Vignette Study Research Articles

The equivocal image of young social enterprises—How self‐ versus other‐oriented values influence external perceptions

AbstractSocial enterprises follow the dual mission of achieving social aims as well as attaining financial sustainability and therefore elude easy categorization into either a non‐profit or for‐profit organization. Consequently, social enterprises might struggle with their image since external stakeholders (e.g., job applicants and customers) could hold back their support when the enterprise's dual aims seem unusual to them. Despite the importance of the image to gain stakeholder support, factors that determine how individuals perceive social enterprises are underexplored, especially in their early life stages before they have developed reputational capital and brand recognition. Following human value theory, we propose that stakeholders' self‐transcendence (“other‐oriented”) versus self‐enhancement (“self‐centered”) values explain how they evaluate social versus commercial enterprises. In a vignette study with 945 individuals, we reveal that social enterprises are more likely to attract self‐transcendent individuals whereas individuals with stronger self‐enhancement values are less likely to feel attracted to social enterprises. Moreover, our findings show that individuals' values were more strongly related to the image of social enterprises than to the image of commercial enterprises. Thus, external individuals' values lead to stronger and more contrasting reactions regarding social compared to commercial enterprises. The findings indicate that the image of social enterprises is more equivocal and distinct compared to commercial enterprises and therefore might require a different theoretical understanding and careful management as it depends on stakeholders' deep‐seated values.

The Impact of Leader Gratitude Expressions on Followers’ Behaviours: Increasing Gratitude and Increases Proactivity

Researchers have become increasingly interested in exploring leaders’ behaviours that promote followers’ proactive behaviours, but the literature is limited to leadership styles and generally does not consider leader displays of emotion. In this study, the impact of leader expressions of gratitude on followers’ proactive behaviours was examined from a self-evaluative perspective. Data from a field study ( N = 184) and an experimental vignette study ( N = 150) in China supported our hypotheses that leader gratitude expressions were positively related to followers’ proactive behaviours. Role breadth self-efficacy and perceived social worth mediated the relationship between leader gratitude expressions and followers’ proactive behaviours. This mediating effect was strengthened for followers with high relational identification. These results contribute to a nuanced understanding of gratitude by shedding light on the phenomenon of leader gratitude expressions and their positive outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

The good, the bad and the uncertain: Employers' perceptions of former entrepreneurs

Do employers perceive former entrepreneurs as suitable candidates for paid employment? We argue that (positive and negative) stereotypes and uncertainty drive employability perceptions regarding former entrepreneurs; these perceptions are contingent upon job type and the background of both the applicant and the person evaluating them. Two empirical studies yield broad support for our predictions. In Study 1 (a vignette study), we find lower employability perceptions regarding former entrepreneurs compared to other applicants, which are significantly mediated by positive and negative stereotypes as well as uncertainty perceptions. In Study 2 (conjoint experiments with two separate samples: recruiters and executives), we substantiate the results of Study 1, revealing that when former entrepreneurs apply for a job involving personnel responsibility or when there is evidence of a failure in their vita, they are less likely to face devaluations. Further, we find evidence for similarity effects; more specifically, entrepreneurs do not suffer from employability devaluation when the recruiter is a part-time entrepreneur or the executive is the business owner. We discuss the implications as part of the employability debate about former entrepreneurs.

Deserving more? A vignette study on the role of self-interest and deservingness opinions for popular support for wealth taxation in Germany

Abstract This paper investigates which factors shape popular support for the taxation of wealth in Germany, a country with one of the highest levels of wealth inequality in Western Europe. Although public support for progressive taxation in general is strong, no tax on personal net wealth is currently levied. Against this backdrop, we ask how objective and subjective self-interest, information about wealth inequality and deservingness valuations regarding the wealthy affect popular support for a personal wealth tax. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between self-interest and deservingness. Using original survey data and a vignette design, we find that subjective self-interest is more important than objective self-interest, and that providing information on aggregate wealth inequality can shift the attitudes of those who are otherwise indifferent in favour of wealth taxation. Furthermore, deservingness valuations impact support for taxation in important ways. Factors indicating meritocratic wealth accumulation reduce support, and this is especially pronounced among low-status respondents. By contrast, while non-meritocratic factors increase support for taxation, these effects are largely off-set in privileged groups. Altogether, these findings suggest that self-interest and deservingness valuations impact attitudes towards wealth taxation in opposing directions, and that providing information to those otherwise indifferent might increase redistributive preferences.

