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1 – 10 of over 8000This research draws on drive reduction theory and mental accounting theory to understand how the prospect of reselling used items can influence consumer feelings of consumption…
Abstract
Purpose
This research draws on drive reduction theory and mental accounting theory to understand how the prospect of reselling used items can influence consumer feelings of consumption guilt and impact their willingness to purchase new products.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted two studies with between-subjects designs to explore this relationship. In Study 1, we examined the correlation between consumers' perceived guilt and their willingness to buy a new product, considering their awareness of the product’s resale potential. Study 2 delved into the aspect of reselling a similar old product already owned by the consumer.
Findings
The findings suggest three key insights. First, consumers' awareness of resale potential significantly affects their guilt perception and purchasing decisions. Second, the resale reference price (RRP) can decrease guilt perception but increase the intention to buy a new product. Lastly, when consumers are aware of the resale value of a previously owned product that is similar to the desired new product, the effect of the RRP on their purchasing intent is mediated by consumer guilt.
Originality/value
This research fills a theoretical gap by empirically exploring the emotional motivations behind consumer resale behavior. It presents a novel perspective on how resale activities can shape feelings of guilt and impact purchasing decisions. This offers important implications for understanding the dynamics of consumer behavior in the second-hand market.
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Hanna Shin, Yan Li and Nara Youn
The authors investigated the factors influencing consumer evaluations of advertisements for ethical luxury products that incorporate animal rights and protection concerns. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigated the factors influencing consumer evaluations of advertisements for ethical luxury products that incorporate animal rights and protection concerns. The authors empirically examined how ethical messages influence advertisement persuasiveness through ethical consumer guilt and positively impact consumer evaluations of ethical luxury products. Furthermore, the authors explored the moderating role of consumers’ independent versus interdependent self-construals.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted four experimental studies on the interplay among ethicality, luxury brand positioning and self-construal. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that moral emotions were responsible for the effect of ethical luxury advertisements that address animal welfare on brand attitude.
Findings
Advertisement messages signaling a luxury brand’s ethical efforts increase empathy through ethical consumer guilt, thereby generating favorable attitudes toward luxury products. However, this effect is limited to consumers with independent self-construal in South Korea and the United States of America.
Originality/value
The authors offer novel insights into the roles of ethical consumer guilt and empathy in the positive effects of ethical messages from luxury brands. Furthermore, the authors identified brand type and self-construal as boundary conditions for the effects observed across different consumer groups and markets.
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Bingjing Mao, Nicholas Carcioppolo, Shiyun Tian and Tyler R. Harrison
Guilt appeals are increasingly being used in road safety campaigns, despite recent research that has raised doubts about their effectiveness and the potential for triggering…
Abstract
Purpose
Guilt appeals are increasingly being used in road safety campaigns, despite recent research that has raised doubts about their effectiveness and the potential for triggering defensive responses. Building on the extended parallel process model, this study aims to add to this growing body of research by evaluating whether combining a hope message with guilt appeals can solve this problem.
Design/methodology/approach
An online experiment with a 2 (Appeal type: Guilt vs Guilt+hope) × 2 (Language intensity: Low vs High) between-subjects design was conducted. A total of 399 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were randomized to view one of the four advertisements discouraging texting while driving (TWD). Their affective responses, perceptions about the advertisements and intentions to not TWD were measured.
Findings
The results showed that compared to guilt-only appeals, guilt+hope appeals directly reduced defensive responses (i.e. perceived manipulative intent and anger) across varying levels of language intensity. In addition, guilt+hope appeals mitigated the negative impacts of manipulative intent on intended emotions and intentions to not TWD.
Originality/value
Findings of this study mark the first to support the idea that communicating hope within guilt appeals is a promising social marketing strategy to discourage TWD.
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Rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity encompasses legal and exegetical texts. Whereas legal texts delineate criminal procedures to determine a guilty party and advise appropriate…
Abstract
Rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity encompasses legal and exegetical texts. Whereas legal texts delineate criminal procedures to determine a guilty party and advise appropriate punishment, exegetical texts suggest an almost entirely indeterminate and indeterminable understanding of guilt. This chapter examines rabbinic interpretations of the paradigmatic biblical story of guilt, Cain's murder of his brother Abel, in which Cain's guilt is mitigated and the stable relationship between evidence and guilt is challenged. I argue that these conflicting views of guilt in early rabbinic thought need not be harmonized – that a legal understanding of determinate guilt need not require a philosophical, or theological, counterpart.
