1,720,977 research outputs found
Joining hands for the greater good: examining Social Innovation launch strategies in B2B settings
Get PDFThe practice of forming brand alliances is common among companies in business-to-business
(B2B) settings that seek to launch social innovations. Research evidence on the efficacy of
such practice is, however, scarce. Based on the perspective of organizational buyers, we
examine how social innovations should be launched by companies in B2B settings, whether
through alliances with nonprofits or for-profits, or via independent ventures, across two
experimental studies. Underpinned by the stereotype content model, we find that alliance
launch strategies with nonprofits or for-profits result in greater purchase intentions,
perceptions of warmth and competence, when compared to independent ventures. Further, we
demonstrate that communicating societal benefits accruing from a social innovation favors an
alliance launch strategy over an independent venture. Alliance strategies show comparable
advantage to independent ventures when both societal and company-focused benefits are
communicated. Our research advances knowledge on; organizational buyers’ evaluations of
alliances and social innovations, the psychological mechanism underlying organizational
buyers’ evaluations of social innovations launch strategies, and communication management.
Our findings provide insights for companies seeking to launch social innovations, and
guidelines on partner selection
Organisationa heritage: exploring effects on employee outcomes and perceptions of organisational attractiveness
Get PDFThis research study is one of the first to explore how Organisational Heritage may affect employees and potential employees. It examines employee outcomes that may be related to heritage and provides insight into the effect heritage can have on potential employees’ perception of organisational attractiveness.
The first part of the study focused on heritage characteristics and employees of a Corporate Heritage Brand (CHB). In-depth interviews were conducted with employees of a Canadian CHB to determine if heritage was a significant organisational identity characteristic, to establish which employee outcomes it was likely to influence and to explore the effects it had on the outcomes being identified. Results suggested that heritage characteristics are a distinct part of the organisational identity (the organisational heritage identity) which may positively affect organisational identification, organisational affective commitment, employee engagement, organisational pride and intent to stay. Heritage also appeared to diminish the negative impact of transformational organisational change on employee outcomes. A model is presented that summarizes the findings.
The second study used the repertory grid technique to determine the characteristics that a sample of potential employees used to differentiate between employer organisations which included CHB and non-CHB companies. Honey’s content analysis was used to ascertain which of these characteristics positively affect perceptions of organisational attractiveness. The study looked specifically at heritage as an organisational characteristic. The results identified nine characteristics, including heritage, which potential employees use to differentiate amongst employer organisations. Another set of nine characteristics were found to be strongly aligned with organisational attractiveness. Four characteristics were common to both groups, and importantly heritage was a part of these. A matrix is presented that categorises organisational characteristics on two dimensions: potential for differentiation and alignment with organisational attractiveness. Four types of characteristics were defined in the matrix: Key Organisational Identity (KOICs) – high differentiation, high attractiveness, Hygiene – low differentiation, high attractiveness, Differentiator – high differentiation, low attractiveness and Low Value – low differentiation, low attractiveness. Heritage was categorized as a KOIC. The discussion suggests heritage can be key to increasing perceptions of organisational attractiveness and organisational identification. Employer branding can be proactively used to convey the organisational heritage. In general, employer branding efforts to communicate key organisational identity and hygiene characteristics to potential employees can increase the likelihood of inclusion in the potential employees’ employer consideration set.
Overall, this research contributes to our increased understanding of heritage in an organisational setting. Specifically, it is one of the first academic efforts to provide empirical evidence in the nascent field of organisational heritage. The first part identified five employee outcomes likely to be affected positively by heritage. The findings also suggested that heritage may diminish the negative impact of organisational change on such organisational outcomes. The second part examined the importance of heritage in regard to potential employees and found evidence that heritage may be activated to differentiate employer organisations and can increase the perceived attractiveness. The findings allowed classifying several elicited organisational characteristics (including heritage) along their potential for organisational differentiation and organisational attractiveness
Unmake up your mind: why some reversible decisions lead to more choice satisfaction than others.
Get PDFConsumers can often make reversible decisions, e.g. make purchases where items can be returned for exchanges or refunds or where purchases can be cancelled. Having the option to reverse a purchase decision (decision reversibility) has been linked to lower choice satisfaction, prompting scholars to think that being able to return goods for a refund or to cancel a purchase should make consumers less satisfied with their purchases. In this thesis I qualify this notion. I refine the construct of reversible decisions, showing that there are two distinct kinds of them: when consumers have an option to remake a choice (exchange the chosen item for a non-chosen one) and when consumers have an option to unmake a choice (cancel an order or return items for a refund). I conduct four experiments that show that consumers who can unmake a choice are more satisfied with it than those who can remake it. I thus refine the link between reversible decisions and choice satisfaction and recommend that retailers do not adopt exchange-only return policies. I explain the mediating mechanism for this effect: the extent of post-choice comparison between the chosen and foregone alternatives that is higher in decisions where a choice can be remade, rather than unmade. I also show that the effect of the different decision reversibility options (unmake choice vs remake choice) on choice
satisfaction is stronger for neurotic consumers. Cognitively depleting consumers or prompting them to seek variety in their choices removes the effect of decision reversibility options on choice satisfaction, suggesting some ways in which retailers can contain consumers’ dissatisfaction with exchange-only return policies.PhD in Leadership and Managemen
The Effect of Knowledge Miscalibration on the Dimensions of Consumer Value
Get PDFConsumer value is an important determinant of consumers’ post-use behaviour, for
example satisfaction, repeat purchase and word of mouth. The existing research mainly
looks at the factors associated with the product and service providers to improve
consumer value. Few studies on the role of the consumer in shaping consumer value
have found consumer knowledge to be an important element in shaping consumer value.
