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Two time metaphors are often adopted to express the passage of time: the ego-moving metaphor that conceptualizes the ego as moving toward the stationary event (e.g. we are approaching the holiday) or the event-moving metaphor that conceptualizes the event as moving toward the stationary ego (e.g. the holiday is approaching us). This paper aims to investigate the influence of the time metaphor on regulatory focus, as well as its downstream marketing implications.

Five studies were conducted. Studies 1a–1c examined the moderating effect of the valence of events on the relationship between time metaphors and regulatory focus. Studies 2–3 investigated the downstream marketing implications of the above effects.

The findings indicated that compared to the event-moving metaphor, the ego-moving metaphor is more likely to evoke a promotion focus when consumers anticipate a positive event. However, when the event is negative, the ego-moving metaphor is more likely to evoke a prevention focus compared to the event-moving metaphor.

This research extends the previous literature on regulatory focus activation by showing that time metaphors affect regulatory focus, and that event valence plays a critical moderating role in the relationship.

Many companies rely on positive events (e.g. holidays, anniversaries) to market their products. The findings of this research suggest that companies promoting products with promotion-related benefits or products with higher risks should adopt an ego-moving metaphor to describe the coming of the event. In contrast, companies promoting products with prevention-related benefits or products with low risks should adopt an event-moving metaphor to describe the coming of the event.

This research showed that the effects of time metaphors on consumers’ regulatory focus depend on the valence of the events. It also demonstrated the downstream implications of time metaphors by showing that time metaphors influence consumer product choices and financial decisions.

A key finding in the affect integration literature is that for a sequence of events that unfolds sequentially, individuals attend to specific aspects of these events, such as the spread, peak, end, or trend. Due to recent findings of deviations from the peak-end rule, this study closely examines the integration processes of affective events presented sequentially and simultaneously.

Three experimental studies were conducted. Study 1a (financial dashboard) and Study 1b (charity advertisement) examine consumers’ overall evaluation for a sequence of mixed affective events. Using eye trackers, Study 2 examines individuals’ attention to particular affective moments presented sequentially and simultaneously.

The present research provides additional support for the peak–end rule for the sequential presentation of mixed-valence affective events. However, in the simultaneous mode of presentation, the flexibility to view various affective events decreases the disproportionate weights given to specific events, a divergence from the peak–end rule.

Although the tempering effect of simultaneous presentation can be concluded, further studies are required to discern how individuals process these events and develop a predictive rule.

The results of the present study provide clear and actionable directions for application developers and advertising agencies: when communicating information or developing an advertisement, consideration should be given to how each affective event is being communicated.

It is argued that in the simultaneous mode of presentation, the flexibility to view various affective events allows greater shifts in attention that increase the salience of interconnections and thereby decrease the disproportionate weights given to specific events.

Entrepreneurial activity is particularly rich in affective events, but these affective events are still underexplored compared to salaried work. Nevertheless, in small organizations, the running of the whole business may easily be impacted by the owner’s negative experiences.

To characterize these emotional lows, we undertook a mixed methods research study using a panel of 357 French small business owners. We collected their monthly work events 10 times and semantically categorized the negative ones. We weighted each category on its probability of occurrence and its emotional intensity of stress. Finally, we assessed the contribution of the cumulated events to the risk of burnout.

The findings of this study comprise a set of affective event categories applicable to business owners and entrepreneurs. Tables are ranked by times cited and intensity. Results of a regression analysis show that intensity of negative events is related to burnout, especially for younger and female employers.

The findings of this study extend the affective events framework to self-employed, supply a rigorous and predictive inventory for future surveys

The results offer small business owners as well as carers an “emotional stressometer” to benchmark the aversive events of the entrepreneurial activity.

Employer burnout caused by the experience of negative affective events affects the lives of employers and can carry across to non-work life.

This is the first study to develop a comprehensive list of negative affective events specifically for small business owners and entrepreneurs, rather than salaried employees.

