Positive Main Effect Research Articles

Does the factor theory of satisfaction explain political voting behaviour?

Purpose – This paper aims to explain voter perceptions and voting behaviour in the 2010 UK General Election on the basis of this theory, by evaluating the differential impact of government performance on key political issues defined as hierarchical voter satisfaction factor types. The validity of the three-factor theory of satisfaction in explaining consumer decision-making for products and services is well-established. Design/methodology/approach – British Election Survey (2010) data are used to test the relative influence of hierarchical voter satisfaction factor types in predicting the perceived overall performance of the former Labour government and actual voting behaviour. Sequential and multinomial logistic regression models are used in the perceived overall performance of the former Labour government and actual voting behaviour, respectively. Findings – “Basic” factors explain more of the variance in perceived overall government performance and voting behaviour than “performance” factors. There are significant positive main and interaction effects on Conservative and Liberal Democrat party votes from Labour’s underperformance on the “basic” factors. The results have important implications for political marketing and voting behaviour research. Originality/value – The study establishes the relevance of the three-factor theory of satisfaction within a political marketing context. It demonstrates that, controlling for party loyalty, perceived government performance on the hierarchical voter satisfaction factors explains voter perceptions and voting behaviour to a significant degree. In particular, it highlights the criticality for voting behaviour of both the direct and indirect impacts of “basic” factor underperformance.

Digital Content Provision and Optimal Copyright Protection

Advances in digital technologies have led to an increasing concern about piracy for providers of digital content (e.g., e-books, games, music, software, videos). Yet controversies exist over the influence of copyright protection on firm profitability. The objective of this paper is to provide an alternative rationale for the growing anti-protection trend and to investigate optimal copyright enforcement and quality provision in a monopoly setting. The proposed economic mechanism centers on the influence of copyright protection on consumer search when consumers can get to know the firm’s actions (e.g., price, quality) only after costly search. We show that more stringent copyright protection can induce the consumers to rationally expect lower ex post surplus, thus exerting a negative strategic effect on the consumers' willingness to search. This strategic effect may outweigh the positive main effect on the relative attractiveness of the authorized versus the pirated product, which can hence explain the optimality of incomplete and even zero copyright protection policies in markets where consumer prepurchase search is important (e.g., information goods, digital products). It is also because of this strategic effect that the firm may provide lower quality as copyright enforcement increases. Interestingly, quality unobservability can moderate this strategic effect and thus lead to an increasing incentive for copyright protection. This paper was accepted by Pradeep Chintagunta, marketing.

Insights into the impact of online physician reviews on patients' decision making: randomized experiment.

BackgroundPhysician-rating websites combine public reporting with social networking and offer an attractive means by which users can provide feedback on their physician and obtain information about other patients’ satisfaction and experiences. However, research on how users evaluate information on these portals is still scarce and only little knowledge is available about the potential influence of physician reviews on a patient’s choice.ObjectiveStarting from the perspective of prospective patients, this paper sets out to explore how certain characteristics of physician reviews affect the evaluation of the review and users’ attitudes toward the rated physician. We propose a model that relates review style and review number to constructs of review acceptance and check it with a Web-based experiment.MethodsWe employed a randomized 2x2 between-subject, factorial experiment manipulating the style of a physician review (factual vs emotional) and the number of reviews for a certain physician (low vs high) to test our hypotheses. A total of 168 participants were presented with a Web-based questionnaire containing a short description of a dentist search scenario and the manipulated reviews for a fictitious dental physician. To investigate the proposed hypotheses, we carried out moderated regression analyses and a moderated mediation analysis using the PROCESS macro 2.11 for SPSS version 22.ResultsOur analyses indicated that a higher number of reviews resulted in a more positive attitude toward the rated physician. The results of the regression model for attitude toward the physician suggest a positive main effect of the number of reviews (mean [low] 3.73, standard error [SE] 0.13, mean [high] 4.15, SE 0.13). We also observed an interaction effect with the style of the review—if the physician received only a few reviews, fact-oriented reviews (mean 4.09, SE 0.19) induced a more favorable attitude toward the physician compared to emotional reviews (mean 3.44, SE 0.19), but there was no such effect when the physician received many reviews. Furthermore, we found that review style also affected the perceived expertise of the reviewer. Fact-oriented reviews (mean 3.90, SE 0.13) lead to a higher perception of reviewer expertise compared to emotional reviews (mean 3.19, SE 0.13). However, this did not transfer to the attitude toward the physician. A similar effect of review style and number on the perceived credibility of the review was observed. While no differences between emotional and factual style were found if the physician received many reviews, a low number of reviews received lead to a significant difference in the perceived credibility, indicating that emotional reviews were rated less positively (mean 3.52, SE 0.18) compared to fact-oriented reviews (mean 4.15, SE 0.17). Our analyses also showed that perceived credibility of the review fully mediated the observed interaction effect on attitude toward the physician.ConclusionsPhysician-rating websites are an interesting new source of information about the quality of health care from the patient’s perspective. This paper makes a unique contribution to an understudied area of research by providing some insights into how people evaluate online reviews of individual doctors. Information attributes, such as review style and review number, have an impact on the evaluation of the review and on the patient’s attitude toward the rated doctor. Further research is necessary to improve our understanding of the influence of such rating sites on the patient's choice of a physician.