How do psychology researchers interpret the results of multiple replication studies?

Employing two vignette studies, we examined how psychology researchers interpret the results of a set of four experiments that all test a given theory. In both studies, we found that participants’ belief in the theory increased with the number of statistically significant results, and that the result of a direct replication had a stronger effect on belief in the theory than the result of a conceptual replication. In Study 2, we additionally found that participants’ belief in the theory was lower when they assumed the presence of p-hacking, but that belief in the theory did not differ between preregistered and non-preregistered replication studies. In analyses of individual participant data from both studies, we examined the heuristics academics use to interpret the results of four experiments. Only a small proportion (Study 1: 1.6%; Study 2: 2.2%) of participants used the normative method of Bayesian inference, whereas many of the participants’ responses were in line with generally dismissed and problematic vote-counting approaches. Our studies demonstrate that many psychology researchers overestimate the evidence in favor of a theory if one or more results from a set of replication studies are statistically significant, highlighting the need for better statistical education.

Brain-computer interfaces, disability, and the stigma of refusal: A factorial vignette study.

As brain-computer interfaces are promoted as assistive devices, some researchers worry that this promise to "restore" individuals worsens stigma toward disabled people and fosters unrealistic expectations. In three web-based survey experiments with vignettes, we tested how refusing a brain-computer interface in the context of disability affects cognitive (blame), emotional (anger), and behavioral (coercion) stigmatizing attitudes (Experiment 1, N = 222) and whether the effect of a refusal is affected by the level of brain-computer interface functioning (Experiment 2, N = 620) or the risk of malfunctioning (Experiment 3, N = 620). We found that refusing a brain-computer interface increased blame and anger, while brain-computer interface functioning did change the effect of a refusal. Higher risks of device malfunctioning partially reduced stigmatizing attitudes and moderated the effect of refusal. This suggests that information about disabled people who refuse a technology can increase stigma toward them. This finding has serious implications for brain-computer interface regulation, media coverage, and the prevention of ableism.

Employee reactions to leader emotional display strategies in a crisis situation

AbstractDuring a crisis, leaders experiencing fear have to decide whether to reveal or regulate their emotions. Drawing on the emotions as social information (EASI) model and employing an experimental vignette study (n = 159) in the context of a young firm's crisis, we compare employee reactions (i.e., employee affect, job engagement, and affective commitment) to different leader emotional display strategies, namely, deep acting, surface acting, and genuine emotions. Compared with a leader's genuine emotions (i.e., display of fear), surface acting increased negative affect, whereas deep acting reduced negative affect. With regard to the total effects of our mediation model, surface acting negatively influenced employee job engagement and affective commitment, whereas deep acting surprisingly showed no differences to the display of genuine emotions. Our findings indicate that leaders who experience fear may consider revealing this genuine emotion during a crisis rather than engaging in potentially inauthentic emotion regulation strategies.

The Effectiveness of Organizational Sustainability Messaging to New Hires: An Exploratory Analysis of Signal Cost, Perceived Credibility, and Involvement Intention

A critical sustainability task is to communicate an organization’s sustainability values in a manner which yields favorable new hire perceptions and involvement. However, factors influencing the impact of sustainability messaging on new hire perceptions remain unexplored to the authors’ knowledge. This exploratory study explores these factors using an experimental vignette study design in which signal costliness and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were manipulated in the administration of a hypothetical new employee orientation presentation. The findings suggest that conditions in which extrinsic motivating factors were noted as the reason for organizational sustainability yielded higher perceived credibility and involvement intention among respondents. More costly sustainability messaging was detrimental to the perceived message credibility and employee involvement intentions.

The influence of boundary management preference on work–nonwork policy effectiveness: Is “turning off” the solution?

ABSTRACT How does boundary management (BM) preference influence the effectiveness of work–nonwork policies? Drawing on BM and person–environment fit theory, we examine the effects of off-hours work-related communication restriction on policy satisfaction, organizational commitment, emotional exhaustion, and work engagement. We suggest a moderated mediation model, assuming that the interaction between communication restriction and BM preference predicts perceived BM fit, positively affecting the outcomes. We investigated this assumption using an experimental vignette study (Study 1, N = 257) and a correlational study (Study 2, N = 239). The findings of both studies show moderated indirect effects of the work–nonwork policy on policy satisfaction, organizational commitment, emotional exhaustion, and work engagement (only investigated in Study 2) via perceived BM fit and conditional on BM preference. Specifically, restricting work-related communication only benefits employees preferring low levels of integration. Contrarily, employees who prefer high levels of integration do not benefit from the policy. Due to using two studies with different methodological approaches, these findings rest on data with high internal and external validity. In particular, the experimental method in Study 1 allows for causal inferences on the effects of communication restriction, supporting the literature on BM fit and offering practical implications.

