Journal Of Consumer Research Research Articles

The offer framing effect: a replication and extension

AbstractThe article by Mittelman et al. (2014, Journal of Consumer Research, 41(4):953–964) introduced the offer framing effect, suggesting that consumers exhibit greater variety-seeking behavior when selecting products sequentially (single offering) compared to choosing from bundles (bundled offering). The opposite was found by O’Donnell et al. (2023, Journal of Consumer Research, 49(5):861–881), resulting in opposing management implications. To clarify the direction of effect, we conducted four studies in two product categories and found evidence of a stronger preference for variety in bundled offering conditions (compared to single offering conditions), replicating O’Donnell et al.’s (2023) findings. However, utilizing logistic regression analyses, we identify product liking discrepancies as the primary driver of variety seeking. We further reveal that the offer framing effect is more distinctive for choices between products with prosocial attributes compared to hedonic attributes. Our findings provide valuable insights for marketers aiming to optimize product bundling strategies.

Sketching a comprehensive picture of the marketing discipline: a bibliometric analysis covering eight top-tier journals

Purpose This study aims to examine marketing trends spanning a period of 26 years to scrutinize North American influence in marketing research, as well as enhance comprehension of interdisciplinary marketing knowledge and identify prominent scholars, universities, countries, and articles that warrant further scholarly exploration. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses bibliometric methods to analyze the publications of eight top-tier journals (Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Consumer Psychology and International Journal of Research in Marketing) between 1996 and 2021, as found in the Scopus database. Findings The findings indicate that North American hegemony in the marketing discipline continues and that the impact of marketing on other disciplines remains controversial. Some universities have a deeply rooted tradition of marketing departments. Some articles from 26 years ago are still frequently cited. Research limitations/implications The study covers the period from 1996 to 2021. It includes only articles, uses a single database and is cross-sectional. Future research should explore longer time periods by using various databases for comprehensive analysis. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study constitutes one of the first attempts to understand the scholarly contributions of the marketing discipline by considering eight top-tier journals.

People, Peace, Prosperity, and the Planet: A Journey toward Sustainable Development in Consumer Research

Abstract With its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations (UN) developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a “blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” This initiative raises the question: how has the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) shed light on the SDGs? This research analyzes 50 years of consumer research through the lens of the SDG and makes four contributions. First, the authors provide a content analysis of articles in JCR and how it relates to the SDGs over time; they also analyze the Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP) and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPP&M) with regard to the SDGs. Second, this research reveals where JCR has made progress and achieved impact (via Altmetric) but also identifies gaps in the literature. Thus, the analyses shed light on what research in JCR, JCP, and JPP&M understands (and does not understand) about consumer behavior and points the way to future SDG-oriented research. Finally, based on insights from interviews with thought leaders, sociology of science, UN data dashboards, and an exploratory survey in three countries (the U.S., France, and Singapore), the authors provide recommendations on how the field can (better) incorporate the SDGs in research, teaching, and service.

Midrange, Differential, Meaningful, and Multidisciplinary: Reflections onJCR’s Epistemic Culture

AbstractScientific communities such as journals or professional societies have their own ways of creating and sharing knowledge called “epistemic cultures.” Drawing on prior reflexive scholarship and conversations with eight preeminent consumer researchers, this article explores some of the central tenets of epistemic culture at the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR): midrange scope, differential insight, meaningful impact, and multidisciplinary field. It also provides some guidance to new consumer researchers on how to accomplish epistemic fluency.

Keeping Up and Staying Fresh: Reflections on Studying Emerging Topics in Consumer Research

Abstract This article reflects on the study of consumer-related emerging topics in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) and looks ahead to consider what the next generation of emergent issues might be that capture consumer researchers’ attention and interest. Drawing on conversations with eminent scholars who have made major contributions to JCR by introducing emerging topics to our literature, the author (i) provides a commentary of past approaches to researching novel emerging topics, (ii) suggests some domains from which new emerging topics for consumer research can be sourced, such as new digital technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) and major societal challenges (e.g., climate change, sustainability, and health), and (iii) offers guidance on how to approach research on important emerging topics.

Conversations on Society and Culture

Abstract This article takes a “then and now” perspective on social and cultural issues in the Journal of Consumer Research. The author had conversations with preeminent scholars who reflected on theoretical developments over time, what we know, and what we should be most concerned with now and in the future. This article can be used as a call to action for future consumer research dealing with society and culture.