Adopting critical realism, this PhD expands this area of knowledge by investigating
knowledge miscalibration (i.e., the inaccuracy in subjective knowledge) as a significant
antecedent of consumer value.
Most of the time, consumers’ perceptions of what they think they know (i.e., subjective
knowledge) has been shown to be different from what they actually know (i.e.,
objective knowledge). Thus, subjective knowledge is usually inaccurate. This
inaccuracy in subjective knowledge relative to objective knowledge is called knowledge
miscalibration. Although the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumers’
purchasing decisions has been investigated in the consumer behaviour literature, its role
in the use stage of consumption has received much less attention. The aim of this
research is to examine the effect of knowledge miscalibration on product or service use,
and more specifically on the value consumers derive from actually using products or
services (i.e., value-in-use).
In this research a critical realism paradigm is pursued, implying that reality exists in the
three domains of the empirical, the actual and the real. The research starts with
observing regularity in the empirical domain (i.e., consumer value) followed by
imagining the causal power in the actual and the real domains (i.e., knowledge
miscalibration), shaping the research question. A retroductive strategy is followed,
firstly by proposing the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumer value and
secondly by conceptually and empirically testing this relationship.
This research conceptualises that knowledge miscalibration influences consumer value
dimensions, described as efficiency, excellence, play and aesthetics. It is suggested that
underconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective knowledge is
deflated) and overconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective
knowledge is inflated) influence consumer value dimensions differently as they
generate different consequences in use. Therefore, a conceptual model is developed that
describes the effect of knowledge miscalibration (i.e., overconfidence and
underconfidence) on the dimensions of consumer value.
The empirical part of the research is designed by conducting a covariance-based study
and an experimental investigation in order to gain both internal and external validity.
The covariance-based investigation is conducted in the context of amazon.com online
shopping. Knowledge miscalibration and consumer value dimensions are measured in
this study. This study supports the negative effect of underconfidence on efficiency,
excellence, play and aesthetics and the negative effect of overconfidence on play.
The experimental investigation is designed in the context of prezi.com, an online
dynamic presentation creation website that enables its users to move between slides,
words and images during their presentations. In this study, overconfidence and
underconfidence are manipulated and their effects on the dimensions of consumer value
are examined. The findings of this study show that underconfidence negatively
influences efficiency, excellence and aesthetics, while overconfidence negatively
impacts excellence, play and aesthetics.
Overall, this PhD concludes that knowledge miscalibration negatively influences the
dimensions of consumer value, with the exception of overconfidence impacting
efficiency. The contradictory results of the covariance-based study observed in the
experimental study can be explained through its inability to account for reciprocal
relationships (i.e., where consumer value dimensions also impact knowledge
miscalibration) and the existence of a third variable affecting both independent and
dependent variables. Furthermore, the context of the experimental study (employing a
new consumption task) is proposed to be the main reason for the lack of support for the
effect of underconfidence on play
The relationship between consumer calibration and consumer value : a systematic review
Get PDFConsumers’ perceptions of their resources in consumption tasks (that is, their abilities and endowments to perform consumption tasks) are many times not accurate. This misjudgement of resources negatively influences their performance in consuming or using products and services. Further, this carries on to influence consumers’ perceived value of products or services. In order to represent this phenomenon, consumer calibration is defined as the agreement between the subjective and objective assessment of consumer resources required in a consumption task. Therefore, it is crucial to discover the role of consumer calibration in the consumption experience. This paper proposes that consumer calibration occurs at two levels: of the task and of the self. Consumer task calibration refers to the extent of error in the task-required resource appraisal, whereas consumer self-calibration is the degree of accuracy in one’s self-perception of abilities. This systematic literature review is conducted to explore the relationships between consumer self and task calibration, on the one hand, and consumer value, on the other hand. After screening 2297 studies, based on their relevance and quality, forty texts in three main academic domains of Marketing, Psychology and Information Systems are selected for analysis and synthesis. The results reveal that subjective and objective assessments of consumer resources and task-required resources influence consumer value through their impact on functional performance and emotional consequences. The findings also suggest that, although a relationship between consumer task and self-calibration exists, their relationship with consumer value and their emotional consequences need further scrutiny. Consequently, a model for the effect of consumer calibration on consumer value is developed, based on the relationships established in the literature reviewed and the interpretation of the findings in the studies reviewed
Segmenting customers based on their unconscious needs.
Get PDFThis paper contributes to the literature by proposing a new methodological approach for understanding customers’ unconscious needs. This approach combines Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) with Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC), for the first time, to identify needs that segment members are either unaware of, or unable/unwilling to articulate. This methodological approach identified an additional market segment, distinct from those identified by a traditional customer segmentation approach based on customer need articulation. Ergo, understanding unconscious needs may provide additional customer insight and aid marketeers in developing new propositions and gaining market share. This study, therefore, makes a methodological contribution to the literature.
The study involves the segmentation of buyers of snack bars (i.e. cereal bars), based on subjective nutritional information importance (as revealed on packaging). Separate samples of buyers were recruited: one group as a control sample completing a traditional CBC exercise; a second group completing the same CBC exercise but asked to complete a UTT working memory distraction-task between each choice-task and responding to it. This allowed a comparison of the segmentations of two groups (one which incorporated unconscious thought theory and the other which did not).
Latent Class Segmentation (LCS) analysis indicated that whilst both approaches generate four similar segments, the CBC/UTT approach revealed a fifth (hidden) segment, unidentified in the other sample. In addition, the nutritional preferences of four of the five segments produced via the CBC/UTT approach matched those demonstrated by the participants’ store card behavioural data in a manner unobserved for the traditional CBC approach. This research provides a framework for further exploration and identifies a number of issues, such as which types of working memory distraction-tasks are most effective, that could potentially improve the approach if replicated.Doctor of Business Administratio
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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