When does comparative advertising influence brand attitude? The role of delay and market position

This article presents the results of an experiment that examines the role of delay and sponsor's market position in influencing the effectiveness of comparative ads compared to noncomparative ads. The results show that comparative ads sponsored by an unknown brand are more effective in changing consumers' brand attitudes than noncomparative ads, when brand response occurs at a delay. Implications of these results for the Elaboration Likelihood Model are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

When do loyalty programs work? The moderating role of design,retailer-strategy,and country characteristics

Many grocery retailers carry a loyalty program (LP). However, little is known under what conditions these programs are more or less effective. We provide a contingency framework that considers various design, retailer, and country characteristics that can moderate an LP's impact on a retailer's sales productivity. We test the framework across a large sample of 358 grocery banners from a broad cross-section of 27 western and eastern European countries. We find a positive effect of the more basic LP variant that offers direct and immediate rewards. This positive effect, however, disappears when retailers operate a more complex progressive-reward system and when they are part of a multivendor program. An LP's impact also differs between retailers and countries: it is lower when operated by discounters, and higher in countries that are more individualistic and long-term oriented, and where fewer competitors also carry a loyalty program.     

How does awareness evolve when advertising stops? The role of memory

Extant models posit that awareness declines immediately and gradually after the cessation of advertising, whereas anecdotal evidence from managers suggests awareness stays constant for a while and then decays rapidly. This pattern arises because consumers remember advertisements for a finite time before they forget. Hence, we extend advertising models by incorporating the memory for ads. We conceptualize the role of memory as ??delayed forgetting of ads?? and capture it using delay differential equations, which exhibit richer dynamics and expand the class of dynamic models used in marketing. Analytically, we derive the 90% duration of advertising effects under various scenarios. Empirically, we analyze awareness evolution in the absence of advertising for the Peugeot car brand. We not only find strong support for the proposed model, but also estimate the memorability of Peugeot ads to be about 3?weeks. Moreover, if we ignore consumer memory as in the extant models, we would overstate the forgetting rate by 39%. Finally, we discuss managerial implications and identify new avenues for further research.     

When does an ethical attribute matter for product evaluation? The role of warm-glow feelings for low-rated products

Research on the effects of ethical attributes has recently gained traction. However, limited research has addressed consumer response to ethical attributes in the current context where product ratings have become of primary importance to make decisions. Specifically, this study examines the relative effect of ethical attributes on product evaluations across different product ratings. Building on cue consistency theory and the negativity bias, we suggest that ethical attributes gain weight when consumers evaluate a low-rated product. This process leads consumers to anticipate more warm-glow feelings, generating better evaluations for such low-rated products featuring an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute). Two experiments provide consistent empirical support for this prediction, and demonstrate that, compared to other attributes or no attribute, an ethical attribute increases product evaluations to a larger extent when the product received low (vs. higher) ratings. We show that this effect occurs because of warm-glow feelings: when product ratings are low, consumers anticipate more warm-glow feelings from purchasing a product with an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute), leading to better product evaluations. These findings have direct managerial and ethical implications for practitioners.     

Online display advertising for CPG brands: (When) does it work?

This study examines how online display ads, alone or in combination with more conventional media (television and print), can help drive sales in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector. It also assesses how the combined sales effect of online and offline ads depends on the volatility of their expenditures over time. We explore these relations for 154 brands across 68 Dutch CPG product categories. We find that, even though display ads are not effective for the “average” CPG brand, they do have a significant impact for a sizable, and considerably larger than expected by chance, subset of brands. Importantly, this impact depends on the type of product. While display ads are found to be ineffective for low-involvement utilitarian products, they can significantly enhance sales for other CPG product types. Moreover, the effect depends on whether they are used in combination with other media: while display ads are best used as a stand-alone medium for high-involvement utilitarian products, it is better to combine them with traditional media for hedonic products. Finally, the long-term effectiveness of display messages increases significantly when they are spread more evenly in time.     

Can error management culture increase work engagement in hotels? The moderating role of gender

This study examines (1) the influence of error management culture on employees’ work engagement; (2) how gender affects the proposed relationship; and (3) the mediating effect of work engagement between error management culture and organizational citizenship behaviors. Data were collected from frontline hotel employees in China (Study 1) and hotel managers in the United States (Study 2). The results support the overall moderated mediation model. Results indicated that organizational error management culture has a stronger effect on work engagement for the male group and that increased work engagement resulted in increased organizational citizenship behaviors.     

