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Marketing scholars often compare groups that occur naturally (e.g., socioeconomic status) or due to random assignment of participants to study conditions. These scholars often report group means, standard deviations, and effect sizes. Although such summary information can be helpful, it can misinform marketing practitioners' decisions. To avoid this problem, scholars should also report the probability that one group's member will score higher than another group's member, and by various amounts. In this vein, newly conceived gain-probability diagrams can depict relevant, concise, and easy-to-comprehend probabilistic information. These diagrams' nuanced perspective can contradict traditional significance test and effect size implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Do luxury consumers negatively evaluate digital interactions (website and social media) by international luxury brands? The topic has received much debate. The authors argue that luxury brand personality (modern vs. traditional), which encompasses a more stable form of brand identity in global markets, affects evaluations of digital interactions. They further investigate the role of self-brand connection in this process. Design/methodology/approach: Three experiments on Prolific use a European sample and manipulate a single factor between subjects (modernity: less vs. more; traditionality: less vs. more) of French luxury brands and measure evaluations as the dependent variable. Two studies assesses self-brand connection (continuous) as a moderator (studies 2a, 2b). Study 2b rules out some alternative explanations, with culture (independent vs. collectivist) as an independent variable. A fourth study, using a North American sample on CloudResearch, assesses the effect of personality manipulation (more modernity vs. more traditionality) on consumer evaluations of an Italian brand, and assesses ubiquity perceptions as a mediator. Findings: Consumers evaluate digital interactions of international luxury brands less favorably when luxury brand personality exhibits more (vs. less) modernity or less (vs. more) traditionality. Perceptions of ubiquity mediate these relationships. When self-brand connection is high, this effect is attenuated. Originality/value: The research sheds light on the debate on whether luxury brands should create digital interactions in international markets, given that these global brands operate in multiple channels. Findings show that luxury brands can develop strategies based on aspects of their brand identity, a less malleable feature of brand identity within global markets. Additionally, the research contributes to the conversation about a global luxury market. In short, the findings offer evidence in favor of brand identity (personality) influencing the digital channel strategy a brand should undertake in international markets, first, followed by consumer needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternatively, these methods may be acceptable for benchmarking (e.g. longitudinal customer satisfaction surveys), forecasting or population profiling surveys meant to accurately estimate demographic, socio-economic and other population parameters. Will behavioural and "big" data replace or complement survey data ([26]; [38])? Special Issue Overview In 'Data quality assurance: What marketing researchers absolutely need to remember', Moore, Harrison and Hair propose a data quality assurance framework that emphasises survey-based research methodology and related data collection sources. Regardless, survey researchers must strive to minimise reputational damage and optimise survey-data-based decisions by enhancing data quality. [Extracted from the article]

Processing fluency or the subjective experience of ease that consumers can experience when processing information is a prominent construct in consumer research. Despite its prevalence, however, its measurement has been inconsistent. The present research addresses this methodological gap in literature by developing and testing a scale for assessing the subjective experience of processing fluency. This scale demonstrates strong evidence of convergent and discriminant validity, reliability, and nomological validity across different processing fluency manipulations and marketing contexts. Use of this scale will allow marketing practitioners and academicians to consistently measure a psychological state that is known to have ubiquitous effects on downstream consumer outcomes including trust, attitude, and choice. Researchers can administer this four-item scale by having participants indicate their agreement (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) on whether a given marketing communication (e.g., ad copy) is (a) difficult to process, (b) difficult to read, (c) takes a long time to process, and (d) difficult to understand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-administered questionnaires permit relatively quick and inexpensive data collection from large, diverse, and representative respondent samples However, many marketing scholars have scrutinized and then questioned the quality of survey data derived in this way. Survey design innovations (e.g., modular survey design supplementing survey data via multi-method research designs) Dynamic, interactive survey questions can increase survey data quality. [Extracted from the article]

In their introductory marketing, management, and social psychology courses, undergraduates learn that correlation coefficients provide weak evidence for causal conclusions. Nonetheless, researchers conclude causally from correlation coefficients by drawing causal arrows in their structural equation models (SEMs). Although most researchers avoid describing their findings in causal language, obligatory recommendations for applying those findings insert causation. Researchers' standard rejoinder to validity challenges is "the critics have ignored theory's role in rendering our SEM internally and externally valid". To evaluate this rejoinder, we explore SEMs based on comprehensive underlying theories and as stand-alone and testable context-specific theories that blend previously published hypotheses and findings. In most cases, the rejoinder is unconvincing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses social disruptions, social discontinuities, and associated interventions by social marketers and public policymakers. Prescriptive touchpoints for such interventions are (1) mitigating social disruptions via phronetic marketing, (2) foreseeing and anticipating social disruptions and discontinuities via marketing futurology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]