Academic Research
Real-Time Marketing Messages and Consumer Engagement in Social Media
Branded advertising messages incorporating a transient context, such as events or holidays in their content and published in close temporal proximity to the particular context (i.e., real-time messages) have gained significant use. This research takes a firm-side perspective to study Real-Time Marketing (RTM) messages in social media and examines its effect on consumer engagement. Despite their growing use, we find that RTM messages do not significantly impact consumer engagement. However, the nature of the development process is a moderating factor and explains the heterogeneity in the effect of RTM messages on consumer engagement. The development process of RTM messages—Planned versus Improvised—plays a crucial role, with Planned RTM messages marginally enhancing consumer engagement, whereas Improvised RTM messages reduce it. We identify managerially controllable factors, namely targeting audience and having a product image enhance the effect of Improvised RTM messages on consumer engagement.
Paper Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S014829632500089X?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Authors: Myoung-Jin Chae, Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, Sundar Bharadwaj
ABSTRACT
Branded advertising messages incorporating a transient context, such as events or holidays in their content and published in close temporal proximity to the particular context (i.e., real-time messages) have gained significant use. This research takes a firm-side perspective to study Real-Time Marketing (RTM) messages in social media and examines its effect on consumer engagement. Despite their growing use, we find that RTM messages do not significantly impact consumer engagement. However, the nature of the development process is a moderating factor and explains the heterogeneity in the effect of RTM messages on consumer engagement. The development process of RTM messages—Planned versus Improvised—plays a crucial role, with Planned RTM messages marginally enhancing consumer engagement, whereas Improvised RTM messages reduce it. We identify managerially controllable factors, namely targeting audience and having a product image enhance the effect of Improvised RTM messages on consumer engagement.
The Effect of Brand Alliances Across Dependent Variables and Research Designs: A Meta-Analysis
Researchers have observed that a brand ally positively impacts a focal brand. However, it’s unclear what the average size of this effect is and if this effect is consistent across dependent variables and research designs. This uncertainty can lead to misconceptions among scholars and practitioners regarding the findings from brand alliance studies. Through a meta-analysis, this study finds that the average size of the brand alliance effect is 0.244, indicating a significant brand ally influence on a focal brand. Additionally, the analysis reveals that fictional brands yield larger effect sizes regarding attitudes toward the brand alliance, whereas real brands exert a greater impact on attitudes toward the focal brand. Yet, the effect size is influenced by dependent variables and research design elements. These findings suggest that drawing direct equivalences of effect sizes across dependent variables might be misleading; guidelines are provided to help navigate such potential discrepancies.
Paper Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296325000712?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Authors: Kevin E. Voss, Mayoor Mohan, Jin Ho Jung, Fernando R. Jiménez
ABSTRACT
Researchers have observed that a brand ally positively impacts a focal brand. However, it’s unclear what the average size of this effect is and if this effect is consistent across dependent variables and research designs. This uncertainty can lead to misconceptions among scholars and practitioners regarding the findings from brand alliance studies. Through a meta-analysis, this study finds that the average size of the brand alliance effect is 0.244, indicating a significant brand ally influence on a focal brand. Additionally, the analysis reveals that fictional brands yield larger effect sizes regarding attitudes toward the brand alliance, whereas real brands exert a greater impact on attitudes toward the focal brand. Yet, the effect size is influenced by dependent variables and research design elements. These findings suggest that drawing direct equivalences of effect sizes across dependent variables might be misleading; guidelines are provided to help navigate such potential discrepancies.
The Impact of Multiple Similar Online Certifications on Seller Performance in E-commerce Platforms
Many e-commerce platforms have adopted certification programs for sellers and even introduced a multi-certification strategy, enabling consumers to more easily identify high-quality sellers. Using signaling theory, we explore the effectiveness of such multi-certification strategy; that is, whether subsequent additional platform certifications can strengthen the signaling effect of high-quality sellers and thus improve their performance. This study also examines the moderating effect of quality signals from other sources. We obtain a seller dataset from China’s largest e-commerce platform (Taobao.com), and, leveraging a quasi-natural experiment based on changes in platform certification status, combine difference-in-differences models and propensity score matching to test our hypotheses. We find that the signaling effects of platform certification are complicated and negatively moderated by seller reputation and shop tenure. In particular, additional certifications enhance performance only if sellers have low reputation or short shop tenure. The results enrich the signaling theory and suggest practical implications for platform governance.
Paper Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296325000980?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Authors: Yunxiao Lu, Shaohan Cai, Qinghong Xie, Jiaxin Wang
ABSTRACT
Many e-commerce platforms have adopted certification programs for sellers and even introduced a multi-certification strategy, enabling consumers to more easily identify high-quality sellers. Using signaling theory, we explore the effectiveness of such multi-certification strategy; that is, whether subsequent additional platform certifications can strengthen the signaling effect of high-quality sellers and thus improve their performance. This study also examines the moderating effect of quality signals from other sources. We obtain a seller dataset from China’s largest e-commerce platform (Taobao.com), and, leveraging a quasi-natural experiment based on changes in platform certification status, combine difference-in-differences models and propensity score matching to test our hypotheses. We find that the signaling effects of platform certification are complicated and negatively moderated by seller reputation and shop tenure. In particular, additional certifications enhance performance only if sellers have low reputation or short shop tenure. The results enrich the signaling theory and suggest practical implications for platform governance.
Young Consumers’ Brand Distrust Model: Understanding The Antecedents Of Young Consumers’ Distrust Of Brands
Consumer research has shown that brands benefit from consumers’ trust in them. However, although consumers’ distrust of brands can accordingly have harmful effects on brands, the antecedents of young consumers’ brand distrust are not entirely clear. This study proposes a model for young consumer’s brand distrust antecedents based on the integration of our findings and prior research. Manual coding and latent Dirichlet allocation were utilized to analyze online research panel participants’ open-ended responses on what makes them distrust brands on social media. Our examination revealed several antecedents of young consumers’ brand distrust in the context of social media, such as reputation issues, advertising issues, impression management, and commercial collaboration. This study significantly contributes to consumer research by addressing the understudied topic of what makes young consumers distrust brands within the social media context.
Consumer research has shown that brands benefit from consumers’ trust in them. However, although consumers’ distrust of brands can accordingly have harmful effects on brands, the antecedents of young consumers’ brand distrust are not entirely clear. This study proposes a model for young consumer’s brand distrust antecedents based on the integration of our findings and prior research. Manual coding and latent Dirichlet allocation were utilized to analyze online research panel participants’ open-ended responses on what makes them distrust brands on social media. Our examination revealed several antecedents of young consumers’ brand distrust in the context of social media, such as reputation issues, advertising issues, impression management, and commercial collaboration. This study significantly contributes to consumer research by addressing the understudied topic of what makes young consumers distrust brands within the social media context.