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1 – 10 of over 57000Hajar Fatemi and Jing Wan
Natural environments and imagery are known to have a myriad of effects on people’s physical and psychological states. However, little is known about how exposure to nature-related…
Abstract
Purpose
Natural environments and imagery are known to have a myriad of effects on people’s physical and psychological states. However, little is known about how exposure to nature-related imagery can influence consumers’ motivational states. This research investigates the effect of exposure to nature on consumers’ regulatory focus. More specifically, this paper proposes that consumers exposed to nature will exhibit stronger promotion-oriented focus and weaker prevention-oriented focus, and as such, these consumers will prefer promotion-framed marketing messages over prevention-framed ones. This paper aims to explore a mediating mechanism and a boundary condition for this effect.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of six experiments, including an Implicit Association Test, examined the effect of exposure to images of natural objects and scenes (in contrast with non-nature imagery) on consumers’ regulatory focus and whether they experienced regulatory fit when encountering promotion-framed (vs prevention-framed) advertising messages.
Findings
The results revealed that consumers exhibited lower prevention-focused and higher promotion-focused motivational orientation after exposure to nature. Furthermore, exposure to nature led consumers to experience more regulatory fit with promotion-oriented marketing messages than prevention-oriented ones. This study found that natural environments offer urban consumers a reprieve from their day-to-day life, which mediates the effect of exposure to nature on regulatory focus. This study investigated the boundary condition of engaging in maintenance of nature (e.g. mow the grass) in which the effects of nature on regulatory focus were attenuated.
Research limitations/implications
This study used text and pictures related to nature as a way to expose the online participants to nature. Future research may use field studies with participants in real natural settings, with expectation of stronger effects. Second, this study examined mostly urban American participants. There may be cultural differences or living situations (e.g. living “off the grid” and in the “wild”) that influence people’s relationship with nature. Future research may examine how these differences can affect the influence of exposure to nature on motivational orientation.
Practical implications
The findings have direct implications for marketing managers and other related stakeholders. Exposing urban consumers to nature – even images of nature – they become more receptive to promotion-framed advertisements and marketing communications (vs prevention-framed messaging).
Originality/value
Little is currently known about how exposure to nature can influence psychological processes such as motivational orientation. This research contributes to the understanding of consumers’ responses to nature-related imagery in advertising and the effect that nature imagery has on consumers’ motivational orientation. This research also contributes to the body of work on regulatory focus by identifying a novel context in which consumers’ motivational orientation can be influenced.
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Rajat Roy, Fazlul K. Rabbanee, Diana Awad and Vishal Mehrotra
This study aims to investigate the fit of a promotion (prevention) focus with malicious (benign) envy and how this fit influences positive and negative behaviours, depending on…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the fit of a promotion (prevention) focus with malicious (benign) envy and how this fit influences positive and negative behaviours, depending on the context.
Design/methodology/approach
Four empirical studies (two laboratory and two online experiments) were used to test key hypotheses. Study 1 manipulated regulatory focus and envy in a job application setting with university students. Study 2 engaged similar manipulations in a social media setting. Studies 3 and 4 extended the regulatory focus and envy manipulations to the general population in pay-what-you-want (PWYW) and pay-it-forward (PIF) restaurant contexts.
Findings
The findings showed that a promotion (prevention) focus fits with the emotion of malicious (benign) envy. In the social media context, promotion and prevention foci demonstrated negative behaviour, including unfollowing the envied person, when combined with malicious and benign envy. In the PWYW and PIF contexts, combining envy with a specific type of regulatory focus encouraged both positive and negative behaviours through influencing payments.
Research limitations/implications
Future research could validate and extend this study’s findings with different product/service categories, cross-cultural samples and research methods such as field experiments.
Practical implications
The four studies’ findings will assist managers in formulating marketing strategies to enhance their positioning of target products/services, possibly leading to higher prices for PWYW and PIF businesses.
Originality/value
The conceptual model is novel as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior research has proposed and tested the fit between envy type and regulatory foci.
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Xinxue Zhou, Jian Tang and Tianmei Wang
Customers' co-design behavior is an important source of knowledge for product innovation. Firms can regulate the focus of information interaction with customers to set goals and…
Abstract
Purpose
Customers' co-design behavior is an important source of knowledge for product innovation. Firms can regulate the focus of information interaction with customers to set goals and motivate their co-design behavior. Drawing on regulatory fit theory and construal level theory, the authors build a research model to study whether the fit between the regulatory focus of firms' task invitations (promotion focus vs prevention focus) and their feedback focus (self-focused vs other-focused) can enhance co-design behavior by improving customers' experiences (perceived meaning, active discovery and perceived empowerment).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted two online between-subjects experiments to validate the proposed research model.
