Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

Seifert, Rouven; Otten, Cord; Clement, Michel; Albers, Sönke; Kleinen, Ole

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00897-0pmid: N/A

Digital technologies allow versioning a product (e.g., a movie) for different physical and digital sequential distribution channels to target heterogeneous consumer segments, thereby creating exclusive offers. Extant literature on sequential distribution for movies largely concentrates on the theater-to-home-video window length (e.g., DVD), thus, neglecting digital distribution channels, particularly the potential of exclusive digital offers when multiple subsequent home video channels are available. We empirically examine the impact of exclusive digital movie offers on demand in digital and physical distribution channels. We fit a system of equations to a unique sample of 260 movies distributed in theaters, digital purchases, digital rentals, and physical purchases channels. Overall, the results indicate substantial profits from exclusive offers. Rather than sales cannibalizations, we find positive cross-channel demand spillovers from exclusive digital offers to delayed physical purchases. Exclusive home video offers outperform mere reductions in the theatrical exclusivity period; thus, implementing exclusive digital home video releases is a promising alternative to avoid conflict-prone reductions of the overall theater-to-home-video release window. Our findings are also relevant to industries that use different online and offline release windows (book publishers) or give exclusive access across different platforms (game publishers).

Wang, Lili; Touré-Tillery, Maferima; McGill, Ann L.

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00891-6pmid: 35855692

The present article examines how disease anthropomorphism affects compliance with recommendations for preventing the disease. We find that consumers are more likely to comply with health recommendations when the disease is described in anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) terms because anthropomorphism increases psychological closeness to the disease, which increases perceived vulnerability. We demonstrate the effect of disease anthropomorphism on health compliance in seven studies with several diseases (COVID-19, breast cancer), manipulations of anthropomorphism (first person and third person; with and without an image), and participant populations (the US and China). We test the proposed pathway through psychological closeness and perceived vulnerability with sequential mediation analyses and moderation-of-process approaches, and we rule out alternative accounts based on known consequences of anthropomorphism and antecedents of health compliance. This research contributes to the theory and practice of health communication and to the growing literature on how the anthropomorphism of negative entities affects consumers’ judgments and behaviors.

Garbas, Janina; Schubach, Sebastian; Mende, Martin; Scott, Maura L.; Schumann, Jan H.

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00881-8pmid: N/A

Physical products (e.g., cars, smartphones) increasingly evolve into dynamic service platforms that allow for customization through fee-based activation of restricted add-on features throughout their lifecycle. The authors refer to this emerging phenomenon as “internal product upgrades”. Drawing on normative expectations literature, this research examines pitfalls of internal product upgrades that marketers need to understand. Six experimental studies in two different contexts (consumer-electronics, automotive) reveal that consumers respond less favorably to internal (vs. external) product upgrades. The analyses show that customer-perceived betrayal, which results from increased feature ownership perceptions, drives the effects. Moreover, this research identifies three boundary conditions: it shows that the negative effects are attenuated when (1) the company (vs. consumer) executes the upgrading, and (2) consumers upgrade an intangible (vs. tangible) feature. Finally, consumers react less negatively when (3) the base product is less relevant to their self-identity.

Zhang, Peng Vincent; Kim, Seoyoung; Chakravarty, Anindita

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00877-4pmid: N/A

This study is a meta-analysis of how pull marketing actions influence the effectiveness of marketing actions employed by multichannel firms. Pull marketing actions are highly adaptable marketing actions designed to make multichannel distribution channel portfolios attractive. Integrating prior multichannel distribution literature, the authors investigate whether marketing actions’ effectiveness depends on pull marketing actions and their configuration with the distribution channel structure and attributes of customer, competition, and product category. The analysis that considers firm, data, and model attributes of the sampled studies reveals that marketing actions’ effectiveness is higher when multichannel firms use digital advertising and price promotions in all distribution channels. Price discrimination across channels does not improve marketing actions’ effectiveness. Furthermore, marketing actions’ effectiveness depends on how digital advertising and price promotions are aligned with channel variety, channel richness, customer experience, market competitiveness, and product purchase infrequency.

Gao, Lily (Xuehui); de Haan, Evert; Melero-Polo, Iguácel; Sese, F. Javier

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00898-zpmid: N/A

Building barriers to lock in customers and improving the affective customer experience are two key strategies employed by firms to enhance customer retention. Although pursuing the same goal, these strategies work differently: the former relies more on a calculative, cost–benefit approach to the exchange, while the latter promotes affective aspects of the relationship. Integrating experiential learning theory with social exchange theory, we provide a conceptual framework to understand the impact of lock-in and affective customer experience on customer retention, and the moderating role of relationship depth. Using a comprehensive data set for a sample of 13,761 customers covering all firms in one telecom market for two different services, we empirically test the framework via multinomial logit modeling. The results offer novel insights into the interplay between the two strategies. For poor affective customer experience (i.e., a score below five on a 0–10 scale), lock-in helps firms reduce customer churn (between 49.03% and 47.86%). However, the impact of lock-in decreases when affective customer experience improves and turns to be insignificant once the experience reaches the “acceptable level” (i.e., a score above seven on a 0–10 scale). Importantly, the separate and joint effects of the two strategies are stronger when there is a low relationship depth, and weaker when heavy relationships are established. The findings offer useful practical advice to manage these strategies in an efficient and optimal way.

