Selling Short
From Waste to Taste: How "Ugly" Labels Can Increase Purchase of Unattractive Produce
Sid Mookerjee, Yann Cornil & Joandrea (Joey) Hoegg
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Food producers and retailers throw away large amounts of perfectly edible produce that fail to meet beauty standards, contributing to the environmental issue of food waste. The authors examine why consumers discard aesthetically unattractive produce, and test a low-cost, easy-to-implement solution: emphasizing the produce's aesthetic flaw through 'ugly' labeling (e.g., labeling cucumbers with cosmetic defects "Ugly Cucumbers" on store displays or advertising). Seven experiments, including two conducted in the field, demonstrate that 'ugly' labeling corrects for consumers' biased expectations regarding key attributes of unattractive produce -- particularly tastiness -- and thus increases purchase likelihood. 'Ugly' labeling is most effective when associated with moderate (rather than steep) price discounts. Against managers' intuition, it is also more effective than alternative labeling that does not exclusively point out the aesthetic flaw, such as 'imperfect' labeling. This research provides clear managerial recommendations on the labeling and the pricing of unattractive produce while addressing the issue of food waste.
Why are song lyrics becoming simpler? A time series analysis of lyrical complexity in six decades of American popular music
Michael Varnum et al.
PLoS ONE, January 2021
Abstract:
Song lyrics are rich in meaning. In recent years, the lyrical content of popular songs has been used as an index of culture's shifting norms, affect, and values. One particular, newly uncovered, trend is that lyrics of popular songs have become increasingly simple over time. Why might this be? Here, we test the idea that increasing lyrical simplicity is accompanied by a widening array of novel song choices. We do so by using six decades (1958-2016) of popular music in the United States (N = 14,661 songs), controlling for multiple well-studied ecological and cultural factors plausibly linked to shifts in lyrical simplicity (e.g., resource availability, pathogen prevalence, rising individualism). In years when more novel song choices were produced, the average lyrical simplicity of the songs entering U.S. billboard charts was greater. This cross-temporal relationship was robust when controlling for a range of cultural and ecological factors and employing multiverse analyses to control for potentially confounding influence of temporal autocorrelation. Finally, simpler songs entering the charts were more successful, reaching higher chart positions, especially in years when more novel songs were produced. The present results suggest that cultural transmission depends on the amount of novel choices in the information landscape.
Promoting Platform Takeoff and Self-Fulfilling Expectations: Field Experimental Evidence
Kevin Boudreau
NBER Working Paper, January 2021
Abstract:
The theoretical literature on platforms and network effects predicts that the initial growth and takeoff of a platform crucially depends on the market's expectations of the future installed base. This paper tests this claim, reporting on a field experiment in which invitations to join a newly launched platform were sent to 16,349 individuals and included randomized statements regarding the future expected installed base (along with disclosures of the current installed base). I find evidence consistent with subjective expectations playing a crucial role in shaping early adoption and platform takeoff. Statements regarding expectations of the future installed base more significantly affected adoption than did disclosures of the current installed base. Statements of larger numbers of expected users caused more adoption than did smaller numbers. Statements of a smaller installed base of users (whether current or expected) led to lower demand than did stating nothing at all. The effect of stating subjective expectations by the platform became insignificant once the current installed base grew larger. The response of adoption to expected numbers of users reveals patterns consistent with the long-theorized chicken-and-egg problem and self-fulfilling expectations. The findings have significant implications for the effective promotion, marketing, and "evangelism" of new platform ventures.
Information Seeding and Knowledge Production in Online Communities: Evidence from OpenStreetMap
Abhishek Nagaraj
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The wild success of a few online communities (such as Wikipedia) has obscured the fact that most attempts at forming such communities fail. This study evaluates information seeding, an early-stage intervention to bootstrap online communities that enables contributors to build on externally sourced information rather than have them start from scratch. I analyze the effects of information seeding on follow-on contributions using data on more than 350 million contributions made by more than 577,000 contributors to OpenStreetMap, a crowd-sourced map-making community seeded with data from the U.S. Census. I estimate the effect of seeding using a natural experiment in which an oversight caused about 60% of U.S. counties to be seeded with a complete census map, while the rest were seeded with less complete versions. Although access to basic knowledge generally encourages downstream knowledge production, I find that a higher level of information seeding significantly lowered follow-on contributions and contributor activity on OpenStreetMap, and was associated with lower levels of long-term quality. However, seeding did benefit densely populated urban areas and did not discourage more committed users. To explain these patterns, I argue that information seeding can crowd out contributors' ability to develop ownership over baseline knowledge and thereby disincentivize follow-on contributions.
The Control-Effort Trade-Off in Participative Pricing: How Easing Pricing Decisions Maximizes Pricing Performance
Cindy Xin Wang, Joshua Beck & Hong Yuan
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Participative pricing strategies may influence consumer purchase decisions; this research proposes specifically that firms' delegation of pricing decisions to consumers can create a control-effort trade-off. Consumers favor greater pricing control but are deterred by the effort involved in deciding what to pay. Strategies such as pay what you want (PWYW) in turn might reduce purchase intentions due to the effort involved. In contrast, strategies that increase feelings of control but not perceived effort, such as pick your price (PYP) options that let consumers choose from a limited set of prices, could enhance pricing outcomes. A field study and four laboratory experiments confirm these propositions. The findings demonstrate the mixed effects of participative pricing, identify mediating mechanisms that explain these effects, and specify common moderating conditions that shape the outcomes of participative pricing. These results have notable implications for pricing theory and practice.