Unintended effects of incentivizing consumers to recommend a favorite brand

Marketers often use incentives such as coupons, rewards or special membership discounts in order to motivate consumers to purchase or recommend a particular brand. This practice is based on the underlying assumption that an increase in incentives will lead to an increase in consumer response – an idea which has been at the core of traditional economic thinking for decades. Some psychologists have claimed, however, that under specific conditions an increase in incentives can reduce (rather than increase) one's willingness to perform the behavior which is being incentivized. If materialized, the possibility that extrinsic incentives may diminish consumer willingness to recommend a favorite brand could have important theoretical and practical consequences in the context of word-of-mouth or buzz marketing. This study tests that possibility in the context of an experiment about Apple computers, a favorite brand among US college students. Participants were asked to recommend the brand to a friend (1) in absence of any monetary reward and (2) for a small monetary incentive. Students who were promised a small monetary reward experienced a decrease in intrinsic motivation and wrote shorter recommendations than those who were not promised any incentives. Data also suggest that the quality of the recommendation may decrease when incentives are offered. The results are discussed in line of their possible theoretical and practical significance.     

In the eye of the beholder: How regulatory focus and self-efficacy interact in influencing opportunity recognition

Although there is evidence that regulatory focus is associated with opportunity exploitation, there is a lack of research examining its role at the early stages of opportunity recognition. The present study makes two major contributions to address this gap. First, we demonstrate that entrepreneurs' promotion focus is positively related to opportunity recognition, whereas prevention focus is not significantly related to opportunity recognition. Second, integrating two theories of self-regulation – regulatory focus theory and self-efficacy theory – our findings reveal that a high promotion focus compensates for entrepreneurs' low levels of creative and entrepreneurial self-efficacy in opportunity recognition. Our study extends extant cognitive theories of opportunity recognition.     

“妒能”如何变成“赋能”：职场妒忌对工作绩效的影响

职场妒忌是工作中非常普遍的现象，以往研究主要聚焦在职场妒忌的“阴暗面”，却未能对其积极效应给予足够的关注。基于自我一致性理论，并结合Arnold的行动序列作为整体逻辑，探讨了职场妒忌与工作绩效的内在作用机制。研究结果表明：职场妒忌对工作绩效具有显著的正向影响；内在动机与观察性学习分别在职场妒忌对工作绩效的影响中起部分中介作用；内在动机与观察性学习在职场妒忌与工作绩效之间存在链式的中介作用；职场友谊对“职场妒忌内在动机观察性学习工作绩效”这一链式中介路径起调节作用，即职场友谊越高，职场妒忌对内在动机的正向作用越强，内在动机与观察性学习在职场妒忌与工作绩效之间的链式中介作用越强。     

Rewards that undermine customer loyalty? A motivational approach to loyalty programs

Guided by the framework of self‐determination theory (SDT), this study examined the effects of external rewards on undermining customers’ intrinsic motivation to engage in a retail loyalty program. Two experiments revealed that participants who received a salient, controlling reward (i.e., a promise of reward with an explicit requirement and deadline, without options of choice) reported lower intrinsic motivation to use the loyalty program than participants who received a nonsalient, autonomy‐supportive reward (i.e., a promise of reward with a less explicit requirement and no deadline, with options of choice). However, the undermined intrinsic motivation of those who received the salient, controlling reward was enhanced when they were given verbal feedback acknowledging their potential negative feelings associated with using the loyalty program. These findings provide important practical implications for designing a more effective loyalty program.     

Towards a Meta Ethics of Culture – Halfway to a Theory of Metanorms

This article deals with cross-cultural ethics. It discusses the grid-group model and is ethical implications. We try to show how cross-cultural ethics remain possible under this paradigm of ethical relativism. We discuss the theory of discourse and apply it to intercultural communication. Finally we offer some rules for (an ethical) intercultural discourse, which also may be interpreted as metanorms for cross-cultural interaction.     

We need to talk about strategy: How to conduct effective strategic dialogue

As researchers and consultants, we have spent the last few years helping a dozen major public and private organizations understand what went wrong with their strategic planning. We discovered that executives have a hard time with strategy because they are at a loss when the time comes to engage in strategic dialogue. Either their teams debate the organization’s values and goals when such issues should be settled, or they waste time on the details of specific projects that have yet to receive the green light. But whether the conversation is too broad or too narrow, strategy stays out of view. Drawing on recent developments in strategy-as-practice and decision-making literature, we propose a model that executives can follow to take control of strategy meetings and keep their teams on track. We ask them to focus on the right decision purpose, adjust the meeting’s communication style, and cast the right leader for the job. When these three simple rules are followed, the pillars of successful dialogue are aligned, and executives can finally talk about what matters most to them: strategy.     