Friske, Wesley; Hoelscher, Seth A.; Nikolov, Atanas Nik

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00879-2pmid: N/A

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between voluntary sustainability reporting and firm value, as measured by Tobin’s q. We test three main hypotheses developed from signaling theory and the sustainability reporting literature on a large panel of reporting and non-reporting organizations for the period 2011–2020. The results of a fixed effects panel model suggest that, in general, sustainability reporting is negatively related to Tobin’s q. However, the results also indicate that the relationship between sustainability reporting and Tobin’s q becomes increasingly positive over time. Our conclusion is that sustainability reporting is initially a costly signal, but that it eventually enhances firm value as companies learn how to better communicate sustainability initiatives to stakeholders and investors learn how to properly evaluate reports. Finally, in an analysis of sustainability reporting organizations, we find that external assurance is positively associated with Tobin’s q. External audits appear to increase the credibility of reports. Implications for marketing theory and practice are discussed.

Wiegand, Nico; Peers, Yuri; Bleier, Alexander

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00893-4pmid: N/A

Steady software supply is a crucial driver of platform sales. While publishers benefit from releasing software across multiple platforms to tap a greater market, platform manufacturers often seek exclusive release to differentiate from competitors. Research has examined such software multihoming across competing platforms of the same technology generation (i.e., the proximal market); however, publishers increasingly multihome software to platforms in distal markets. In the video game console industry, these include previous-generation consoles, handhelds, or mobile devices. This study investigates multihoming to distal markets in the seventh and eighth game console generations. Whereas multihoming to previous-generation consoles cannibalizes focal console sales, multihoming to mobile devices exerts complementary effects. Software quality and console age moderate these relationships, with negative spillovers from multihoming to previous-generation consoles being rooted in lower-quality games and games released later in the console’s lifecycle. By contrast, multihoming to mobile devices is most beneficial early on.

Mars, Matthew M.; Schau, Hope Jensen; Thorp, Tyler E.

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00904-4pmid: 36465519

We identify value narratives as stories that promote certain product or service attributes as benefits within the marketplace. We show how value narratives reflect benefit attributes that align with alternative versus mainstream market settings. Our empirical focus is local food value narratives within a common local food system with alternative settings being farmers’ markets and mainstream settings being supermarkets. Farmers’ market and supermarket purveyors choose which benefit characteristics to emphasize throughout narrative curation, enabling us to witness strategic narrative use, or what we term narrative stewardship. We find that multiple value narratives express an array of ‘local food’ benefits in ways that create a contested marketplace. Narrative deployment at farmers’ markets is guided by an amalgam of institutional perspectives, while narrative use at supermarkets is dominated by a market institutional perspective. We identify a continuum of value narrative stewardship (promotion-neglect) within farmers’ markets that leaves the meaning and value of ‘local food’ vulnerable to mainstream market appropriation via narrative voidance, dilution, and replacement. We propose strategies for better value narrative stewardship.

Zhang, Yufei; DeCarlo, Thomas E.; Manikas, Andrew S.; Bhattacharya, Abhi

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00871-wpmid: N/A

Reward-based crowdfunding attracts significant research efforts to understand its success drivers; the current study expands such efforts by exploring the word choices within project descriptions and their potential effects for crowdsourced funding of innovative projects. Project descriptions have the potential to influence backer funding decisions significantly, and creators have complete control over them, suggesting the relevance of this previously unexplored factor. A secondary data analysis of 245,704 online requests for new project funding indicates greater success for project descriptions that emphasize exploitation rather than exploration themes. A series of follow-up experiments also demonstrate that risk perceptions mediate decision-making processes, and that a person’s power state is an important moderator of funding intentions. In particular, potential backers with less power are more likely to fund a project with an exploitation-focused description rather than one with an exploration focus. Conversely, backers with greater power perceive both project types as equally attractive, but they also are more likely to fund an explorative project than those with less power. These novel contributions help clarify how funding for startups varies as a function of specific word choices in funding requests, as well as the role of power in determining individual funding behaviors.

Kurt, Didem; Gino, Francesca

doi: 10.1007/s11747-022-00890-7pmid: N/A

Income inequality is a growing social issue in the United States, yet little research has examined whether and how it affects consumers’ everyday purchasing decisions. To address this gap, we analyze the role of income inequality in shopper behavior, namely grocery shoppers’ preference for private labels versus national brands. Since income inequality increases people’s interest in brands that are associated with higher status than others, we predict that shoppers facing higher inequality have a stronger preference for national brands rather than private labels. The results support our thesis: Americans living in places with high versus low income inequality include fewer private label items in their shopping baskets and are willing to pay a higher premium for national brands. Further, consistent with social comparison theory, we find that the link between income inequality and preference for private labels versus national brands is stronger when people have higher social comparison orientation.