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This research proposes a simple, new technique to obtain truthful answers to sensitive, categorical questions. The paired response technique (PRT) asks participants to merely report the sum of the answers to two paired questions, one baseline and one sensitive, with the answers to each question known only to the participants. The technique then statistically infers the prevalence of the sensitive characteristic and its potential drivers from the association of the baseline question with other questions in the survey. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate the performance of the PRT under varying conditions. A representative survey (n = 4,649) in the Netherlands about legal and illegal purchases of prescription drugs to enhance sexual performance reveals that 17.4% of the target population has purchased medication to enhance sexual performance at least once. In contrast, in a control group surveyed with direct questioning, only 5.1% admit having done so. The great majority of these individuals opt to purchase illegally. Two further empirical applications, respectively, in the United States and the United Kingdom, show that the PRT reduces cognitive and affective costs of survey participation compared with a state-of-the-art randomized response technique for categorical questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past customer spending in a category is generally a positive signal of future customer spending. Analyses of historical data at two retailers demonstrate that there exist "canary categories" for which the reverse is true. Purchases in these categories are a signal that customers are less likely to return to that retailer. The authors propose an explanation for the existence of canary categories and then develop a stylized model that illustrates four contributing factors: the probability that a customer finds their favorite brand, customers' willingness to substitute brands, the cost and attractiveness of visiting other stores, and expectations about future brand availability. The analysis uses both field data and experiments to investigate these factors. The findings suggest that canary categories exist (at least in part) because store assortments are not completely adjusted to local preferences. An implication is that canary categories are endogenous to each retailer; the same category may be a canary category at one retailer and a destination category at a competing retailer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the first field investigation of the sales impact of cause-related marketing promotions (CMPs) in retail settings. Whereas prior work primarily studies CMPs in simplified experimental settings, actual fast-moving consumer goods markets are considerably more complex; ergo, consumers are unlikely to consider and evaluate all brands and CMPs in detail. In this analysis based on 63 CMPs across 20 categories, the authors therefore investigate the short-term sales impact of CMPs as a function of the brand and category context in which they are executed. On average, CMPs run 11 weeks and donate 3.2% of product price, resulting in an average sales lift of 4.9% per week. The findings suggest that a necessary precondition for CMP success is that consumers notice it at the point of sale and hence have considered the CMP brand for reasons other than the CMP itself. Accordingly, the sales impact of CMP can more than double when the category assortment is smaller, the category has less price dispersion, the brand is a category leader, or the brand is priced below the category average. Brands operating in less favorable market conditions can still achieve above-average CMP impact by combining CMPs with price promotions to ensure consumer consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence indicating the significant influence of online reviews on purchase decisions, even after considering a product's average rating (Vana and Lambrecht 2021), the underlying factors behind this effect and the broader impact of reviews on consumer decision making remain uncertain. This study uses clickstream data from a major online retailer to explore how negative reviews affect consumer search and purchase decisions. Leveraging exogenous variation created by the display of online reviews sorted by recency, the authors find that negative reviews significantly reduce a product's purchase probability because they (1) contrast with the often-high average product rating, (2) decrease the probability that consumers continue browsing for information about the focal product, (3) increase the probability of visiting the page of substitute products, and (4) increase the probability of viewing reviews about substitute products. Importantly, these effects apply to utilitarian products but not hedonic products and when reviews pertain to product functionality or customer service but not to taste-related factors. The authors estimate a product's vulnerability to negative reviews along two dimensions—purchase and search probability for substitutes—and display these effects on a two-dimensional map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that the central objective of consumption in many contexts is to derive enjoyment or utility, it is reasonable to assume that how much people consume a product will primarily be driven by how much they like it. Yet, the current research finds that, although consumers indeed predict that they will consume a greater amount of options they like more, their actual consumption can be surprisingly insensitive to their preferences. Across six experiments, we find that consumers systematically overestimate the extent to which their consumption amount is determined by their preferences. We propose that how much people actually consume is determined by a variety of factors, including transient motivational states (e.g. hunger or boredom), consumption opportunities, and habits. Compared to these factors, however, people's liking of a product tends to be more salient, better known, and perceived as a more normatively appropriate driver of consumption—leading consumers to focus overly on their preferences when predicting their consumption. We further propose that this prediction error has important implications for consumer welfare, as it can lead to suboptimal inventory decisions (e.g. over-purchasing of favorite products) as well as ineffective self-control strategies (e.g. restricting oneself to mediocre options in order to reduce consumption). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in marketing, psychology, economics, and decision making has long examined what people choose, when people choose, and why people choose. But almost no research has examined how long people consume their choices. Here, we examined an asymmetry between choosing an option and consuming it. Under the aegis of nudges, we conducted two randomized longitudinal experiments on how long people consumed a choice that was incentivized vis-à-vis a decoy effect, default effect, and compromise effect. We found that these nudges influenced choosing and consuming in opposite directions: Participants were more likely to choose the nudged option; however, they consumed it less compared to participants who chose an identical non-nudged option. Our research thus demonstrates that nudges could lead people to consume a nudged option less after choosing it, illuminating the potential for future research to examine the unexplored area of longitudinal, post-acquisition, post-nudge effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text analysis is increasingly used for consumer and marketing insight. But while work has shed light on what firms should say to customers, when to say those things (e.g. within an advertisement or sales interaction) is less clear. Service employees, for example, could adopt a certain speaking style at a conversation's start, end, or throughout. When might specific language features be beneficial? This article introduces a novel approach to address this question. To demonstrate its potential, we apply it to warm and competent language. Prior research suggests that an affective (i.e. warm) speaking approach leads customers to think employees are less competent, so a cognitive (competent) style should be prioritized. In contrast, our theorizing, analysis of hundreds of real service conversations from two firms across thousands of conversational moments (N  = 23,958), and four experiments (total N  = 1,589) offer a more nuanced perspective. Customers are more satisfied when employees use both cognitive and affective language but at separate, specific times. Ancillary analyses show how this method can be applied to other language features. Taken together, this work offers a method to explore when language matters, sheds new light on the warmth/competence trade-off, and highlights ways to improve the customer experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes spatial domination in middle-classed spaces—the spaces that cater to the dispositions, status, and lifestyle ideals of middle-class groups—of the neoliberal city. Grounded in interdisciplinary scholarship on the neoliberal city, the article introduces a typology of middle-classed spaces, which maps out different combinations of cross-class hostility and cordiality in dynamics of spatial domination. Through an extended case study of a new upscale neighborhood bordering a slum area in a southern Brazilian city, the article unveils the socio-historic conditions that inform the localized cross-class relations and situate it in the spatial typology. With the support of a semiotic square, the article then identifies, relates, and analyzes the hostile ("takeover" and "repression") and cordial ("makeover" and "concession") spatial practices by which dominant agents produce one specific type of middle-classed space. Through these practices, dominant agents improve the status, experience, and market value of the neighborhood for target upper-middle-class consumers, while further disenfranchising the poor from its spaces—effectively reproducing deep-rooted historical patterns of social exclusion. This study extends research on status consumption and spatiality while also adding insights into the role of the state in consumption and market dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-profile instances of brands accused of cultural appropriation suggest that even the most prominent brands fail to fully understand the complexities of this phenomenon. This work experimentally unpacks consumer perceptions of cultural appropriation and its impact on brand attitudes and purchase interest. The authors begin by developing and validating a scale for measuring perceptions of cultural appropriation. Next, a series of studies demonstrates that viewing this phenomenon through a historical lens can help determine when and why the use of cultural elements is viewed as appropriative. Specifically, an emphasis on historical power imbalance explains why liberal consumers are more likely to recognize cultural appropriation and why commercializing disadvantaged cultures is considered appropriation, whereas using elements from advantaged cultures may be more acceptable. The conceptualization further identifies brand actions and interventions that influence perceptions of cultural appropriation, including externally emphasizing historical power imbalance, how brands obtain cultural elements, and how brands represent the culture in their product offerings and marketing. These findings help marketers (1) avoid launching products that can be damaging to the brand and offensive to consumers and (2) understand how to better promote products in a way that prevents rather than amplifies these negative perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much is known about product bundles comprised of different items, much less is known about multipacks—a product set comprised of multiple identical items (e.g. a 4-pack body washes). Using the context of multipacks, the authors propose a novel price divisibility effect, which suggests that a multipack's price that is easily divisible (vs. non-divisible) by the number of component items in the multipack will increase its purchase likelihood. For example, purchase likelihoods of a four-pack body wash multipack will be higher when its price is $16 (easily divisible by 4) versus $15.30 (non-divisible by 4). This occurs because a divisible versus non-divisible price shifts consumers' attention to the unit and creates a belief that each unit item in the multipack will be consumed quickly, which, in turn, helps justify purchasing multiple units. The authors report findings from 15 studies (including a field experiment), where they demonstrate the effect and its underlying mechanism and delineate several moderators and boundary conditions. This research contributes to several literature streams, including those on product bundling, multiple-unit pricing, product consumption, and numerical cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent changes to the National Collegiate Athletic Association policy on name, image, and/or likeness and transfer policies have transformed how college athletes may market themselves as human brands. Above all, branding success depends on consumer perceptions. Using a national survey of U.S. consumers and an experiment, we test how transfer behavior impacts consumer purchase intentions for a collegiate athlete's brand. We find that transferring to a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I or Division II school decreases purchase intentions by lowering consumer identification with the athlete through perceived profit motive or perceived athlete quality, respectively. These findings contribute to branding theory and