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Radical Repertoires: The Incidence and Impact of Corporate-Sponsored Social Activism
Mary-Hunter McDonnell
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article explores when and why firms participate in overt corporate-sponsored social activism. To shed light on this question, I empirically explore the emergence and implications of a new strategic phenomenon in nonmarket strategy - the corporate-sponsored boycott - in which firms voluntarily cooperate with contentious social movement organizations to sponsor boycotts that protest the contested social practices of other companies or entities at higher orders of market organization, such as industries, transnational regulators, or states. Using a longitudinal database that tracks the social movement challenges faced by 300 large companies between 1993 and 2007, I provide evidence that overt corporate-sponsored activism is used by companies that are chronically targeted and losing ground to activists, especially when those companies are facing a reputational deficit. Furthermore, I find that participation in overt corporate-sponsored activism is associated with significant decreases in the number of activist challenges targeting a firm in the future, suggesting that the tactic may effectively defend a firm from contentious threat by allowing firms to co-opt allies within the activist population. I discuss implications of these findings for social movement research, nonmarket strategy, and the study of corporate social responsibility.
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Jorge Pena-Marin & Rajesh Bhargave
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers prefer products that deliver benefits for a longer time. For instance, caffeinated drinks are consumed for energy, but the key characteristic that performs this benefit - caffeine - tends to wear off in its effects. How can marketers communicate the lasting performance of product characteristics? This work proposes that numbers used in conveying product characteristics-round (200 mg) or precise (203 mg)-influence consumers' perception of lasting performance and product attitudes. More specifically, product characteristics described in round (vs. precise) numbers are perceived as performing for a longer time, and this effect is driven by a symbolic association between round numbers and stability. This finding is important because numbers are commonly used in conveying product benefits and past work has mainly documented the advantages of using precise numbers (e.g., higher competence), whereas less is known about when and why using round numbers boosts product attitudes. Three studies, including one with actual consumption, offer triangulating evidence for this prediction and its underlying psychological mechanism. Overall, this work contributes to research on product perception, numerical cognition, and persuasion.
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The Role of (Dis)similarity in (Mis)predicting Others' Preferences
Kate Barasz, Tami Kim & Leslie John
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers readily indicate liking options that appear dissimilar - for example, enjoying both rustic lake vacations and chic city vacations, or liking both scholarly documentary films and action-packed thrillers. However, when predicting other consumers' tastes for the same items, people believe that a preference for one precludes enjoyment of the dissimilar other. Five studies show that people sensibly expect others to like similar products, but erroneously expect others to dislike dissimilar ones (Studies 1 and 2). While people readily select dissimilar items for themselves (particularly if the dissimilar item is of higher quality than a similar one), they fail to predict this choice for others (Studies 3 and 4) - even when monetary rewards are at stake (Study 3). The tendency to infer dislike from dissimilarity is driven by a belief that others have a narrow and homogeneous range of preferences (Study 5).
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Movie Stars and the Volatility of Movie Revenues
Amit Joshi
Journal of Media Economics, Fall 2015, Pages 246-267
Abstract:
Research has found conflicting results regarding the profitability of movies that have big-name stars. Why then, are stars selected to act in movies? Using the concepts of risk, volatility, and brand loyalty, this research proposes that although stars may not guarantee profits, their presence results in lower weekly revenue volatility. Using a database comprising 41 stars and their presence in 467 movies from over a 26-year period, this study finds broad support for this hypothesis.
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Aparna Sundar & James Kellaris
Journal of Business Ethics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite the moral gravity and far-reaching consequences of ethical judgment, evidence shows that such judgment is surprisingly malleable, prone to bias, informed by intuition and implicit associations, and swayed by mere circumstance. In this vein, this research examines how mere colors featured in logos can bias consumers' ethical judgments about a retailer. Exposure to a logo featuring an eco-friendly color makes an ethically ambiguous practice seem more ethical; however, exposure to a logo featuring a non-eco-friendly color makes the same practice seem less ethical (Study 1). This effect is due to the embodied meaning of color, not referential meanings associated with the names of colors, and it is mediated by perceptions of a retailer's eco-friendliness (Study 2a). Furthermore, although the word "green" appears to influence ethical ratings of retail practices more than the word "blue," visual exposure to either color evokes similar perceptions of eco-friendliness and influences ethical judgments (Study 2b). Study 2c assesses and rules out alternative explanations for this effect. Critically, an eco-friendly color can skew judgments even when the practices judged are not ethically ambiguous (Study 3). Individual differences in ethical sensitivity moderate the observed effect, such that individuals who are less ethically sensitive are less influenced by color (Study 4). The article concludes with a discussion on how logo colors shape consumers' perceptions of retailer ethicality.
