Jeanette Carlsson Hauff and Jonas Nilsson
During 2020, governments around the world introduced contact-tracing apps to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In order for contact-tracing apps to be efficient tools in combatting…
Abstract
Purpose
During 2020, governments around the world introduced contact-tracing apps to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In order for contact-tracing apps to be efficient tools in combatting pandemics, a significant proportion of the population has to install it. However, in many countries, the success of apps introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic has been limited due to lack of public support. This paper aims to better understand why consumers seem unwilling to install and use a contact-tracing app.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors test a number of determinants hypothesized to influence acceptance of contact-tracing apps based on the theory of privacy calculus (Dinev and Hart, 2006). Both perceived privacy concerns, as well as perceived hedonic, utilitarian and pro-social benefits are included. The hypotheses are tested through SEM analysis on a representative sample of 1,007 Swedish citizens.
Findings
The results indicate significant privacy concerns with using contact-tracing apps. However, this is to some extent offset by perceived hedonic and pro-social positive consequences of using the app. This study further shows that a general positive attitude towards innovation increases acceptance of the app.
Originality/value
The study contributes to research on consumer privacy, both in general in its application of the calculus model but also specifically in the context of contact-tracing apps. Moreover, as the results highlight which aspects that are important for consumers to accept and install an app of this kind, they also represent an important contribution to policymakers in countries around the world.
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Jonas Nilsson and Jeanette Carlsson Hauff
Students in the marketing discipline have been reported to struggle with quantitative methods. This paper aims to focus on whether it is possible to increase student confidence…
Abstract
Purpose
Students in the marketing discipline have been reported to struggle with quantitative methods. This paper aims to focus on whether it is possible to increase student confidence and reduce anxiety with quantitative data analysis even when limited teaching resources are available. It reports on two half-day initiatives to teach quantitative methods that followed the principles of integration of method into a substantive course (as opposed to stand-alone course) and hands-on approach (as opposed to using a theoretical and hands-off approach).
Design/methodology/approach
Over the course of three semesters, 92 students that took part of the sessions answered a survey where they reported their basic understanding, confidence, practical abilities and anxiety with quantitative methods.
Findings
The results indicate significant improvements in self-reported basic understanding, confidence, practical abilities and anxiety. Further analysis indicated that neither gender nor previous statistical background had an impact on perceived benefit with the initiative.
Practical implications
In all, the study indicates that integration and hands-on approaches may be beneficial to reduce anxiety and increase confidence with quantitative data analysis, even when this initiative is limited in time and resources.
Originality/value
The study presents an approach to reducing anxiety and increasing confidence with quantitative data analysis. Teaching initiatives like this may be beneficial in situations when students experience high levels of statistics anxiety.
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Jeanette Carlsson Hauff and Jonas Nilsson
Choosing how to invest one’s assets is one of the more important decisions consumers are faced with. However, determining the objective financial quality of complex investment…
Abstract
Purpose
Choosing how to invest one’s assets is one of the more important decisions consumers are faced with. However, determining the objective financial quality of complex investment products such as mutual funds is not an easy task for consumers. Against this background, this study aims to clarify the potential impact of one, not necessarily rational, cue on consumer perceptions of financial quality in the investment context: the country-of-origin (COO) of the mutual fund or stock.
Design/methodology/approach
Two Web-based experiments are used to test the study’s hypotheses.
Findings
COO is found to impact investors’ evaluation of the financial metrics of mutual funds, both in terms of perceived risk and potential return. Moreover, the results of Experiment 2 show that although a strong financial brand can partially overcome the COO effect, the extent of this effect is moderated by whether the fund utilizes an active or passive management style.
Research limitations/implications
Although mutual fund providers with a strong financial country image (CI) may leverage that image and build on their home country’s brand, providers from countries with a poor financial CI may do well focusing on passive management to minimize negative COO influence.
Originality/value
The results highlight that COO can be an important source of sub-optimal investment decisions. These insights are of high importance for efforts to improve consumer decision-making and for individual service providers.
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Erik Winell, John Armbrecht, Erik Lundberg and Jonas Nilsson
The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of extant studies addressing the impact of commercialization on fans of elite sports.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of extant studies addressing the impact of commercialization on fans of elite sports.
Design/methodology/approach
In doing this, the authors performed a structured review of 42 academic articles published between 1992 and 2020 that all focus on how fans respond and are affected by the commercialization of elite sports.
