Consumers’ online responses to the death of a celebrity

Humans have long been fascinated with celebrated persons. Because celebrities are usually protected, fans rely on celebrity-related products to connect to a beloved individual. As symbolic embodiments of celebrities, these related products often become cherished personal possessions. The death of a celebrity appears to strongly elevate a celebrity’s stature and increase the value of the celebrity’s products. This research examined marketplace effects of celebrity deaths using longitudinal data obtained from online auctions. Results indicated that a celebrity's death strongly boosts demand for surviving memorabilia. Marketers were also found to act with incredible speed in offering products to meet this heightened demand. These findings suggest that the effect of death on memorabilia sales varied by product type and death context.     

Learning from own and others’ previous experience: the contribution of the venture capital firm to the likelihood of a portfolio company’s trade sale

The objective of this paper is to examine to what extent different venture capital firms contribute to the likelihood that the portfolio company in which they invested will realize a trade sale. We use arguments from learning theory to hypothesize the relationship between vicarious, experiential and congenital learning of the venture capital (VC) firm and the trade sale hazard of its portfolio companies. Based on our analysis of 206 VC-backed UK start-ups, we find that both trade sale experience of the VC and learning from syndicate partners with trade sale experience significantly increase the trade sale hazard. The routines and procedures learned from experienced syndicate partners complement experience accumulated through trial and error. Congenital trade sale experience of the investment managers on the contrary has no significant influence on the acquisition hazard.     

Consumers as time travellers: the moderating effects of risk perception and construal level on consumers’ responses to temporal framing

Abstract

This study investigated the conditions under which temporal framing is more effective in explaining consumers’ responses to ads. Two experiments were conducted with a 2 (temporal framing: near-future vs. distant-future benefits) × 2 (perceived risk: high vs. low) × 2 (construal level: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design. In Experiment 1, the two-way interaction effect of temporal framing and perceived risk on ad attitudes and purchase intention was found, such that the near-future benefit frame generated more favourable responses to the ad under the high-risk condition. Incorporating construal level theory, the three-way interaction effect was found, with the temporal framing?×?perceived risk interaction appearing more pronounced for low construal consumers only. Experiment 1 also discovered that information diagnosticity mediated the interaction effect of temporal framing and perceived risk on ad attitudes and purchase intention and this mediating process appeared stronger for low construal consumers. Experiment 2 replicated the two-way and three-way interaction effects on purchase intention, providing evidence of the validity of the findings. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed for researchers and practitioners.     

Does Marketing Activity Contribute to a Society’s Well-Being? The Role of Economic Efficiency

Does the level of marketing activity in a country contribute to societal well-being or quality of life? Does economic efficiency also play a positive role in societal well-being? Does economic efficiency also moderate or mediate the marketing activity effect on societal well-being? Marketing activity refers to the pervasiveness of promotion expenditures and number of retail outlets per capita in a country. Economic efficiency refers to the extent to which the economy is unhampered by corruption, burdensome government regulation, and a large informal economy. We used secondary data from the World Bank and other statistical sources to answer these questions. Our study findings suggest that both marketing activity and economic efficiency contribute positively to societal well-being, and that economic efficiency plays more of a mediator than moderator role between marketing activity and societal well-being. The public policy implication of this study is that increases in marketing activity and economic efficiency in countries characterized as low on both dimensions should significantly increase the quality of life in those countries.     

Susceptibility to the ‘Dark Side’ of Goal-Setting: Does Moral Justification Influence the Effect of Goals on Unethical Behavior?

Setting goals in the workplace can motivate improved performance but it might also compromise ethical behavior. In this paper, we propose that individual differences in the dispositional tendency to morally justify behavior moderate the effects of specific performance goals on unethical behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which working participants, who were randomly assigned to a specific goal condition or to a condition with a vague goal that lacked a specific target (i.e., ‘do your best’), completed two tasks in which they had the opportunity to act unethically. In an ethical dilemma task, participants in the specific goal condition were more likely to advocate using unethical methods. However, in an anagram task, only those with high moral justification overstated their performance to a greater degree in the specific goal condition. As such, individuals may not be equally susceptible to the ‘dark side’ of goal-setting.     

From the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ to ‘unstoppable India’: has the services sector played a role?

