Communicating values: essays on trust and legitimacy as dynamic drivers of decision-making in crowdfunding

There is great consensus among scholars and practitioners alike that entrepreneurs and young ventures play an important role in tackling societal issues. Despite this, such ventures with their overarching social or environmental mission face grave difficulties when it comes to accessing external finance. This may be due to their complex value-propositions that bring with a narrative outside the traditional lines of investor/investee communication, and of course their increased liability of newness (Stinchcombe, 1965) because of novel forms of organisations with strong stakeholder participation in their governance. Crowdfunding (CF) can be seen as a fairly young financing option that aims to bridge this financing gap. It does so by focusing investors on the value-propositions of the ventures such that it connects the fund-seeking venture to the community. Because of these peculiarities it is crucial to understand how decision-making and underlying communication processes work as they are more strongly underpinned by collective and individual values. And while research has shed light on the factors that influence decision-making processes, much less attention has been paid to the communication and negotiation of the underlying values of the various actors in these processes. This thesis, in the form of a PhD by Public Works, fills this gap and provides insights into how the communication and negotiation of values between the actors influences decision-making in CF throughout the various stages of a funding campaign. It summarises and outlines five scholarly papers which address CF as an institutional space with interlinked actors and looks at decision-making processes from sociological and socio-cognitive perspectives, applying legitimacy and trust lenses. Given the nascent status of CF theory the research positions itself in an interpretative paradigm and follows an abductive methodology with qualitative methods. Based on the combined insights from the five papers the thesis ultimately provides insights into the processes of embedding and re-embedding of values in CF and by that how these values drive decision-making

Two Essays on the Role of Empathy in Consumer Response to User-Generated Content

Empathy is known to be the basis of all human interactions and an essential component of human psychology. Empathy includes a cognitive component (perspective-taking) and an affective component (e.g., emotional contagion). The two essays of my dissertation investigate how each of these components of empathy affect consumer responses to user-generated content. Essay 1: Although both price and online review ratings are important cues in consumers’ product quality judgment, most previous studies have treated price and review ratings as separate inputs into consumer decision-making. The current research shows that the two cues are intertwined, such that consumers’ perception of the same review rating is different depending on the price of the rated product. Through four experimental studies with a variety of operationalizations, I show that consumers have the tendency to adjust the review rating of higher-priced products upwards compared with that of lower-priced products. For example, the same 4.0- star rating signals a higher-quality product when the price is $37 than when the price is$17, above and beyond the quality signaling effect of the price itself. This price-based bias in review rating perception is attributed to consumers taking the perspective of review writers and to the shared knowledge of review writers taking the price paid into consideration when rating a product. This research extends the existing literature on online reviews by introducing perspective-taking as a metacognitive mechanism that can influence consumers’ responses to online reviews. Essay 2: Companies make significant efforts to encourage positive word-of-mouth (WOM) about their brands on social media. One common tactic is to encourage consumers to post a picture of themselves (i.e., a selfie) with the product on social media. The current research investigates the role of eye gaze in such social media messages in facilitating emotional contagion and its subsequent effects on consumers’ engagement with the content and attitude toward the associated product. Through five online experiments and one lab experiment using facial expression analysis, I show that the mere presence of direct (vs. averted) eye gaze facilitates the transfer of emotions expressed in a positive message, which in turn, leads to positive downstream consequences. I also explore two boundary conditions of this emotional contagion effect, the valence of emotion shown in the selfie and the concurrent cognitive load of the consumer. This research contributes to marketing research by extending our knowledge of eye gaze effects beyond the cognitive mechanisms and attentional effects typically considered in previous studies. It suggests a more primitive, automatic process through emotional contagion

The end of stigma? Understanding the dynamics of legitimisation in the context of TV series consumption

This research contributes to prior work on stigmatisation by looking at stigmatisation and legitimisation as social processes in the context of TV series consumption. Using in-depth interviews, we show that the dynamics of legitimisation are complex and accompanied by the reproduction of existing stigmas and creation of new stigmas

Can Upward Brand Extensions be an Opportunity for Marketing Managers During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond?

Early COVID-19 research has guided current managerial practice by introducing more products across different product categories as consumers tried to avoid perceived health risks from food shortages, i.e. horizontal brand extensions. For example, Leon, a fast-food restaurant in the UK, introduced a new range of ready meal products. However, when the food supply stabilised, availability may no longer be a concern for consumers. Instead, job losses could be a driver of higher perceived financial risks. Meanwhile, it remains unknown whether the perceived health or financial risks play a more significant role on consumers’ consumptions. Our preliminary survey shows perceived health risks outperform perceived financial risks to positively influence purchase intention during COVID-19. We suggest such a result indicates an opportunity for marketers to consider introducing premium priced products, i.e. upward brand extensions. The risk-as�feelings and signalling theories were used to explain consumer choice under risk may adopt affective heuristic processing, using minimal cognitive efforts to evaluate products. Based on this, consumers are likely to be affected by the salient high-quality and reliable product cue of upward extension signalled by its premium price level, which may attract consumers to purchase when they have high perceived health risks associated with COVID-19. Addressing this, a series of experimental studies confirm that upward brand extensions (versus normal new product introductions) can positively moderate the positive effect between perceived health risks associated with COVID-19 and purchase intention. Such an effect can be mediated by affective heuristic information processing. The results contribute to emergent COVID-19 literature and managerial practice during the pandemic but could also inform post-pandemic thinking around vertical brand extensions