Today, we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems, and Practitioner-Oriented Journals in the last months.
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Sohn, S., O. Schnittka and B. Seegebarth (2024): Consumer responses to firm-owned devices in self-service technologies: Insights from a data privacy perspective, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 41(3936), pp.77-92
• SSTs can be described by device ownership (firm- vs. customer-owned devices). • Data privacy needs shape consumer preferences for firm-owned devices in SSTs. • Interactions with firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices enhance data privacy. • Vulnerability and data privacy explain the effect of device ownership on intentions. • The firm’s strategy of customer data usage dictates the effects of firm-owned devices. While self-service technologies (SSTs) enable customers to produce services such as food ordering, hotel check-in, and retail store checkout on their own, they involve the use of devices that are either firm-owned (e.g., the retailer provides a handheld device for self-checkout) or customer-owned (e.g., a customer uses a personal smartphone for self-checkout). With the increasing relevance of customer-owned devices, the role of firm-owned devices is an open question. Therefore, this study examines the role of devices in SSTs. In a series of six empirical studies and drawing on data privacy theory, we explore consumer responses to firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices. The findings reveal that consumers prefer firm-owned devices in SSTs and that their general need for data privacy guides these preferences. The findings also show that the interaction with firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices is associated with increasing perceptions of data privacy because consumers feel less vulnerable when interacting with firm-owned devices. However, this effect changes depending on the service firm’s practices of customer data usage (data sensitivity and transparency). These findings add to knowledge about consumer response to SSTs and devices, and thereby unfold how devices are interwoven with consumer data privacy. Practitioners learn how consumers respond to device ownership in SSTs and when firm-owned (vs. customer-owned) devices induce favorable customer responses.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.08.003 [Google]
Majumder, M. and S. Arora (2024): Intersectional Inequalities and Invisibilization in Organizations: The Case of Indian Beauty and Wellness Services, Journal of Management, 50(3937), pp.1029-1065
Discourses on social inequalities and the processes that sustain, reproduce, and reify them have been a long-standing area of scholarship. This paper focuses its attention on intersecting inequalities at workplaces and the organizational processes that support and enable their invisibilization. Building on this idea of invisibilization, we take a critical look at the active and conscious work done to keep inequalities hidden within organizations. In doing so, we understand and advance invisibilization as a twin concept that is primarily framed as a power equation but also acts as a visual illusion that obfuscates inequalities. We discuss this obfuscation by exploring intersectional inequalities within the Indian beauty and wellness services (BWS), a majorly unorganized sector that has a visible workforce of women migrants belonging to indigenous communities from the northeast region of the country. Using frameworks of Intersectionality, New Racism, and Othering, we argue that hiring within the BWS normalizes a heteropatriarchal-savarna gaze of the indigenous other, where women are routinely racialized and sexualized to be inducted within the industry. Further, this case study exemplifies how visible frames of gender inequalities invisibilize other ethno-racial, and regional inequalities within workplaces. Building on these findings, we suggest that organizations invisibilize inequalities by (a) co-opting a progressive vocabulary; (b) performing a normalizing function; (c) creating obfuscation; and (d) building a visual facade. Finally, this study contributes by broadening our theoretical understanding of invisibilization, especially in the context of intersectional inequalities, wherein inequalities are normalized through everyday practices within organizational hiring and training, among others.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01492063231184811 [Google]
Dew, R., E. Ascarza, O. Netzer and N. Sicherman (2024): Detecting Routines: Applications to Ridesharing Customer Relationship Management, Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), 61(3938), pp.368-392
Routines shape many aspects of day-to-day consumption. While prior research has established the importance of habits in consumer behavior, little work has been done to understand the implications of routines—which the authors define as repeated behaviors with recurring, temporal structures—for customer management. One reason for this dearth is the difficulty of measuring routines from transaction data, particularly when routines vary substantially across customers. The authors propose a new approach for doing so, which they apply in the context of ridesharing. They model customer-level routines with Bayesian nonparametric Gaussian processes, leveraging a novel kernel that allows for flexible yet precise estimation of routines. These Gaussian processes are nested in inhomogeneous Poisson processes of usage, allowing the authors to estimate customers’ routines and decompose their usage into routine and nonroutine parts. They show the value of detecting routines for customer relationship management in the context of ridesharing, where they find that routines are associated with higher future usage and activity rates, and more resilience to service failures. Moreover, the authors show how these outcomes vary by the types of routines customers have, and by whether trips are part of the customer’s routine, suggesting a role for routines in segmentation and targeting.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00222437231189185 [Google]
