Business Commons^™

What Exactly Is Marketing And Public Policy? Insights For Jppm Researchers, J. Craig Andrews, Scot Burton, Gregory T. Gundlach, Ronald Paul Hill, Jeremy Kees, Richard G. Netemeyer, Kristen L. Walker

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

In this article for the 40th Anniversary of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPPM), the authors first share what is meant by “policy,” “public policy,” and “marketing and public policy” for researchers in our field. The authors then offer examples of JPPM research informing policy across different stages of the policy-making process: problem identification, agenda setting, policy formulation, budgeting, implementation, and evaluation. They also discuss important sources of public policy (e.g., federal, state, and international agencies; self-regulation; the courts; nonprofits; society; industry standards; company policies; personal ethics) and their role in the marketing and public policy …

Influence Of Social Media Posts On Service Performance, Carol L. Esmark Jones, Stacie F. Waites, Jennifer Stevens

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

Much research regarding social media posts and relevancy has resulted in mixed findings. Furthermore, the mediating role of relevancy has not previously been examined. This paper aims to examine the correlating relationship between types of posts made by hotels and the resulting occupancy rates. Then, the mediating role of relevancy is examined and ways that posts can increase/decrease relevancy of the post to potential hotel users.

Design/methodology/approach

Within the context of the hotel industry, three studies were conducted – one including hotel occupancy data from a corporate chain – to examine the impact of social media posts on relevancy …

Prosocial Messaging During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Examination Of Email Advertisements, Ashley Deutsch Cermin, Ashton Mouton

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate how brands communicate with consumers through the COVID-19 pandemic and how messaging has shifted over time. The authors identify a typology drawn from extant literature and use it to understand how brands shape consumers’ behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a mix of interpretive and thematic analysis, the authors examine 858 US email advertisements and how these messages have evolved throughout the pandemic.

Findings

The authors findings demonstrate brand communication ranges from prosocial to brand messaging and brands employed different strategies at different phases of the pandemic. Specifically, while brands started out emphasizing socially desirable behavior before …

Identifying And Selecting Effective Graphic Health Warnings To Prevent Perceptual Wearout On Tobacco Packaging And In Advertising, Scot Burton, J. Craig Andrews, Richard G. Netemeyer

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Graphic visual health warnings (GHWs) on cigarette packaging are used in more than 120 countries globally. Because there are concerns about the effectiveness of using the same visual warnings over many years due to wearout, a primary issue is how to identify the most effective visual stimuli. Adolescent smokers and nonsmokers provided more than 2000 ratings of different visual warnings. Cluster analysis and follow-up analyses are used to identify a high-performing visual stimuli group from the larger group of GHWs. Subsequent analyses also show that compared to other pictorial stimuli, the high-performing group is perceived as effective in preventing adolescent …

Toward A Doctrine Of Socially Responsible Marketing (Srm): A Macro And Normative-Ethical Perspective, Gene R. Laczniak, Clifford Schultz

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

In this conceptual article, the authors use a macro-level analysis and normative ethical theory to delineate and to explicate a doctrine of socially responsible marketing (SRM). Applying a theory-in-formation approach, we postulate a literature-informed definition of SRM. We discuss why a macro and normative-ethical rather than a micro and positive-descriptive perspective is essential to justifying the elements of SRM. We explore and explain why the roots of an authentic doctrine of SRM can be discerned from the literatures of marketing history, corporate social responsibility, institutional economics and moral philosophy. In so doing, the mandate to engage in socially responsible marketing …

Rise Up: Understanding Youth Social Entrepreneurs And Their Ecosystems, Melissa G. Bublitz, Lan Nguyen Chaplin, Laura A. Peracchio, Ashley Deutsch Cermin, Mentor Dida, Jennifer Edson Escalas, Meike Eilert, Alexei Gloukhovtsev, Elizabeth G. Miller

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This research focuses on youth social entrepreneurs who are leading ventures that address pressing societal problems including climate change, gun reform, and social justice. It answers Journal of Public Policy & Marketing’s call for more research in marketing on social entrepreneurship. Consistent with the mission of Transformative Consumer Research to enhance individual and societal well-being, this research explores how the dynamic ecosystem of youth social entrepreneurs empowers them to rise up to transform people, communities, and the future for the better. The authors partnered with 20 established youth social entrepreneurs who have founded social impact initiatives as well as …

From Student To Professional: Teaching Professionalism In The Marketing Classroom, Hulda G. Black, Rebecca Dingus, Alexander Milovic

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Developing professionalism skills in the classroom is vital to the business college experience as educators strive to ensure preparedness and success of their graduates. Marketers especially need enhanced professionalism training, as their careers involve interactions with many constituents. In this paper, the authors develop a semester-long emphasis on professionalism that introduces the concept, embeds its importance throughout the course with discussion and relevant exercises, and includes a component to monitor and evaluate professional behavior. Assessments at the beginning and end of the semester provide evidence for learning outcomes, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that speak to the effectiveness of its implementation.

