Academic Research
Consumer Activism in the Metaverse: a Framework for Virtualized Protest as Playful Resistance
Is the metaverse a worthwhile venue for collective action? While some argue the virtual world empowers marginalized actors in the democratic process, the prevailing view dismisses metaverse demonstrations as cartoonish avatars parading down 3D-rendered streets with digital flags and picket signs. Through a netnographic investigation of a start-up metaverse platform dedicated to protests, we explore how four ostensibly depoliticizing processes—gamification, dematerialization, emotionalization, and decentralization—are reimagined by an online community as tools for playful resistance and subversive digital politics. Participants recognized that virtual protests offer unique opportunities to engage and empower activists globally, foster inclusive movements, and evade institutional control. Our findings challenge assumptions about the trivialization of virtual protests, positioning the metaverse as a potential complementary setting for sustained grassroots activism. We conclude with an agenda for future research on how platform design features—including modding, interoperability, encryption, and polycentricity—can balance corporate interests with sincere collective action.
Paper Link: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/734652?af=R
Authors: Andrew B. Edelblum, Markus Giesler
ABSTRACT
Is the metaverse a worthwhile venue for collective action? While some argue the virtual world empowers marginalized actors in the democratic process, the prevailing view dismisses metaverse demonstrations as cartoonish avatars parading down 3D-rendered streets with digital flags and picket signs. Through a netnographic investigation of a start-up metaverse platform dedicated to protests, we explore how four ostensibly depoliticizing processes—gamification, dematerialization, emotionalization, and decentralization—are reimagined by an online community as tools for playful resistance and subversive digital politics. Participants recognized that virtual protests offer unique opportunities to engage and empower activists globally, foster inclusive movements, and evade institutional control. Our findings challenge assumptions about the trivialization of virtual protests, positioning the metaverse as a potential complementary setting for sustained grassroots activism. We conclude with an agenda for future research on how platform design features—including modding, interoperability, encryption, and polycentricity—can balance corporate interests with sincere collective action.
Trying Not To Spend
Financial literacy programs aim to prevent consumer overspending by teaching and encouraging fiscally sound habits (purchase restraint, responsible credit use, savings). Unfortunately, trying not to spend is at odds with the emotions consumers experience in a tempting marketplace. The theory of trying considers attitudes and intentions, but not emotions, when trying to consume. To address this gap, we examine indebted consumers opting into formal financial literacy training explicitly designed for debt repayment and avoidance of future debt. Through indebted consumers’ diary reflections and interviews with clients and debt management counselors, we show that financial literacy’s emphasis on budgeting needs versus wants is not sufficient when consumers try not to spend. To reconcile budgets with actual purchasing behavior when faced with temptations in the marketplace, consumers often adopt a linguistic exercise of imaginatively bending and blending utilitarian and hedonic discourses to justify purchases by recategorizing wants as needs. Further, consumers trying not to spend experience negative emotions; how they regulate those emotions impacts their success in getting out of debt. While financial literacy courses only give consumers budget-setting tools, indebted consumers cannot be successful without tools for trying not to spend in the marketplace.
Paper Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-025-01091-8
Authors: Mary C. Gilly, Mary Finley Celsi, Stephanie Dellande, Hope Jensen Schau, Russel Nelson & Chin-May Aradhye
ABSTRACT
Financial literacy programs aim to prevent consumer overspending by teaching and encouraging fiscally sound habits (purchase restraint, responsible credit use, savings). Unfortunately, trying not to spend is at odds with the emotions consumers experience in a tempting marketplace. The theory of trying considers attitudes and intentions, but not emotions, when trying to consume. To address this gap, we examine indebted consumers opting into formal financial literacy training explicitly designed for debt repayment and avoidance of future debt. Through indebted consumers’ diary reflections and interviews with clients and debt management counselors, we show that financial literacy’s emphasis on budgeting needs versus wants is not sufficient when consumers try not to spend. To reconcile budgets with actual purchasing behavior when faced with temptations in the marketplace, consumers often adopt a linguistic exercise of imaginatively bending and blending utilitarian and hedonic discourses to justify purchases by recategorizing wants as needs. Further, consumers trying not to spend experience negative emotions; how they regulate those emotions impacts their success in getting out of debt. While financial literacy courses only give consumers budget-setting tools, indebted consumers cannot be successful without tools for trying not to spend in the marketplace.
Engagement in Platform Markets: A (Video) Game Changer?