When does electronic word-of-mouth matter? A study of consumer product reviews

Online consumer product reviews, a form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), have attracted increased attention from researchers. This paper examines the persuasiveness of eWOM. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the authors propose that the consumption goals that consumers associate with the reviewed product moderate the effect of review valence on persuasiveness. Data from lab experiments and actual online retailers suggest that consumers who evaluate products associated with promotion consumption goals perceive positive reviews to be more persuasive than negative ones (i.e., a positivity bias). Conversely, consumers who evaluate products associated with prevention consumption goals perceive negative reviews to be more persuasive than positive ones (i.e., a negativity bias).     

What drives diners' eco-friendly behaviour? The moderating role of planning routine

Research focusing on diners' intentions towards leftovers, which are considered one of the main sources of consumer food waste in restaurants, is still at a nascent stage and requires further investigation. The present study attempts to address this gap by investigating the antecedents of diners' intentions to take away leftovers and thereby mitigate food waste in an out-of-home setting. Towards this end, we examined the role of personal and social norms as antecedents of the facilitators, inhibitors, and intentions of taking away leftovers. Using the theoretical lens of the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) paradigm, we tested the proposed hypotheses by analysing data collected from 281 diners residing in the United States through a cross-sectional survey on Prolific Academic. The findings indicate that personal norms are positively associated with facilitators and intentions. In comparison, social norms are positively associated with facilitators but negatively associated with inhibitors. The results also confirmed the mediation effect of facilitators and inhibitors and the moderation effect of planning routine to provide valuable insights into the drivers of pro-environmental/eco-friendly behaviour in out-of-home dining to thus aid strategy formulation and future research.     

Does organisational support promote citizenship? The moderating role of market-focused HRM

This paper describes how employment relationships and human-resource management (HRM) functions can influence employees’ citizenship role definitions in service settings. Integrating social exchange and role theory, the paper suggests that contact employees will reciprocate felt obligations of high-quality employee–organisation relationships (i.e. perceived organisational support (POS)) by expanding their role in ways consistent with contextual behavioural expectations. The longitudinal survey of 1387 contact employees and 108 managers in a large supermarket chain shows that POS and several market-focused HRM practices influence employees’ service-oriented citizenship role definitions. In particular, high-quality employment relationships contribute to expanded service-oriented citizenship role definitions when market-focused HRM practices were implemented.     

Relax Your Fear—The role of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) in green advertising

As a novel approach in green advertising, the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), which induces relaxation and pleasure, is expected to relieve the excessive negativity caused by a negative environmental message. Drawing from the fear-relief theory, mating attraction strategy, and rational choice theory, this experimental study investigated the effectiveness of embedding ASMR within a negative green ad in controlling viewers' fear. It also explored the effects of ASMR on buying intention between two different perceived-difficulty eco-friendly products. The study involved 240 young adults. The findings reveal that, compared to non-ASMR exposures, interplaying negative appeal with ASMR could significantly decrease young adults' fear. Young male adults experienced lower fear than females when seeing a female ASMR-tist. In contrast, male and female adults' fears were relatively equal when seeing male ASMR-tist in a negative green message. Yet, no direct and indirect effects of lower fear on green buying intention mediated by attitude toward the ad were observed. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical contributions.     

Where does ESG pay? The role of national culture in moderating the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance

This study investigates the moderating role of a country’s culture as an external contingency factor in the relationship between a firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and financial performance. Using ESG performance data of 4978 firms from 48 countries for 17 years, we argue that the financial return from engaging in ESG varies depending on the countries’ cultural aspects because stakeholder evaluations and appreciations for a firm’s ESG performance differ across nations. We find that a country that espouses a culture of high individualism or masculinity tends to appreciate and reflect on this more explicitly, strengthening the relationship between a firm’s ESG performance and financial performance. Contrastingly, in a country with a culture of high power distance or uncertainty avoidance, firms’ ESG efforts are less likely to be associated with financial performance. Our findings have important implications for multinational enterprises facing various cultural environments when dealing with heterogeneous stakeholder demands across countries.     