provide insight to players and schools, as they navigate the changing landscape of college athletics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite consumer concern over climate change, research on environmental issues and sport fandom has focused more on organizational outcomes than on fans themselves. Recognizing fandom can be representative of social movements, and social identity and collective action are utilized in an intrinsic case study of Forest Green Rovers football club supporters (who also identify with environmentalism) to understand the extent to which the club represents a social movement, and whether Forest Green Rovers' sustainability efforts encourage pro-environment actions. Through interview research, we found supporters' team and environmental identities cooperate synergistically. Forest Green Rovers is not just representative of environmentalism but has become a politicized identity itself—a means to act for change on environmental issues. We discuss implications concerning identity synergy, team identity as a politicized identity, perceptions of success, collective action, and cognitive alternatives to the status quo. We conclude by noting the unavoidable inseparability of environmental issues and sport consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free samples and loyalty cards are frequently used, but there is little rigorous empirical testing of their effects. We conducted a stepped wedge trial in 29 workplace food outlets to investigate their effects on sales of plant-based meals. Outlets were randomly assigned to three sequences that entered the intervention in the first, second, or third week of August 2022. Free samples of plant-based meals were given out in the first week of the intervention; loyalty cards were available throughout, entitling the bearer to a free meal after they had bought three. The intervention period ended in the last week of August for all outlets. The free meal could be redeemed until one month later. We did not find statistically significant effects of the interventions compared to the baseline period. Our process evaluation indicated that many participants preferred to eat their habitual meal or were unaware of the loyalty cards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial from the Journal of International Marketing, titled "Brands and Branding around the World." It discusses the challenges and opportunities that brands and their managers face in the global market due to various trends and disruptions, such as the climate crisis, the pandemic, and deglobalization. The competitive landscape is also changing, with emerging market firms becoming formidable competitors with their own brands. Consumer attitudes toward brands are evolving, with expectations for brands to act responsibly. The editorial introduces a special issue of the journal that focuses on brands and branding in a global context, featuring six articles that explore different branding topics and perspectives. The articles cover areas such as pricing strategies, brand sponsorship, terroir branding, consumer reactions to product-harm crises, and consumer preferences for masstige brands. The editorial concludes by highlighting the need for further research in areas such as glocal branding, brand purpose and activism, and the use of AI in brand management. [Extracted from the article]

Building on shifting standards theory from social psychology, the authors suggest global versus local branding as an important categorization that affects consumers' reactions to product-harm crises in emerging markets. Specifically, the distinct associations attached to global and local brands create shifting standards and lead to differential consumer expectations and evaluations. In four main and two supplementary experiments, the authors demonstrate that consumers from emerging markets react more negatively toward a product-harm crisis by global (vs. local) brands. Higher initial expectations for global brands are the underlying cause of this more pronounced consumer response to failures. The authors demonstrate which specific expectations are driven by the shifting standards around global and local brands and identify product category as a relevant boundary condition. Finally, consumers with high ethnocentrism appreciate it directionally more when a local brand provides compensation after a product-harm crisis than when a global brand provides compensation. The results have important implications for brand management and crisis management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online retailers worldwide invest beyond their core business of retailing to offer their own delivery services (ODS) to deliver products to customers' homes through their own logistics network. How does this shift to ODS affect customers' behaviors and sales performance? When and why do retailers venture beyond their core competence to offer ODS? To explore these questions, the authors analyze 250,055 customer transactions over 10 years across 416 cities and 49 product categories from JD, a major online retailer in China. Using difference-in-differences models, causal mediation analysis, and the synthetic control method, they find that ODS increases customers' monthly spending by 7.8% and grows city-level sales by 11.9%. This study is the first to quantify the sales impact of ODS and shed light on when and why it works. The findings reveal that ODS has greater value for markets with lower trust levels, infrequent customers, high-risk product categories, and consumers who prefer the focal retailer (versus that of third-party sellers). Causal mediation analysis further reveals that ODS not only improves delivery quality but also builds customer trust, which together increase customers' monthly spending, purchase frequency, and the number of items ordered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mishra and Raghunathan (2004) and Kim (2008) conducted a study on the same model but reached conflicting results on under what circumstances vendor-managed inventory (VMI) benefits the retailer as opposed to retailer-managed inventory (RMI) in a setting where two products are partially substitutable. However, we note that their conflicting results were due to different assumptions about unmet demand after product substitution, which is influenced by consumers response to retail stockouts. This paper then extends their studies by incorporating consumer response to retail stockouts and re-examining the impacts of VMI on the retailer's performance as well as on each manufacturer's. Therefore, this paper reconciles the conflicts in the existing scholarly work and provides a more complete understanding of when each supply chain member is better off with VMI than RMI in a two-product setting. Additionally, the incorporation of consumer response to retail stockouts sheds light on how product substitution and consumers' store