Huang, L. L., R. P. Chen and K. W. Chan (2024): Pairing up with anthropomorphized artificial agents: Leveraging employee creativity in service encounters, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, (3939), pp.1-21
Even as artificial agents (AAs) become more prevalent in service encounters, customers continue to express generally unfavorable views of their creativity, which can lead to negative service evaluations. Drawing on anthropomorphism and group stereotyping literature, the authors propose a trait transference effect from human employees to AAs in dyadic service teams. The results of five studies confirm that an anthropomorphized (vs. nonanthropomorphized) AA paired with a creative employee boosts service evaluations, both attitudinal and behavioral. Anthropomorphism induces greater perceived entitativity of the AA–employee dyad, prompting customers to transfer the creativity exhibited by the employee to the AA and perceive the AA as more creative. This transference effect is attenuated when the temporal stability of the dyad is low, customers’ lay beliefs about group entitativity are challenged, or customers have utilitarian consumption goals. These results contribute novel insights about AAs in service teams, with compelling practical implications.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-024-01017-w [Google]
Shanks, I., M. L. Scott, M. Mende, J. van Doorn and D. Grewal (2024): Cobotic service teams and power dynamics: Understanding and mitigating unintended consequences of human-robot collaboration in healthcare services, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, (3940), pp.1-27
In cobotic service teams, employees and robots collaborate to serve customers. As cobotic teams become more prevalent, a key question arises: How do consumers respond to cobotic teams, as a function of the roles shared by employees and robots (robots in superordinate roles as team leaders and humans in subordinate roles as assistants, or vice versa)? Six studies, conducted in different healthcare settings, show that consumers respond less favorably to robot-led (vs. human-led) teams. In delineating the process underlying these responses, the authors demonstrate that consumers ascribe less power to robot (vs. human) team leaders, which increases consumer anxiety and drives downstream responses through serial mediation. Further examining the power dynamics in cobotic service encounters, the authors identify boundary conditions that help mitigate negative consumer responses (increasing consumers’ power by letting them choose the robot in the service team, leveraging consumers’ power distance beliefs, and reinforcing the robot’s performance capabilities).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-024-01004-1 [Google]
Sudbury-Riley, L., P. Hunter-Jones, A. Al-Abdin and M. Haenlein (2024): When the road is rocky: Investigating the role of vulnerability in consumer journeys, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, (3941), pp.1-24
Journey research has primarily analyzed agentic, solo travelers making rational single-purchase decisions. In contrast, we examine a journey where consumers and their traveling companions are vulnerable and must navigate an unfamiliar service system. We explore how vulnerability shapes consumer journeys, how service and system factors impact vulnerability, and how traveling companions influence agency and vulnerability. Using data from an extensive study into end-of-life care, our results reveal novel insights into the role of consumer vulnerability throughout a journey. We show how the ebb and flow of consumer vulnerability shapes the journey, and how the journey shapes vulnerability. Traveling companions, themselves vulnerable, play a major role in influencing vulnerability and the journey itself. We offer managerial implications for organizations whose consumers are in vulnerable situations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-024-01011-2 [Google]
Kostami, V. (2024): If You Love Your Agents, Set Them Free: Task Discretion in Online Workplaces, Management Science, 70(3942), pp.1787-1809
In manufacturing and service operations, flexibility is beneficial for matching supply with demand, but it comes at a cost. In modern digital workplaces, agents have different skills associated with corresponding and variable task preferences. Some are inclined to give up part of their payment to avoid unfavorable matches, and the platform manager, in turn, gains extra freedom in allocating tasks by possibly charging servers for favorable assignments. Innovative marketplaces facilitate task discretion and seek novel and beneficial implementations in the platform design. This naturally leads to the problem of exploring and optimizing the task allocation process. We introduce an innovative mechanism for task assignment in the workplace and compare it to the traditional mechanism in which task routing is solely the platform’s decision. To improve