Findings
The structured review shows that the impacts of commercialization on fans relate to four different themes. These are (1) fan identity, (2) fan attitudes, (3) fan emotions and (4) fan behaviours. However, the analysis also shows that research within each category is largely scattered, and more research within each category is needed.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the complex and dynamic nature of commercialization. It presents a research agenda for future research and emphasizes a need to integrate the interests of several stakeholders when managing the impacts of elite sport commercialization.
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Jeanette Carlsson Hauff and Jonas Nilsson
The purpose of this paper is to verify the existence of a gender unbalance regarding choice of quantitatively oriented masters’ programs at a business school. The aim, further, is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to verify the existence of a gender unbalance regarding choice of quantitatively oriented masters’ programs at a business school. The aim, further, is to analyze variables potentially affecting this unbalance: interest in quantitative matters, perceived competence regarding quantitative subjects and measures of quantitative knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data was collected through a survey of 203 students at a Swedish business school. A measure of quantitative orientation was developed to assess the level of nine masters’ programs at the school. A regression analysis was used to identify the impact of gender and the other explanatory variables.
Findings
The results indicate that there is a gender unbalance: female students choose master programs perceived to be less quantitatively oriented. However, when studying gender together with level of interest, perceived competence and objective knowledge, the direct gender effect disappears. Instead, a strong positive effect of interest in quantitative matters emerges, as does an indirect effect of gender through the mediating variable level of interest.
Practical implications
The dual importance of level of interest influences the pedagogical suggestions made. Interpersonal contact between teacher and student and use of technology are suggested to raise the level of interest. To reduce the indirect effect of gender through interest, a suggestion is made to work with stereotype threats.
Originality/value
The paper addresses a topic of importance: the potential gender unbalance as regards qualitative orientation. It manages to nuance the picture of the importance of gender – and through the introduction of level of interest suggests a productive path forward.
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Jonas Nilsson, Jeanette Carlsson Hauff and Anders Carlander
In modern societies, consumer well-being is dependent on choices regarding complex services, such as investments, health care, insurance and lending. However, evaluating costs of…
Abstract
Purpose
In modern societies, consumer well-being is dependent on choices regarding complex services, such as investments, health care, insurance and lending. However, evaluating costs of such services is often difficult for consumers due to a combination of limited cognitive resources and complexity of the service. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine to what extent three specific consequences of complexity influence consumer tendencies to make mistakes when evaluating the costs (or price) of complex services.
Design/methodology/approach
Three studies were conducted (survey: n = 153, experiment: n = 332 and conjoint analysis: n = 225), all focusing on how consumers evaluate costs in the complex mutual fund setting.
Findings
The authors find that consumers struggle with estimating and using cost information in decision-making in the complex services setting. Consumers of complex services frequently underestimate the costs over the long-term, may see costs as a signal of service quality and are susceptible to influence from presentation formats when evaluating costs.
Research limitations/implications
The study investigates mutual funds, which is one example of a complex service. In order to get a full picture of how consumers deal with costs in complex setting, future research needs to expand this focus to other types of complex services.
Practical implications
The results have implications for both marketers of complex services and policymakers. For marketers, this paper highlights that competing with a low-cost strategy may be difficult in the complex services setting as consumers may lack the ability to actually evaluate what they pay over the long term. For policymakers, increased simplification of prices may be an attractive option. However, it is important that this simplification is done in a way that increases the possibility to compare prices.
Originality/value
As complexity influences several aspects of decision-making, an understanding of how consumers evaluate costs in complex settings is dependent on taking a multidimensional research approach. This paper makes a novel contribution to the literature on pricing by showing that consumers struggle with multiple aspects when evaluating costs in complex contexts. Understanding these effects is important to policy, as well as to research on the cognitive value of simplicity that is currently gaining traction in marketing research.
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Erik Winell, Jonas Nilsson and Erik Lundberg
This study aims to examine and compare the influence of the disposition to engage in engagement behaviors on physical and virtual engagement platforms, as well as the influence of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine and compare the influence of the disposition to engage in engagement behaviors on physical and virtual engagement platforms, as well as the influence of these engagement behaviors on brand loyalty, value-in-use and word-of-mouth.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a survey distributed to a random sample of 10,000 fans of five teams in the Swedish top-division of elite football. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to derive a distinction between prevalent platforms, scales were validated through a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was used to test the research model.
Findings
Customer disposition to engage with the sports team had a significant influence on customer engagement behaviors on both physical and virtual engagement platforms. However, engagement behaviors on virtual platforms were found to be more important than engagement behaviors on physical platforms for fostering brand loyalty and value-in-use.