Nietzsche's and Freud's views of guilt provide a useful theoretical context for understanding the relationship between guilt and Utopia we have outlined in Utopia and Those Who…
Abstract
Nietzsche's and Freud's views of guilt provide a useful theoretical context for understanding the relationship between guilt and Utopia we have outlined in Utopia and Those Who Walk Away From Omelas. Both of them speak of guilt as the internalization of cruelty or the instinct of aggression, and see it as an inward turn that reflects a historical context. Nietzsche views guilt and “bad conscience” as a kind of illness. In The Genealogy of Morals (1887/trans. 1989) he writes, “[I] regard the bad conscience as the serious illness that man was bound to contract under the stress of the most fundamental change he ever experienced – that change which occurred when he found himself finally enclosed within the wall of society and of peace” (Nietzsche, 1989, p. 84). In Nietzsche's view, when faced with peace (the absence of an enemy upon whom one might inflict cruelty) and social mores (proscriptions against being cruel to one's fellow citizen) a civilized human is left with only one subject upon whom he may express his aggression and satisfy his appetite for cruelty: himself. “[He] turns himself into an adventure, a torture chamber, an uncertain and dangerous wilderness” (Nietzsche, 1989, p. 85). Deprived of the possibility of expressing his aggressiveness externally, man turns inward and expresses it internally, upon himself. Thus begins the age – and for Nietzsche it is our age – of “man's suffering of man, of himself” (Nietzsche, 1989, p. 85).
Shane Connelly and Brett S. Torrence
Organizational behavior scholars have long recognized the importance of a variety of emotion-related phenomena in everyday work life. Indeed, after three decades, the span of…
Abstract
Organizational behavior scholars have long recognized the importance of a variety of emotion-related phenomena in everyday work life. Indeed, after three decades, the span of research on emotions in the workplace encompasses a wide variety of affective variables such as emotional climate, emotional labor, emotion regulation, positive and negative affect, empathy, and more recently, specific emotions. Emotions operate in complex ways across multiple levels of analysis (i.e., within-person, between-person, interpersonal, group, and organizational) to exert influence on work behavior and outcomes, but their linkages to human resource management (HRM) policies and practices have not always been explicit or well understood. This chapter offers a review and integration of the bourgeoning research on discrete positive and negative emotions, offering insights about why these emotions are relevant to HRM policies and practices. We review some of the dominant theories that have emerged out of functionalist perspectives on emotions, connecting these to a strategic HRM framework. We then define and describe four discrete positive and negative emotions (fear, pride, guilt, and interest) highlighting how they relate to five HRM practices: (1) selection, (2) training/learning, (3) performance management, (4) incentives/rewards, and (5) employee voice. Following this, we discuss the emotion perception and regulation implications of these and other discrete emotions for leaders and HRM managers. We conclude with some challenges associated with understanding discrete emotions in organizations as well as some opportunities and future directions for improving our appreciation and understanding of the role of discrete emotional experiences in HRM.
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Melissa Rector LaGraff and Heidi E. Stolz
Despite the important implications for families, limited research has examined how workplace environments influence parenting behavior. Situated within the Work–Home Resources…
Abstract
Despite the important implications for families, limited research has examined how workplace environments influence parenting behavior. Situated within the Work–Home Resources Model, the purpose of this study was to investigate (a) whether workplace flexibility, a contextual resource, predicts positive parenting behavior, a home outcome, and (b) whether work–family guilt mediates this relationship. A sample of working mothers with children between the ages of 1 and 18 (N = 302) completed an online survey. Linear regression analyses indicated perceived workplace flexibility predicted overall positive parenting, positive reinforcement, and warmth behaviors in working mothers, but not proactive parenting or supportiveness. Ordinary least squares (OLS) path analyses indicated work–family guilt did not mediate these relationships, but was significantly associated with workplace flexibility, indicating workplace flexibility had a significant negative effect on work–family guilt. The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that mothers’ workplace flexibility may influence positive parenting behaviors; thus, policies that promote flexible work arrangements could promote positive family outcomes and reduce feelings of guilt related to work and family life.