Should donation ads include happy victim images? The moderating role of regulatory focus

We examine how victim imagery interacts with ad messaging’s regulatory focus to determine the effectiveness of donation appeals. We predict and show that ads that combine a happy victim image with a promotion-focused message uniquely increase donation intentions. We demonstrate that this occurs because the combination of promotion-focused messaging, which makes gain goals salient, and a happy victim image, which signals gains are occurring, increases consumers’ perceived response efficacy. Four studies test the interaction of victim imagery and regulatory focus showing the predicted effect. We also test the mediating role of perceived response efficacy and rule out several alternative explanations. Our findings extend prior work which has overlooked the interactive effects of victim imagery and ad messaging and the effects of victim imagery on perceived response efficacy. By exploring these dimensions, we offer marketers and consumers guidance on how to construct effective fundraising ads.     

What drives brand love for natural products? The moderating role of household size

Natural products, including food, cosmetics, and other fast-moving consumer goods, are becoming increasingly popular, and their health-related benefits are widely recognized. Despite the growing awareness and use of natural products, little is known about the enablers and barriers that influence consumers' brand love toward them. The present study attempts to address this gap and better explain consumer behavior toward natural products by utilizing the stimuli-organism-response (S–O-R) theory. The study rests on the premise that certain stimuli influence the internal state of consumers (i.e., the organism), which, in turn, shape their response to products and services. This study uses health consciousness and environmental concern as the stimuli, both facilitators (natural content and regional product) and inhibitors (usage and image barriers) as the internal state of the ‘organism’, and brand love as the response. Based on analysis of 720 responses, the study empirically reveals that health consciousness and environmental concern significantly influence the consumers' internal state, as represented by the identified facilitators and inhibitors . Three of these, namely, regional product, image barriers, and usage barriers, are found to shape brand love for natural products. The moderating role of household size on brand love is also confirmed.The findings of the study contribute to the literature on consumer behavior and practice.     

Go green: how to influence the perceived effectiveness of a green product?

Across two studies, this research elucidates on which green messages in advertising are most effective in influencing the perceived effectiveness of green products by examining the moderating role of environmental consciousness. This study further considers a mechanism underlying the interaction between green messages and environmental consciousness on brand attitude with the perceived effectiveness of green products. The results show that when environmentally conscious individuals are exposed to abstract and distant temporal messages, they will report greater perceptions of a green product's effectiveness and brand attitude than for concrete and proximal temporal messages. In contrast, less environmentally conscious respondents will not have different responses to the abstract/concrete and distant/proximal temporal messages. Furthermore, the perceived effectiveness of a green product mediates the interaction between green messages and environmental consciousness for predicting brand attitudes. With an understanding of how environmentally conscious individuals evaluate green advertising, marketers can better understand how to promote their green products more effectively.     

When can interaction orientation create more service value? The moderating role of frontline employees' trust in managers and employee deep acting

Despite the well-recognized importance of interaction orientation, limited studies have investigated its boundary conditions from the frontline employees' perspective. To address this issue, this study investigates the effect of interaction orientation in service value creation and identifies hierarchical trust and deep acting of frontline employees as two moderators. This study conducts a moderated regression analysis for hypotheses testing using a triadic data set of 2090 responses from managers, frontline employees, and customers of 209 firms. The findings show that interaction orientation has no effect on service value. Rather, interaction orientation contributes to perceived service value only when frontline employees have higher trust in their managers or when employee deep acting is high. The value of this study is in revealing the contingencies of interaction orientation on service value. It offers managerial implications that firms should build high trust in managers and encourage deep acting among frontline employees when implementing an interaction orientation strategy.     

What drives customer engagement after a service failure? The moderating role of customer trust

This study investigated the relationships between complaint handling, customer experience, and customer engagement, as well as the moderating effect of customer trust prior to a service failure. The results were obtained from 320 Indonesian consumers of courier, express, and parcel services. Favourable employee behaviour was found to be the most effective complaint handling effort that influenced customer experience, followed by organizational procedures and then compensation, indicating that positive customer experience led to customer engagement. Additionally, this study revealed that higher levels of customer trust prior to a service failure reduced the positive effects of complaint handling efforts on customer experience. This finding suggests that customers with higher levels of trust in a firm are less sensitive to that firm's complaint handling and recovery efforts. This article contributes to the literature on customer engagement in the service failure and recovery contexts, especially in developing countries. It examines the most influential complaint handling dimensions for predicting customer engagement following service failures. Furthermore, this study is one of the first to explore the moderating role of customer trust in service failure and recovery literature.     