Laudato Si’ – A Macromarketing Manifesto For A Just And Sustainable Environment, Thomas A. Klein, Gene R. Laczniak

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This paper posits that Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on environmental climate change, Laudato si’ (“Praise be to you, my Lord”), or LS for short, provides a compelling and multi-faceted framework for co-creating a just and sustainable environment. LS includes considerable commentary about how markets and marketing impact the physical and social environment. Additionally, the document provides religion-inspired ethical norms for market conditions, actions, and performance that reflect both (a) the social teachings of the Catholic Church as they have evolved over the past 125 years and, as we will explain, (b) a foundational predicate of macromarketing scholarship – that is, …

Building Toward A Solid Foundation: The Effect Of Thinking Concretely About The Future, Stacie F. Waites, Adam Farmer, Carol L. Esmark Jones

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

According to construal level theory, consumers tend to think about their future abstractly, making it unclear and inexact. Here, a new approach is developed to help people enhance their future‐oriented outcomes by priming them to think about their future concretely. Two experiments show that priming a concrete mindset about the future leads to enhanced future‐oriented outcomes. Specifically, the studies show that participants discounted current funds in favor of future gains less when they were primed with a concrete mindset. Opportunity cost consideration is shown to be the mechanism driving this effect. Though research suggests that most consumers do not consider …

How To Not Disappear Completely: Using Video-Based Discussions To Enhance Student Social Presence In An Online Course, Alexander Milovic, Rebecca Dingus

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This paper proposes a video-based discussion learning exercise to consider in addition to the traditional online discussion board format. While the traditional written interaction between students in an online classroom is beneficial, the mass adoption of video technology, along with limitations associated with online discussion boards, led to the development of a new way to facilitate group communication using video communication technology. Utilizing the theory of social presence, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this video discussion format, allowing students to virtually "get to know" each other and collaborate in an environment that more closely resembles a traditional face-to-face classroom experience. …

Signaling Green: Investigating Signals Of Expertise And Prosocial Orientation To Enhance Consumer Trust, Stacie F. Waites, Jennifer L. Stevens, Tyler Hancock

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Prior research has established the positive effect of green marketing on purchase intentions. Less well known is why. Two empirical studies were conducted to investigate trust as an important mediator explaining the relationship between green marketing and purchase intentions. In study one, we successfully replicate prior research, again finding higher purchase intentions for companies that engage in green marketing. Additionally, trust in the company was found to mediate this relationship. Study two then examines the underlying mechanisms of expertise and prosocial orientation on the relationship between green marketing and trust, and then serially to purchase intentions. Demographic boundary conditions of …

Reflections About Professor Robert F. Lusch: Friend, Co-Author And Marketing Visionary, Gene Laczniak

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This personal commentary offers some brief reflections about the late Professor Robert F. Lusch. These insights are offered by someone who knew him for many decades as a friend, colleague and co-author.

When Time Is Sales: The Impact Of Sales Manager Time Allocation Decisions On Sales Team Performance, Adam Rapp, J. Andrew Petersen, Douglas E. Hughes, Jessica Ogilvie

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Sales managers often take on the dual responsibilities of managing a sales team and selling to customers. This practice raises questions about how sales managers' time allocation to managing and selling activities affects sales team performance. Building on qualitative findings, this research first highlights and categorizes activities that are regularly competing for the limited time resources of today's sales managers. Our qualitative results reveal a prevalence of sales managers taking a "hybrid" approach to managing their sales teams by regularly allocating time toward both managing and selling activities. Through a resource allocation lens, we investigate how the time allocation decisions …

When Sales Becomes Service: The Evolution Of The Professional Selling Role And An Organic Model Of Frontline Ambidexterity, Douglas E. Hughes, Jessica Ogilvie

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Building on new theoretical foundations in the professional selling domain, growing bodies of research on frontline ambidexterity, and an increasingly demanding and dynamic frontline role, this article advances frontline ambidexterity through three focal goals. We first provide an in-depth discussion of the evolution of the professional selling role. This foundation allows us to identify and explore the implications of a market-driven model of ambidexterity that can manifest organically within certain professional selling contexts. In so doing, we espouse a new model of individual-level ambidexterity—organic frontline ambidexterity. Next, we discern existing models of frontline ambidexterity (characterized as inorganic) and compare these …

Children And Online Privacy Protection: Empowerment From Cognitive Defense Strategies, J. Craig Andrews, Kristen L. Walker, Jeremy Kees