Empirical studies of two-sided platform markets, like the video game console industry, typically rely on software and platform sales data, thereby overlooking today’s managerial focus on engagement. This present research leverages a unique dataset tracking the daily engagement of over 14,000 users of Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox Series video game platforms to remedy this gap. We investigate how software development and release characteristics affect consumers’ engagement with software titles and the platforms on which they release. Our analysis finds that releasing software on subscription services is the strongest determinant of engagement, overshadowing established determinants like software quality or exclusivity. While superstar software and exclusive titles generate engagement, their relative importance is smaller compared to sales-based findings, reported in prior literature. Instead, franchises, non-superstars, and multihomed software perform much better on engagement than on sales, especially when included in a subscription service. These findings have important industry implications.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-025-01089-2
Authors: Michiel Van Crombrugge, Stefan Stremersch
ABSTRACT
Empirical studies of two-sided platform markets, like the video game console industry, typically rely on software and platform sales data, thereby overlooking today’s managerial focus on engagement. This present research leverages a unique dataset tracking the daily engagement of over 14,000 users of Microsoft’s Xbox One and Xbox Series video game platforms to remedy this gap. We investigate how software development and release characteristics affect consumers’ engagement with software titles and the platforms on which they release. Our analysis finds that releasing software on subscription services is the strongest determinant of engagement, overshadowing established determinants like software quality or exclusivity. While superstar software and exclusive titles generate engagement, their relative importance is smaller compared to sales-based findings, reported in prior literature. Instead, franchises, non-superstars, and multihomed software perform much better on engagement than on sales, especially when included in a subscription service. These findings have important industry implications.
Editorial: Paving the Way for Responsible Retailing
Why retailers care about responsible retailing
Clearly, engaging in responsible retailing can serve as a competitive advantage in highly competitive settings like the retail industry (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2011) and lead to increased firm performance (Atz et al. 2021), as many stakeholders value it. First, 93% of customers worldwide expect companies to take social and environmental actions (Vadakkepatt et al., 2021), and consumer demand for sustainable and healthy products is increasing. Second, employees seek employers that share their…
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.02.006
Authors: Niels Holtrop, Lara Lobschat, Anne ter Braak
ABSTRACT
Why retailers care about responsible retailing
Clearly, engaging in responsible retailing can serve as a competitive advantage in highly competitive settings like the retail industry (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2011) and lead to increased firm performance (Atz et al. 2021), as many stakeholders value it. First, 93% of customers worldwide expect companies to take social and environmental actions (Vadakkepatt et al., 2021), and consumer demand for sustainable and healthy products is increasing. Second, employees seek employers that share their…
Challenges on the path to responsibility
Given that responsible retailing is required to retain organizational legitimacy, what explains the differences in the extent of responsible retailing that we observe in the industry? The first challenge that retailers face is how to balance doing good with the economic consequences of their decisions. With the risk of backlash when changes are too severe, responsible retailing initiatives are often incremental rather than radical. For example, to stimulate healthier consumption, manufacturers…
Responsibility on a global and local scale
While we observed that many responsible retail actions remain at the tactical level without strategic consideration, it is not to say that retailers are not concerned about the major global challenges of this age. Retailer initiatives have focused on reducing climate impact, stimulating environmental protection, enhancing nutritional quality, and addressing economic uncertainty, amongst others. For example, Walmart and Lidl have set and reached ambitious CO2 reduction goals throughout their…
Consumer Confusion: A Meta-analytic Review
Consumer confusion is a state of mind that occurs when consumers encounter a large number of options or information overload, making it difficult for them to make a confident and informed purchasing decision. This study summarises the consumer confusion literature to analyse the links between the constructs examined in this literature domain. The findings suggest that various information, consumer, and product-related factors prompt consumer confusion which engenders negative consumer responses. Moderation analysis indicates that differences in six methodological factors (research methods, sample type, country, gender dominance, survey administration method, and sample size) and five contextual moderators (price consciousness, industry type, customer involvement, cultural perspectives, and store type) across the studies contribute to inconsistent findings regarding the relationships between the constructs examined in the consumer confusion domain. Theoretically, being the first meta-analytic study on consumer confusion, this study offers a statistical summary of the quantitative results reported in the consumer confusion literature and presents solid relationships between the variables examined in the literature. Practically, we offer useful implications for marketers to minimise the consumer confusion during the purchase decision-making process among specific consumer groups.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115294
Authors: Shadma Shahid, Haroon Iqbal Maseeh, Charles Jebarajakirthy, Bhuvanesh Kumar Sharma, Raiswa Saha, Shubhi Gupta
ABSTRACT
Consumer confusion is a state of mind that occurs when consumers encounter a large number of options or information overload, making it difficult for them to make a confident and informed purchasing decision. This study summarises the consumer confusion literature to analyse the links between the constructs examined in this literature domain. The findings suggest that various information, consumer, and product-related factors prompt consumer confusion which engenders negative consumer responses. Moderation analysis indicates that differences in six methodological factors (research methods, sample type, country, gender dominance, survey administration method, and sample size) and five contextual moderators (price consciousness, industry type, customer involvement, cultural perspectives, and store type) across the studies contribute to inconsistent findings regarding the relationships between the constructs examined in the consumer confusion domain. Theoretically, being the first meta-analytic study on consumer confusion, this study offers a statistical summary of the quantitative results reported in the consumer confusion literature and presents solid relationships between the variables examined in the literature. Practically, we offer useful implications for marketers to minimise the consumer confusion during the purchase decision-making process among specific consumer groups.