loyalty affect the value of VMI to each supply chain member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some markets, offerings become riskier over time as producers introduce new versions that are made more affordable by increasing their risk. Existing theories suggest consumers adopt riskier versions either because they become more risk tolerant or they trade higher risk for lower price—both of which presume consumers know the risks. We reveal a third explanation: evolving market dynamics that increasingly encourage consumer inattention to risk and produce "collective ignorance." We identify factors of collective inattention and propose a three-stage model of development of collective ignorance by analyzing the case of risk buildup in the Hungarian mortgage market. Data include archival materials and interviews with borrowers, lenders, and regulators. Initially, producers offer low-risk products, and social, cultural, and institutional factors encourage attention to risk. Consumers attentive to and capable of assessing risk become early adopters. Over time, increasing adoption and changes in market factors divert consumers' attention from risk, shifting it to price. Under insufficient regulation, risk escalates: producers repeatedly cut price by offering increasingly risky products, while rising collective ignorance leads even risk-averse consumers to adopt them. We offer theoretical contributions to research on the social construction of risk, the attitude–behavior gap, and neoliberal responsibilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brands often make references to competitors in their public communications. Yet not all competitors are equal—over time, certain pairs of brands may develop special rivalry relationships. This research examines whether these relationships can alter the effects of interbrand communications. Drawing on rivalry theory, the authors distinguish between brand rivalry, a special competitive relationship between brands based on a shared history, and competition, a situation where brands merely have currently opposing goals. A series of studies using complementary methods (two archival studies using large-scale Twitter data and three preregistered experiments) provide evidence for the "rivalry reference effect" across multiple brands and product categories. That is, referencing a rival (vs. a nonrival) competitor in a public brand message increases consumer engagement. The effect is mediated by increased story embeddedness, defined as the perception that the reference is embedded within an ongoing story. The authors also show positive downstream effects on purchase intentions and test two moderators: brand preference (loyal vs. neutral consumers) and message valence (negative vs. positive). This research highlights the potential appeal of brand rivalry to consumers, illustrating how and under what conditions brands can use their rivalries to their advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Average product ratings are displayed on many major websites, including online retailers, search engines, and social media sites. Research in both academia and industry has shown that consumers rely heavily on product ratings when making purchase decisions. Websites may show customer ratings in different shapes, colors, or formats. For example, some websites present their rating in a numerical format (e.g., 4.0/5) while others utilize an analog format (e.g.,). The present research investigates how a website's rating presentation may influence magnitude perceptions of the rating, which subsequently affect choices and purchase intentions. The authors propose and find that when the average customer rating is at or above the midpoint (i.e.,.5–.9) of each rating level (i.e., 1–5 on a five-point scale), the numerical (vs. analog) rating format is perceived to be lower in magnitude due to left-digit anchoring, leading to differences in choice likelihood, purchase intent, and ad click likelihood for products and services. Across nine experiments, including an eye-tracking study and a multiple-ad study without holdout, the findings show robust evidence for the proposed effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evoking simplicity in marketing communications has become popular among marketing practitioners, but little is known about its effects on consumers and firms. The current work focuses on consumers' perceptions of the simplicity or complexity of brands and a previously overlooked consequence of those perceptions. Results from six experiments and analysis of a proprietary customer satisfaction dataset from Consumer Reports (N = 147,600) show that when consumers think brands are simple, they judge them to be less likely to experience product or service failures. Although these lower risk judgments could be positive for brands, they can also lead consumers to punish simpler brands more in the event of failures. Results also suggest that consumers' simplicity/complexity perceptions reflect the dimensionality of their mental representations of brands, and the relationship between simplicity and lower risk is attenuated when additional brand dimensionality is framed in terms of redundancy. The findings cast doubt on the degree to which evoking simplicity is a uniformly positive marketing strategy and encourage practitioners to more thoughtfully consider simplicity's implications for consumer and firm welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines how price discounts—a classic marketing incentive—drive children's healthy choices in the understudied context of a developing economy. The authors partnered with UNICEF to launch three field experiments in Panamá among 2,418 children to examine four pillars of price discount promotions for children: what to discount (product selection), how to discount (message design), whom to target (children's age), and whether to discount again (repetition). They uncovered four previously undocumented insights. First, price discounts alone effectively increase demand among children 6–11 years of age, reconciling conflicting findings in prior literature. Second, product selection based on relative price—a particularly crucial factor in developing regions—drives opposing postpromotion effects: ironically, marketers should not discount expensive healthy options but rather moderately priced ones. Third, different from prior literature's practice of directly communicating final prices, discount messages that require older children to derive final prices are more effective. Fourth, repetition can amplify or undermine discounts' efficacy depending on message complexity and children's age. This research offers concrete guidelines for researchers and practitioners, uncovering both positive and negative effects of price promotions on children, and shedding light on price promotion interventions that most powerfully nudge children of different