Pre‐exercise casein hydrolysate ingestion activates AMP‐activated protein kinase signaling pathway in slow muscle fibers but not in fast fibers

AimsThe aim of this study was to clarify the effect of casein hydrolysate ingestion on intracellular signal transduction pathway at rest or after exercise in skeletal muscle.MethodsEight weeks old male ICR mice were used and ingested either water or casein hydrolysate (0.2 mg/g BW) in this experiment. [Experiment 1: at rest] Mice were randomly divided into control group (CON) and casein hydrolysate ingestion group (CH). After ingestion, blood samples were collected from tail vein of mice (0, 15, 30, 45, 60 min). [Experiment 2: exercise] Mice were randomly divided into exercise group (Ex) and casein hydrolysate ingestion exercise group (CH+Ex). Mice were subjected to treadmill running (20 m/min, 60 min) 30 min after ingestion and blood samples were collected from tail vein of mice. Blood branched‐chain amino acid (BCAA) concentrations and AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation were measured as intracellular signal transduction pathway.Results[Experiment 1] Positive main effects of casein hydrolysate on blood BCAA concentrations were observed (p<0.05). The phosphorylation status of AMPK showed no significant differences between the two groups. [Experiment 2] In plantaris muscle, the phosphorylation status of AMPK showed no significant differences between the two groups as with the case at rest. In contrast, in soleus muscle, the phosphorylation status of AMPK in CH+Ex group was significantly higher than that in Ex (p<0.05).ConclusionPre‐exercise casein hydrolysate ingestion activates AMP‐activated protein kinase signaling pathway in slow muscle fibers but not in fast fibers.

Winning the hearts and minds of followers: The interactive effects of followers’ emotional competencies and goal setting types on trust in leadership

Followers’ trust is essential for effective leadership. While initial approaches to trust focused on trust-related information, recent findings suggest that trust also has an affective component. Therefore, emotional competencies such as emotional attention, clarification and repair could predict trust in leadership, in early stages of the follower-leader relation. However, as this relation develops in time, trust-related judgments may shift from followers’ emotions towards leaders’ behaviors such as goal setting practices. As goals can be set in either a directive or participative way, followers with different levels of emotional competences should have distinct emotional responses towards these goal-setting types. On this rationale, we evaluated a possible interactive effect between goal setting types and emotional competencies on followers’ trust in leadership. For this, we conducted a two-wave experiment, randomly assigning 228 participants to two possible experimental conditions (directive vs. participative goal setting) or a control group (unspecific “Do your best” goals). We used multivariate regression analyses to test our hypotheses, controlling for demographic factors (participants age, biological gender and previous work experience) and stable personality traits. While there were no differences in trust in leadership across experimental conditions, followers’ emotional competencies at work session 1 had positive main effects on followers’ trust in leadership. At work session 2, significant interaction effects between directive goal setting type and both emotional clarity and repair indicate that only setting goals in a directive way will compensate low levels of followers’ emotional clarity and repair.

