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1 – 10 of 471Anne H. Bowers, Henrich R. Greve and Hitoshi Mitsuhashi
Using data from securities analysts, who are awarded status by the third-party organization Institutional Investor magazine, we examine the emergence of competition and articulate…
Abstract
Using data from securities analysts, who are awarded status by the third-party organization Institutional Investor magazine, we examine the emergence of competition and articulate a model of competitive response among actors aware of the importance of status and some of the dimensions on which it may be gained. We predict analysts’ initiating or ceasing coverage of stocks in response to other analysts initiating coverage on stocks they cover. We find that competition can emerge because of status seeking rather than as a response to own capabilities or market needs, with compelling, and potentially negative, market implications for overt status seeking.
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The purpose of this research is to explore how a successful global and a local brand may compete side by side in an existing market place based on consumer‐based brand equity and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore how a successful global and a local brand may compete side by side in an existing market place based on consumer‐based brand equity and consumers' status‐seeking motivation for purchasing a global versus local brand.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for this research were collected through a self‐administered survey from students in a large Western Australian university.
Findings
The results show that a global brand is generally preferred in terms of all the dimensions of consumer‐based brand equity over a local brand. However, a significant interaction emerged between the type of brand and high versus low status‐seeking motivation consumers. A global brand is strongly favoured in terms of awareness, perceived quality and overall brand equity by high status seekers while a local brand seems to enjoy loyalty and overall brand equity among low status seekers. A global brand is also clearly preferred over a local brand along all dimensions of consumer‐based brand equity amongst high status‐seeking consumers. Further, a local brand is clearly preferred in terms of consumer‐based brand equity over the global brand by Australians whereas the global brand remains a clear favourite with non‐Australians.
Research limitations/implications
Findings may not generalize beyond Australian sample and the product category.
Originality/value
This empirical research explores how global and local brands may compete with each other based on their strengths. This research also addresses a theoretical gap identified by Yoo and Donthu.
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This research article aims to understand the role of brand image, service quality and price (charge) in revitalising functional mass brands into prestigious mass brands.
Abstract
Purpose
This research article aims to understand the role of brand image, service quality and price (charge) in revitalising functional mass brands into prestigious mass brands.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical research framework was developed by synthesising the past literature on masstige marketing and brand extension. Data was collected using a survey questionnaire from 396 respondents availing M-Wallet. Structural equation modelling was used to validate the brand revitalization attributes; further, the binary logistic regression model examined the effect of revitalization attributes on the chance of increasing customer's perception of masstige.
Findings
The exploratory study suggested brand image, service quality and value for money pricing as essential attributes to revitalize mass brands into masstige brands; furthermore, path analysis validated the positive effects of these attributes on the perception of masstige. The proposed binary logistic regression model suggested brand image as sensitive attributes, increasing the odds ratio by 9.39 times in favour of perceiving brand as masstige followed by the perceived service quality that is 5.87 times. The prediction capability of the proposed binary logistic regression model is found to be 96%.
Practical implications
The methodology of this study provides the basis for future researchers to advance research on masstige. This study will assist the marketers of mass brands to make better marketing decisions related to how masstige image can be sustained or a new or less known brand can be revitalized into a prestigious brand.
Originality/value
This study is the first to provide empirical evidence of how the mass brand can be revitalised as masstige brands by considering image, quality and price attributes.
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The paper aims to propose an analytical framework for social influence and mathematical formulation for its main components: conformity and peer-pressure. The framework is…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to propose an analytical framework for social influence and mathematical formulation for its main components: conformity and peer-pressure. The framework is conceived to explain why certain behaviours and beliefs propagate in a society and some others disappear. It can also be used to study the emergence and the evolution of the status of the norms in terms of their adoption by the population.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is theoretical, making use of economic quantitative methods. The author proposes a new formulation for the evolutionary dynamics, increasingly borrowed by social scientists. Then, mathematically treating the equation, the author draws general conclusions in form of lemmas, which are proved.
Findings
The author's main contribution is to show that even behavioural rules and beliefs that emerge in a minority subset of the population, do not procure any benefit for the agents adopting them can under certain conditions, evolve into the consensus of a society, become a norm.
Research limitations/implications
More general conclusion (theorems and lemmas) could be stated and proved. But given that the main contribution of the paper is to the fields of social and behavioural economics, along a number of disciplines less mathematical than economics, the author kept the analysis that required fairy advance mathematics for later.
Practical implications
The paper contributes to the evolutionary game theory, evolution of preferences, and evolution of beliefs and social norms. More precisely, the equation proposed in the paper can be used in the contexts the patterns of heterogeneity in a population are affected or caused by social influence. Or in the contexts, the social institutions are susceptible to affect an agent's sense of identity (e.g. voting, fashion industry, marketing).
Originality/value
In this paper, for the first time, a mathematical formulation is proposed for the social influence and its main psychological components (conformity and status seeking). Using the above, the author proposed a new parametric fitness function for the evolutionary dynamics. The author believes the paper matters to a multidisciplinary public. It answers a question that challenged and puzzled the economists (as well other social scientists): the reasons behind the emergence and the prevalence of social norms do not positively contribute to the utility or payoff of the agents adopting them (and at times they are costly).