India shifted from an import substitution growth strategy (ISS) to an export-led-growth strategy (ELGS) in July 1991. Consequently, liberalisation was promulgated not only in the industrial sector but in the services sector too in the post-1991 period. ‘services-led-growth strategy’ – a concomitant of ELGS – has led to an improvement in the revealed comparative advantage in the export of commercial services during the period 1990–2005. Furthermore, the openness of services and foreign direct investment in services have emerged as important determinants of gross domestic product growth during the period 1995–2005. The author therefore argues that if ISS led to the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ in the first three decades of planning, it is the services-led growth which has made ‘India unstoppable’ on the economic front.     

Does the Notion of ‘Doing Well by Doing Good’ Prevail Among Entrepreneurial Ventures in a Developing Nation?

The rise in ethical and social responsibility awareness in contemporary businesses has led to assumptions that the associated behaviours would enable competitive advantage to be attained as a firm distinguishes itself from its competitors through such practices. This paper reports on a study conducted on the prevalence of such practices among entrepreneurial ventures in an emerging economy (Malaysia), and the effect of such practices on both financial and non-financial performance. A sequential inter-method mixing design was employed in which during stage 1, a series of semi-structured interviews with ten Malaysian SME founder-owners were conducted. Stage 2 involved a survey in which a total of 212 usable questionnaires were received. The results of the first phase of the research (qualitative) found evidence that entrepreneurial ventures in Malaysia do generally engage in both ethical and socially responsible practices. The subsequent model testing using SEM, however, revealed that while ethical practices were positively associated with venture performance, socially responsible practices were not. This may indicate that while entrepreneurial ventures in emerging economies like Malaysia become quickly aware of the more serious consequences of not adopting ethical practices, the concern for social issues may still be lacking, i.e., in terms of motivations, they may be closer to the profitable end of the philanthropy versus profitability spectrum. While the findings may be equivocal, we believe that the paper makes the following two significant contributions: (1) it provides an empirical test of the importance of ethical and socially responsible practices to entrepreneurial venture performance and (2) it furthers understanding of how and why this may be different in an emerging economy context.     

Exploring the changing role of brand archetypes in customer-brand relationships: Why try to be a hero when your brand can be more?

For over 20 years, managers have been encouraged to leverage archetypal meaning to strengthen their brands. Prior research has studied archetypes as universal patterns present in the collective unconscious that trigger an instinctive response in customers, arguing that brands should evoke one archetype at a time. However, recent evidence seems to suggest that the single archetype view proposed in previous work may have lost its relevance in the marketplace. This article responds to calls for further research into brand archetypes by analyzing more than 2,400 brands and the archetypes they evoke in their marketing communications. The current findings support the continued relevance and importance of brand archetypes in marketing, showing that brands connect with customers by consistently evoking specific archetypes. Critically, however, strong brands tend to leverage multiple archetypes at a time rather than just one as previously believed. We explore key implications of our findings for theory and management, discuss avenues for future research, and provide actionable guidelines for managers wishing to leverage archetypal meaning to build strong brands.     

How Does Perceived Effectiveness Affect Adults’ Ethical Acceptance of Anti-obesity Threat Appeals to Children? When the Going Gets Tough,the Audience Gets Going

Little is known on the appraisal of ethically questionable not- for-profit actions such as social marketing advertising campaigns. The present study evaluates the ethical acceptance by adults of anti-obesity threat appeals targeting children, depending on the claimed effectiveness of the campaign. An experiment conducted among 176 Belgian participants by means of an online survey shows that individuals’ acceptance of social marketing practices increases along with the claimed effectiveness of the campaign. As such it demonstrates that the audience adopts a pragmatic perspective, challenging the non-consequentialist stance of social marketers who refrain themselves from using these ‘questionable’ techniques although highly effective. The trade-off between ethical judgment and claimed effectiveness varies depending on whether the threats focus on the child’s physical integrity or social life. Individual characteristics such as parenthood and age also influence the relationship. All in all, it seems that people with stronger connections to the issue such as parents are more ready to compromise. These findings enrich our insights into consequentialism in social marketing campaigns, how people respond to controversial messages targeted at vulnerable group, and open new venues to social managers and public policy makers. Managerial implications and concrete advice on how to communicate with the various audiences are proposed, as well as suggestions for future studies.     