Selection, optimization, and compensation strategies: Interactive effects on daily work engagement

The theory of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) proposes that the “orchestrated” use of three distinct action regulation strategies (selection, optimization, and compensation) leads to positive employee outcomes. Previous research examined overall scores and additive models (i.e., main effects) of SOC strategies instead of interaction models in which SOC strategies mutually enhance each other's effects. Thus, a central assumption of SOC theory remains untested. In addition, most research on SOC strategies has been cross-sectional, assuming that employees' use of SOC strategies is stable over time. We conducted a quantitative diary study across nine work days (N=77; 514 daily entries) to investigate interactive effects of daily SOC strategies on daily work engagement. Results showed that optimization and compensation, but not selection, had positive main effects on work engagement. Moreover, a significant three-way interaction effect indicated that the relationship between selection and work engagement was positive only when both optimization and compensation were high, whereas the relationship was negative when optimization was low and compensation was high. We discuss implications for future research and practice regarding the use of SOC strategies at work.

Economic incentives and social preferences: Causal evidence of non-separability

This paper investigates the hypothesis that the objective function of economic agents is non-separable in economic incentives and social preferences. We study fixed-prize contests in a 2×2 experimental design, varying orthogonally the degree of competition of the incentive mechanism (all-pay auction vs. lottery) and the presence or absence of social returns to bidding (public good vs. rent seeking). The results indicate that both stronger competition and the presence of the public good have positive main effects on bids. More importantly, we find a negative interaction between stronger competition and the presence of the public good, leading us to reject separability. These findings provide causal evidence that economic incentives may negatively affect pro-social behavior. More generally, they indicate that social preferences should be taken into account for the optimal design of incentive mechanisms.

Ethical media competence as a protective factor against cyberbullying and cybervictimization among german school students.

The use of digital information and communication technologies is an integral part of adolescents' everyday life. Besides various opportunities for information, entertainment, and communication, media use is associated with risks such as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying refers to aggressive behavior in the context of computer-mediated communication, characterized by repetition, an intention to harm, and power imbalance. Previous studies have shown that increased media use is a major risk factor for cyberbullying and cybervictimization. Given that restricting media use is not a practical way to reduce the negative effects inherent in media use, the present study examines the relevance of ethical media competence. We expected ethical media competence to buffer the effect of increased media use on cyberbullying and cybervictimization. A survey was conducted with 934 students (53% female) aged 10-17 years (M=13.26, SD=1.63). As expected, hierarchical regression analyses showed a positive main effect of media use, a negative main effect of ethical media competence, and a negative interaction effect of media use and media competence on cyberbullying and cybervictimization. Simple slope analyses revealed that at high levels of ethical media competence, media use has almost no effect on cybervictimization and a significant negative effect on cyberbullying. Consequently, promoting ethical media competence constitutes a potential measure to prevent the risks of increased media use for cyberbullying and cybervictimization.

Supplementary Appendix for: Digital Content Provision and Optimal Copyright Protection

Advances in digital technologies have led to an increasing concern about piracy for content providers (e.g., E-books, games, music, software, video). Yet controversies exist over the influence of copyright protection on firm profitability. The objective of this paper is to provide an alternative rationale for the growing anti-protection trend and to investigate optimal copyright enforcement and quality provision in a monopoly setting. The proposed economic mechanism centers on the influence of copyright protection on consumer search when consumers can get to know the firm's actions (e.g., price, quality) only after costly search. We show that more stringent copyright protection can induce the consumers to rationally expect lower ex post surplus, thus exerting a negative strategic effect on the consumers' willingness to search. This strategic effect may outweigh the positive main effect on the relative attractiveness of the authorized versus the pirated product, which can hence explain the optimality of incomplete and even zero copyright protection policies in markets where consumer pre-purchase search is important (e.g., information goods, digital products). It is also because of this strategic effect that the firm may provide lower quality as copyright enforcement increases. Interestingly, quality unobservability can moderate this strategic effect and thus lead to an increasing incentive for copyright protection.

