previous research has demonstrated that high and low self‐monitors sought advice from others who shared their underlying motivational dispositions. Here, three studies extend the prior research by exploring how consumers’ underlying motives direct the type of advice offered and how it is evaluated. In Study 1, high and low self‐monitors were asked to evaluate the advice they gave others. As predicted, high self‐monitors rated their advice more favorably than did low self‐monitors. The underlying motivation that caused high self‐monitors to evaluate their advice more positively was investigated in Study 2. Results indicated that high self‐monitors rated their advice higher because it appeared to be meeting a social‐adjustive function (i.e., self‐presentational needs). In Study 3, high and low self‐monitors created an advertisement that featured their advice on dating for a fictitious online matchmaking service. As expected, advertisements created by high self‐monitors contained advice that addressed social‐adjustive needs while those created by low self‐monitors contained advice that addressed value‐expressive needs. The results of these studies suggest that underlying motivations of the individual play an active role in how advice is crafted and evaluated.     

Advertising “like a girl”: Toward a better understanding of “femvertising” and its effects

This paper investigates the impact of femvertising (female empowerment advertising). More specifically, it hypothesizes that femvertising (vs. traditional portrayals of females in advertising) will reduce ad reactance among a female target audience, and that this in turn will enhance ad and brand attitudes. The results of three experimental studies indicate that this is indeed the case, and that the results hold across print and digital media, for five different product categories, and for femvertising focusing on challenging female stereotypes in terms of physical characteristics as well as the roles and occupations used to portray women in advertising. Although previous studies of the effects of female portrayals tend to focus on social comparison and self‐identity, the current paper considers the role of psychological reactance to (more or less) stereotypical portrayals in explaining these effects. The results suggest that marketers have much to gain from adapting a more proactive and mindful approach to the female portrayals they use in their ads.     

Hear nothing,do nothing: The role of word of mouth in the decision-making of older consumers

Abstract

In some product categories, older consumers (aged 65+) tend to be more brand loyal, have smaller consideration sets and defer purchase more than younger consumers. This conservative behaviour may arise, in part, because older people are more socially isolated and thus receive less social influence relating to product options. In this multi-study research, the volume of word of mouth (WOM) is used as an indicator of social influence. The WOM received by men and women falls substantially beyond age 65, indicating that a deficit in advice may be part of the explanation for conservative decision-making. To test this proposition, the duration of customer tenure of the current brand (how long the respondent has been a customer) is used as a measure of purchase deferral and, as predicted, tenure is longer when less WOM is received. This evidence indicates that some older consumers experience a degree of social isolation, which affects their decision-making. In marketing and social policy, there is a need to promote procedures, technologies and institutions that help older people to connect with others.     

Ethical Leadership,Organic Organizational Cultures and Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Study in Social Enterprises

While recent studies have increasingly suggested leadership as a major precursor to corporate social responsibility (CSR), empirical studies that examine the impact of various leader aspects such as style and ethics on CSR and unravel the mechanism through which leadership exerts its influence on CSR are scant. Ironically, paucity of research on this theme is more prevalent in the sphere of social enterprises where it is of utmost importance. With the aim of addressing these gaps, this research empirically examines the interaction between ethical leadership and CSR and, in addition, investigates organic organizational cultures (clan culture and adhocracy culture) as mediators in the above interaction. To this end, a model was developed and tested on the sample of 350 middle- and top-level managers associated with 28 Indian healthcare social enterprises, using Structural Equation Modeling Analysis, Bootstrapping and PROCESS. Results reveal that ethical leadership both directly and indirectly influences CSR practices. The indirect influence of ethical leadership involves nurturing clan and adhocracy cultures, which in turn influence CSR. These findings are significant for social enterprise leaders seeking to encourage their organizations’ socially responsible behavior.     

Consumer science: a science for sustainability

Consumers are essentially decision‐makers, with a strong influence in the product chain. Establishing sustainable global resource systems, across developed and developing nations, is dependent on finding ways to encourage consumers to prioritise environmental issues as one of the key determinants of their consumption decisions. More than this, all stakeholders in the product chain must become aware of their impacts on the psychological, social, cultural, physical and economic environments that predispose consumers to certain approaches when making consumption decisions. Conventional science has not provided the solutions for several reasons. Pure science and technology have developed according to different agendas and interests. Science has generally not been communicated in ways that allow consumers to make day‐to‐day decisions, fully informed of the implications. The barriers to genuine interdisciplinary research required to generate socially relevant solutions to the complex problems associated with traditional consumption patterns are only now being slowly overcome. Due to its interdisciplinary and integrated nature, consumer science provides a theoretical platform from which to formulate the core questions, articulated within a framework in which all stakeholders can contribute in synergistic ways to reverse the escalating rates of resource depletion, disparities of resources between groups, loss of species and pervasive pollution. There is no other discipline which offers an encompassing and integrated framework for the responsible communication of science necessary to describe the problems. Most importantly, consumer science has the capacity to research and interpret individual and social behaviour in ways which lead to innovative and effective controls to improve and sustain new standards for living on this vulnerable plant.