Findings
The two online experiments reveal that customers' experiences are enhanced when the feedback focus is congruent with the regulatory focus of the firm's task invitations. Specifically, self-focused feedback has a stronger positive effect on customers' experiences in the prevention focus context. Other-focused feedback has a stronger positive effect on customers' experiences in the promotion focus context. Moreover, customers' experience significantly and positively affects co-design behavior (i.e. co-design effort and knowledge contribution).
Originality/value
This work provides theoretical and practical implications for firms to improve the effectiveness of information interaction with their customers and eventually ensure the sustainability of co-design.
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Yonggui Wang, Jay Kandampully and He (Michael) Jia
The aim of this article is to examine the interaction effect of customization mode and regulatory focus on the “tailoring” outcomes of customized services in both the number of…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to examine the interaction effect of customization mode and regulatory focus on the “tailoring” outcomes of customized services in both the number of options retained and consumer evaluations.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments investigate the interaction between customization mode and consumer regulatory focus, together with mediating and moderating factors.
Findings
An interaction effect of customization mode and regulatory focus exists: it significantly influences the number of options retained, and prevention‐focused consumers retain more options in the final customized offering than promotion‐focused consumers in subtractive customization, whereas this effect is reduced in additive customization; it significantly affects how consumers evaluate the customization service with regard to task enjoyment and attitudes toward products; and it is fully mediated by task enjoyment and positively moderated by product familiarity.
Originality/value
This article provides an important contribution to service customization design and regulatory focus theory by shedding light on the interaction between customization mode and consumer regulatory focus and revealing how this interaction affects the decision outcomes of customization services.
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Soo Yeong Ewe, Christina Kwai Choi Lee and Ferdinand A. Gul
This study examines the effect of a regulatory-focused prime (i.e. a brochure with a picture and message) on the recommending behavior of investment advisers in the context of an…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the effect of a regulatory-focused prime (i.e. a brochure with a picture and message) on the recommending behavior of investment advisers in the context of an investment decision.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments were conducted with 468 participants, mostly from the financial services industry. Study 1 examined the direct effect of a regulatory-focused prime on an investment adviser's recommending behavior, whereas Study 2 examined the moderating role of regulatory fit on such behavior. Study 3 validated the findings.
Findings
The results provide evidence that a message using visual and textual cues based on a promotion and prevention regulatory focus may trigger a preference in an investment adviser's product recommendation. A promotion (prevention)-focused framed message will trigger the recommendation of an investment plan with a higher but riskier (safe and stable) potential return. However, when the same prime is presented with details of a performance incentive scheme, the effect of the prime is reduced when there is a regulatory nonfit between the prime and the message relating to the performance incentive scheme.
Practical implications
The findings highlight the importance of understanding how regulatory-focused stimuli may subconsciously influence the recommendation of investment advisers as heuristics used in decision-making, thereby influencing their clients' investment decisions.
Originality/value
Past studies have focused on how regulatory-focused visual and message cues influence consumer decision-making. This study provides empirical evidence regarding the influence of regulatory-focused prime on an investment adviser's behavior when providing investment advice.
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Paraskevas Petrou and Evangelia Demerouti
The purpose of this paper is to address regulatory focus (promotion vs prevention) as a trait-level variable and a week-level variable linked to employee job crafting behaviors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address regulatory focus (promotion vs prevention) as a trait-level variable and a week-level variable linked to employee job crafting behaviors (i.e. seeking resources, seeking challenges and reducing demands). The authors hypothesized that while promotion focus relates positively to seeking resources and seeking challenges, prevention focus relates positively to reducing demands. Furthermore, the authors expected that the links between week-level regulatory focus and crafting would be stronger when the respective trait-level regulatory focus is high.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted to address the aims, namely, a cross-sectional survey among 580 civil servants and a weekly survey among 81 employees of several occupations.
Findings
The hypothesized links between regulatory focus and job crafting were supported at the trait- and the week-level. Only the link between week-level prevention focus and reducing demands was stronger when trait-level prevention focus was high. Unexpectedly, seeking resources positively related to prevention focus at the week-level.
Practical implications
While prevention states may enhance reducing demands behaviors especially for prevention focussed employees, organizations and managers may use promotion states to enhance seeking resources and seeking challenges behaviors among all types of employees and, thereby, shape a strategy emphasizing the promotion values of growth and development.