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

At present, very little is known about what might encourage children and teens to limit access to their private information online and to restrict what they share on social media and video sites. Federal and state agencies face challenges encouraging companies to help children, teens, and parents protect their information online. The authors extend previous cognitive defense research by examining (1) effects beyond advertising as applied to information privacy online; (2) not only children’s/teens’ beliefs and knowledge, but also their online privacy decisions; (3) multiple age categories; (4) multiple cognitive defense strategies (educational video, quiz with feedback, or absence of …

Effects Of E-Cigarette Health Warnings And Modified Risk Ad Claims On Adolescent E-Cigarette Craving And Susceptibility, J. Craig Andrews, Darren Mays, Richard G. Netemeyer, Scot Burton, Jeremy Kees

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction

A between-subjects experiment examines the effects of different warning types and modified risk e-cigarette ad claims on adolescent e-cigarette craving and future e-cigarette susceptibility for two different themes. One theme focuses on nicotine and addiction, and the other on the effects of potentially harmful constituents (eg, flavored chemicals and lung disease).

Methods

The effects of warning type (control, text-only, graphic health warning [GHW] and text) and modified risk e-cigarette ad claims (control, exposure reduction, risk reduction) are tested experimentally with two different arms (themes) for a sample of 1011 adolescents who had tried either e-cigarettes or cigarettes.

Results

For …

Ethical Foundations For Exchange In Service Ecosystems, Patrick E. Murphy, Gene R. Laczniak

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Normative Marketing Ethics, Gene R. Laczniak, Patrick E. Murphy

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This essay highlights the importance of normative thinking in marketing ethics and proposes avenues for future research. It begins with contrasting positive and normative ethics. Then, a brief discussion of the literature in the field is included. Arguments offered by those who tend to avoid normative analysis are examined. Four types of normative ethical theories are presented: consequentialism, duty-based ethics, contract-based morality, and virtue ethics. The essay concludes with seven future research directions for normative marketing ethics and customer-brand relationships.

Something Of Value: A Value Proposition Exercise For The Marketing Classroom, Rebecca Dingus, Alexander Milovic

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Gone are the days of transactional marketing, and here to stay are increased expectations for marketers to act as trusted advisors while providing value customized specifically to each customer. Accordingly, marketers must clearly identify the competitive advantage of their products or services, and they need to be sure this competitive advantage is valuable in the eyes of the customer. This paper focuses on teaching students to adopt such a perspective when developing customer-focused solutions, as well as to train them on creating an actual value proposition. An exercise is presented, with data demonstrating its effectiveness for teaching value propositions.

The Upside Of Showrooming: How Online Information Creates Positive Spill-Over For The Brick-And-Mortar Retailer, Brian I. Spaid, Bonnie O'Neill, Terence T. Ow

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

The ubiquitous nature of mobile internet devices (i.e., smartphones and tablet computers) has led to an increase of their use within the retail environment as a shopping assistive technology. Consumers use them for a variety of shopping-related tasks, the most significant of which is researching product information. The use of these devices has clearly impacted how consumers shop, but what is not clear is how these devices affect shopper satisfaction, trust in the retailer and subsequent shopper intentions. The purpose of this paper is to better understand these relationships and extend existing research on the use of mobile internet devices …

Social Media Technology Use And Salesperson Performance: A Two Study Examination Of The Role Of Salesperson Behaviors, Characteristics, And Training, Jessica Ogilvie, Raj Agnihotri, Adam Rapp, Kevin Trainor

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Extending the literature on sales technology, we use two studies to develop and test a model involving salesperson-customer shared technology tools, referred to as Social Media Technology (SMT). Specifically, we demonstrate the impacts of SMT in B2B sales contexts on customer relationship performance and objective sales performance through key mediating behaviors and characteristics. Empirical findings from two studies, cross-company and within-company data, demonstrate the effects of SMT on salesperson product information communication, diligence, product knowledge, and adaptability. Moderating effects suggest that the integration of SMT in the absence of training on the technology may not yield the best results. Findings …

Exploring The Sources Of Design Innovations: Insights From The Computer, Communications And Audio Equipment Industries, Sujan M. Dan, Brian I. Spaid, Charles H. Noble

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Whereas business research has focused on the impact of design innovations on market response and financial performance, the sources of design innovations, as opposed to those of technological innovations, have largely escaped investigation. In this research, we examine the organizational, financial, and environmental drivers of design innovations and how they contrast to technological innovations. Our study utilizes a unique dataset encompassing a 10-year window of innovation output drawn from the computer, communications, and audio and video equipment manufacturing industries. Our results suggest that design innovations are driven primarily by investments in research and development and slack organizational resources. Interestingly, we …

Exploring Consumer Collecting Behavior: A Conceptual Model And Research Agenda, Brian I. Spaid

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the behaviors that revolve around collecting, the motivations behind these behaviors and the psychological benefits collectors receive from engaging in these collecting behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

A thorough literature review and integration of prominent psychological and social psychology theories are used to propose a conceptual model, several research propositions and potential research questions for future scholarship.

