Journal of Marketing Research

2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): i-ii

Marketing and Firm Value: Metrics, Methods, Findings, and Future Directions

Shuba Srinivasan — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 293-312 Abstract The marketing profession is being challenged to assess and communicate the value created by its actions on shareholder value. These demands create a need to translate marketing resource allocations and their performance consequences into financial and firm value effects. The objective of this article is to integrate the existing knowledge on the impact of marketing on firm value. The authors first frame the important research questions on marketing and firm value and review the important investor response metrics and relevant analytical models as they relate to marketing. Next, they summarize the empirical findings to date on how marketing creates shareholder value, including the impact of brand equity, customer equity, customer satisfaction, research and development and product quality, and specific marketing-mix actions. Then, the authors review emerging findings on biases in investor response to marketing actions. They conclude by formulating an agenda for future research challenges in this emerging area.

Commentaries and Rejoinder to Marketing and Firm Value: Metrics, Methods, Findings, and Future Directions

Michael D Kimbrough — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 313-329

Could Ralph Nader's Entrance and Exit Have Helped Al Gore? The Impact of Decoy Dynamics on Consumer Choice

William Hedgcock — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 330-343 Abstract People are frequently faced with making a new choice decision after a preferred option becomes unavailable. Prior research on the attraction effect has demonstrated how the introduction of an option into a choice set increases the share of one of the original options. The authors examine the related but previously unaddressed issue of whether the unexpected exit of an option from a choice set returns the choice shares of the original options to the status quo. In a series of experiments, they observe that when an option turns out to be unselectable following a choice problem in which it was selectable, the choice shares of the remaining options are predictably different from those of a choice problem in which the option was unselectable from the start. They also observe that this attraction effect due to the disappearance of a decoy is likely a consequence of changes in the importance of decision criteria. They conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of the research.

Deciding Without Resources: Resource Depletion and Choice in Context

Anastasiya Pocheptsova — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 344-355 Abstract Although choices can occur after careful deliberation, many everyday choices are usually effortless and are guided by intuitive thinking. This research examines the implications of the interplay between these two types of decision processes for context effects in choice by exploring the consequences of the depletion of executive resources in a prior, unrelated task. Building on a substantial body of psychological literature that points to a single underlying resource used for self-regulation and executive control, this article demonstrates that resource depletion has a systematic influence on choice in context. Specifically, resource depletion enhances the role of intuitive reasoning by impairing deliberate, careful processing. In five experiments, the authors find that resource depletion increases the share of reference-dependent choices, decreases the compromise effect, and magnifies the attraction effect. The results shed light on the mechanisms underlying context effects in choice and suggest that the scope of the depleted resource is not constrained to self-regulation activities but rather extends to choice in general.

Designing Sales Contests: Does the Prize Structure Matter?

Noah Lim — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 356-371 Abstract Sales contests are short-term incentives that managers use to raise sales effort. The extant marketing theory predicts that the optimal prize structure should have two characteristics: (1) The number of prizewinners should be greater than one, and (2) prize values should be unique and rank ordered. However, this theory has not been empirically examined. This article presents two empirical studies that examine whether the prize structure of a sales contest affects sales performance. In each study, the authors investigate the incremental effects of introducing multiple prizewinners and unique rank-ordered prizes into a sales contest. The first study consists of two laboratory experiments in which participants make decisions that closely reflect the decision trade-offs in the theoretical model of sales contests. The second study consists of two field economic experiments in which trained salespeople sell fundraising sponsorships to companies. The results across the experiments are remarkably consistent: The number of prizewinners in a sales contest should indeed be greater than one. However, introducing rank-ordered prizes into contests with multiple prizewinners does not boost sales effort and revenues.