How to Use Emerging Service Technologies to Enhance Customer Centricity in Business-to-business Contexts: a Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda
Manufacturers in business-to-business (B2B) industries aim to gain a competitive edge by adopting the concept of customer centricity in their strategy. Acknowledging manufacturers’ challenges in implementing new technologies, we showcase how digital product passports, augmented/virtual reality, smart products, and digital twins foster customer centricity. We classify these technologies based on their use context and introduce the CCTECH-framework, which delineates the impact of (1) experiential, (2) performance-enhancing, and (3) automated technologies on customer-centric processes. This research explores the opportunities for utilizing specific emerging technologies to enhance four customer-centric processes: (1) interactive customer relationship management (discovering implicit needs), (2) customer integration (systematic involvement of customers in decision-making), (3) internal integration (aligning business activities around customer value), and (4) external integration (supply chain-level coordination to respond to customization required by customers). Further, we provide a technology roadmap for manufacturers and suggest a research agenda to guide future research.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115284
Authors: Nancy V. Wünderlich, Markus Blut, Christian Brock, Nima Heirati, Marcus Jensen, Stefanie Paluch, Julia Rötzmeier-Keuper, Zsófia Tóth
ABSTRACT
Manufacturers in business-to-business (B2B) industries aim to gain a competitive edge by adopting the concept of customer centricity in their strategy. Acknowledging manufacturers’ challenges in implementing new technologies, we showcase how digital product passports, augmented/virtual reality, smart products, and digital twins foster customer centricity. We classify these technologies based on their use context and introduce the CCTECH-framework, which delineates the impact of (1) experiential, (2) performance-enhancing, and (3) automated technologies on customer-centric processes. This research explores the opportunities for utilizing specific emerging technologies to enhance four customer-centric processes: (1) interactive customer relationship management (discovering implicit needs), (2) customer integration (systematic involvement of customers in decision-making), (3) internal integration (aligning business activities around customer value), and (4) external integration (supply chain-level coordination to respond to customization required by customers). Further, we provide a technology roadmap for manufacturers and suggest a research agenda to guide future research.
Exploring the Role of Product Attributes in 9-ending Pricing Strategies: a Study on Online Retailing
This study investigates the use of 9-ending pricing strategies in e-commerce by analyzing over 50,000 shoe prices. Using web scraping and a logit model from a German online retailer, the research assesses how product attributes influence the adoption of 9-ending prices. Key findings reveal that 9-ending prices are predominantly used for female and newly introduced products, as well as for items with lower and standard prices. The study also explores the effects of exclusivity and sustainability on pricing strategies, showing that their impact varies with different 9-ending price categories. Overall, this research demonstrates the complex nature of 9-ending pricing strategies, with the 9-zero removal model supporting all hypotheses, whereas the 99c and 95c models show differential effects. This extends our understanding of pricing tactics in online retail and highlights the significance of product attributes for marketing and sales strategies.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115285
Authors: Mariana Gaspar Gonçalves, Belem Barbosa, Jose Ramon Saura, Marcello Mariani
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the use of 9-ending pricing strategies in e-commerce by analyzing over 50,000 shoe prices. Using web scraping and a logit model from a German online retailer, the research assesses how product attributes influence the adoption of 9-ending prices. Key findings reveal that 9-ending prices are predominantly used for female and newly introduced products, as well as for items with lower and standard prices. The study also explores the effects of exclusivity and sustainability on pricing strategies, showing that their impact varies with different 9-ending price categories. Overall, this research demonstrates the complex nature of 9-ending pricing strategies, with the 9-zero removal model supporting all hypotheses, whereas the 99c and 95c models show differential effects. This extends our understanding of pricing tactics in online retail and highlights the significance of product attributes for marketing and sales strategies.