This paper aims to examine the role of life satisfaction in consumers’ reaction to nostalgic music in an advertisement in terms of attitude toward the brand and purchase intention. It suggests that life satisfaction forms the lens through which individuals interpret and reconstruct past emotional experiences evoked by nostalgia. It further investigates the role of product category involvement in the interplay between life satisfaction and nostalgic music.

Two experiments were conducted. The first study featured a 2 (nostalgic vs non-nostalgic music) × 2 (high vs low involvement) between-subjects design and tested the research hypotheses with 208 consumers. The second study featured two involvement conditions (high vs low) and explored the underlying process behind the hypotheses. Linear regression was used to analyze the data in both studies.

For the low involvement product category, nostalgic music was more effective than non-nostalgic music for consumers with high life satisfaction, whereas non-nostalgic music was more effective for consumers with low life satisfaction levels. For the high involvement product category, life satisfaction did not moderate consumers’ reaction to nostalgic music.

This research suggests that past experiences evoked through nostalgic music are not static but are subject to bias and interpretation depending on an individual’s current mindset. Hence, the eventual effect of nostalgia is determined by how past events are reconstrued based on the individual’s current state.

This paper warns against the blind use of nostalgic appeals in advertising, points to the need to consider the audience’s state of mind, and suggests an opportunity to leverage life satisfaction influencers in designing effective advertising campaigns.

The findings have strong implications for public policymakers. The results are crucial as policymakers often use public service announcement (PSA) to change the attitude of the public toward some phenomena. Knowing the current state of life satisfaction in society, they can increase the efficiency of public service announcements by including a nostalgic song in them.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first one in the marketing literature that looks at the efficiency of nostalgic songs in advertisements. The authors tested the conceptual framework by using two studies and offered novel implications to both marketers and scholars.

In social networking services gift giving, the decision to send a gift is often initiated by spontaneous news about others, who may have recently experienced fortune or misfortune. The purpose of this paper is to show that the valence of the other’s event can affect the empathy experienced by the giver and that the level of empathy affects gift selection behavior.

Study 1 investigated the relationship between empathy and valence of other’s event and the underlying mechanism of changes in self-esteem. Study 2 explored how different levels of empathies lead to different gift selection behavior. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 using a different measurement approach.

Across the three studies, findings consistently suggest that the empathy arising from unexpected news of the others’ fortune was lower compared to that of the others’ misfortune because of threats to self-esteem. In addition, greater empathy prompted gift givers to spend more time and effort in gift selection.

Understanding how valence of event experienced by others might motivate givers to engage in selecting a gift online can help retailers increase predictive insights for recommendations.

While past research focused on ritual gift giving, this research examined spontaneous gift giving. The study is also unique in that the empathy gap between the giver and the receiver is a result of the changes in the psychological state of the giver.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of emotional valence and intensity on sport sponsorship attitudinal outcomes, across two culturally different samples from Australia and France.

Based on a multidisciplinary literature review of the emotional phenomenon, research hypotheses are proposed and empirically tested against two samples exposed to two comparable major sport events in Australia and France.

Data reveal that Australian and French spectators' emotional responses differ in terms of valence, but not in terms of intensity. This initial difference, in turn, impacts the effect of emotional responses on sponsorship attitudinal outcomes. The more positive are sport‐related emotions, the stronger their impact on the sponsorship persuasion process. The proposed mediating effect of attitude towards the event is partially supported.

The results are limited by the small sample size and the inherent bias of the verbal measurement of the emotional phenomenon.

Despite omnipresence in sports events, emotions and their influence on sponsorship outcomes have not been clarified yet, once simply disregarded by many scholars. This paper provides evidence that emotions can contribute to the formation of attitudes towards sponsors, in some cases mediated by attitude towards the event. In addition, in line with the global reach of sports and sports sponsorship a comparison of results between samples from Australia and France creates a valuable contribution of this paper to marketing theory and practice.