Consumer Information Processing and Decision-Making: Origins, Findings, Applications, and Future Directions

Abstract This article chronicles the evolution of the two main paradigms within the Journal of Consumer Research: consumer information processing and behavioral decision-making. The work synthesizes interviews with preeminent scholars who have shaped these paradigms, featuring theoretical developments, key findings, and methodological innovations. This article also connects these perspectives to practical applications in advertising, branding, and retailing and identifies knowledge gaps to be addressed in future consumer research.

Taking the Full Measure: Integrating Replication into Research Practice to Assess Generalizability

Abstract In this article, we review the ways in which replication has been and could be featured in consumer behavior, using Journal of Consumer Research as a specific setting. We present a framework for thinking about the generalizability of research findings and differentiate various potential benefits that replication can have for understanding variability in consumer research findings. We then define four different types of replications, describe how researchers can use these approaches to produce distinct benefits, and give guidance regarding conducting, interpreting, and the potential contributions of these different types of replications. We conclude with a discussion of various ways in which replication could be more fully integrated into different phases of the scientific research process, taking into account the contribution necessary for publication. In particular, we identify opportunities to incorporate independent replication into original papers, to increase the replication-based contribution in papers that build on prior work, and to use systematic replication in conjunction with meta-analysis to synthesize and confirm conclusions from a mature research literature. More fully integrating replication into scientific practice can yield a new equilibrium, in which replication is routine, typically consistent with previous results, and recognized as necessary for establishing an empirical generalization.

Pre-Registered Interim Analysis Designs (PRIADs): Increasing the Cost-Effectiveness of Hypothesis Testing

Abstract The difficulty of determining how many observations to collect is a source of inefficiency in consumer behavior research. Group sequential designs, which allow researchers to perform interim analyses while data collection is ongoing, could offer a remedy. However, they are scarcely used in consumer behavior research, probably owing to low awareness, perceived complexity, or concerns about the validity of this approach. This article offers a tutorial on group sequential designs and introduces Pre-Registered Interim Analysis Designs (PRIADs): A practical five-step procedure to facilitate the adoption of these designs in marketing. We show that group sequential designs can be easily adopted by marketing researchers, and introduce a companion app to help researchers implement them. We demonstrate multiple benefits of PRIADs for researchers engaged in confirmatory hypothesis testing: They facilitate sample size decisions, allow researchers to achieve a desired level of statistical power with a smaller number of observations, and help conduct more efficient pilot studies. We validate this cost-saving potential through a comprehensive re-analysis of 212 studies published in the Journal of Consumer Research, which shows that using PRIADs would have reduced participant costs by 20–29%. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and possible alternatives to PRIADs.

On the political right, the customer is always right: Political ideology, entitlement, and complaining

AbstractAcross three preregistered studies and five supplementary datasets, we predicted and found that conservatives were more inclined to complain than liberals due to conservative consumers feeling a greater sense of entitlement. This research contributes to the literature by introducing consumer entitlement as a novel explanation for ideological differences in consumer behavior, and by building on previous work suggesting that conservative consumers complain less than liberals (Journal of Consumer Research, 2017, 44, 477). Evidence is provided across several service contexts and types of complaining behaviors. Study 1 and 4 supplementary datasets supported the basic process. Next, theory‐relevant boundary conditions provided converging process evidence. In Study 2, complaining intentions decreased among conservatives when they felt less (vs. more) entitled than the target of social comparison. In Study 3, complaining intentions decreased among conservatives when a service recovery was framed as providing special treatment. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Neuromarketing as a scale validation tool: Understanding individual differences based on the style of processing scale in affective judgements

AbstractThis paper revisits a well‐cited and widely applied consumer scale, Style of Processing (SOP) (Childers et al., Journal of Consumer Research, 1985, 12, 125), that has been used to investigate individual differences in processing visual versus verbal information in marketing. The scale has advanced knowledge in fields related to marketing communications, product development, psychology, advertising, education and learning theories, shedding light on our understanding of consumer psychology related to persuasion, comprehension, memory, and other consumer cognitive processes involving information. In a research dialog that took place in 2008, a need for further SOP validation was suggested using a neuromarketing approach. We took this call forward and conducted an event‐related‐potential (ERP) experimental research study using electroencephalogram (EEG) to validate the SOP scale, focusing on differential affective processing between verbalizers and visualizers. We not only demonstrate how neuromarketing tools can be utilized to provide evidence for scale validity, providing advantages over self‐reported measures; but more importantly, address issues related to understanding differential fluency effects that exist between visualizers and verbalizers. Behavioral data revealed varying reaction times to emotional stimuli of a pictorial nature. We further identify two ERP components in our data, early left anterior negativity (ELAN) and late negative slow wave (LNSW), that differentiate individual processing fluency in affective versus evaluative‐based judgements. Findings confirmed the construct validity of the SOP scale and enhance our understanding of individual differences in emotional processing of pictorial information.