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.     

浅谈赫兹伯格双因素激励理论对企业员工的激励作用

充分调动企业员工的积极性、主动性与创造性，为企业创造最大的价值是现代企业管理者不断追求的目标。美国心理学家赫兹伯格的双因素理论，对于企业调动员工的积极性，激发其工作热情，具有重要的理论指导意义。企业在实际运用中，应因地制宜的采取有效激励手段，设定合理的目标，建立长期的激励措施，结合企业实际，实施精社激励，从而促使企业员工发挥更大的潜力为企业创造更大的价值。     

The New Face of Philanthropy: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation in Millennials’ Attitudes and Intent to Donate to Charitable Organizations

Nonprofits must gain millennials as lifelong donors for future sustainability. The current study aims to analyze the millennials and their intrinsic motivation (Deci et al., 1994), attitudes toward helping others, attitudes toward charitable organizations (Webb et al., 2000), and millennials intent to donate (Bearden et al., 1984) to these organizations. Results indicate that intrinsic motivation is moderately and positively related to attitudes toward helping others. Attitudes toward charitable organizations is moderately strong and positively related to intent to donate. Suggestions toward engaging and motivating millennials include volunteer work that is interesting, enjoyable and valuable to millennials. This study supports previous research on millennials while providing new avenues to engage them such as technology-based solicitations, generational comparative analysis, and intracohort analysis. The implications of this study suggest innovative ways of fundraising such as crowdfunding and social alliances that not-for-profits can tap into to motivate millennials to donate their time and money to their causes.     

Learning to talk like an urban woodsman: an artistic intervention

This paper is an artist's statement about the Re Made project, an artwork that parodies the urban woodsman aesthetic of Best Made Co., which markets designer axes through the rhetoric of authenticity, the appropriation of working-class identities and the revitalization of traditional male roles. Re Made Co. replace Best Made Co.’s $300 urban axe with a $300 toilet plunger and satirizes their marketing campaign through social media, graphic design, video and photography. This project uses critical design to pose pivotal questions, such as: What are the implications of transforming a useful tool into a symbolic object? How is working-class labor sold as white-collar fantasy? What are the contradictory references that promise “authentic” experiences? This paper analyzes the Best Made Co. brand's cultural references to masculinity, outdoorsmen and the frontier, their photographic language of snapshot images and designed aesthetic, reveals the consequences of these expressions, and proposes strategies for reassigning value.     

Teaching International Business as an Opportunity to Develop Cultural Sensitivity

Business program graduates are expected to perform with cultural sensitivity in international and intercultural professional environments. In order to support student development of the necessary mindset, a variety of assignments and activities have been integrated into the undergraduate International Business (IB) course. This article describes several types of exercises that can be used by anyone teaching this course or one where cultural sensitivity is an important component. No quantitative data are presented, nor are any claims made to the efficacy of these assignments. But student comments point to increased cultural sensitivity and a better understanding of the issues of globalization.     

How ethical and political identifications drive adaptive behavior in the digital piracy context

Today, digital piracy remains a growing challenge for both legislators and businesses operating in the entertainment industry. This study explores when and why consumers make trade-offs between illegal and legal streaming services. By drawing on protection motivation theory, we find that consumers' threat and coping appraisals increase their adaptive behavior, i.e., lower intention to consume illegal and higher intention to consume legal streaming services. We also show that the strength of consumers' inherent ethical (relativism) and political (economic liberalism) identities conditions adaptive behavior through social identity theory. We find that low relativism strengthens the adaptive behavior through threat appraisal, while economic liberalism strengthens the adaptive behavior through coping appraisal. Our robustness checks show that these results hold when the model accounts for the level of consumers' digital piracy attitudes. We used a scenario-based approach to test our hypotheses and surveyed 244 consumers who use streaming services. Our study contributes to the literature by showing that consumers' adaptive behavior envisioned through protection motivation theory can be weakened or strengthened by their ethical and political identities.     