Should I sell part of my family firm? Exploring the drivers of a minority sale

PurposeThis study aims to extend the research in the field of external investments in family firms. It contributes to the literature by analyzing the drivers of the family firm owner-managers selling a minority stake to a strategic investor. This type of external investment might be of great interest to family firms because the family firm owner-managers can secure control over the firm and preserve socioemotional wealth while simultaneously generating additional financing and gaining strategic and managerial know-how. Likewise, minority investments in family firms might also be of high interest to strategic investors, thus enabling close collaborations (e.g. in R&D, purchasing and sales) with minor equity investments.Design/methodology/approachThis study tests the hypotheses using a vignette study leveraging 327 observations from family firm owner-managers.FindingsBased on the socioemotional wealth perspective, this study hypothesizes that the degree of family prominence, the degree of employee orientation and pure family management influence the willingness to sell. In addition, this study hypothesizes that the moderating effect of a below-average financial performance weakens the abovementioned direct effects. This study finds support for most hypotheses.Originality/valueThis study extends the research in the field of external investments in family firms. It contributes to the literature by analyzing the drivers of the family firm owner-managers selling a minority stake to a strategic investor.

To reflect and learn: the emotional labor strategies of victims of workplace ostracism and the role of anger

ABSTRACT Research on coping with workplace ostracism has mainly focused on victims’ behaviors. This study provides additional insights by focusing on victims’ cognitive processes and emotion regulation to determine how workplace ostracism leads them to reflect and act on their emotions. Drawing on emotion regulation theory and ego depletion theory, we proposed a moderated mediation model to examine the mediating role of reflective learning in the relationships between workplace ostracism and emotional labor and the moderating effect of anger on the process. We conducted an experimental vignette study with 199 working adults in China. When the participants reported low levels of anger in response to workplace ostracism, they engaged in more surface acting and deep acting through reflective learning. However, when the participants reported high levels of anger, they did not use reflective learning effectively. We discuss the implications of these results for both research and practice.

A vignette study of novices' interviewing skills of asylum seekers

AbstractThe aim of the current research was to replicate Van Veldhuizen, Horselenberg, Landstrom, et al.’s (2017) vignette study among novice Estonian police cadets to map their interviewing skills. Sixty‐one police cadets from the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences were asked to respond to one of four vignettes that contained fictitious asylum narratives. Two of the vignettes contained no evidence for the origin of the asylum seeker, and the other two contained no evidence for the claim of persecution. The cadets were asked to formulate five questions that would help them to assess the credibility of the applicant's claim. We coded the style, type, and content of the questions. Our analyses showed that, in line with best practice, the cadets mainly formulated open questions in an information‐gathering style. A thematic analysis revealed that when a claim about origin was assessed, cadets typically formulated questions about life in the country of origin, identity documents, and the flight to Europe. When assessing a persecution claim, in contrast, they mostly formulated case‐specific questions.

Decision-Making Behaviour in Physician-Rating Portals: Results of a Vignette Study in the New Federal States of Germany

The extent to which relevant information is taken into consideration in the decision process for or against the choice of certain physicians when searching for physicians via physician-rating portals is largely unknown. In particular, the question of whether longer travel distances to a doctor's office are accepted in favour of a good rating is investigated in this study. In a vignette study, 192 respondents from new German states were shown ten hits each from a fictitious search for a primary care physician. A total of 1881 choice probabilities were evaluated with cluster-corrected regressions. A good rating and a short distance to the doctor's office were the most important determinants of a positive probability of choice. Longer distances were not accepted in favour of a good rating. Arabic-sounding names strongly reduced the probability of choice, although the respondents only assigned subordinate importance to the doctors' names as a basis for decision-making. The area served by physicians in private practice does not increase if they receive good grades on rating portals. Service quality is important, but not the most important factor in the rating score.

Shared Autonomy to Reduce Sedentary Behavior Among Sit-Stand Desk Users in the United States and India: Web-Based Study.