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The aim of this chapter is to define and explore the group of emotions known as self-conscious emotions. The state of the knowledge on guilt, shame, pride, and embarrassment is…
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to define and explore the group of emotions known as self-conscious emotions. The state of the knowledge on guilt, shame, pride, and embarrassment is reviewed, with particular attention paid to research on these four self-conscious emotions in work and organizational settings. Surprisingly little research on self-conscious emotions comes from researchers interested in occupational stress and well-being, yet these emotions are commonly experienced and may be a reaction to or even a source of stress. They may also impact behaviors and attitudes that affect stress and well-being. I conclude the review with a call for more research on these emotions as related to stress and well-being, offering some suggestions for areas of focus.
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Patcharaporn Mahasuweerachai, Chompoonut Suttikun and William Hamilton Bicksler
Amidst pressing environmental concerns, the service industry has increased its focus on sustainable production and consumption patterns. This study aims to explore whether…
Abstract
Purpose
Amidst pressing environmental concerns, the service industry has increased its focus on sustainable production and consumption patterns. This study aims to explore whether Generation Z’s perceived value of plant-based food influences feelings of guilt as a result of consuming meat instead of plant-based food and/or pride from consuming plant-based foods, which might then lead to decisions to purchase alternative plant-based products at restaurants.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted measuring a range of variables and their relationships. The hypothesized model was tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results showed that perceived social value significantly influenced guilt and pride with perceived emotional value only influencing pride. Both guilt and pride significantly influenced the decision to switch eating patterns from conventional meat to plant-based protein at restaurants. And, finally, environmental concern significantly moderated the effect of emotional value on guilt.
Practical implications
To achieve sustainable goals, food producers should promote plant-based menu items by increasing the awareness of social approval through marketing communications.
Originality/value
This study bridges a gap in the literature by investigating how consumers’ perceived value affects their anticipated emotional feelings of guilt and pride leading to the switch from meat-based to plant-based diets at restaurants.
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The purpose of this paper is to empirically establish the boundary conditions of the guilt mitigation process that consumers resort to in justifying consumption under contextual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically establish the boundary conditions of the guilt mitigation process that consumers resort to in justifying consumption under contextual ambiguity, with respect to consumers' discomfit with ambiguity. While well observed, the process of guilt mitigation is less articulated with respect to contextually relevant consumers’ personality trait(s) (such as, discomfort with ambiguity) that may affect decision-making idiosyncratically. This gap is addressed herewith.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments were conducted across two studies to establish the boundary conditions of guilt mitigation in the specific context of transactions involving trade-ins. In doing so, consumers' direct price imputation or, indirectly, their relative preference for financially equivalent, but structurally distinct, price structures was measured. Guilt was induced among consumers by directly manipulating consumers' degree of attachment with their old product (the trade-in).
Findings
Results indicate that consumers resort to guilt mitigation in justifying consumption more extensively when they harbor higher levels of discomfort with ambiguity, not otherwise – the moderating effects of consumers' discomfort with ambiguity or the boundary condition under study.
Research limitations/implications
Hypothetical buying scenarios, albeit constructed based on field information and subsequently tested for realism, were used to conduct the experiments, versus field experiments using real consumers. Further, the respondent pool comprised of Indian nationals only. These remain the primary limitations of this research.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that managers may be able to construe deals in a manner that promotes self-segmentation by consumers, especially when consumers harbor greater discomfort with ambiguity. This, in turn, implies reduction in consumer heterogeneity and a concomitant increase in marketing efficiency.
Originality/value
By considering consumers' discomfort with ambiguity in this research, the efficacy of the guilt mitigation process was established with respect to a contextually relevant individual difference factor. While the fundamentally constructive nature of guilt mitigation necessitates such considerations, this research gap, thus addressed, remained unaddressed hitherto.
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