激励对员工工作的影响研究——基于两种激励理论的探讨

人作为生产活动的主体，往往根据自身需求是否得到满足来决定其工作态度，迫使许多企业和学者对激励进行研究，由此诞生了很多激励理论，其中需求层次理论以人的需求层次来划分人们的不同需求，双因素理论以保健因素和激励因素的划分来分析人们的需求，这两种理论之间相互联系，一个针对人的需要和动机，一个针对满足这些需要的目标和诱因，两者结合起来运用才能够更好、更有效地激励人们。     

How individualism–collectivism influences consumer responses to the sharing economy: Consociality and promotional type

With the explosion of online exchange of products, the sharing economy is experiencing ever-increasing growth. Despite the increasing popularity of lateral exchange market platforms as part of the sharing economy, research has not yet adequately investigated cultural effects on how consumers’ intentions to purchase products on these platforms. Using two studies, this paper examines whether consumers high in individualism versus consumers high in collectivism respond differently to platforms with low versus high consociality and how individualistic and collectivistic consumers respond differently to two types of promotions that relate to self-maximization. Findings in Study 1 indicated that consumers high in individualism (collectivism) have higher patronage intentions toward a platform low (high) in consociality. Findings in Study 2 suggested that in the presence of a promotion, collectivistic consumers respond comparably to promotional types across platforms, whereas individualistic consumers respond more positively to collective (individual) promotions when consociality is low (high). Further, felt commitment to others as a result of the consociality/promotional type relationship explains these effects. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Like,Share, Retweet: Testing Competing Models of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Slacktivism Engagement

ABSTRACT

Token support for social causes has been increasingly studied and commented on in recent years. Campaigns such as the Livestrong bracelet, the pink breast cancer ribbons, the Kony 2012 video, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and the Facebook profile picture modifications for marriage equality and support for Paris after the terrorist attacks in November 2015, have been coined “slacktivism” and those who engage in such activities “slacktivists”; however, little empirical research has been done on the topic. Most of the research and commentary on slacktivism focuses on social media activity online. This research tests competing models of the theory of planned behavior in predicting an individual’s slacktivism engagement from their attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention. The results suggest that although the theory may be a plausible representation of the data, behavioral control may not be important in the context of engaging in slacktivism.     

Commentary on learning to talk like an (urban) woodsman: an artistic intervention

Rebekah Modrak's Learning to Talk like an (Urban) Woodsman: An Artistic Intervention project presents an artistic critique of the Best Made Co. lifestyle “axe” brand. The article and the Re Made Co. “plunger” art piece it describes engage directly with issues discussed by brand researchers and other scholars, such as the strategic use of appealing design and product aesthetics, the sign value of brands, and the creation of brand identity and cultural codes based upon the performance of an idealized, historicized and gendered mythology. The artwork itself, the reactions to the Re Made Co. project and the artist's reflections, all add to the interdisciplinary exploration of brands, brand culture and meaning.     

How to select an export mode without bias

Managers of startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) tend to view subsidiaries as the preferred export mode. Yet this type of organization is associated with a high failure rate. Our in-depth interviews with more than 40 managers show that their bias in favor of foreign sales subsidiaries is rooted in unsubstantiated beliefs about control and the superiority of subsidiaries over other export modes. This article details the faulty reasoning that supports these prejudices and proposes a simple method for selecting more profitable and less risky international entry strategies.     

The 11 Questions Every Donor Asks and the Answers All Donors Crave: How You Can Inspire Someone to Give Generously,by H. McKinnon

Organizational learning and customer orientation have been a focus of research for a number of years in both marketing and management literature. Customer learning orientation is conceptualized as three important components: management customer orientation, customer feedback, and employee learning orientation. By drawing from both marketing and organizational research theories, the authors propose a model of customer learning orientation in a public sector organizational setting. Customer learning orientation is hypothesized to have a significant effect on employee attitudes of role ambiguity and self-efficacy, which in turn affects job outcomes of job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors. Using a sample of 438 employees of a public sector organization, the authors test the model through a structural equation modeling technique. The results provide general support for the model. Implications for managers of public sector organizations and future research are discussed.     

Use of a Parallel-Emic Research Model and Key-Word-In-Context Indexing Tool to Develop an Instructional Exercise to Promote Student Global Mindedness

ABSTRACT

Educators have long sought how to prepare students to develop a global mind set and to work under conditions of complexity and uncertainty common in many world markets. The purpose of this study was to support educators in this cause by providing them with a “hands-on” exercise readily adaptable across the business curriculum to identify how culture shapes business concepts/practices of interest. Details are presented in a step-by-step procedure based upon a recognized “parallel-emic” research model developed to study cross-cultural differences to ensure analytical rigor. A Key-Word-In-Context (KWIC) indexing tool was employed to add precision and efficiency to the search process to help students readily identify common (etic-derived) and unique factors (emic-specific) shaping business concepts/practices cross-culturally.