the welfare of all users, agents are allowed some task discretion in exchange for a fee. In a multiserver system, a server may request flexibility and, considering the other agents’ behavior, choose the costly to the platform option, which may or may not be beneficial for the platform when the agents’ and the platform’s preferences are misaligned. We model different working environments and server preferences via different distributions and study how the agents’ preferences, task costs, and flexibility fee affect the equilibrium assignment. In every case, through pricing and offering flexibility, the platform can do at least as well as a scheme with no flexibility. An important conclusion is that pricing task discretion can often improve the agents’ welfare and the labor platform’s profit. This paper was accepted by Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, operations management.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4773 [Google]
Kwan, A. P., S. A. Yang and A. H. Zhang (2024): Crowd-Judging on Two-Sided Platforms: An Analysis of In-Group Bias, Management Science, 70(3943), pp.2459-2476
Disputes over transactions on two-sided platforms are common and usually arbitrated through platforms’ customer service departments or third-party service providers. This paper studies crowd-judging, a novel crowdsourcing mechanism whereby users (buyers and sellers) volunteer as jurors to decide disputes arising from the platform. Using a rich data set from the dispute resolution center at Taobao, a leading Chinese e-commerce platform, we aim to understand this innovation and propose and analyze potential operational improvements with a focus on in-group bias (buyer jurors favor the buyer, likewise for sellers). Platform users, especially sellers, share the perception that in-group bias is prevalent and systematically sways case outcomes as the majority of users on such platforms are buyers, undermining the legitimacy of crowd-judging. Our empirical findings suggest that such concern is not completely unfounded: on average, a seller juror is approximately 10% likelier (than a buyer juror) to vote for a seller. Such bias is aggravated among cases that are decided by a thin margin and when jurors perceive that their in-group’s interests are threatened. However, the bias diminishes as jurors gain experience: a user’s bias reduces by nearly 95% as experience grows from zero to the sample median level. Incorporating these findings and juror participation dynamics in a simulation study, the paper delivers three managerial insights. First, under the existing voting policy, in-group bias influences the outcomes of no more than 2% of cases. Second, simply increasing crowd size through either a larger case panel or aggressively recruiting new jurors may not be efficient in reducing the adverse effect of in-group bias. Finally, policies that allocate cases dynamically could simultaneously mitigate the impact of in-group bias and nurture a more sustainable juror pool. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. Funding: S. A. Yang and A. Zhang acknowledge the support of the Hong Kong General Research Fund [Grant “Decentralizing Platform Governance: Innovations from China; Project 17614921]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4818.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4818 [Google]
Gupta, P., Y. J. Kim, E. Glikson and A. W. Woolley (2024): USING DIGITAL NUDGES TO ENHANCE COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE IN ONLINE COLLABORATION: INSIGHTS FROM UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES, MIS Quarterly, 48(3944), pp.393-408
The dramatic expansion of internet communication tools has led to the increased use of temporary online groups to solve problems, provide services, or produce new knowledge. However, many of these groups need help to collaborate effectively. The rapid development of new tools and collaboration forms requires ongoing experimentation to develop and test new ways to support this novel form of teamwork. Building on research demonstrating the use of nudges to shape behavior, we report the results of an experiment to nudge teamwork in 168 temporary online groups randomly assigned to one of four different nudge treatments. Each nudge was designed to spur one of three targeted collaborative processes (collaborator skill use, effective task strategy, and the level of collective effort) demonstrated to enhance collective intelligence in extant research. Our results support the basic notion that digitally nudging collaborative processes can improve collective intelligence. However, to our surprise, a couple of nudges had unintended negative effects and ultimately decreased collective intelligence. We discuss our results using structured speculation to systematically consider the conditions under which we would or would not expect the same patterns to materialize in order to clearly articulate directions for future research.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2023/16752 [Google]
Recker, J., R. Zeiss and M. Mueller (2024): IREPAIR OR I REPAIR? A DIALECTICAL PROCESS ANALYSIS OF CONTROL ENACTMENT IN THE IPHONE REPAIR AFTERMARKET, MIS Quarterly, 48(3945), pp.321-345
