Alternative approaches for thinking about and modeling consumer decisions in relationships

Simpson, Griskevicius, and Rothman identify an understudied area in consumer research (namely, decision making in social relationships), propose an important starting point for enquiry (a dyadic framework), and suggest many fruitful moderators for study that can be incorporated in their framework. After pointing out some boundary conditions and opportunities for future research concerning their suggestions, I consider a recent approach in psychology that applies to a relatively circumscribed domain of social relationships (i.e., the social relations model) and then briefly review an emerging approach (plural subject theory applied to goal‐directed behavior) that goes beyond the social relations model and better fits certain psychological and social psychological phenomena in consumer behavior.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141467/1/jcpy315.pd

Philosophical foundations of neuroscience in organizational research : functional and nonfunctional approaches

Neuroscience offers a unique opportunity to elucidate the role of mental phenomena, including consciousness. However the place of such phenomena in explanations of human behavior is controversial. For example, consciousness has been construed in varied and conflicting forms, making it difficult to represent it in meaningful ways without committing researchers to one species of consciousness or another, with vastly different implications for hypothesis development, methods of study, and interpretation of findings. We explore the conceptual foundations of different explications of consciousness and consider alternative ways for studying its role in research. In the end, although no approach is flawless or dominates all others in every way, we are convinced that any viable approach must take into account, if not privilege, the self in the sense of representing the subjective, first-person process of self as observer and knower of one’s own actions and history, and the feelings and meanings attached to these. The most promising frameworks in this regard are likely to be some variant of nonreductive monism, or perhaps a kind of naturalistic dualism that remains yet to be developed coherently

Multitrait–multimethod matrices in consumer research: Critique and new developments

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141890/1/jcpy143.pd

The Role of Signaling Identity in the Adoption of Personal Technologies

We explore symbolic determinants of technology acceptance to complement more functional frameworks and better predict decisions to adopt information appliances. Previous research has investigated such variables as “need for uniqueness” and “status gains” to capture relevant aspects of technology acceptance. However, the more we move toward personal and ubiquitous technologies, the more we need to broaden and deepen our understanding of the symbolic aspects of adoption. This study reinterprets the symbolic dimension of adoption by broadening its scope to include the self-concept. Results support a prominent role for self-identity in predicting intentions to adopt mobile TVs. Self-identity is shown to complement the effects of “need for uniqueness” and “status gains” in this regard

Consumer Response to Corporate Irresponsible Behavior: Moral Emotions and Virtues

A unique theoretical framework for explaining consumer word of mouth and protest behaviors against corporate irresponsibility is developed and tested. Through field surveys with adult consumers, this study demonstrates how consumers\u2019 negative moral emotional responses to corporate infractions instigate, in combination with other-regarding virtues, negative word of mouth and protest toward the corporation. Negative moral emotions include contempt, anger, and disgust; whereas other-regarding virtues entail justice, beneficence, and communal cooperation. The results provide scholars and managers with means of improving their understanding and handling of consumers\u2019 reactions to corporate irresponsibility

My anger is your gain, my contempt your loss: Explaining consumer responses to corporate wrongdoing

Two forms of consumer response to corporate wrongdoing are constructive punitive actions (i.e., those designed to induce firms to change their behavior but with the hope of sustaining relationships with consumers) and destructive punitive actions (i.e., those intended to discredit or harm firms, ultimately leading to disengagement from firms). This study investigates the conditions under which one or the other actions are taken and shows that anger regulates the former, whereas contempt governs the latter. Hypotheses are tested in two studies: a laboratory experiment and a naturalistic field study with an actual instance of recent corporate malfeasance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed

Reshoring from a demand-side perspective: Consumer reshoring sentiment and its market effects

Reshoring is the company decision to relocate activities back to the home country. Our study complements the existing research in IB by adopting a demand-side perspective. We identify new, demand-based drivers for reshoring that integrate with the firm-based ones, thereby further informing the company decision process in this context. We develop a Consumer Reshoring Sentiment (CRS) scale through multiple studies conducted on consumers (total =1149) in two countries. Our findings reveal: six demand-based drivers that compose CRS; a link between CRS and consumer willingness to reward the reshoring company; and the effectiveness of CRS in segmenting and targeting the market

Consumer Reshoring Sentiment and Animosity: Expanding our understanding of market responses to reshoring

Although an increasing body of research has focused attention on reshoring, namely, a company’s decision to relocate activities back to the home-country, how and when reshoring impacts market responses remains largely understudied and requires specific theoretical and empirical consideration. Our study complements existing research on reshoring by adopting a demand-side perspective. Through multiple, experimental and survey-based studies, conducted in two countries (Italy and the US), we verified that the interplay between Consumer Reshoring Sentiment (CRS) and Consumer Animosity (CA) leads to specific emotional reactions (gratitude and relief) which, in their turn, affect relevant market responses (positive word of mouth, willingness to buy, advocacy behaviors). Our work provides interesting insights for practitioners and international managers evaluating reshoring; they can capitalize on the positive market responses to reshoring by considering both reshoring sentiments characterizing the home-country market and consumer animosity associated with tensions between the countries involved in the reshoring decision

How formulating implementation plans and remembering past actions facilitate the enactment of effortful decisions

Building on prior research studying effortful decision making and enactment processes (Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Basuroy, 2003; BDB), we identify and provide an in-depth understanding of two specific self-regulatory strategies: (1) formulating an implementation plan, and (2) remembering past actions, that decision makers can use in facilitating enactment of effortful decisions. The results of three experiments, in which the decision maker's goal and self-regulatory strategy were manipulated, showed that for goals that decision makers chose volitionally, the motivational effects of both these strategies lay in increasing levels of proximal implementation-related variables (implementation intentions, plan completeness, plan enactment, and goal realization) significantly. In contrast, for goals that were assigned to participants, these strategies' motivational effects additionally extended to significantly increasing distal goal-related variables (goal desire, goal intentions, perceived self-efficacy, and implementation desires). The theoretical implications of our findings are discussed, and future research opportunities are explored. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57372/1/562_ftp.pd