To date, research on sponsorship considers the effects of only positive or only negative sponsorship information on consumers’ attitudes toward the sponsor brand. However, in practice, sometimes mixed information (positive and negative) is available that influences consumers’ sponsor evaluations. To mirror the information situation of the real world, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the valence of sponsorship information (only positive vs mixed vs only negative) and the strength of sponsorship information (weak vs strong) influence the consumers’ attitudes toward the sponsor brand.

This research uses an experimental research design (n=210). Data were collected among students of a German university.

The results reveal that when the strength of information was weak, attitudes in the mixed information condition were not significantly worse than in the only positive condition and significantly better than in the only negative condition. In addition, when the strength of information was strong, attitudes in the mixed information condition were significantly worse than in the only positive condition and significantly better than in the only negative condition.

This study offers several practical recommendations regarding the sponsors’ evaluation of their investments and the decision to maintain or exit the sponsorship of a controversial object.

This study expands the research on the effects of available sponsorship information on consumers’ sponsor evaluation. The present research highlights the effects of different types of sponsorship information on consumers’ attitudes and considers the strength of information as a boundary condition of these effects.

In an online shopping environment, individual reviews and aggregated ratings are important anchors for consumers’ purchasing decisions. However, few studies have considered the influence of aggregated ratings on consumer decision-making, especially at the neural level. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the consumer decision-making mechanism based on aggregated ratings to uncover the underlying neural basis and psychological processing.

An event-related potential experiment was designed to acquire consumers’ electrophysiological records and behavioral data during their decision-making processes based on aggregated ratings. The authors speculate that during this process, review valence categorization (RVC) processing occurs, which is indicated by late positive potential (LPP) components.

Results show that LPP components were elicited successfully, and perceptual review valence can modulate its amplitudes (one-star [negative] and five-star [positive] ratings evoke larger LPP amplitudes than three-star [neutral] ratings). The electroencephalogram data indicate that consumer decision-making processes based on aggregated ratings include an RVC process, and behavioral data show that easier review valence perception makes the purchase decision-making easier.

This study enriches the extant literature on the impact of aggregated ratings on consumer decision-making. It helps understand how aggregated ratings affect consumers’ online shopping decisions, having significant management implications. Moreover, it shows that LPP components can be potentially used by researchers and companies to evaluate and analyze consumer emotion and categorization processing, serving as an important objective physiological indicator of consumer behavior.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of priming on consumer emotions and willingness to pay as consumers experience two services with two opposite valences.

A 2 (service experience sequence: failure–success, success–failure) × 3(priming: positive, negative, no priming) between-subject experiment was conducted with 230 college students in China.

Results indicate that when priming information is included, people give greater decision weight to the second service. Specifically, in the failure–success scenario, priming information between two services increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions, raising willingness to pay. In the success–failure scenario, priming information decreases positive emotions and increases negative emotions, thus lowering willingness to pay.

First, if businesses discover the possibility of a service failure, then disclosing negative information is better than whitewashing the truth. Second, services following a campaign of positively framed messages should be carefully rendered. The damage of pre-failure positive priming is most certainly irreparable. Finally, in terms of communication, businesses and service providers should cater to consumers exposed to different levels of information accordingly.

Previous investigations focusing on a single purchase have argued that priming effects should cause consumers of varying tastes to react in a more unified manner to a service. This study extends the research scope to more realistic situations ”sequential service experiences with opposite valences” and asserts that differences in service experiences alter the influence of priming information.

The most commonly described components of customer experience include cognitive and affective aspects. However, the subjective self-reported methods traditionally applied in tourism research cannot fully represent the instant, dynamic, and affective nature of customer experience. Therefore, there is a need for moment-based approaches and longitudinal methods in tourism research. The chapter provides a selective review of measures that can be used to assess the affective aspects of customer experience. Taking into account the advantages and limitations of each method, the integration of self-reported scales, moment-based psychophysiological techniques, and longitudinal methods should be considered as the best approach to measuring affective components of customer experience in tourism. This holistic interdisciplinary approach will help researchers and tourism practitioners understand the relationship between affective and cognitive components of tourists' pre-visit, onsite, and post-visit experience, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, identify weak points of tourists' customer journey, and maximize total travel experience.