We study how Apple and independent repair service providers used different physical, regulatory, and digital instruments to influence each other’s abilities to control the repair aftermarket of the Apple iPhone between 2007 and 2020. We show how the emergence of digital instruments for enacting control, made possible through emerging functionality for tethering, encryption, and temporary binding implemented in the iPhone itself, was shaped by and shaped the actions of Apple and the independent repair service providers, and led to a dominant tension between encrypted authorization and inscription of control through Apple and collective legal action by independent repair service providers. Our analysis provides a more nuanced understanding of control enactment by highlighting the implications of using different mediums for exercising control, and we provide a new way to understand the dialectics involved in enacting control in digital product aftermarkets. Our study provides insights that can inform the regulation of digital product aftermarkets–in particular, the ongoing debate about rights-to-repair legislation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2023/17511 [Google]
Golara, S. and K. J. Dooley (2024): Service Activity and Patented Innovation in Manufacturing Firms, Production & Operations Management, 33(3946), pp.663-681
Noting the significant shift in the manufacturing sector towards services in recent decades, this study examines the potential of service operations as a source of customer insight. We study whether regular customer exposure during service operations can drive commercially significant and patentable innovation. Furthermore, we highlight the underexplored heterogeneity in the knowledge-generating potential of service activities. Using the media richness theory, we argue that more contact-intensive, knowledge-intensive, or focused services can provide richer customer information. By analyzing data from 8,087 unique manufacturing firms and 1,546,216 patents over a 30-year timeframe, we find that a higher level of service activity results in a higher level of patented innovation, which is stronger for contact-intensive and knowledge-intensive services. Post hoc analyses reveal that such innovations tend to be more radical in nature and depart from the firm’s historical innovation patterns. Our study offers a critical managerial insight that, to maximize their innovation potential, manufacturers should expand into high-contact, knowledge-intensive services and treat their service operations as strategic market intelligence media.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478241231851 [Google]
Hu, M., W. Huang, C. Liu and W. Zhou (2024): Regulation of Privatized Public Service Systems, Production & Operations Management, (3947), pp.1
To alleviate the financial shortage for public service provision, a government agency may jointly finance, own, and run a service system with a private firm (in the manner of a joint venture) or delegate service provision to the firm subject to regulation in service price or wait time. We model the service system as a queueing system in which customers are heterogeneous in service valuation and sensitive to price and delay. While the government aims to maximize social welfare, the firm’s goal is to maximize profit. Hence, the joint venture has the objective of a mix of profit maximization and social welfare creation. Under the regulation, two types of interaction between the government and the firm, that is, sequential move (in the absence of the government’s myopic adjustment) and simultaneous move (in the presence of myopic adjustment), are considered. We find that while wait time regulation is more efficient than price regulation in the presence of myopic adjustment, the relationship is reversed in the absence of myopic adjustment. Somewhat surprisingly, price regulation with myopic adjustment may backfire. However, in some instances, the government must take a large share in a joint venture to achieve the same performance under price regulation without myopic adjustment. Our work uncovers whether the government adopts myopic adjustment plays a critical role in choosing the regulation instrument.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478241235005 [Google]
Hua, S., Y. Lei and X. Zhai (2024): Pricing and Capacity Design for Profit-Driven and Welfare-Driven Healthcare Providers, Production & Operations Management, (3948), pp.1
In choosing healthcare services, price and waiting time are two important factors that matter to patients. Price is set by healthcare providers, while waiting time is usually endogenously determined by patient choice and the healthcare provider’s capacity investment. We study the pricing and capacity design for profit-driven hospitals offering two types of healthcare services—regular and premium—serving heterogeneous patients who choose from either of the two types of services. Patients make their choices based on both price and endogenously determined equilibrium waiting time. We then benchmark profit-driven hospitals to welfare-driven hospitals to reveal how the behaviors of for-profit hospitals deviate from the socially optimal outcomes in patients waiting, service capacity, and price. We find that fewer patients are treated by premium services in profit-driven hospitals, and thus profit-driven hospitals invest less in premium service capacity and charge a higher premium for premium services than welfare-driven hospitals. These inefficiency distortions exist in profit-driven hospitals primarily because they are incentivized to differentiate between the waiting times of the two types of service to induce patients to pay a higher premium for premium services. Our results also show that if the inefficiency in patient partition is corrected, profit-driven hospitals would choose the welfare-maximizing level of premium service capacity and thus achieve socially optimal results. However, we also find that regulations such as price ceiling and capacity regulation cannot fully correct the inefficiency in patient partition and capacity decisions of profit-driven hospitals. Lastly, the model is extended in several ways to ensure robustness.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478241238969 [Google]