Less Colorful = Purer? The Effect of Packaging Colorfulness on Product Purity Perception
This study examines how packaging colorfulness shapes consumer perceptions of product purity. Across five studies employing various stimuli, results demonstrate that consumers tend to perceive less colorful packaging as indicative of higher product purity compared to more colorful packaging. This perception bias arises from the inference that low colorfulness in packaging suggests fewer varieties of ingredients. Furthermore, the impact of packaging colorfulness on perceived product purity diminishes when detailed ingredient information is salient. These findings clarify how consumers infer product purity from the packaging colorfulness and provide strategic guidance for marketers in leveraging these perception biases for packaging design.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104283
Authors: Zhiyuan Huang, Xiaohe Dai
ABSTRACT
This study examines how packaging colorfulness shapes consumer perceptions of product purity. Across five studies employing various stimuli, results demonstrate that consumers tend to perceive less colorful packaging as indicative of higher product purity compared to more colorful packaging. This perception bias arises from the inference that low colorfulness in packaging suggests fewer varieties of ingredients. Furthermore, the impact of packaging colorfulness on perceived product purity diminishes when detailed ingredient information is salient. These findings clarify how consumers infer product purity from the packaging colorfulness and provide strategic guidance for marketers in leveraging these perception biases for packaging design.
Two Frameworks for Balancing AI Innovation and Risk
Organizations that view AI as just another technology project will increasingly find themselves irrelevant. Success will go to those who adopt a balanced approach—being radically optimistic about AI’s potential while remaining cautious about its risks. By integrating structured frameworks like OPEN and CARE, organizations can navigate this challenge, harnessing AI’s transformative power while building the resilience necessary to thrive in an uncertain future.
Paper Link: https://hbr.org/2025/03/two-frameworks-for-balancing-ai-innovation-and-risk
Authors: Faisal Hoque
ABSTRACT
Organizations that view AI as just another technology project will increasingly find themselves irrelevant. Success will go to those who adopt a balanced approach—being radically optimistic about AI’s potential while remaining cautious about its risks. By integrating structured frameworks like OPEN and CARE, organizations can navigate this challenge, harnessing AI’s transformative power while building the resilience necessary to thrive in an uncertain future.
Serve With Voice: the Role of Agents’ Vocal Cues in the Call Center Service
Since pure voice-to-voice communications mainly characterize the call center context, vocal cues provide a novel lens to comprehend consumer-agent dynamics beyond mere words. This study proposes an analytical framework exploiting speech recognition and interpretable machine learning to convert unstructured audio data into quantifiable measures and examines the impact of agents’ voices in a natural setting. The results show that incorporating agents’ vocal cues into consumer dissatisfaction and callback analysis improves out-of-sample forecast accuracy, with an average improvement of 11.65% and 4.30%, respectively. Vocal cues surpass verbal and demographic variables in predictive importance. An affirmative tone and a relatively quick speech rate are identified as key factors that significantly reduce dissatisfaction and callbacks. Our proposed voice feature framework enhances telephone-based service quality assessment, offers practical insights for agent training, and provides novel insights to improve consumer service operations, ultimately leading to the maximization of financial benefits.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115282
Authors: Yuanyuan Zhou, Zhuoying Fei, Jun Yang, Demei Kong
ABSTRACT
Since pure voice-to-voice communications mainly characterize the call center context, vocal cues provide a novel lens to comprehend consumer-agent dynamics beyond mere words. This study proposes an analytical framework exploiting speech recognition and interpretable machine learning to convert unstructured audio data into quantifiable measures and examines the impact of agents’ voices in a natural setting. The results show that incorporating agents’ vocal cues into consumer dissatisfaction and callback analysis improves out-of-sample forecast accuracy, with an average improvement of 11.65% and 4.30%, respectively. Vocal cues surpass verbal and demographic variables in predictive importance. An affirmative tone and a relatively quick speech rate are identified as key factors that significantly reduce dissatisfaction and callbacks. Our proposed voice feature framework enhances telephone-based service quality assessment, offers practical insights for agent training, and provides novel insights to improve consumer service operations, ultimately leading to the maximization of financial benefits.