Originality/value
The findings shed light to a diverse range of employee motivational orientations (i.e. approach vs avoidance and trait-like vs state-like) behind job crafting and, thus, shed light to individual correlates of job crafting.
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Shinhye Ahn, Cecile K. Cho and Theresa S. Cho
This study investigates how a firm's regulatory focus (i.e. promotion and prevention foci) affects growth- and efficiency-oriented strategic change, highlighting the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how a firm's regulatory focus (i.e. promotion and prevention foci) affects growth- and efficiency-oriented strategic change, highlighting the role of organizational-level regulatory focus as a cognitive frame within which to interpret performance feedback and its subsequent effects on strategic decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected longitudinal data on 98 S&P 500 manufacturing firms for a seven-year period. The panel data, which includes texts from the firms' 10-K filings, were then analyzed using a feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regression estimator to test the authors’ hypotheses.
Findings
A firm's strategic change orientation is affected by its regulatory focus and performance feedback: a promotion focus increases the magnitude of growth-oriented strategic change, while a prevention focus favors efficiency-oriented strategic change. Furthermore, both foci moderate the effect of performance feedback on the strategic change orientation: under negative performance feedback, a promotion (prevention) focus increases (decreases) the magnitude of growth-oriented strategic change relative to that of efficiency-oriented change. The findings provide robust evidence that regulatory focus can influence how organizations learn from feedback and formulate strategic change.
Research limitations/implications
The authors’ examination of regulatory focus and organizational learning process relied on large manufacturing firms in the USA. However, learning process could be quite different in small and/or young firms. Future work should expand to a wider range of organizational types, such as nascent entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, the authors’ measurement of regulatory focus using corporate text has inherent weakness and could be supplemented with alternative research methods, such as surveys, interviews or experiments. All in all, however, the findings of this study offer a novel behavioral perspective while demonstrating that a regulatory focus is an important antecedent of organizational learning.
Practical implications
This study highlights the importance of motivational characteristics of the top managers in the process of organizational learning from performance feedback. Furthermore, recruitment of a new top manager should be aligned with the organizational context, values and goals. In addition, corporate governance systems such as managerial compensation schemes need to be carefully designed so as to maximize organizational resilience, especially in the context of performance downturn or environmental change. Establishing a constructive organizational culture so that strategic decisions are not overly swayed by the performance outcomes would also be crucial to the organizational learning process.
Social implications
This study highlights the importance of understanding the motivational orientations of top managers in organizational learning. In terms of managerial compensation, for instance, an optimal incentive system should reflect the desired performance output by encouraging managerial behavior that corresponds to its objective. Furthermore, motivational orientation of new recruits should be considered in the context of the composition of the top management team members in order to achieve “optimal fit.” In addition, this study suggests that top executives' regulatory focus can be a key factor for organizations in balancing goals of different value orientations.
Originality/value
The findings of this study demonstrated that a firm-level regulatory focus has a significant effect on organizational learning and strategic change following performance feedback. The authors hope this study provides an impetus for future discussions on the microcognitive mechanisms of organizational learning by exploring the relations between organizations' regulatory foci, performance feedback and strategic change orientations.
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Elika Kordrostami, Yuping Liu-Thompkins and Vahid Rahmani
Valence and volume of online reviews are generally considered to influence sales positively. However, existing findings regarding the relative influence of these two components…
Abstract
Purpose
Valence and volume of online reviews are generally considered to influence sales positively. However, existing findings regarding the relative influence of these two components have been inconclusive. This paper aims to explain some of these inconsistencies by examining the moderating role of regulatory focus (both as a chronic disposition and as a situational focus induced by the product category) in the relationship between online review volume/valence and consumers purchase decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted. Study 1 used a 2 (Volume: high/ low) * 3 (Valence: high/medium/low) within-subject experimental design. Study 2 analyzed real-world data from Amazon.com. Logistic and panel regression analyses were used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
The studies confirmed the hypothesized effect of regulatory focus on online review valence and volume effects. Specifically, Study 1 showed that online review valence was more impactful for consumers with a promotion focus than for consumers with a prevention focus. The opposite was true for online review volume effects, where consumers with a prevention focus were influenced more by volume in their decision-making compared to consumers with a promotion focus. Study 2 showed that the pattern of results we found in Study 1 also applied to situational regulatory focus induced by the product category. The effect of review volume on sales rank was stronger for prevention-oriented products, whereas the effect of valence was stronger for promotion-oriented products.