How do crazy rich Asians perceive sustainable luxury? Investigating the determinants of consumers’ willingness to pay a premium price

Motivated by the increasing media coverage of environmental disasters and growing evidence of humans’ detrimental impacts on the natural environment, the key aim of this study was to examine consumer interest in buying sustainable luxury products. Rooted in the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory, a research framework incorporating pro-environmental self-identity (PSI), consumer pro-environmental values (CPV), engagement, and willingness to pay a premium price (WPP) was proposed. To better understand the sustainable behavior of consumers, this study modelled myopia as a personality trait that moderates the aforementioned relationships. Partial least squares path modelling (PLSPM) was employed to analyze data collected from 296 Chinese consumers who had purchased luxury fashion products. The results highlighted the influential role of CPV in shaping both consumer engagement and WPP, surpassing the impact of PSI. Also, the study established the positive effect of engagement on WPP and confirmed its mediating role in the relationship between CPV and WPP. The incorporation of myopia as a moderator further enhanced the explanatory power of the VBN theory in understanding sustainable consumption evaluations. The findings revealed that the positive links between PSI, CPV, engagement, and WPP were particularly pronounced among non-myopic consumers, suggesting that a clear vision of long-term consequences strengthens the connections between these constructs. These findings offer valuable insights to both academics and practitioners, particularly in the realm of luxury fashion brands within Chinese culture. They provide a foundation for designing targeted marketing communication strategies that effectively leverage and cultivate consumers' pro-environmental self-identities and values. By aligning brand messaging with these values, luxury fashion brands can enhance consumer engagement and foster a willingness to invest in sustainable products. Ultimately, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on sustainable consumption and offers practical implications for promoting environmentally responsible choices in the luxury fashion industry.     

Does a Consumer’s Religion Really Matter in the Buyer–Seller Dyad? An Empirical Study Examining the Relationship Between Consumer Religious Commitment,Christian Conservatism and the Ethical Judgment of a Seller’s Controversial Business Decision

Religion is an important cultural and individual difference variable. Yet, despite its obvious importance in consumers’ lives, religion in the United States has been under-researched. This study addresses that gap in the literature and investigates the influence of consumer religion in the buyer–seller dyad. Specifically, this study examines the influence of consumer religious commitment and a Christian consumer’s conservative beliefs in the United States on store loyalty when retailers make business decisions which are potentially reli- gious objectionable. This study uses structural equation modeling and applies Anderson and Gerbing’s (Psychol Bull 103(3):411–423, 1988) two-step approach to exam- ine data obtained from a national sample of 531 consumers. The results from this study suggest that consumers evaluate seller’s actions and form ethical judgments. These judgments are a major explanatory variable in consumer store loyalty intentions.     

An empirical analysis of factors predicting the behavioral intention to adopt Internet shopping technology among non-shoppers in a developing country context: Does gender matter?

Motivated by the lack of knowledge of what factors deterring Internet users from adopting the Internet shopping in developing cultures, this investigation is therefore intended to underline the possible factors responsible for their deterrence. To achieve this objective, a model was proposed by involving factors established in literature as key potential drivers for predicating individuals' behavioral intention to adopt new technologies. The proposed factors were drawn from popular IS/IT adoption theories, namely perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, perceived compatibility, social influence, trust, perceived risk, privacy, security, Internet shopping anxiety, Internet self-efficacy and price. Gender moderating influence was investigated in the conceptualized relationships between proposed factors and behavioral intention.This study was implemented by collecting data through a self-administered questionnaire from a broad diversity of Jordanian Internet users. Analyzing the data which consists of 261 valid datasets was accomplished by using WarpPLS 4.0. The results provide significant statistical evidence in support of all the factors hypothesized to influence behavioral intention to adopt with the exception of three factors: perceived risk, privacy and security. Furthermore, the gender was found to moderate the relationships between five of the proposed factors (perceived ease-of-use, social influence, trust, perceived risk, privacy) and behavioral intention. This study has also revealed some differences between online shoppers (based on prior literature and results) and non-shoppers. Interestingly, the proposed model explains 58% of the total variance in intention to adopt Internet shopping. Findings and limitations are discussed, theoretical contributions and practical implications are outlined, and future research directions are suggested.