ages to act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketers often assume that consumers comparing products (e.g., two TVs) will show a hedonic contrast. In other words, a product seems more appealing and consumers are willing to pay more for it when it is compared with an unappealing competitor than when it is compared with a highly appealing one. However, hedonic judgments (e.g., how appealing is this TV?) are confounded with underlying attribute judgments (e.g., how big is this TV?), and it is important to delineate their effects. This article presents six studies to disentangle them and shows evidence for two separate effects in opposite directions: while a product's attribute judgments contrast with those of a competitor, its hedonic judgments assimilate. Thus, marketing tactics based on the assumption of the hedonic contrast hypothesis can potentially backfire, reducing willingness to pay. More generally, this research reveals the hidden complexity underlying product comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study household credit responses to Hurricane Harvey using new, geographically granular data on credit cards, mortgages, and flooding. Estimates from a differences-in-differences design that exploits the flooding gradient show that affected households only borrow at low-interest rates, often using promotional (zero interest) cards and that they quickly pay down balances. We also document that take-up of forbearance (borrowing by missing mortgage payments without penalty) increases with flooding. These results are attenuated in floodplains, particularly in structures subject by code to physical hardening. Our results indicate that credit acts as a substitute for the lack of physical hardening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People demonstrate indirect support for a nation's identity by consuming products representing their nationality. In such context, this article focuses on how people react toward brands with national associations when the nation faces threats perpetrated by institutions. Institutions are important as they are one of the core elements defining national identity. Institutional threats to national identity can come from within the nation (internal threat) and from outside (external threat). Weekly supermarket scanner data from 2004 showed that sales of American-sounding brands declined in counties that saw higher coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal (internal threat), and sales of American-sounding brands increased in counties with more war casualties (external threat). Seven additional experiments demonstrated that (1) self-enhancement derived from national identity mediates these main effects, (2) advertisements that refocus attention on how the brand helps cope with external threats mitigate the negative effects of internal threats for American brands, and (3) such advertisements do not mitigate the negative effects of internal threats for non-American brands. Qualitative surveys (N = 218), surveys (N = 1,603), experiments (N = 3,123), and secondary data analyses (encompassing sales of over 8,000 brands across more than 1,100 U.S. stores) were used to triangulate the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of misinformation has spurred various interested parties—regulators, the media, and competing firms—to debunk false claims in the marketplace. This research examines whether such debunking messages provided by these parties can impact consumer purchase behavior. If so, does debunking effectively correct consumers' misinformed beliefs—an ideal outcome from a policy maker's perspective—or does it merely reinforce correct beliefs, as predicted by biased belief updating? With theory providing contradictory predictions, the authors design and implement a conjoint experiment that enables measurement of willingness to pay under exposure to real-world misinformation and debunking messages. Focusing on three ingredients in product categories where misinformation is prevalent (aluminum in deodorant, fluoride in toothpaste, and genetically modified organisms in food), the authors find that debunking plays an important role in mitigating the impact of misinformation. More specifically, debunking can attenuate the decrease in willingness to pay caused by misinformation by correcting misbeliefs, a promising finding for policy makers. The authors discuss the incentives for firms to debunk misinformation or to introduce new products that conform to misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising income inequality is taking a toll on people's subjective well-being (SWB), and many commentators have implicated the role of material possessions, and thereby marketing, in this regard. Making a more nuanced argument, this research proposes that certain material possessions—namely, favorite possessions—can mitigate the detrimental psychological effect of income inequality on SWB. In support of this proposition, experimental data from nine countries (N = 3,687) and social media posts from 138 countries (N = 31,332) converge to show that, while SWB generally declines as income inequality increases, encouraging consumers to attend to their favorite possessions can mitigate the negative effect of inequality on SWB. This is because attending to favorite possessions reduces consumers' tendency to make social comparisons related to material resources and wealth, which otherwise arise when income inequality is high. Consequently, even when they perceive high income inequality, consumers feel less deprived relative to others, which buffers their SWB. These findings have meaningful consumer welfare implications. In particular, one way consumers can feel happier with their quality of life in an unequal society is to avoid comparing their material wealth with that of others and instead attend to the material possessions most special to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than 20 years, the consumer–brand relationship (CBR) subfield has flourished with scores of constructs being employed. We provide an epistemological examination of its 14 most commonly measured relational constructs (e.g. Brand Love, Self-Brand Connection) collected from 767 research articles, reflecting 1,753 scales and approximately 9,200 items. We demonstrate that constructs overlap an average of 43% across all journals and 21% in top journals due to assessing highly similar or synonymous ideas (i.e. jangle). We use a combination of text and cluster analyses to show that measures of allegedly the same construct are polysemic, having an average of 5.3 different meanings (i.e. jingle). The results document in the CBR subfield the types of measurement inconsistencies and ambiguities that have sown confusion and frustration in other academic fields. We discuss the roots of these problems and offer recommendations aimed at helping scholars to improve measurement