Relationship Education and Classroom Climate Impact on Adolescents' Standards for Partners/Relationships

The effectiveness of relationship education has been supported for youth in correcting faulty relationship beliefs and forming conflict management skills; however, there is very limited research addressing whether relationship education matters for building or modifying relationship standards for romantic partners or relationships. Furthermore, whether and how social climate could add to or moderate curriculum effects has not been considered. Using a sample of 1,808 students nested in 106 high school family and consumer science classes in a southern state, this study examined the impact of a general youth‐focused relationship education curriculum and classroom social climate on one ideal standard for relationship partners, warmth/trustworthiness, and one for romantic relationships, intimacy/loyalty. Findings revealed significant and positive curriculum main effects on both standards, while controlling for classroom context. The model for warmth/trustworthiness also showed classroom effects adding to curriculum effects. The role of classroom factors needs further consideration as curriculum effects are examined.

Leader Inquisitiveness, Political Skill, and Follower Attributions of Leader Charisma and Effectiveness: Test of a moderated mediation model

Given the variability in personality's relationship with leadership and the use of personality measures in leader selection and assessment, we examine the joint influence of leader trait inquisitiveness and leader political skill on subordinate perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness. Findings indicate a positive main effect of political skill on charisma, the positive relationship between inquisitiveness and charisma is moderated by heightened political skill, and charisma mediates the relationship between the inquisitiveness by political skill interaction and perceived effectiveness. The moderated mediation results of our study suggest that organizations should not only select creative and imaginative leaders, but also select those who are politically skilled or provide political skill training.

All anger is not created equal: A multi-method approach to understanding the link of anger responses with approach and avoidance motivation

The aim of the study was the investigation of the relationship between the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), the Behavioral Approach System (BAS), and state anger with a multi-methodological (self-report, physiological, and behavioral) approach. Additionally, as previous work on the relation of anger with self-report measures of BIS and BAS facets has been limited to hypothetical anger responses, we examined anger responses after real-life provocation. Female non-psychology students (N=100) participated in this experimental study. While self-reported anger responses were predicted by an interaction of BIS and BAS-Reward Responsiveness, behavioral (verbal) responses were only related to the BIS. With regard to cardiovascular anger responses, there was a positive main effect of BAS-Reward Responsiveness on heart rate response and systolic blood pressure at the beginning of the anger provocation period. Results showed that depending on the assessment of anger BIS/BAS predicted anger responses differently. Our findings suggest that immediate anger responses have a stronger association to BAS, while anger responses including evaluative processes, e.g. verbal anger expression at behavioral level, seem to be primarily determined by BIS. Whether state anger is associated rather with approach or with avoidance motivation seems to depend primarily on the operationalization of state anger.

Body in the interactive game: How interface embodiment affects physical activity and health behavior change

Does the delivery platform for a health behavior game contribute to its effectiveness? With the growing popularity of interactive video games that combine physical exercise with gameplay, known as “exergames,” there has been a burgeoning interest in their impact on users’ exercise attitudes and behavioral outcomes. This study examines how the level of user interface embodiment, the degree to which the user’s body interacts with the game, affects the user’s experience, game behavior, and intention for behavior change. We conducted a between-participants experiment in which participants (N=119) played an exergame under one of the three levels of user interface embodiment (low, medium, and high). Our results revealed a significant positive main effect of user interface embodiment on user experience (i.e., the sense of being in the game, “presence,” and enjoyment); level of energy expenditure (change in heart rate); and intention to further engage in exergame-play exercise but not necessarily to increase exercise in the physical world. A further analysis revealed the mediating roles of user experience in the association between user interface embodiment and intention to repeat exergaming and a potential link between heart rate change and level of presence in the game. We conclude that type of interface is a key variable in this health communication environment, affecting user experience, behavior, and some intention for behavior change.