Practical implications
The results highlight the importance of engagement behaviors with a brand on virtual engagement platforms. Thus, brand managers should prioritize their presence on social media to generate the positive outcomes of customer engagement behaviors.
Originality/value
By examining the effects of customer engagement behaviors on both physical and virtual engagement platforms, this study provides new insights to the emerging customer engagement literature.
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This paper aims to expand the emerging field of symbolic green consumer behavior (GCB) by investigating the impact of anticipated conspicuousness of the consumption situation on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to expand the emerging field of symbolic green consumer behavior (GCB) by investigating the impact of anticipated conspicuousness of the consumption situation on consumers’ choice of organic products. In addition, the paper also explores whether self-monitoring ability and attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) influence GCB in situations of anticipated high conspicuousness.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments test the study’s hypotheses.
Findings
The results of both experiments show that the anticipation of conspicuousness has a significant effect on GCB. Moreover, in Experiment 2, this effect is moderated by consumers’ level of ATSCI but not by their self-monitoring ability.
Research limitations/implications
Because ATSCI significantly interacts with green consumption because of the anticipation of a conspicuous setting, although self-monitoring ability does not, we conclude that social identification is an important determinant of green consumption.
Practical implications
Marketers who focus on building green brands could consider designing conspicuous consumption situations to increase GCB.
Social implications
Policymakers could enact change by making the environmental unfriendliness of non-eco-friendly products visible to the public and thus increase the potential for GCB.
Originality/value
The results validate the emerging understanding that green products are consumed for self-enhancement, but also expand the literature by highlighting that a key motivating factor of GCB is the desire to fit in.
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Teodor Sommestad, Henrik Karlzén, Peter Nilsson and Jonas Hallberg
In methods and manuals, the product of an information security incident’s probability and severity is seen as a risk to manage. The purpose of the test described in this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
In methods and manuals, the product of an information security incident’s probability and severity is seen as a risk to manage. The purpose of the test described in this paper is to investigate if information security risk is perceived in this way, if decision-making style influences the perceived relationship between the three variables and if the level of information security expertise influences the relationship between the three variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Ten respondents assessed 105 potential information security incidents. Ratings of the associated risks were obtained independently from ratings of the probability and severity of the incidents. Decision-making style was measured using a scale inspired from the Cognitive Style Index; information security expertise was self-reported. Regression analysis was used to test the relationship between variables.
Findings
The ten respondents did not assess risk as the product of probability and severity, regardless of experience, expertise and decision-making style. The mean variance explained in risk ratings using an additive term is 54.0 or 38.4 per cent, depending on how risk is measured. When a multiplicative term was added, the mean variance only increased by 1.5 or 2.4 per cent. For most of the respondents, the contribution of the multiplicative term is statistically insignificant.
Practical Implications
The inability or unwillingness to see risk as a product of probability and severity suggests that procedural support (e.g. risk matrices) has a role to play in the risk assessment processes.
Originality/value
This study is the first to test if information security risk is assessed as an interaction between probability and severity using suitable scales and a within-subject design.
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The purpose of this paper is to address reasons for consumer investment in socially responsible investment (SRI) profiled mutual funds. Specifically, the paper deals with the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address reasons for consumer investment in socially responsible investment (SRI) profiled mutual funds. Specifically, the paper deals with the relative influence of financial return and social responsibility on the decision to invest in SRI profiled mutual funds.
Design/methodology/approach
A cluster analytic approach was used where 563 SR‐investors were classified into different segments based on their perception of importance of financial return and social responsibility. Furthermore, discriminant analysis and chi2 tests were used to profile the segments.
Findings
Three segments of SR‐investors were formed. The “primarily concerned about profit” SR‐investors value financial return over social responsibility. The “primarily concerned about social responsibility” value social responsibility over financial return. The “socially responsible and return driven” SR‐investors value both return and social responsibility when deciding to invest in SRI. The segments displayed distinct differences with regard to various profiling variables.
Research limitations/implications
As respondents were generated from one SRI provider, it is possible that the respondents are not fully representative of all SR‐investors.
Practical implications
Since there are segments of SR‐investors that invest in SRI because of different reasons, there is an opportunity for SRI providers to target and adapt communication to certain segments.
Originality/value
For both academia and the SRI industry this study provides useful knowledge on how private SR‐investors handle the issue of financial return and social responsibility when investing in SRI. This understanding of the differing motivations of the SR‐investor also holds practical importance for developing appropriate marketing strategies within the SRI industry.