The Dark Side of Fairness: How Perceived Fairness in Service Robot Implementation Leads to Employee Dysfunctional Behavior
The purpose of this study is to explore the unexpected effects of perceived fairness in the implementation of service robots on employee dysfunctional behavior within the hospitality industry. Contrary to the conventional view that perceived fairness always leads to positive outcomes, this study examines how fairness perceptions can increase negative behaviors through unmet expectations, overconfidence in job security and complacency. The moderating role of transformational leadership is also investigated to understand how it can mitigate these negative effects.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2024-0508
Authors: Taeshik Gong
ABSTRACT
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the unexpected effects of perceived fairness in the implementation of service robots on employee dysfunctional behavior within the hospitality industry. Contrary to the conventional view that perceived fairness always leads to positive outcomes, this study examines how fairness perceptions can increase negative behaviors through unmet expectations, overconfidence in job security and complacency. The moderating role of transformational leadership is also investigated to understand how it can mitigate these negative effects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data from 400 employees in the hospitality sector who have experienced the integration of service robots in their work environment. Using quantitative analysis techniques, the relationships between perceived fairness, employee dysfunctional behavior, unmet expectations, overconfidence, complacency and transformational leadership were examined.
Findings
The findings reveal that perceived fairness in service robot implementation can unexpectedly lead to increased employee dysfunctional behavior, particularly when it results in unmet expectations, overconfidence and complacency. However, transformational leadership was found to significantly moderate these effects, reducing the likelihood of dysfunctional behaviors by realigning employee perceptions and expectations with organizational objectives.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the service marketing literature by challenging the assumption that perceived fairness always yields positive outcomes, highlighting the potential for fairness to produce unintended negative consequences in service robot implementation. It also identifies transformational leadership as a key factor in mitigating these effects, offering practical insights for hospitality managers on how to ensure successful integration of service robots by actively managing employee expectations and behaviors.
The Role of Materialism and Social Judgment in Human-chatbot Service Interactions
Chatbots are increasingly deployed in services and marketing applications, although they are often met with scepticism. To explore how such scepticism can be reduced, this study aims to examine how materialism and social judgment influence human–chatbot interactions.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-06-2024-0288
Authors: Rajat Roy, Vik Naidoo
ABSTRACT
Purpose
Chatbots are increasingly deployed in services and marketing applications, although they are often met with scepticism. To explore how such scepticism can be reduced, this study aims to examine how materialism and social judgment influence human–chatbot interactions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct one pre-test, two laboratory experiments and one simulated study conducted in the field, to test the premises.
Findings
The studies show that when material pursuit is guided by positive (negative) values, subjects prefer a chatbot that is perceived warm (competent) versus perceived competent (warm). This, in turn, leads to favourable purchase decisions for services with perceived homophily mediating this effect.
Research limitations/implications
The work addresses the call for more research on how human–robot interactions can be improved applied to a services context. While the findings are novel, they are not without limitations which in turn lay a path for future research.
Practical implications
The findings have implications for driving more strategic value out of how marketing and service managers can improve the interface design in human–chatbot interactions.
Originality/value
The propositions demonstrate a novel framing in suggesting that positive (vs negative) values underpinning material pursuit can lead to a preference for perceived warm (vs competent) chatbots, which further guide favourable decision-making.
Do Brand Allyship Efforts in the Black American Community Require Financial Investment?
This study aims to investigate factors affecting consumers’ perceptions of brand allyship activities given the presence or absence of corresponding community investment. Using the black American community as a contextual group receiving support, this research probes factors that make brand allyship seem sincere and how brand allyship affects consumer self-esteem. It further examines how perceived sincerity and derived self-esteem affect consumers’ perceived self-brand connections and reported brand attitudes.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-02-2024-4965
Authors: Roland L. Leak, Kimberly R. McNeil, George W. Stone, Ronda G. Henderson
ABSTRACT
Purpose
This study aims to investigate factors affecting consumers’ perceptions of brand allyship activities given the presence or absence of corresponding community investment. Using the black American community as a contextual group receiving support, this research probes factors that make brand allyship seem sincere and how brand allyship affects consumer self-esteem. It further examines how perceived sincerity and derived self-esteem affect consumers’ perceived self-brand connections and reported brand attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
Collecting data with experimental surveys, hypothesized effects are tested in a main study (n = 1,184) using a general linear model and moderated mediation analyses.
Findings
Perceived sincerity is shown to interact with consumers’ self-esteem to induce an approach/avoidance reaction to a brand, where high self-esteem consumers are more apt to accept sincere brand allyship activities and reject insincere campaigns.
Originality/value
As sincerity is critical to brand allyship success, this research outlines instances where managers need to contextually manipulate sincerity perceptions by outlaying community investment to coincide with the campaign. Specific contexts revolve around racial diversity in the management group and the race of consumers/perceivers.