Kang, K., S. Doroudi and M. Delasay (2024): Prioritization in the Presence of Self-ordering Opportunities in Omnichannel Services, Production & Operations Management, 33(3949), pp.737-756
Motivated by the popularity of mobile-order-and-pay applications, especially in fast-casual food restaurants and coffee shops, we study omnichannel service systems—where customers can employ mobile applications for self-ordering—with respect to sojourn times, throughput, and social welfare. Our models are two-stage queues with two customer classes: Walk-ins and mobiles. We identify Pareto efficient prioritization policies, highlighting trade-offs between each class’s mean sojourn times. We allow customers to make strategic joining decisions based on their anticipated delays under an information structure where walk-ins observe partial queue length information. We draw from a wide array of techniques, including steady-state, transient, busy period, hitting-time analyses, and matrix analytic methods. We showcase the significance of prioritization on the system throughput and social welfare. We demonstrate settings where a traditional service system’s (typically beneficial) transformation to an omnichannel reduces throughput. Our analysis highlights the importance of prioritization policy choice for an efficient transition to an omnichannel service system. The throughput-optimal policy choice highly depends on the operational parameters and customer patience levels; implementing a wrong policy can yield a significant loss in throughput and profitability.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10591478241231874 [Google]
Brengman, M., K. Willems, L. De Gauquier and B. Vanderborght (2024): Media richness effectiveness: Humanoid robots with or without voice, or just a tablet kiosk?, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3950), pp.734-753
Humanoid robots can serve as in‐store communication medium, providing functional as well as hedonic value. Previous studies have demonstrated their proficiency in providing functional value, such as guiding customers, advertising products, or carrying groceries. However, in a retailing context, engaging customers often requires more than meeting their basic functional needs. This study is the first to examine the potential of humanoid service robots (HSRs) in providing hedonic value as well, comparing their performance to that of more traditional in‐store media in entertaining customers. Based on media richness effectiveness theory, the role of robot voice is also investigated. An experimental field study was performed administering a fun quiz to passers‐by at an airport store considering three conditions (via tablet, robot with voice, or robot without voice). The results show that the quiz via a humanoid robot (as compared to via a tablet kiosk) provides customers more functional and hedonic value. While functional value favorably affects loyalty intentions mainly via enhanced store image, hedonic value has a direct and indirect effect mainly via store attitude. Adding voice to the HSR does not seem to provide significant added value. Data on actual purchase behavior also hint at superiority of the robot over a traditional tablet kiosk.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21948 [Google]
Garner, D., J. H. Tatara and S. Jha (2024): Good morning, sunshine: How time‐of‐day of complaint submittal can affect customer satisfaction with company response time, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3951), pp.774-780
Traditional models of consumer behavior assume that customers perceive factors, e.g., time, in a rational manner throughout the day. For example, the same time period of an hour should, fundamentally, be evaluated as the same as an hour in the afternoon. Yet, across three experimental studies, we find evidence counter to this belief. Under the theoretical framework of the categorization of time, we posit that the unconscious categorization of time influences our satisfaction with company response time due to perceptions of time and resource depletion. We empirically demonstrate that the time‐of‐day of complaint submission impacts satisfaction with company response time such that the same company response time will be perceived as more satisfying in the morning than when received in the afternoon. This previously overlooked relationship builds on a robust and growing literature examining timing strategies in service recovery. We provide both low/no‐cost initiatives as well as strategic timing prioritization for marketing practitioners to maximize customer satisfaction with firm response time.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21950 [Google]
Hollebeek, L. D., C. Menidjel, M. Sarstedt, J. Jansson and S. Urbonavicius (2024): Engaging consumers through artificially intelligent technologies: Systematic review, conceptual model, and further research, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3952), pp.880-898