practices and to limit the presence of jingle and jangle in the CBR subfield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that consumers respond differently to decisions made by humans versus algorithms. Many tasks, however, are not performed by humans anymore but entirely by algorithms. In fact, consumers increasingly encounter algorithm-controlled products, such as robotic vacuum cleaners or smart refrigerators, which are steered by different types of algorithms. Building on insights from computer science and consumer research on algorithm perception, this research investigates how consumers respond to different types of algorithms within these products. This research compares high-adaptivity algorithms, which can learn and adapt, versus low-adaptivity algorithms, which are entirely pre-programmed, and explore their impact on consumers' product preferences. Six empirical studies show that, in general, consumers prefer products with high-adaptivity algorithms. However, this preference depends on the desired level of product outcome range—the number of solutions a product is expected to provide within a task or across tasks. The findings also demonstrate that perceived algorithm creativity and predictability drive the observed effects. This research highlights the distinctive role of algorithm types in the perception of consumer goods and reveals the consequences of unveiling the mind of the machine to consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketers commonly use consensus cues about others' behavioral choices ("best seller") or their attitudes ("top rated") when labeling products. This article suggests that the effectiveness of these types of cues may differ across cultures in ways that carry implications for marketing practice. Prior research shows that in contexts that give rise to an interdependent cultural self-construal, choices are often responsive to social expectations rather than personal preferences. We propose that, because interdependents expect such behavioral conformity, cues that convey consensus about others' choices may be less diagnostic and, thus, less persuasive than cues that convey consensus about others' attitudes. Five studies examining cultural self-construal in multiple ways, along with two cross-national industry datasets, offer evidence consistent with this reasoning, suggesting that, among interdependents, behavioral consensus cues can actually be less effective than attitudinal ones, reducing persuasion and willingness to pay. However, among independents, because attitudes are assumed to influence behavioral choices, whether the consensus cue is attitudinal or behavioral makes little difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should consumers sequence the different stimuli they consume: cluster each stimulus together, or intermix them to break things up? Surprisingly, prior literature has provided little insight into this question, even though consumers face it on a regular basis. We propose that clustering each stimulus type together can prolong enjoyment (vs. intermixing the types). Six studies confirm that clustering slows hedonic decline, and process evidence shows this happens because clustering leads people to attend more to the different details offered by a stimulus during repeated exposures. We also establish two boundary conditions for this effect: clustering does not slow hedonic decline in the presence of regular intervening distractions, or for impoverished stimuli lacking rich details. The present work is among the first to examine the interplay of consumption sequence and hedonic decline, and the findings provide consumers and firms with practical guidance on how to consider sequencing experiences to enjoy them longer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers frequently receive refunds from prior purchases. In this research, we examine if money refunded from previous purchases is more likely to be spent than money that does not go through a refund process. Across nine pre-registered studies, we test how consumers' willingness to spend depends on the transaction history of their money. We find that, when people receive a refund and do not need to replace the originally purchased item, they are more likely to spend the refunded money on a discretionary purchase than they are to spend non-refunded money that is otherwise identical. We suggest that this pattern arises because refunded money is earmarked as "spending money" at the time of the initial purchase and then retains that earmark even after the refund is issued. When refunds arrive, therefore, they seem free from obligations and easy to spend. This research documents the psychology of purchase refunds, a topic largely unaddressed in the mental accounting literature to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research proposes a novel approach to identity-based choice that focuses on consumers' representations of the self-concept, as captured by the perceived cause–effect relationships among features of an individual consumer's self-concept. More specifically, the studies reported here test the proposal that the causal centrality of an identity—the number of other features of a consumer's self-concept that the consumer believes influenced or were influenced by the identity—underlies identity importance and is a determinant of identity-based consumer behaviors. Across seven studies, using both measured and manipulated causal centrality, the current research provides evidence for the role of causal centrality in identity-based choice. Among consumers who share an identity (belong to the same social category), those who believe that the identity is more causally central perceive the identity as more important and are more likely to engage in behaviors consistent with the norms of the social category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies increasingly employ environmental compensation claims in their advertisements. This practice, however, has been criticized as being a form of greenwashing. In two studies, we examined associations between the exposure to abstract and concrete compensation claims, consumers' perceived greenwashing, environmental boycotting and buycotting intentions, and brand evaluation as well as purchase intentions. Further, we investigated the moderating role of consumers' environmental knowledge. In Study 1, findings from a two-wave panel survey (NW2 = 511) indicated that exposure to abstract compensation claims was positively related to perceived greenwashing, whereas exposure to concrete compensation claims was not. Environmental knowledge did not influence perceptions of greenwashing in either claim. Using experimental data, Study 2 (N = 423) showed that concrete compensation claims can also lead to perceived greenwashing but to a lesser extent than abstract ones. Furthermore, environmental knowledge helped consumers detect