The Effect of Messages Emphasizing Fantasies and Expectations on Brand Evaluations and Behavioral Intentions
We investigate the effect of communication messages based on two forms of thinking about the future—expectation and fantasy—on consumer evaluations and choice. While expectations emphasize that a desired event is either likely or not likely to occur, fantasies elicit a mental image of a desired event either happening or not happening. In three experiments, we show that, compared to messages framed as positive fantasies or negative expectations, messages framed as positive expectations or negative fantasies increase brand evaluations and behavioral intentions. The reason is that messages framed as positive expectations or negative fantasies lead to higher action orientation, mediating the effect of form of thinking about the future and valence on consumers' judgments. We also demonstrate that activating an implemental mindset could increase evaluations and behavioral intentions for messages framed as positive fantasies.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.22208
Authors: Nevena T. Koukova
ABSTRACT
We investigate the effect of communication messages based on two forms of thinking about the future—expectation and fantasy—on consumer evaluations and choice. While expectations emphasize that a desired event is either likely or not likely to occur, fantasies elicit a mental image of a desired event either happening or not happening. In three experiments, we show that, compared to messages framed as positive fantasies or negative expectations, messages framed as positive expectations or negative fantasies increase brand evaluations and behavioral intentions. The reason is that messages framed as positive expectations or negative fantasies lead to higher action orientation, mediating the effect of form of thinking about the future and valence on consumers' judgments. We also demonstrate that activating an implemental mindset could increase evaluations and behavioral intentions for messages framed as positive fantasies.
When Being Green is Not Enough – an Experimental Study of the Effects of Sustainable Value Propositions on B2b Green Buying Decisions
Despite the increased importance of environmental sustainability in B2B buying, insights on the marketing mechanisms that influence B2B green buying behavior and green value perceptions at the individual level are still limited. Drawing upon signaling theory and the literature on sustainable value propositions in B2B markets, we first examine the effect of vendors' sustainable value propositions on individual B2B buyers' purchasing decisions for green technology offerings. In a second step, we further investigate the role of buyers' market turbulence as a contingent factor in this relationship. Our findings from a scenario-based experiment provide empirical evidence that a risk-based strategy is more effective under conditions of high buyer market turbulence, while a certification-based strategy, counter to the literature, is more impactful in less turbulent markets. We thus advance the knowledge on the factors that drive B2B green buying at the individual level and contribute to the literature on sustainability value and sustainable value propositions in business markets. Our results further provide guidance for vendors designing value propositions for green offerings and for buyers seeking to purchase environmentally-friendly technologies.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.02.017
Authors: Marcel Aksoy, Benedikt Schnellbächer
ABSTRACT
Despite the increased importance of environmental sustainability in B2B buying, insights on the marketing mechanisms that influence B2B green buying behavior and green value perceptions at the individual level are still limited. Drawing upon signaling theory and the literature on sustainable value propositions in B2B markets, we first examine the effect of vendors' sustainable value propositions on individual B2B buyers' purchasing decisions for green technology offerings. In a second step, we further investigate the role of buyers' market turbulence as a contingent factor in this relationship. Our findings from a scenario-based experiment provide empirical evidence that a risk-based strategy is more effective under conditions of high buyer market turbulence, while a certification-based strategy, counter to the literature, is more impactful in less turbulent markets. We thus advance the knowledge on the factors that drive B2B green buying at the individual level and contribute to the literature on sustainability value and sustainable value propositions in business markets. Our results further provide guidance for vendors designing value propositions for green offerings and for buyers seeking to purchase environmentally-friendly technologies.