While consumer engagement (CE) in the context of artificially intelligent (AI‐based) technologies (e.g., chatbots, smart products, voice assistants, or autonomous cars) is gaining traction, the themes characterizing this emerging, interdisciplinary corpus of work remain indeterminate, exposing an important literature‐based gap. Addressing this gap, we conduct a systematic review of 89 studies using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) approach to synthesize the AI‐based CE literature. Our review yields three major themes of AI‐based CE, including (i) Increasingly accurate service provision through AI‐based CE; (ii) Capacity of AI‐based CE to (co)create consumer‐perceived value, and (iii) AI‐based CE’s reduced consumer effort in their task execution. We also develop a conceptual model that proposes the AI‐based CE antecedents of personal, technological, interactional, social, and situational factors, and the AI‐based CE consequences of consumer‐based, firm‐based, and human‐AI collaboration outcomes. We conclude by offering pertinent implications for theory development (e.g., by offering future research questions derived from the proposed themes of AI‐based CE) and practice (e.g., by reducing consumer‐perceived costs of their brand/firm interactions).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21957 [Google]
Holz, H. F., M. Becker, M. Blut and S. Paluch (2024): Eliminating customer experience pain points in complex customer journeys through smart service solutions, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3953), pp.592-609
Scholarly understanding of customer journeys has evolved from a linear, single service provider perspective to encompass complex service delivery networks that involve multiple touchpoints governed by various service providers. This intricate setting often gives rise to experiential pain points for customers. To investigate this phenomenon within the context of airport services, our research employs critical incident and problem‐centered interviews as well as an analysis of 7192 online airport reviews. In Studies 1a and 2a, we explore the crucial pain points that travelers encounter throughout their airport journey. Complementing these insights, Studies 1b and 2b assess the impact of the identified pain points on travelers’ emotions. Building upon a classification of pain points into information, performance, and hospitality themes, Study 3 further examines how smart service solutions, as new technologies, can address and resolve these pain points, ultimately enhancing the customer experience (CX). By accomplishing these objectives, our work contributes a comprehensive classification scheme for experiential pain points in complex customer journeys to the academic discourse on customer journeys. Furthermore, it establishes a connection to the emerging field of research on the impact of smart service solutions on the CX.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21938 [Google]
Liu, W., H. Huang, Q. Yang and C. L. Wang (2024): Perceived air pollution reduces consumers’ self‐disclosure: The role of tense arousal, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3954), pp.781-801
Consumers are often reluctant to disclose their personal information to retailers. How to promote consumers’ self‐disclosure has been a focal point of interest for marketers and researchers. Using a total of eight multimethod studies (N = 5281) which composite a study with secondary data, a field study, a natural experiment, and five lab experiments, we show that a perception of high (vs. low) levels of air pollution decreases consumers’ self‐disclosure willingness and behavior. This effect is mediated by tense arousal and moderated by (1) whether consumers are aware of the impact of perceived air pollution levels on tense arousal and (2) under which environment consumers disclose their personal information (an environment playing low‐paced soothing background music vs. a one playing high‐paced rock background music). We also rule out regulatory focus and mood valence as alternative process variables. Our findings extend past literature on perceived air pollution, tense arousal, and self‐disclosure. The results also suggest marketers, retailers, and service providers mitigate the negative impact of air pollution perception on consumers’ self‐disclosure by playing low‐paced soothing background music in retailing contexts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21949 [Google]
Wilson‐Nash, C. and I. Pavlopoulou (2024): Nostalgia and negotiation: The electronic word‐of‐mouth and social well‐being of older consumers, Psychology & Marketing, 41(3955), pp.532-546
As older people turn to the internet for consumption and social connection, it is imperative to understand how online consumption behaviors, such as generating and absorbing electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM), influence feelings of belonging. This study therefore explores how organic conversations around brands, products, and services influence older consumers’ social well‐being. A 6‐month netnography was conducted in a social media platform geared toward older consumers where eWOM activity was created relating to books, household items, technology, furniture, financial services, clothing, and leisure activities. The findings reveal four types of eWOM—nostalgic, seeking reassurance/advice, providing reassurance/advice, and negotiation, which create experiences of social well‐being. This research contributes to the marketing literature by (1) exploring the implications of eWOM on consumer well‐being (2) investigating how the social value of eWOM interacts with social well‐being, and (3) developing pioneering knowledge of older consumers generating and absorbing eWOM.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21933 [Google]