Why do people buy organic food? The moderating role of environmental concerns and trust

Although consumer interest in organic food has risen over time, resulting in a generally positive attitude toward these organic food products, scholarly research suggests a comparatively low volume of its consumption in the market. This has resulted in an urgent need to study the motivations which enhance consumers’ proclivity to purchase food items produced organically. The current research attempts to understand potential associations between motivations (intrinsic and extrinsic), attitude, and buying behaviour towards organic food. Self-determination theory (SDT) was applied to develop a theoretically grounded framework which was evaluated with 378 organic food consumers. The hypotheses were tested by analyzing the data through structural equation modelling (SEM), wherein environmental concerns and trust were the moderating variables. The study results demonstrate the significant influence of intrinsic motivation, integrated and external regulation on consumer attitude, and buying behaviour. But, attitude had no significant association with buying behaviour. The findings indicate consumers’ motivation may be stimulated to encourage higher frequencies of purchasing organic food by emphasizing values that reflect motivations arising from ethical or green consumerism, health, and social benefits. Furthermore, policymakers should focus on avenues to integrate organic food as permanent parts of individual lives and a socially exalting behavioral action.     

Do online discounts and free gifts damage brand image of service? The moderating role of promotion-proneness

The present paper outlines a study based on an experimental design that investigated the effect of online price discounts and free gifts on consumers’ evaluation of the brand, in the context of an airline. The study also analyzed whether promotion-proneness exercises a moderating effect on this relationship. It was found that discounts generate a more positive brand image than free gifts among promotion-prone users, while for less promotion-prone individuals, the opposite is true. The results will help managers to select the most appropriate online sales promotion type for reaching different consumer groups, depending on their promotion-proneness, in line with the needs and objectives of the service firm.     

When does FDI matter? The roles of local institutions and ethnic origins of FDI

How foreign direct investment (FDI) affects a host environment is a much discussed yet less understood topic of salience for international business managers, policy makers and researchers. Using panel data from 287 Chinese cities over the period 1999–2005, our study assesses (1) the multiple impacts of FDI in both positive and negative domains, (2) the role of local institutional development in moderating these impacts, and (3) whether the moderating effects of institutions differ depending upon the origins of the incoming investment (ethnic- versus non-ethnic-linked). Our analysis shows that indeed, FDI is a double-edged sword: it enhances the host city's economic growth, labor productivity and innovation but it also causes employment reduction and pollution in host cities. Moreover, the host city's institutional development is found to enhance the positive impacts of FDI and reduce its negative ones. Interestingly, the moderating effect is smaller for ethnic-linked FDI than for non-ethnic-linked FDI. As the first comprehensive attempt to unravel the role of institutional development in moderating the ambiguous impacts of FDI in multiple domains, this study confirms that a host's ability to absorb the benefits of FDI while curtailing its associated costs is both plausible and pivotal. As our world becomes flatter and FDI more entrenched in a host's economic and social development, this study provides important implications.     

Who is afraid of disposition of financial assets? The moderating role of regulatory focus in the disposition effect

The disposition effect refers to the tendency of financial consumers to sell winning assets (e.g., stocks) too early and to hold losing assets for too long. This effect implies that investors behave asymmetrically under the conditions of paper gains and losses. Although prior research on the disposition effect drew primarily on prospect theory as the explanatory mechanism, we focus on regulatory focus, an alternative mechanism. Regulatory focus theory suggests that people pay distinctive attention to profits and losses depending on self-regulation orientations (i.e., promotion focus vs. prevention focus). We argue that regulatory focus has different influences on financial consumers’ investment behavior in the gain and loss domains. In three experimental studies, we demonstrate that regulatory focus moderates the disposition effect. The results of the current studies imply that the disposition effect is primarily driven by prevention- (vs. promotion-) focused individuals who behave asymmetrically in the gain and loss domains.