The study of perceived stress, coping strategy and self-efficacy of Chinese undergraduate nursing students in clinical practice.

The aim of the study was to explore the coping strategy and the effects of self-efficacy of Chinese undergraduate nursing students when they face the stress in clinical practice. Convenience sampling was used to recruit undergraduate nursing students in Mainland China who have practiced 3 months in hospitals in their final college year. Self-report questionnaires including demographics, Perceived Stress Scale, coping behaviour inventory and Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale were collected. The results showed that during clinical practice, assignments and workload were the most common stress to students; transference was the most frequently used coping strategy by students. Self-efficacy not only had a positive main effect in predicting the frequency of use of staying optimistic and problem solving strategies but also moderated the effects of stress from taking care of patients on transference strategy, as well as stress from assignments and workload on problem solving strategy. It is essential to bolster the students' self-efficacy to reduce stress and adopt positively the coping strategies during clinical practice.

The multiple roles of fit between brand alliance partners in alliance attitude formation

This paper tests the assumption that consumers’ perceptions of fit between brand alliance partners can serve different roles in attitude formation depending on the level of elaboration given to a persuasive message about a brand alliance. We experimentally manipulate fit between brand concepts of real brands, situational involvement, and argument quality to test this assumption. A three-way interaction showed a positive main effect of fit on alliance attitude under low involvement and an interaction between fit and argument quality on alliance attitude under high involvement. Consequently, brand owners could expect more beneficial behavioral consequences of alliance attitudes if they are (a) based on alliances between brands with similar brand concepts, (b) backed with strong arguments, and (c) perceived as personally relevant by target consumers. The paper adds insight into how fit between the alliance partners can assume different roles as persuasion variables, thereby extending our understanding of theoretical mechanisms explaining when and why fit is important between brand alliance partners.

Intraovarian effect of dominant follicle and corpus luteum on number of follicles during a follicular wave in heifers

The intraovarian relationships among dominant follicle (DF), corpus luteum (CL), and number of follicles between Days 0 to 5 (Day 0 = ovulation) in wave 1 (n = 65 waves) and Days 9 to 13 in wave 2 (n = 62) were analyzed in separate experiments in Bos taurus heifers. Ovaries were grouped into intraovarian patterns of DF–CL, DF alone, CL alone, and neither DF nor CL. In wave 1, the pattern frequencies of DF–CL or neither DF nor CL (34% each) were greater (P < 0.0004) than for DF alone or CL alone (16% each). The number of growing follicles ≥5.0 mm, was greater (P < 0.0001) in ovaries with the DF, even when the DF was removed from the tally (P < 0.03). In a factorial analysis of wave 1, there was a positive main effect of DF (3.9 ± 0.2 vs. 2.2 ± 0.2 follicles; P < 0.0001), but the main effect of CL and the interaction of DF and CL were not significant. In a factorial analysis of wave 2, there were more (P < 0.0001) follicles greater than 6 mm in ovaries with a DF when the DF was included and an approaching difference (P < 0.09) when the DF was excluded. The main effect of CL and the interaction of DF and CL were not significant. The hypothesis that both the DF and CL have a positive intraovarian effect on number of follicles in waves 1 and 2 was only partly supported; the DF, but not the CL, had an effect in the factorial analyses. Previous reports in cattle and sheep of a positive intraovarian effect of CL on number of follicles are questionable in that location of the DF was not considered.

How is Visual Recognition Entrained by Auditory Background Rhythms?

