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In this paper, we investigate potential negative spillover effects of consumer evaluations between different products of the same private label (PL). Drawing on associative network theory, we propose that decreases in consumer evaluations (e.g., attitude, perceived quality, trustworthiness), caused by negative information regarding a focal defective PL product, will affect consumer evaluations of non-defective products branded with the same PL. To test our hypotheses, we conduct an online experiment with a 2 x 2 plus control group between-subjects design. We expose subjects to four product-harm crisis scenarios of varying severity and psychological distance. Our results confirm the existence of the hypothesized negative spillovers between products of the same PL. Furthermore, the spillover effects from a defective product affect consumers' purchase intent of the non-defective siblings. In other words, a scandal about a single PL product may hurt not only consumer evaluations but also sales of all products umbrella-branded by the same PL.

This paper investigates how negative information about a retailer’s private label (PL) trigger negative spillover effects (a) to other retailers’ PLs and (b) to manufacturer brands (MB) regarding common dimensions of consumer evaluation (attitude, perceived quality, trust, purchase intent). Using scenarios about a fictitious product harm crisis, we conduct a 2x2 plus control group online experiment involving one retailer’s standard PL in the product category of ice cream. Within this product category, we find negative spillover effects from the focal retailer’s defective PL to competing retailers’ PL on attitude and perceived quality. We do not find any significant spillover effects on manufacturer brands. In line with categorization theory, our results support that PLs form one mental category in consumers’ minds.

This paper combines the literature streams on private labels (PL) and product harm crises (PHC) in the context of cross-brand learning. In an experiment, we investigate how a PHC about a PL affects (a) consumer evaluations of the defective product, (b) whether consumer evaluations of a competing retailers' PL, and (c) a national brand within the same product category are affected. We find that the defective PL product suffers from dramatic reductions in attitude, perceived quality, trust, and purchase intent. Furthermore, the PHC of one retailer's PL negatively affects consumer evaluations of other retailers' PL but not the national brand.

We investigate the effect of different "Pay What You Want" (PWYW) labels in combination with anonymity on prices paid (PP) and consumers' internal reference prices (IRP). A field experiment shows that PWYW labels affect prices paid and consumers' IRP. Also, the relevance of anonymity differs for different PWYW labels.

Research on human resources (HR) indicates that many biases (e.g., halo effect, confirmation bias, stereotyping bias) affect decisions taken by HR employees. However, it remains unclear whether HR employees are aware of their susceptibility to bias. To improve understanding, this study examines the “bias blind spot” phenomenon, the tendency of individuals to believe they are less likely to be biased than their peers. This quantitative survey among 234 HR employees in Switzerland measured the bias blind spot on seven interview biases in recruitment decision-making. The study shows that participants rated the average HR colleague as more susceptible to bias than themselves. Furthermore, male HR employees partly showed a greater bias blind spot than female HR employees. These findings contribute to behavioral research in HR and offer practical insights.

In an online experiment, we investigate the impact of retailer characteristics, namely store atmosphere and retailers' price positioning, on attitude formation of individual private labels through the mediator store attitude.

Retailers have used celebrity endorsement (CE), an advertising strategy, for several decades to advertise the retailer’s brand or their private labels (PL); however, the emergence of celebrity co-branding (CCOB), a branding strategy, in combination with PL is a relatively new trend worldwide. Evidence from practice indicates that the most successful co-branded premium PL are the ones offering a wide range of products. Apart from superior brand management, this trend might be a result of consumers’ perceived impact of CCOB increasing with the number of products co-branded by the same brand allies. The existing CE, CCOB, and traditional co-branding literature have not yet addressed the effect of multiple applications of any of these strategies on a range of products within the same brand (i.e., celebrity application frequency). However, applying existing findings on the effect of one endorser recommending many different brands to our research context, we hypothesize a negative impact when a spokesperson endorses multiple products within a brand. We propose that consumers perceive CE and CCOB differently when the number of endorsed or co-branded products increases. Indeed, our experiment reveals an interaction between celebrity application type and celebrity application frequency but no main effects. This finding indicates that when either strategy is applied multiple times within the same brand, product evaluations increase in the case of CCOB and decrease in the case of CE.

Based on literature review on private labels (PL), co-branding and celebrity branding, a conceptual framework is developed in which a celebrity brand is used in a co-branding setting as a quality signal for a premium PL product. Similar to previous studies that are limited to PL and national brands (NB) as brand allies in a co-branding setting, we propose that the improved consumer evaluations of a celebrity co-branded, chain-labeled PL product will spill over to the first brand ally. That is the retailer and more specifically his brand image. Since previous research indicates a positive effect of retailer’s brand image on consumer evaluations of its PL, we also suggest that a celebrity co-branding strategy will indirectly (via retailer’s brand image as a mediator), improve consumer evaluations of an individual retailer’s PL product of any tier. The goal of the research is to contribute to the calls for more research on private label and branding as well as on retailer brand equity. This study provides the foundation for and should encourage further research in this area.