Revisiting the Dunning-kruger Effect: Composite Measures and Heterogeneity by Gender
The Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE) states that people with lower levels of the ability tend to self-assess their ability less accurately than people with relatively higher levels of the ability. Thus, the correlation between one's objective cognitive abilities and self-assessed abilities is higher at higher levels of objective cognitive abilities. There has been much debate as to whether this effect actually exists or is a statistical artefact. This paper replicates and extends Gignac and Zajenkowski (2020) and Dunkel, Nedelec, and van der Linden (2023) to test whether the DKE exists using several measures of ability and nationally representative data from a British birth cohort study. To do this, we construct a measure of objective cognitive abilities using 18 tests conducted at ages 5, 10, and 16, and a measure of subjective self-assessed abilities using estimates of school performance and being clever at ages 10 and 16. We replicate their models and show that the DKE exists in our secondary data. Importantly, we are the first to look at whether this relationship is heterogeneous by gender and find that while the self-assessment bias is gender specific, the DKE is not. The DKE comes from men relatively overestimating and women relatively underestimating their abilities.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2025.102362
Authors: Anna Adamecz, Radina Ilieva, Nikki Shure
ABSTRACT
The Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE) states that people with lower levels of the ability tend to self-assess their ability less accurately than people with relatively higher levels of the ability. Thus, the correlation between one's objective cognitive abilities and self-assessed abilities is higher at higher levels of objective cognitive abilities. There has been much debate as to whether this effect actually exists or is a statistical artefact. This paper replicates and extends Gignac and Zajenkowski (2020) and Dunkel, Nedelec, and van der Linden (2023) to test whether the DKE exists using several measures of ability and nationally representative data from a British birth cohort study. To do this, we construct a measure of objective cognitive abilities using 18 tests conducted at ages 5, 10, and 16, and a measure of subjective self-assessed abilities using estimates of school performance and being clever at ages 10 and 16. We replicate their models and show that the DKE exists in our secondary data. Importantly, we are the first to look at whether this relationship is heterogeneous by gender and find that while the self-assessment bias is gender specific, the DKE is not. The DKE comes from men relatively overestimating and women relatively underestimating their abilities.
AI-capable Relationship Marketing: Shaping the Future of Customer Relationships
This study explores the interlinkages between artificial intelligence (AI), dynamic capabilities, and relationship marketing (RM) outcomes. Drawing upon insights from dynamic capabilities and RM theory, this study delineates the strategies and initiatives organizations can adopt using machine learning (ML) and AI to enhance their adaptability to changing market dynamics and customer preferences, in order to develop and maintain stronger relationships with their customers. Based on qualitative data from 67 interviews with managers in different organizations in India, this study contributes to existing theoretical knowledge and managerial practices, as it proposes a comprehensive research framework that demonstrates how AI technologies can enhance customer relationships throughout the entire customer journey. More specifically, it adopts a dynamic capabilities lens to extend our understanding of the marketing applications of AI by conceptualizing the dual role of AI as (a) a distinct organizational capability and (b) an enabler of dynamic capabilities, improving firms’ position to sense, seize, and transform organizational resources and fortify customer relationships. Our findings also highlight several facilitators and barriers to the adoption of AI, both as a dynamic capability and as an enabler for RM.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115309
Authors: Sanjit K. Roy, Ali N. Tehrani, Ameet Pandit, Chrysostomos Apostolidis, Subhasis Ray
ABSTRACT
This study explores the interlinkages between artificial intelligence (AI), dynamic capabilities, and relationship marketing (RM) outcomes. Drawing upon insights from dynamic capabilities and RM theory, this study delineates the strategies and initiatives organizations can adopt using machine learning (ML) and AI to enhance their adaptability to changing market dynamics and customer preferences, in order to develop and maintain stronger relationships with their customers. Based on qualitative data from 67 interviews with managers in different organizations in India, this study contributes to existing theoretical knowledge and managerial practices, as it proposes a comprehensive research framework that demonstrates how AI technologies can enhance customer relationships throughout the entire customer journey. More specifically, it adopts a dynamic capabilities lens to extend our understanding of the marketing applications of AI by conceptualizing the dual role of AI as (a) a distinct organizational capability and (b) an enabler of dynamic capabilities, improving firms’ position to sense, seize, and transform organizational resources and fortify customer relationships. Our findings also highlight several facilitators and barriers to the adoption of AI, both as a dynamic capability and as an enabler for RM.
Testing Models of Complexity Aversion
In this study we aim to test behavioural models of complexity aversion. In this framework, complexity is defined as a function of the number of outcomes in a lottery. Using Bayesian inference techniques, we re-analyse data from a lottery-choice experiment. We quantitatively specify and estimate adaptive toolbox models of cognition, which we rigorously test against popular expectation-based models; modified to account for complexity aversion. We find that for the majority of the subjects, a toolbox model performs best both in-sample, and with regards to its predictive capacity out-of-sample, suggesting that individuals resort to heuristics in the presense of extreme complexity.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2025.102354
Authors: Konstantinos Georgalos, Nathan Nabil
ABSTRACT
In this study we aim to test behavioural models of complexity aversion. In this framework, complexity is defined as a function of the number of outcomes in a lottery. Using Bayesian inference techniques, we re-analyse data from a lottery-choice experiment. We quantitatively specify and estimate adaptive toolbox models of cognition, which we rigorously test against popular expectation-based models; modified to account for complexity aversion. We find that for the majority of the subjects, a toolbox model performs best both in-sample, and with regards to its predictive capacity out-of-sample, suggesting that individuals resort to heuristics in the presense of extreme complexity.