greenwashing in both claims. In both studies, perceived greenwashing positively predicted consumers' intention to join environmental boycotts but not buycotts. In addition, Study 2 showed that perceived greenwashing was negatively associated with purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does mental accounting matter for total consumption expenditures? We exploit a unique setting in which individuals exogenously receive a new payment card, without requesting one. Using random variation in the time of receipt, we show that individuals temporarily increase total consumption expenditure by making purchases with the new card without reducing spending on the others. We do not observe a corresponding increase in indebtedness. Total consumption expenditure rises even for the least liquidity-constrained individuals. The evidence is consistent with consumers treating methods of payment as nonfungible budget categories, as suggested by models of mental accounting and narrow bracketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adrian Ghenie is a contemporary artist known for his paintings that explore the intersections of technology, consumerism, and identity. His work delves into the impact of technology on our perception of self and society, highlighting the alienation and fragmentation of the digital age. Ghenie's exhibitions, such as "The Brave New World" and "Darwin's Room," critically examine the promises and pitfalls of technology, questioning its effects on individual identity and collective consciousness. His art also explores the manipulation of historical narratives in the digital era, raising ethical and existential questions about truth, power, and memory. Ghenie's work encourages viewers to reflect on the ethical implications of technology and consumerism, promoting a more thoughtful and empathetic engagement with these forces. [Extracted from the article]

Drawing from the concept of anemoia, the authors propose a new typology of nostalgia called vintage anemoia. Vintage anemoia encompasses consumers' positive and nostalgic response to vintage cues, regardless of specific historical periods or individual lived experiences. Through a series of seven studies, the authors demonstrate that vintage typography, by evoking feelings of vintage anemoia, can enhance consumer perceptions of product safety. This effect has positive downstream consequences on key marketing outcomes, including brand attitude, purchase intention, and willingness to pay. Furthermore, the effect of vintage anemoia on product safety perceptions remains unaffected by whether product safety information indicates that a product is safe or unsafe. However, the effect diminishes when an explicit indexical cue (year of establishment) is utilized or when promoting futuristic products. The findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge in marketing and provide insights for marketers on leveraging vintage typography as a strategic tool for creating emotional connections with consumers and enhancing perceptions of product safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research introduces behavioral labeling as the use of names or tags that reflect an associated activity, and it proposes that this can induce corresponding behavior. Contrary to the common intuition that descriptions of behaviors emerge as markings for popular actions (i.e., the label is a consequence of the behavior), the authors propose that a description itself might also induce the corresponding action (i.e., the label is an antecedent of the behavior). Building on linguistic relativity theory and based on five studies conducted in the lab and field, the authors show that merely attaching a fictitious name to a behavior can induce that very behavior. The authors also explore a potential explanation for this finding by showing that a behavioral label can evoke mental imagery regarding the associated behavior, which enhances the implementation of the behavior. The results contribute to marketing theory by introducing behavioral labeling and highlighting how language can shape behaviors. Marketers can use behavioral labels to promote their offerings based on the associated behaviors, while public policy makers can use behavioral labels to encourage prosocial and proenvironmental behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intertemporal choices represent one of the most prevalent and fundamental trade-offs in consumer decision making. While prior research on intertemporal choices has focused on choices for oneself, intertemporal choices often involve one individual choosing on behalf of another. How do intertemporal choices made for another person differ from otherwise identical choices made for oneself? This research introduces a self–other decision model that distinguishes reaction utility (derived from interpersonal feedback) from vicarious utility (derived from imagining the recipient's experience). The authors tested model-derived hypotheses in 13 experiments (N = 4,799) involving decisions between peers. Consistent with the proposed role of reaction utility in the model, they find that intertemporal choices made for others are typically more "impatient" than choices for oneself. Moreover, this "agent's impatience" is attenuated when contextual and individual differences weaken the anticipation of interpersonal feedback. Together, the theoretical model and experimental results highlight the rewarding value of interpersonal feedback in self–other decision making, shedding new light on interpersonal consumer choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product consumption is an important yet understudied aspect of marketing. Over-the-counter medicines present a unique consumption context because consumers are expected to follow product label instructions. For acetaminophen, a widely consumed over-the-counter drug, the authors study which consumers tend to deviate from the label instructions, why they do so, and the interventions that are most promising to mitigate such deviations. They develop a dynamic structural model of consumption that enables them to investigate the probability of different types of label deviations (e.g., >4 g per day) and drivers of such behaviors. Label deviations are infrequent "tail area" behaviors, and the model uncovers them well. The analysis is based on a unique online consumption diary in which consumers select from two classes of acetaminophen products (single ingredient or a combination of ingredients) to treat their pain or non-pain-related symptoms. Consumers have a higher probability of taking >4 g of acetaminophen when they have multiple symptoms, and a variety of observable factors explain the individual propensity to deviate from the label. The authors propose two interventions—a new label instruction and consumer education—to mitigate the observed label deviations and assess the expected impact of each. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owners value heritage goods, items that connect them to a shared past, whether through their alma mater or their family history. This research considers the impact of heritage on owners who wish to sell such goods. In five studies, the authors demonstrate that sellers have a lower willingness to accept when selling heritage goods to buyers with a shared heritage connection relative to buyers without this connection (i.e., a heritage discount). This heritage discount cannot be explained by ingroup favoritism, sentimental value, or appropriateness of buyer usage and persists even when sellers perceive that the buyer has a higher willingness to pay. The authors provide process evidence that the effect of the buyer's identity on the seller's willingness to accept is driven by concerns about heritage loss. The findings contribute to literatures on sharing, sentimental goods, psychological ownership, and the endowment effect and have marketing implications for consumer goods (e.g., collectibles) that derive product value by connecting consumers to meaningful history and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tests the effect of a novel credit card payment format—repayment-by-purchase—on consumers' payments toward credit card debt. In contrast to typical balance repayment, where consumers make repayments relative to a total amount owed, repayment-by-purchase prompts consumers to select items (e.g., a Starbucks coffee) or categories of purchase (e.g., restaurant and café purchases) and to make payments toward their related debt. A field experiment first suggests that customers who opted into repayment-by-purchase paid 12.18% more toward their statement balance than a control group. Subsequently, five lab experiments show that consumers repaying-by-purchase increase repayment by an average of 22.47% over typical balance repayment. Process evidence suggests that these differences may be driven by repayment-by-purchase's power to increase purchase salience, which in turns increases perceptions of progress toward reducing debt. Consistent with this theory, the effect of repayment-by-purchase on bill repayment emerges regardless of whether consumers repay durable versus nondurable goods, and for specific items or categories of purchases, as long as the bill uses labels that are concrete enough to raise past purchase salience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a randomized field experiment, this study compares the economic effects of two categories of nudges—self-assurance- and pressure-based interventions—on consumers' purchase and return behaviors. In contrast to pressure-oriented nudges, such as quantity scarcity, time scarcity, and social persuasion, self-assurance nudges are intended to facilitate the validation of product choice and style/size characteristics as well as the self-assurance-grounded justification of the purchase. The findings reveal that self-assurance nudges designed to help consumers make better choices have both short-term (high sales) and long-term (few product returns) benefits. Although pressure-driven nudges offer slightly higher short-term benefits (high sales), they eventually engender unfavorable long-term outcomes (high product returns) for consumers and online retailers. Finally, using return-adjusted net sales as performance measures, the authors find that self-assurance-based nudges are as effective in stimulating purchase as those that capitalize on scarcity and social pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opportunities for the shared consumption of publicly available products that once might have been considered personal-use only, such as hand sanitizers and shampoos, are proliferating in the consumer environment. This work explores shared product consumption in these underresearched, but now ubiquitous, contexts. The authors suggest and find, over a series of five studies and across a variety of product domains, that sharing a product with strangers (i.e., sharing-out) engenders a lower sense of identification with the product, which leads to lower perceived product efficacy. They further show that the dampening effect of sharing-out on efficacy perceptions is limited to consumers high in self–brand connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accompanying the rising ethnic diversity of Western countries is a burgeoning number of mixed-ethnic unions and people with mixed-ethnic ancestry. These people do not fit neatly into one group or another. This ambiguity is compounded by the fact that their ethnic identity is affected by how they are perceived and labeled by others. Theories have been advanced to explain ethnic identity, and its corollaries for cognition, emotions, and consumer behaviors. However, aside from a handful of ethnographic studies, knowledge about how social identity of mixed-ethnic consumers is formed and shaped, and how it potentially affects consumer dispositions, remains largely uncharted. Using data gathered in three countries (Canada, United States, United Kingdom), and considering various ethnic mixture combinations, this article presents the development and validation of a multidimensional scale for measuring mixed-ethnic identity (MEI) and examines the relationships of the 13 MEI components to consumer dispositions commonly used to segment domestic and international markets. The consistency of the relationships between the MEI components and the established consumer dispositions are scrutinized. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pandemic lockdowns in early 2020 disrupted daily life worldwide and created an opportunity for self-reflection and consumption paradigm shifts. However, consumption patterns might take different directions, and opposing views exist about whether consumers (1) prolong reduced consumption after lockdown or (2) compensate for lockdown consumption restrictions through self-indulgence. Drawing from self-determination theory and individual–cultural values frameworks, this article develops a conceptual model of postlockdown consumption patterns related to three factors: consumers' fulfillment of basic psychological needs during lockdowns, individual consumer values, and country-level cultural orientations. Consumer surveys conducted after the first lockdowns in three culturally different European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, and Romania) show that both satisfaction and dissatisfaction of psychological needs during lockdown impact consumption patterns, at least in the short term. The direction of consumption patterns is driven by hedonism and universalism values at an individual level and differences in postmaterialism and indulgence at a country level. The results provide implications for international marketers and policy makers in postpandemic marketplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]