My Own Creation as a Dynamic Subcultural Objectified Authenticity of Adult Fans of LEGO

My Own Creation as a Dynamic Subcultural Objectified Authenticity of Adult Fans of LEGO

Destinations in Mind: Portraying Places on the Roman Empire’s Souvenirs By Kimberly Cassibry. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2021. Pp. xvii + 278. $99. ISBN 9780190921897 (cloth).

<i>Destinations in Mind: Portraying Places on the Roman Empire’s Souvenirs</i> By Kimberly Cassibry. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2021. Pp. xvii + 278. $99. ISBN 9780190921897 (cloth).

Celebrating Failure: Learning lessons from a leading consumer behavior journal’s retractions

Purpose: A retraction is the removal of a published article from the scientific record. It is an admission of failure. Yet, every retraction, regardless of its cause(s), is instructive. Using the oxymoron/concept of celebrating failure, this study investigates retractions in the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ). Method: The content of each JCR retraction notice was examined to determine the initiator(s) of the retraction, retractors, reason(s) for retraction, and time-to-retraction. Findings: According to the findings, JCR issued ten retraction notices between June 2012 and October 2020. The ten retraction notices generated together, and up to April 11, 2022, some 18,378 pageviews, 3,944 PDF downloads, and a total Altmetric Attention Score of 36. The authors of the retracted articles initiated four of the ten retraction processes. The retractors were the authors in five of the cases. The most common reason for retraction, with five occurrences, is “data and analysis anomalies”. It took 947.6 days on average for a JCR retracted article to be withdrawn. Originality: Instead of pointing fingers and assigning blame, a list of ten lessons learned based on these findings is dressed up. These lessons apply to the JCR and its entire ecosystem, including authors, editors, peer reviewers, readers, its owner, and publisher.

Mechanisms of Consumer Responses to Underdog Companies: A Global Marketing Perspective

The phenomenon in which consumers support less established companies regardless of their lack of resources and opportunities has created the concept of the underdog effect. Relatively small companies, both domestic and international, often employ marketing strategies that rely on the underdog effect to gain market share in competition with dominant firms. To better understand the effectiveness of underdog positioning, a review of this literature is necessary, given that prior research has identified inconclusive and inconsistent effects of underdog positioning on consumer preferences and purchase intentions. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on the underlying mechanisms of the underdog effect. The analysis of the selected articles published over the past 16 years in prominent journals of business and consumer behaviors such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Journal of Marketing, Psychology &amp; Marketing has provided psychological processes as the relevant mediators of the relationship between the underdog effect and consumer responses. The current paper makes an important contribution to the brand performance literatures by addressing the research gap in the area of underdog positioning strategy. Further, to benefit managers who practice underdog positioning, this study discusses future research directions based on global consumption trends.

Emerging Marketing Research on Healthcare and Medical Decision Making: Toward a Consumer-Centric and Pluralistic Methodological Perspective

Emerging Marketing Research on Healthcare and Medical Decision Making: Toward a Consumer-Centric and Pluralistic Methodological Perspective

MEASURING RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF MARKETING SCHOLARS AND MARKETING DEPARTMENTS

ABSTRACT This article studies the research productivity of scholars and institutional departments in the field of marketing, by examining data of published articles in four premier marketing journals (Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science) from 2010 to 2019. Two different metrics are used to evaluate scholar productivity: the total count of publications and a fractional publication score which considers the number of authors in an article. Using these same metrics, research productivity of higher institution marketing departments around the world is also measured. Adapting the methodology used in previous studies, we provide a snapshot of today’s most productive marketing scholars and marketing departments. Our findings may help academics with major professional decisions like admission choices in a doctoral program, Ph.D. advisor selection, career choices, job placement, promotion, potential collaboration ideas and mobility issues. Interestingly, we find the size of marketing faculty in our top schools has only a moderate effect on their research productivity.

Student Subjects in Research

Student Subjects in Research

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in theJournal of Consumer Research: A Curation and Research Agenda

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the<i>Journal of Consumer Research</i>: A Curation and Research Agenda

Broadening the Collective Turn in Marketing: From Consumer Collectives to Consumption Agencements

Broadening the Collective Turn in Marketing: From Consumer Collectives to Consumption Agencements