Modeling the Effects of Sponsorship-Linked Marketing: When Does Memory Matter?

The current study examined the mediating and moderating roles of sponsorship-linked marketing on the relationships among cognitive, affective, and behavioral sponsor evaluations. A panel of National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) fans (N = 249) participated in an online survey, and the survey included multi-item scales including sponsor-brand recognition, consumer perceptions of property-based articulation, sponsorship-themed advertising, sponsorship-themed promotion, sponsor attitude, and purchase intention. Visit to sponsors' exhibits experience was incorporated as a moderator. This study provides empirical support for the full mediating role of sponsorship-linked marketing efforts in leveraging high levels of sponsor brand recognition into more desirable brand outcomes.     

Risking the self: the impact of self-esteem on negative word-of-mouth behavior

Negative word-of-mouth is a pervasive and persuasive force on consumers, yet little is known about the characteristics of the people who decide to share, or not to share, this information. We examine the impact of consumer trait self-esteem on tendencies to share negative word-of-mouth. Prior work has shown that consumer self-esteem moderates the likelihood of sharing positive word-of-mouth, yet extending this theory to negative word-of-mouth behavior results in conflicting predictions. This paper addresses these contradictions by adopting a two-dimensional view of self-esteem (self-liking and self-competence). We suggest that these dimensions will have opposing effects on the sharing of negative word-of-mouth. Two studies show that individuals high in self-competence are less willing to share negative word-of-mouth, whereas individuals high in self-liking are more willing to do so—results that would be disguised by treating self-esteem as a single-dimension construct.     

Do ads that tell a story always perform better? The role of character identification and character type in storytelling ads

The growing use of storytelling as an advertising strategy for brands online poses the question of their relative effectiveness compared to more factual types of ads. In this context, this article focuses on the role of character identification and character type in the effects of narrative transportation that occur from storytelling ads. Using four experimental studies in two different contexts, two brand types, and two character types (human versus animal), the findings present a cautionary tale for the use of storytelling. By generating higher levels of narrative transportation, storytelling video ads can reduce character identification, which results in an overall decrease in positive attitude toward the brand, when using animal characters. These main findings are nuanced in the presence of joyful emotions. Implication for research and practice are discussed.     

Linking Purchasing to Ethical Decision-Making: An Empirical Investigation

The aim of this study is to examine the decision-making processes at work among French buyers—whether beginners or more experienced individuals, when confronted with a dilemma involving an ethical or non-ethical choice to be made. We go on to illustrate these dilemmas through the use of five original scenarios that reproduce typical situations that arise in a purchasing context in relation to the environment, physical integrity, conflict of interest, or paternalism. Based on 172 participants, the results of our study show that, ethical decision-making depends very clearly on two main factors: expertise and gender. The study also reveals that there is not always a coherent link between ethical choices made and the reasons and justifications given for those choices. Ethical options chosen are not exclusively justified on the grounds of purely ethical reasons but also on the grounds of commercial or economic reasons, or else reasons of avoidance.     

Patrick W. Maclagan,Management & Morality

Teaching Business Ethics -     

ON THE NEGATIVE RISK PREMIUM FOR RISK ADJUSTED DISCOUNT RATES: A COMMENT AND EXTENSION

This paper develops conditions necessary for negative risk premia to emerge at the market level, and at the individual level in imperfect markets. It also correctly shows how to discount cash outflows. The model used to integrate these topics is the state-preference model of security valuation; the most general model available. The paper corrects serious errors contained in recent work published in the journal.     

Women investors, 'that nasty south sea affair' and the rage to speculate in early eighteenth-century England

The excursions of the five unmarried Hastings sisters and their widowed friend Jane Bonnell into the stock market show how changes in the availability of credit and the services offered by banks in the early eighteenth century had an impact on ordinary citizens. At the time of the South Sea Bubble all six bought South Sea shares through their bank. But their trading activities and investment strategies differed and had different outcomes, showing there are no easy associations between gender and ideas of risk or safe investment.     

Transnational Bribery: Is it Inevitable?

Transnational bribery has sometimes been seen by companies as an unavoidable part of the price of "getting the deal". As this article indicates, allegations concerning bribery - which may or may not be valid in specific instances - are common in many industries and many countries; and despite moves to curb it, especially in the USA, it may still be increasing. This article describes the steps which have been taken so far in the OECD and elsewhere to tackle it, ending with the author's own assessment of the most realistic programme for action.     

A mechanism for reducing small-business customer waiting-line dissatisfaction

This paper presents a technique whereby a small business (i.e. a one-cash register operation) can reduce customer waiting-line time dissatisfaction in the purchase stage of the consumer decision process. When the queue length reaches or exceeds critical value N^*, another employee is temporarily transferred to the role of ‘server assistant’ to increase the effective service rate; when the queue length eventually decreases to a second critical value N_*, the server assistant returns to primary duties. An optimal customer-reneging decision model is utilized to model the reneging character of the queue. Simulation experiments confirm key hypotheses concerning the behaviour of the queue and compare the effectiveness of a computed (N^*, N_*) policy with that of alternatives.