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David Askay & Loril Gossett
Management Communication Quarterly, November 2015, Pages 616-641
Abstract:
This study investigates organizational identity and member identification in a hidden organization operating within a crowd-based collective. Specifically, it draws from Scott's hidden organization framework to examine the role of the Yelp Elite Squad, an invitation-only organization that receives access to free monthly parties and other rewards organized by a local employee of Yelp. Analyses of qualitative interviews and participant observation indicate that through limited information, restricted channels of communication, and framing participation as "community," Yelp is able to conceal the Elite Squad organizational identity from both the public as well as members of the Elite Squad. Further analysis reveals tensions emerging from expressing and suppressing organizational identification among members of the Elite Squad. Finally, Yelp is shown to broker (in)visibilities of the Elite Squad with local businesses to create value for the organization.
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Streaming Reaches Flood Stage: Does Spotify Stimulate or Depress Music Sales?
Luis Aguiar & Joel Waldfogel
NBER Working Paper, October 2015
Abstract:
Streaming music services have exploded in popularity in the past few years, variously raising optimism and concern about their impacts on recorded music revenue. On the one hand, streaming services allow sellers to engage in bundling with the promise of increasing revenues, profits, and consumer surplus. Successful bundling would indeed translate some of the interest in music not generating revenue through individual track sales - unpaid consumption and deadweight loss - into willingness to pay for the bundled offering. On the other hand, streaming may displace traditional individual track sales. Even if they displace sales, streams may however still raise overall revenue if the streaming payment is large enough in relation to the extent of sales displacement. We make use of the growth in Spotify use during the years 2013-2015 to measure its impact on unpaid consumption and on the sales of recorded music. We find that Spotify use displaces permanent downloads. In particular, 137 Spotify streams appear to reduce track sales by 1 unit. Consistent with the existing literature, our analysis also shows that Spotify displaces music piracy. Given the current industry's revenue from track sales ($0.82 per sale) and the average payment received per stream ($0.007 per stream), our sales displacement estimates show that the losses from displaced sales are roughly outweighed by the gains in streaming revenue. In other words, our analysis shows that interactive streaming appears to be revenue-neutral for the recorded music industry.
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Information Technology and Product Variety in the City: The Case of Food Trucks
Elliot Anenberg & Edward Kung
Journal of Urban Economics, November 2015, Pages 60-78
Abstract:
Using the food truck industry as the setting, we provide direct evidence for how information technology can complement consumption variety in cities by reducing spatial information frictions associated with locally produced goods. We document the following facts: 1) food trucks use technology to overcome a spatial information friction; 2) proliferation of technology is related to growth in food trucks; 3) food trucks use their mobility to respond to consumer taste-for-variety; and 4) growth in food trucks is positively correlated with growth in food expenditures away from home. Taken together, our results illustrate how information technology can provide a meaningful increase in variety for urban consumers.
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Corporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder Wealth: The Role of Marketing Capability
Saurabh Mishra & Sachin Modi
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite the positive societal implications of corporate social responsibility (CSR), there remains an extensive debate regarding its consequences for firm shareholders. This study posits that marketing capability plays a complementary role in the CSR-shareholder wealth relationship. It further argues that the influence of marketing capability will be higher for CSR types with verifiable benefits to firm stakeholders (i.e., consumers, employees, channel partners, and regulators). An analysis utilizing secondary information for a large sample of 1,725 firms for the years 2000-2009 indicates that the effects of overall CSR efforts on stock returns and idiosyncratic risk are not significant on their own but only become so in the presence of marketing capability. Furthermore, the results reveal that although marketing capability has positive interaction effects with verifiable CSR efforts - environment (e.g., using clean energy), products (e.g., providing to economically disadvantaged), diversity (e.g., pursuing diversity in top management), corporate governance (e.g., limiting board compensation), and employees (e.g., supporting unions) - on stock returns (and negative interaction effects with these CSR efforts on idiosyncratic risk), it has no significant interaction effect with community-based efforts (e.g., charitable giving).
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Cumulative Growth in User-Generated Content Production: Evidence from Wikipedia
Aleksi Aaltonen & Stephan Seiler
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Open content production platforms typically allow users to gradually create content and react to previous contributions. Using detailed edit-level data across a large number of Wikipedia articles, we investigate how past edits shape current editing activity. We find that cumulative past contributions, embodied by the current article length, lead to significantly more editing activity, while controlling for a host of factors such as popularity of the topic and platform-level growth trends. The magnitude of the effect is large; content growth over an eight-year period would have been 45% lower in its absence. Our findings suggest that other open content production environments are likely to also benefit from similar cumulative growth effects. In the presence of such effects, managerial interventions that increase content are amplified because they trigger further contributions.