Findings

This paper proposes that a collector salient identity and collecting motives drive tension-inducing social and solitary collecting behaviors and that these behaviors in turn reinforce the collector salient identity. Relevant aspects of the collecting phenomenon are …

Gross National Happiness (Gnh): Linkages To And Implications For Macromarketing, Gene R. Laczniak, Nicholas J. C. Santos

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This theoretical commentary explores the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and connects it with several central macromarketing concepts such as QoL, ethics, the common good, the purpose of market activity as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The paper portrays GNH as a normative concept that captures collective well-being; it categorizes GNH, at least from the standpoint of Western moral philosophy, as most closely aligned with classical utilitarianism, and it distinguishes GNH from QoL on the basis of its predominantly aspirational and subjective orientation. It asserts that GNH can be seen as one manifestation of the common …

It Takes Two: Developing A Successful Partnership Between Clients And Students In Client-Based Projects, Rebecca Dingus, Alexander Milovic

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Both faculty and employers are motivated to advance learning beyond the classroom in order to teach skills required by graduates to succeed in business careers. The authors use a client-based project to build a bridge between marketing theory and practice, allowing students to develop their skills within a course while working with a real company. The authors demonstrate how a client-based project can succeed in the classroom with motivating incentives, positive client engagement, and earning real-world experience-all of which positively enhanced students 'participation, project deliverables, and enjoyment in the class project.

Marketers’ Use Of Alternative Front-Of-Package Nutrition Symbols: An Examination Of Effects On Product Evaluations, Christopher L. Newman, Scot Burton, J. Craig Andrews, Richard G. Netemeyer, Jeremy Kees

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

How front-of-package (FOP) nutrition icon systems affect product evaluations for more and less healthful objective nutrition profiles is a critical question facing food marketers, consumers, and the public health community. We propose a conceptually-based hierarchical continuum to guide predictions regarding the effectiveness of several FOP systems currently used in the marketplace. In Studies 1a and 1b, we compare the effects of a broad set of FOP icons on nutrition evaluations linked to health, accuracy of evaluations, and purchase intentions for a single product. Based on these findings, Studies 2 and 3 test the effects of two conceptually-different FOP icon systems …

A Simple Procedure To Correct For Attenuation Of Anova Statistics In Decision Sciences Research, Srinivas Durvasula, Manoj K. Malhotra, Subhash C. Sharma

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

Studies in the field of Decision Sciences that employ multi-item rating scales to measure latent constructs have predominantly used ANOVA rather than Means and Covariance Structure Analysis (MACS) in order to investigate group mean differences. However, traditional statistics in ANOVA (e.g., t and F) attenuate when dealing with imperfect measures, which in turn potentially leads to incorrect interpretation of results in the form of accepting the false null hypothesis and/or underestimating the true effect size. To address this issue, we describe in this paper a new but simple procedure to disattenuate the ANOVA-based statistics for measurement error. Using previously published …

The Hidden Costs Of Hidden Costs, Gene R. Laczniak

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This brief comment expands on the “long macro view” observation of Prof. Robert Lusch that human choices, including market choices, have massive and unseen costs. It is argued here that a central challenge for macromarketing scholars is to make transparent the hidden costs embedded in macromarketing systems and sub-systems so that their true complexity and heterogeneity are better understood. Distributive Justice demands such consideration.

Infrastructural Drivers Of Online Shopping: An International Perspective, Syed H. Akhter

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

While online shopping expenditures have been increasing in both developed and developing economies, they still account for a small share of total retail sales. Significant differences also exist across countries in the amount of money consumers spend on a per capita basis on online purchases. The authors utilize the conceptual foundations of infrastructural framework to examine the effects of infrastructural drivers on online shopping expenditures in 43 countries. Findings show that per capita telecommunications investments and per capita gross national income are significantly associated with per capita online shopping expenditures. Privacy protection, Internet penetration, and credit card penetration were not …

Nutrition Labeling In The United States And The Role Of Consumer Processing, Message Structure, And Moderating Conditions, J. Craig Andrews, Scot Burton, Laurel Aynne Cook

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

It has been since 1990 that the landmark Nutritional Labeling Education Act (NLEA) was passed in the United States, and since 1969 that the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health occurred. In the time since these important events, considerable research has been conducted on how U.S. consumers process and use nutritional labeling. An up-to-date review of nutritional labeling research must address key findings on the processing and use of nutrition facts panels (NFPs), restaurant labeling, front-of-pack (FOP) symbols, health and nutrient content claims, new labeling efforts (e.g., for meat products), and claims not regulated by the U.S. …