Recent studies have reported that the oscillations of auditory attention entrained by a background rhythmic sequence can influence performance in visual recognition tasks. We have designed an experimental paradigm in which a visual item (either a bisyllabic word or a familiar face) is displayed on screen in two consecutive parts while a musical rhythm is played in the background. Depending on the timing conditions, the first or the second part of the item could be presented either in-synchrony or out-of-synchrony with the beats of the auditory rhythm. In a first series of experiments, participants performed a lexical decision task on bisyllabic 5-letter strings. Results show that when the correct first syllable of a visual word (e.g., pan in pan.da) is presented on-beat, recognition is significantly enhanced compared to an off-beat presentation. However, if an incongruent first syllable (e.g., pa in pan.da) is presented on-beat, word recognition is highly impaired. This kind of interaction between the syllabic segmentation and rhythmic synchrony was not observed for the second part of the word. In this case, synchrony only had a positive main effect on word recognition. Overall, these results show that cross-modal temporal expectations not only affect perceptual or motor levels of processing stages but also impact more central stages of word recognition such as the processing of the first syllable. In a second series of experiments (still under way), we wanted to confirm these results using different visual materials. Here, participants had to report if the upper part of a face (containing the eyes) belonged to a familiar person or not, whether the lower part (containing the mouth) was congruent or not with the person to be recognized. Preliminary results show that the recognition of faces that are segmented in time could also be influenced by the oscillations of auditory rhythmic attention.

Ignored No More: Within-person Variability Enables Better Understanding of Training Transfer

The current study advances research on transfer of training by investigating within-person variability in mastery goal orientation and transfer behavior. Longitudinal surveys of trainees voluntarily attending statistical workshops revealed that trainees varied significantly in two characteristics of transfer trajectory: (a) initial attempt to transfer and (b) subsequent rate of change in transfer. Motivation to transfer assessed at the end of training predicted both initial attempt to transfer and subsequent rate of change in transfer. Level and variability of trainees’ mastery orientation interacted to influence transfer trajectories through the mediating mechanism of motivation to transfer. Specifically, level had a positive main effect on motivation and transfer trajectories, but the effect was stronger for trainees whose mastery orientation was less variable. These findings highlight the importance of attending to within-person variability in the study of training transfer by considering training transfer as trajectories over time and understanding trainee traits as frequency distribution.

The moderating effect of climate for inclusion on supervisor-subordinate dissimilarity outcomes

Growing workforce diversity increases the likelihood that managers and subordinates will differ along demographic lines, a situation that has important implications for relationship quality and organizational outcomes. In a sample of 1,253 employees from 54 work-units, we investigate the effects of differences in disability status on individual performance and find that dissimilarity exhibits negative indirect relationships via leader-member-exchange (LMX) quality. Furthermore, we investigate the role of unit-level climate for inclusion in this relationship. In addition to a positive main effect of climate for inclusion on LMX relationships, we also find support for a buffering effect of unit-level climate for inclusion on the negative dissimilarity-LMX relationship for situations in which the supervisor, but not the subordinate, has a disability. This study contributes to the growing literature on diversity by investigating supervisor-subordinate differences in disability, an often neglected dimension of diversity, and by taking into account the specific constellation of differences, a fact that is overlooked in current literature. In addition, we focus on climate for inclusion as a potential tool for organizations to better leverage diversity in their firms, and are among the first to empirically examine this new construct.

The role of social support in dialysis patients' feelings of autonomy and self-esteem: is support more beneficial for patients with specific illness perceptions?

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether effects of various types of support on dialysis patients' perceived autonomy and self-esteem depend on patients' perceived concerns and personal control regarding their illness. One hundred sixty-six patients completed written questionnaires. Main and interaction effects of support, concern, and personal control on autonomy and self-esteem were examined using linear regression analyses. General emotional support was positively related to autonomy in highly concerned patients (p < .05). Overprotection was negatively associated with autonomy (p < .05), and this association was stronger in patients with high perceived personal control (p < .01). A positive main effect of general emotional support (p < .05) and a negative main effect of overprotection (p < .01) on self-esteem were observed. The role of support in dialysis patients' autonomy appears to depend on patients' illness perceptions, whereas the role of support in patients' self-esteem does not. These findings suggest that dialysis patients' personal views about their illness can provide insight into whether patients could benefit from support, and that the provision of support should be tailored to patients' individual needs.