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In recent years business organisations have recognised the great profits potential offered by the demand for status goods and have sought to encourage still higher levels of…
Abstract
In recent years business organisations have recognised the great profits potential offered by the demand for status goods and have sought to encourage still higher levels of status seeking among consumers. To this end, many products are designed and promoted either wholly or partly as status symbols, with marketing strategies geared to securing rapid rates of social obsolescence in goods and services on offer. At the same time, we still know remarkably little about conspicuous consumption itself or about buyer behaviour in the market for status goods. This article examines the special characteristics of the conspicuous consumer and explores ways in which marketing planning may be improved.
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Alice Larissa Bennett and Mark Moss
The purpose of this paper is to explore client‐reported functions of deliberate self‐injury for prisoners located within a dangerous and severe personality disorder site.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore client‐reported functions of deliberate self‐injury for prisoners located within a dangerous and severe personality disorder site.
Design/methodology/approach
As interviews produced in‐depth data indicating a very idiosyncratic experience of the function of deliberate self‐injury, interpretative phenomenological analysis was used within a small‐scale case study design.
Findings
Identified functions mirrored current quantitative research but few emerging themes were identified across the sample. Participants presented with varying levels of insight into their deliberate self‐injury.
Research limitations/implications
A small sample of young males was used within the study.
Originality/value
A “status‐seeking” function of deliberate self‐injury was also observed, which is not explicitly discussed within the current literature base. This study's findings can be of use to treatment providers for this population given their complex responsivity needs.
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A.R.S. Ibn Ali and Wirawan Dony Dahana
This paper aims to address how the status consumption tendency of consumers in emerging markets is negatively influenced by five individual traits: self-control…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address how the status consumption tendency of consumers in emerging markets is negatively influenced by five individual traits: self-control, self-actualization, religiosity, future orientation and self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
A conjoint experiment measured the importance of certain smartphone product attributes. A latent class regression analysis was then employed to estimate segment-level part-worths using conjoint data collected from 500 Bangladeshi consumers.
Findings
The results revealed three segments with members that differ in how they evaluate smartphone product attributes. Those susceptible to a product's brand name (i.e. status seekers) appear to have low self-control, are less religious and are more myopic.
Research limitations/implications
An issue may exist with generalizability, as the analysis was conducted based on data collected in one country and for one product category. However, this study's framework provides direction for future researchers to better understand status consumption in emerging countries.
Practical implications
The findings are useful for marketers selling status products to improve market segmentation and target their offerings more efficiently.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper is twofold. First, it investigates the influencing factors of status consumption that have not been addressed in the extant literature. Second, it is the first to use experimental data to measure segment-level status consumption accurately.
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Lu Zhang, Wan Yang and Xiaoyun Zheng
The purpose of this study is to understand the joint effects of individuals’ need for status and processing fluency on customer attitudes toward hotels’ participation in corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand the joint effects of individuals’ need for status and processing fluency on customer attitudes toward hotels’ participation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a 2 (Need for status: high vs low) × 2 (Processing fluency: high vs low) experimental design with processing fluency being manipulated and individuals’ need for status being measured.
Findings
The results indicate that although high-need for status customers exhibit a more positive attitude than low-need for status customers when the CSR message is easy to process, they show similar attitude levels when processing fluency is relatively low.
Originality/value
This study makes great contribution to the literature of status consumption by examining CSR as one of the new areas that consumers use to signal social status beyond luxury products. For practitioners, the results of this study offer suggestions on how to design CSR messages to increase its effectiveness.
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The main purpose of the current research is to investigate the effectiveness of messages sent out by firms inviting customers to write online reviews. The joint effect of message…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of the current research is to investigate the effectiveness of messages sent out by firms inviting customers to write online reviews. The joint effect of message framing, power and individuals’ need for status (NFS) on consumers’ intentions to write a review was examined.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a 2 (message framing: self-vs other-focused) × 2 (power state: high vs low) × 2 (NFS: high vs low) factorial design with message framing being manipulated and power and NFS being measured.
Findings
The results show that customers low in power are more likely to be persuaded by a message focused on others (vs self), and customers high in power show similar levels of behavioral intention regardless of message framing. Furthermore, this effect is significant only among those with a high (vs low) NFS.
Practical implications
Hospitality practitioners may consider customizing the invitation message based on target consumers’ individual traits. They may either prime consumers’ status seeking intentions and/or sense of power, or gain such insights through outside marketing research companies. Depending on the characteristics of the recipients, companies can choose either a self-focused or an other-focused message to increase its persuasiveness.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies examining the joint effect of message framing, power and NFS on consumers’ willingness to write online reviews.
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Aleš Kubíček and Ondřej Machek
The purpose of this study is to integrate status conflict, as a relatively recent and unexplored phenomenon, to the family business literature.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to integrate status conflict, as a relatively recent and unexplored phenomenon, to the family business literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors follow multilevel theory building to develop a multilevel conceptual model of status conflict in family firms (FFs).
Findings
The authors identify the main antecedents, processes and consequences of status conflict at three levels of analysis (individual, family and firm) unique to FFs. Seventeen theoretical propositions at three levels of analysis are presented.
Originality/value
The authors address the need for multilevel research for organisations and multilevel status research, contribute to the under-researched theory of conflicts in FFs and show that the conflict literature, which has predominantly focussed on the individual- and group-level factors, can borrow from the family business literature, which has primarily been oriented to the group- and firm-level factors.
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