Research limitations/implications
In Study 1, one product category was involved in the study (Digital camera). Involving more different product categories will add reliability to the results of current research. Also, it can offer external validity to current research results. In Study 2, there was no exact measurement for sales, as Amazon.com does not share that kind of information. Instead, Sales Rank was used as a proxy variable. Future research could look into the websites that offer access to the exact sales information.
Practical implications
The current research findings suggest the need for companies to adapt their consumer review management strategy to the regulatory orientation of their target market and products. When a promotion-focused mindset is targeted, strategies for increasing the favorability of product reviews should be used, in contrast, tactics for increasing the quantity of reviews may be more suitable when a prevention-focused mindset is involved.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is the first to investigate the interaction between regulatory focus of consumers and products and online review components.
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Hyo Sun Jung and Hye Hyun Yoon
The aim of the study was to examine whether five-star hotel employees’ promotion focus significantly influences their task-coping style, and whether their prevention focus has a…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the study was to examine whether five-star hotel employees’ promotion focus significantly influences their task-coping style, and whether their prevention focus has a significant effect on their emotion- and avoidance-coping styles. This study also investigates the moderating impact of employees’ tenure on the relationships between stress-coping styles and turnover intent.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 342 five-star hotel employees in South Korea participated in the study using a self-administered questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to examine the hypothesized relationships between the constructs.
Findings
Hotel employees’ turnover intent decreases when they are motivated by strategies corresponding to their regulatory focus. This study found that hotel employees’ promotion focus had a significant positive effect on their task-coping style, whereas prevention focus had a significant negative effect on the emotion- and avoidance-coping style. In addition, employees’ task-coping style negatively affected their intent to leave the organization, while their emotion-coping and avoidance-coping styles positively affected turnover intent. Finally, moderating effects were related to tenure in the causal relationships among stress-coping styles and turnover intent. Thus, one can infer that the emotion-coping style has a greater effect on turnover intent in employees with a relatively short tenure than in those with a long tenure.
Practical implications
This study verified that hotel employees’ regulatory focus plays an important role in employee behavior within organizations just as individual characteristics such as personality or values do. Thus, a substantial application plan for employees’ regulatory focus was proposed for the organizational dimension. In addition, diverse plans were presented for employees’ flexible coping with stress, based on differing turnover intent, depending on employees’ stress-coping styles. Through this, a plan for reducing employee turnover intent was pursued.
Originality/value
This study associated employees’ stress-coping styles, which had been dealt with in the human resources management area, with their regulatory focus and showed that different stress-coping styles might be derived using such regulatory focus; the resulting turnover intent might also be different. The study results can provide a theoretical basis for understanding relationships among regulatory focus, stress-copying styles and turnover intent as such research is relatively lacking. Finally, this study is meaningful in that it applied the regulatory focus theory centered on customer behaviors to employees and verified the moderating effect of employees’ tenure between stress-coping styles and turnover intent.
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Denise Fischer, René Mauer and Malte Brettel
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of regulatory focus in sustainable entrepreneurship processes to answer questions on how sustainable entrepreneurs pursue their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of regulatory focus in sustainable entrepreneurship processes to answer questions on how sustainable entrepreneurs pursue their goals and what motivates them. Knowledge about an entrepreneur’s motivational attribute is essential when trying to understand new venture creation processes. To determine an entrepreneur’s affiliation with one of the two self-regulatory systems, promotion focus and prevention focus, it is helpful to establish whether he or she is motivated by growth and development goals (promotion) or rather by responsibility and security goals (prevention).
Design/methodology/approach
In a qualitative study of seven sustainable ventures, two semi-structured interview rounds with 14 founders were conducted. Archival data from internal and external sources were gathered, resulting in more than 80 text documents.
Findings
Findings reveal that the self-regulatory focus of sustainable entrepreneurs changes during the entrepreneurial process with regard to the temporal dynamics of motivation. While conceiving ideas, sustainable entrepreneurs engage in a prevention-focused self-regulatory process because social or ecological problems induce them to direct their attention toward sustainable development goals. During rollout, in contrast, they increasingly engage in a promotion-focused self-regulatory process and concentrate more on venture growth goals.
Practical implications
The results highlight the important role of a regulatory fit between key self-regulatory entrepreneurial behaviors and entrepreneurs’ regulatory orientation toward increased motivation and enjoyment when pursuing goals.
Originality/value
This study’s contributions extend and combine the theories of regulatory focus, entrepreneurial motivation, and entrepreneurial processes in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship. They are valuable for understanding the determinants of sustainable entrepreneurial action.
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