Fitness technologies such as wearables and sit-stand desks are increasingly being used to fight sedentary lifestyles by encouraging physical activity. However, adherence to such technologies decreases over time because of apathy and increased dismissal of behavioral nudges. To address this problem, we introduced shared autonomy in the context of sit-stand desks, where user input is integrated with robot autonomy to control the desk and reduce sedentary behavior and investigated user reactions and preferences for levels of automation with a sit-stand desk. As demographics affect user acceptance of robotic technology, we also studied how perceptions of nonvolitional behavior change differ across cultures (United States and India), sex, familiarity, dispositional factors, and health priming messages. We conducted a web-based vignette study in the United States and India where a total of 279 participants watched video vignettes of a person interacting with sit-stand desks of various levels of automation and answered questions about their perceptions of the desks such as ranking of the different levels of automation. Participants generally preferred either manual or semiautonomous desks over the fully autonomous option (P<.001). However, participants in India were generally more amenable to the idea of nonvolitional interventions from the desk than participants in the United States (P<.001). Male participants had a stronger desire for having control over the desk than female participants (P=.01). Participants who were more familiar with sit-stand desks were more likely to adopt autonomous sit-stand desks (P=.001). No effects of health priming messages were observed. We estimated the projected health outcome by combining ranking data and hazard ratios from previous work and found that the semiautonomous desk led to the highest projected health outcome. These results suggest that the shared autonomy desk is the optimal level of automation in terms of both user preferences and estimated projected health outcomes. Demographics such as culture and sex had significant effects on how receptive users were to autonomous intervention. As familiarity improves the likelihood of adoption, we propose a gradual behavior change intervention to increase acceptance and adherence, especially for populations with a high desire for control.

Normative Team Age Prototypes: Exploring Follower, Leader, and Team Characteristics

Abstract The concept of implicit organizational timetables suggests that leaders are expected to be older than their followers. However, increased age diversity in the workforce has led to situations in which this is not the case. Expanding on the core tenets of leader categorization theory, the present study establishes the concept of an age-prototypical team characterized by the age of the leader relative to their followers and explores how team age prototypicality influences subsequent observer evaluations of the team. Moreover, this study examines possible boundary conditions and intermediary mechanisms that further explain bias in the evaluation of age-diverse teams. To establish and explore the nature and effect of age-based team prototypes, we conducted 3 independent experimental vignette studies. In Study 1 (n = 590), we establish evidence for age-based team prototypes, by demonstrating a “leaders are older, followers are younger” prototype and further considering the diversity of follower age as a boundary condition for the effects of leader age on ratings of attraction to the team, anticipated team behaviors, and expectations for future success. Then, in Study 2 (n = 686) and Study 3 (n = 782), we extend these results by examining how the perception of team (Study 2) and leader (Study 3) performance cues are influenced by team age composition prototypes. In Study 3, we also consider intermediary attributional mechanisms that explain associations between performance and perceived qualities of the team. Results suggest that prototype inconsistent teams (i.e., teams with younger leaders and older followers) are viewed more harshly in the face of negative performance cues as a function of team composition rather than because of leader or follower attributes individually.

Effect of communicating community immunity on COVID-19 vaccine-hesitant people from ethnically diverse backgrounds: an experimental vignette study in the UK

ObjectivesAchieving high vaccination coverage is vital to the efforts of curbing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health and society. This study tested whether communicating the social benefit...

Consumer trust in social responsibility communications: The role of supply chain visibility

Consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about companies' social responsibility (SR) practices. As a result, they are increasingly skeptical when companies do not provide clear information about these practices. One way to overcome this skepticism is to strengthen consumer trust through improved supply chain transparency. To create transparency requires a company to both gain visibility into its supply chain and disclose information to consumers. However, the current SR literature has only focused on the effect of disclosure on consumer trust, while the effect of visibility on trust in SR communications is not well understood. Our work addresses this gap. In this paper, we employ an incentivized human‐subject laboratory experiment, an online vignette study, and causal mediation analysis to investigate the impact of visibility on consumer trust in a company's SR communication, and as a result, its impact on consumers' purchase decisions. To further enhance our understanding of consumer behavior, we examine how consumer heterogeneity and workers' conditions in the upstream supply chain influence our results. We find that increasing visibility always strengthens consumer trust. Also, opportunities exist for a trust‐driven revenue benefit (due to greater visibility) when consumers are highly prosocial or have low general trust beliefs, or when the impact of an SR initiative is small. Our results underscore the crucial role that supply chain visibility plays in engendering consumer trust. Moreover, identifying trust as a mechanism to help explain the effect of visibility on sales of SR products offers actionable insights to improve a company's communication strategies.