Planned Versus Actual Betting in Sequential Gambles

Eduardo B Andrade — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 372-383 Abstract Anecdotal evidence indicates that in a gambling environment, consumers may end up betting more than they had initially planned. The authors assess this phenomenon in a series of three experiments, in which people are exposed to sequential and fair gambles in a two-stage process (planned and actual bets). The results show that in the planning phase, people behave conservatively, betting on average less after an anticipated loss and the same amount after an anticipated gain. However, after experiencing an actual loss in the first gamble, people bet in a subsequent gamble significantly more than they had initially planned, whereas on average, there were no observable differences from the plan after an actual gain. The reason for such asymmetry is due in part to people's tendency to underestimate, at the planning phase of the gamble, the impact of negative emotions in betting decisions during the actual phase of the gamble.

Fear and Loving in Las Vegas: Evolution, Emotion, and Persuasion

Vladas Griskevicius — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 384-395 Abstract How do arousal-inducing contexts, such as frightening or romantic television programs, influence the effectiveness of basic persuasion heuristics? Three theoretical models make different predictions: (1) A general arousal model predicts that arousal should increase the effectiveness of heuristics, (2) an affective valence model predicts that effectiveness should depend on whether the context elicits positive or negative affect, and (3) an evolutionary model predicts that persuasiveness should depend on both the specific emotion elicited and the content of the particular heuristic. Three experiments examine how fear-inducing versus romantic contexts influence the effectiveness of two widely used heuristics--social proof (e.g., most popular) and scarcity (e.g., limited edition). The results support the predictions from an evolutionary model, showing that fear can lead scarcity appeals to be counterpersuasive and that romantic desire can lead social proof appeals to be counterpersuasive. The findings highlight how an evolutionary theoretical approach can lead to novel theoretical and practical marketing insights.

Wealth, Warmth, and Well-Being: Whether Happiness Is Relative or Absolute Depends on Whether It Is About Money, Acquisition, or Consumption

Christopher K Hsee — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 396-409 Abstract A central question in consumer and happiness research is whether happiness depends on absolute or relative levels of wealth and consumption. To address this question, the authors evaluate a finer level than overall happiness and distinguish three specific types of happiness: with money, with the acquisition of an item, and with the consumption of an item. They find that happiness with money and with acquisition is relative and that happiness with consumption can be either absolute or relative, depending on whether the consumption is inherently evaluable or not. Including both lab and field data, this research yields implications for how to increase consumer happiness from one generation to the next.

Assortment Size and Option Attractiveness in Consumer Choice Among Retailers

Alexander Chernev — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 410-420 Abstract An important decision that retailers make involves selecting the number of items constituting their assortments. A key issue in making these decisions is the role of assortment size in determining consumers' choice of a retailer. The authors address this issue by investigating how consumer choice among retailers offering various-sized assortments is influenced by the attractiveness of the options constituting these assortments. The data show that consumer preference for retailers offering larger assortments tends to decrease as the attractiveness of the options in their assortments increases and can even lead to a reversal of preferences in favor of retailers offering smaller assortments. This research further presents evidence that the relationship between assortment size and option attractiveness is concave, such that the marginal impact of assortment size on choice decreases as the attractiveness of the options increases. Data from eight empirical studies offer converging evidence in support of the theoretical predictions.

Differences in Perspective and the Influence of Charitable Appeals: When Imagining Oneself as the Victim Is Not Beneficial

Iris W Hung — 2009-05-13

Journal of Marketing Research 46(3): 421-434 Abstract Advertisements often stimulate consumers to imagine themselves in a situation in which they would personally benefit from using the product being advertised. However, when an advertisement is intended to induce consumers to benefit someone else (e.g., to donate money for relief of disaster victims), stimulating them to imagine themselves in the situation confronting the beneficiary can sometimes conflict with the image they form of themselves as a potential helper. This conflict in imagined perspective can decrease the advertisement's effectiveness. Five studies confirm this hypothesis. When participants took the perspective of the beneficiary at the time they read an appeal for help, characteristics of the appeal that increased the ease with which they could imagine the situation from this perspective (e.g., a picture of the victim) had a positive effect on both their urge to help and the amount of money they donated. However, when they had an a priori disposition to take the perspective of a potential donor at the time they read the appeal, these same characteristics decreased the appeal's effectiveness.