Kyu Kim and Gal Zauberman
This paper aims to examine the effect of music tempo on impatience in intertemporal tradeoff decisions. It finds that fast (vs slow) tempo music increases impatience. This occurs…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effect of music tempo on impatience in intertemporal tradeoff decisions. It finds that fast (vs slow) tempo music increases impatience. This occurs because fast (vs slow) tempo music makes temporal distance, and hence the waiting time until the receipt of delayed benefits, feel subjectively longer.
Design/methodology/approach
The study tests the hypotheses through four laboratory experiments.
Findings
In Studies 1a (N = 88) and 1b (N = 98), the results demonstrate that when participants listen to fast (vs slow) tempo music, they judge temporal distance to be longer. In Study 2 (N = 94), the results demonstrate that when participants listen to fast (vs slow) tempo music, they become more impatient when considering a smartphone purchase. In Study 3 (N = 218), the results demonstrate that when participants listen to fast (vs slow) tempo music, they become more impatient when considering a gift certificate, and that this delay discounting effect is attributable to the change in their temporal distance judgment.
Research limitations/implications
The current research reports a novel factor that influences impatience in intertemporal decisions and temporal distance judgment.
Practical implications
This research provides useful guidelines for retail managers and marketers regarding the effect of background music in stores.
Originality/value
This is the first study demonstrating a music tempo effect on temporal distance judgment and impatience in intertemporal tradeoff decisions.
Details
Keywords
Sebastian Brockhaus, Daniel Taylor, A. Michael Knemeyer and Paul R. Murphy
This research explores the concept of omnichannel fulfillment steering (OFS) and demonstrates how retailers can influence a consumer’s fulfillment decisions through commonly used…
Abstract
Purpose
This research explores the concept of omnichannel fulfillment steering (OFS) and demonstrates how retailers can influence a consumer’s fulfillment decisions through commonly used financial incentives such as discounts, credits and the opportunity to avoid home delivery fees.
Design/methodology/approach
We present insights from two theoretically grounded experiments to examine how different types of financial incentives can be used by omnichannel retailers to steer consumers from home delivery toward three alternative order fulfillment methods (AOFM) – buy-online-pickup-in-store, curbside-pickup and ship-to-locker.
Findings
Our analysis suggests that an opportunity to avoid shipping fees (penalty-avoidance) is a more effective OFS nudge than offering discounts or store credits (rewards). No difference was observed between offering discounts or credits as steering mechanisms; further, no omnichannel steering benefits were observed among the tested AOFMs. Collectively, these findings provide possible justification for retailers’ prioritization of credits to foster customer in-store visits, thus encouraging greater customer engagement and facilitating cross-selling opportunities. Finally, we uncover a penalty-avoidance endowment effect for “free shipping” of purchases over the current industry-standard free shipping threshold.
Practical implications
Retailers might prioritize store credits over discounts as nudges to steer customers toward an AOFM, with buy-online-pickup-in-store offering the greatest benefits for most retailers. Furthermore, using penalty-avoidance OFS incentives over a typical free shipping threshold may increase AOFM selection rates but engender adverse customer reactions.
Originality/value
Advancing the concept of OFS, this study directly informs retailers’ omnichannel incentive programs to nudge customers back into the store. Countering intertemporal choice theory, we could not demonstrate that delayed incentives are less effective than immediate ones. Based on prospect theory, we identify a free shipping endowment effect at a specific reference point along a purchase amount continuum.
Details
Keywords
Haijiao Shi and Rong Chen
The current study implies self-quantification to consumer behavior and investigates how self-quantification influences consumers' persistence intentions, then indicates the…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study implies self-quantification to consumer behavior and investigates how self-quantification influences consumers' persistence intentions, then indicates the underlying mechanism and examines the role of sharing in social media context.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested by three experimental studies. In study 1, the authors test the main effect of self-quantification on persistence intentions and demonstrate goal specificity as the mediator. In study 2 and 3, the authors explore sharing and sharing audience as the moderators.
Findings
The current research demonstrates that quantifying personal performance increases consumers' persistence intentions because self-quantification makes the focal goal more specific. However, sharing self-quantification performance with others has a negative effect on the relationship between self-quantification and persistence intentions. Building on goal conflict theory, sharing diverts consumers' focus away from the goal itself and toward others' evaluation and judgment, which makes the focal goal more ambiguous. Moreover, the negative effect depends on who is the sharing audience. When consumers share with close others who hold a similar goal with them, the negative effect of sharing is dramatically reversed.
Practical implications
The present research offers guidelines to managers about how to design self-tracking system to increase user's engagement and how to establish social community on social media platform to motivate users' goal pursuit.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the research of self-quantification from consumer behavior perspective. It also enriches interactive marketing literature by broadening self-quantification relevant research from social interaction dimension.
Details
Keywords
Yunjia Chi, Lin Jiang, Yixuan Zeng and Xuchen Bai
Family cues are widely used in interactive marketing because they appeal to a broad demographic, engaging consumers across different ages and life stages. This research aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Family cues are widely used in interactive marketing because they appeal to a broad demographic, engaging consumers across different ages and life stages. This research aims to investigate whether and how family motivation, induced by exposure to family-related cues in marketing, influences consumers’ self-control behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven studies – including one field experiment, five online experiments and one study analyzing secondary data – robustly support the hypothesis that family motivation enhances self-control by fostering a stronger future orientation. The main effect was tested through both field and online experiments. The mediating role of future orientation was explored using measured mediation as well as a process-manipulation approach. Additionally, we identified a boundary condition for this effect. Finally, real-world evidence for the proposed relationship was demonstrated through an analysis of secondary data from a large-scale, nationwide general social survey.
Findings
This research shows that family motivation enhances future orientation, which in turn promotes self-control. Furthermore, this relationship is moderated by a live-in-the-moment belief.
Practical implications
Marketing appeals emphasizing family should be directed toward services and products that are not seen as indulgent. Furthermore, we provide policymakers with a simpler alternative to traditional long-term self-control training by promoting self-control behavior through the activation of family motivation.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to examine the impact of family motivation on consumer behavior. We also contribute to the self-control literature by identifying a new antecedent to self-control.
Details
Keywords
Miriam McGowan, Louise May Hassan and Edward Shiu
Consumers usually respond favourably to ingroups but negatively to dissociative groups and products linked to dissociative groups, termed the dissociative group effect. Despite…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumers usually respond favourably to ingroups but negatively to dissociative groups and products linked to dissociative groups, termed the dissociative group effect. Despite important implications for branding, advertising and celebrity endorsement, little is known about how to attenuate the effect. This paper aims to introduce a mechanism which attenuates the dissociative group effect by drawing on construal level theory.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental approach was used which included two-part between-subjects designs.
Findings
High identifiers prefer products linked to their ingroup over ones linked to a dissociative group, however, the opposite is true for low identifiers. The difference in preference is attenuated for high and low identifiers when they are placed in an abstract mind-set. The underlying mechanism of this effect is similarity focus.
Research limitations/implications
The same context was used to ensure that the attenuating effect found was not due to contextual factors. However, further studies should replicate the findings in a wider variety of contexts.
Practical implications
This research offers practical recommendations on how to manage multiple customer segments in increasingly diverse marketplaces. By inducing an abstract mind-set in customers, for example, via advertising copy, website architecture or contextual factors such as pitch of the music, marketers can increase the effectiveness of identity-linking marketing for consumers’ high/low in identification.
Originality/value
This is one of the first empirical studies to evidence the applicability of construal level theory within identity marketing and offers a novel mechanism to attenuate the dissociative group effect. The findings shed new light on how low identifiers relate and respond to identity-linked marketing.