Providing Positive Individuating Information to Reduce Stereotype-Based Negativity in Service Encounters

With the increasingly diverse workforce in the hospitality and tourism industry, it is imperative to identify strategies to reduce biases in the workplace. Across two studies, we examined the utility of providing individual-level positive individuating information as a strategy to combat customers’ stereotypes in service encounters. In Study 1, we explored the effectiveness of providing either positive stereotypical or counter-stereotypical individuating information to remediate negative perceptions toward older workers in an experimental vignette study using a hypothetical customer service encounter. In Study 2, we demonstrated the robustness of this technique with a group that has opposing stereotypes compared with older workers (Asian adults). Across these two studies, we found that providing positive counter-stereotypical individuating information most strongly affected customers’ satisfaction ratings of employees by boosting positive counter-stereotypical perceptions of both older and Asian targets. We discuss the implications of our study along with possible future research related to individual-level strategies to reduce workplace discrimination.

Assessing data gathering of chatbot based symptom checkers - a clinical vignettes study

BackgroundThe burden on healthcare systems is mounting continuously owing to population growth and aging, overuse of medical services, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This overload is also causing reduced healthcare quality and outcomes. One solution gaining momentum is the integration of intelligent self-assessment tools, known as symptom-checkers, into healthcare-providers’ systems. To the best of our knowledge, no study so far has investigated the data-gathering capabilities of these tools, which represent a crucial resource for simulating doctors’ skills in medical-interviews. ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to evaluate the data-gathering function of currently available chatbot symptom-checkers. MethodsWe evaluated 8 symptom-checkers using 28 clinical vignettes from the repository of MSD-Manual case studies. The mean number of predefined pertinent findings for each case was 31.8 ± 6.8. The vignettes were entered into the platforms by 3 medical students who simulated the role of the patient. For each conversation, we obtained the number of pertinent findings retrieved and the number of questions asked. We then calculated the recall-rates (pertinent-findings retrieved out of all predefined pertinent-findings), and efficiency-rates (pertinent-findings retrieved out of the number of questions asked) of data-gathering, and compared them between the platforms. ResultsThe overall recall rate for all symptom-checkers was 0.32(2,280/7,112;95 %CI 0.31–0.33) for all pertinent findings, 0.37(1,110/2,992;95 %CI 0.35–0.39) for present findings, and 0.28(1140/4120;95 %CI 0.26–0.29) for absent findings. Among the symptom-checkers, Kahun platform had the highest recall rate with 0.51(450/889;95 %CI 0.47–0.54). Out of 4,877 questions asked overall, 2,280 findings were gathered, yielding an efficiency rate of 0.46(95 %CI 0.45–0.48) across all platforms. Kahun was the most efficient tool 0.74 (95 %CI 0.70–0.77) without a statistically significant difference from Your.MD 0.69(95 %CI 0.65–0.73). ConclusionThe data-gathering performance of currently available symptom checkers is questionable. From among the tools available, Kahun demonstrated the best overall performance.

Professionals’ roles in the hospital discharge of older adults in 3 Nordic cities: a vignette study

Abstract Background The hospital discharge process of older adults in need of both medical and social care post hospitalisation requires extensive care coordination. Cooperation and continuity between involved care providers are essential, however, existing care systems including the Nordic care systems, are poorly designed to provide health and social care to patients with complex health and social care needs which increases the risk of certain groups not receiving optimal care. Aim and methods This study aims to examine and compare what roles, responsibility and actions nurses take in the hospital discharge process of older adults with complex care needs in three Nordic cities: Copenhagen (Denmark), Stockholm (Sweden) and Tampere (Finland). A vignette study consisting of three fictive cases was conducted face-to-face with nurses in Copenhagen (n = 11), Stockholm (n = 16) and Tampere (n = 8). Participants were identified through the researchers’ networks and snowball sampling. The vignettes represent older patients with age-related medical conditions of which one also has cognitive loss and one looks after their partner with dementia. The cases further include differences in the home help received by their children, physical obstacles in their homes and unwillingness of becoming a burden to the system. A thematic approach is used for the data analysis. Results and conclusions Preliminary results suggest that the informants’ roles and engagement in the coordination and collaboration may differ both within and between the systems studied, and that they take responsibility beyond their job roles particularly if the patient has no close relatives. The study is of public health importance as it identifies gaps in how the care is organised in the three welfare states targeted. It also sheds light on the complexities of providing universal care in ageing societies where a growing proportion of older adults have both medical and social care needs. Key messages