Digital Brand Equity: the Concept, Antecedents, Measurement, and Future Development
Measuring brand equity is of vital importance to marketing practitioners and scholars. Academics and practitioners have developed a range of tools and metrics for measuring brand equity, but in the fast-paced and transformational digital era, it may be that current metrics are not sufficient. The authors develop a conceptual understanding of the brand equity paradigm using practitioner and scholarly views. A practitioner-focused analysis is given on how companies can best understand and measure brand performance in a digital environment and take actionable insights, using the share of search, digital brand awareness, and digital brand sentiment constructs. The authors argue that digital brand equity metrics cannot be based only on social media and current digital metrics indicators but also must include a human side of the brand and the technology-consumer nuances. The study proposes a research agenda and highlights important research and policy questions in developing digital brand equity.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115273
Authors: Stephen L. France, Nebojsa S. Davcik, Brett J. Kazandjian
ABSTRACT
Measuring brand equity is of vital importance to marketing practitioners and scholars. Academics and practitioners have developed a range of tools and metrics for measuring brand equity, but in the fast-paced and transformational digital era, it may be that current metrics are not sufficient. The authors develop a conceptual understanding of the brand equity paradigm using practitioner and scholarly views. A practitioner-focused analysis is given on how companies can best understand and measure brand performance in a digital environment and take actionable insights, using the share of search, digital brand awareness, and digital brand sentiment constructs. The authors argue that digital brand equity metrics cannot be based only on social media and current digital metrics indicators but also must include a human side of the brand and the technology-consumer nuances. The study proposes a research agenda and highlights important research and policy questions in developing digital brand equity.
How Consumers Self-manage Service Interaction Vulnerability to Autonomously Improve Satisfaction Modes
This paper aims to better understand the relationships between consumer expectation-experience mismatches, the dissonance-induced service interaction vulnerability that arises from these mismatches, and the strategies consumers experiencing vulnerability autonomously enact to self-manage their satisfaction modes.This paper qualitatively (n = 20) explores the role of gist representations, being the essence of services marketing information that is used to generate an abstract mental picture. Specifically, this research explores the influence of gist representations in creating pre-commencement expectations among consumers experiencing vulnerability. It exposes how unmet gist-informed expectations induce consumer service interaction vulnerability and trigger autonomous vulnerability responses to elicit Oliver’s (1989) various modes of satisfaction. Three research propositions are tested in a complex multi-touchpoint service ecosystem.Data revealed that unmet expectations triggered a two-phased autonomous inaction-then-action response, with inaction resulting in either tolerance or regret satisfaction modes, followed by action, which results in either pleasure or relief satisfaction modes.Growing research into service interaction vulnerability seeks to understand the role consumers experiencing vulnerability play in improving their experience within service ecosystems. These findings provide insights to strategically shape service ecosystem design to mitigate interaction vulnerability by applying a strengths-based lens that foregrounds consumers’ capacity for autonomous dissonance responses to self-manage service interaction vulnerability and self-improve their consumer satisfaction modes.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-04-2024-0193
Authors: Courtney Geritz, Maria M. Raciti
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to better understand the relationships between consumer expectation-experience mismatches, the dissonance-induced service interaction vulnerability that arises from these mismatches, and the strategies consumers experiencing vulnerability autonomously enact to self-manage their satisfaction modes.This paper qualitatively (n = 20) explores the role of gist representations, being the essence of services marketing information that is used to generate an abstract mental picture. Specifically, this research explores the influence of gist representations in creating pre-commencement expectations among consumers experiencing vulnerability. It exposes how unmet gist-informed expectations induce consumer service interaction vulnerability and trigger autonomous vulnerability responses to elicit Oliver’s (1989) various modes of satisfaction. Three research propositions are tested in a complex multi-touchpoint service ecosystem.Data revealed that unmet expectations triggered a two-phased autonomous inaction-then-action response, with inaction resulting in either tolerance or regret satisfaction modes, followed by action, which results in either pleasure or relief satisfaction modes.Growing research into service interaction vulnerability seeks to understand the role consumers experiencing vulnerability play in improving their experience within service ecosystems. These findings provide insights to strategically shape service ecosystem design to mitigate interaction vulnerability by applying a strengths-based lens that foregrounds consumers’ capacity for autonomous dissonance responses to self-manage service interaction vulnerability and self-improve their consumer satisfaction modes.