Search results

1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 11 May 2015

Peter Schofield and Peter Reeves

This paper aims to explain voter perceptions and voting behaviour in the 2010 UK General Election on the basis of this theory, by evaluating the differential impact of government…

2948

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explain voter perceptions and voting behaviour in the 2010 UK General Election on the basis of this theory, by evaluating the differential impact of government performance on key political issues defined as hierarchical voter satisfaction factor types. The validity of the three-factor theory of satisfaction in explaining consumer decision-making for products and services is well-established.

Design/methodology/approach

British Election Survey (2010) data are used to test the relative influence of hierarchical voter satisfaction factor types in predicting the perceived overall performance of the former Labour government and actual voting behaviour. Sequential and multinomial logistic regression models are used in the perceived overall performance of the former Labour government and actual voting behaviour, respectively.

Findings

“Basic” factors explain more of the variance in perceived overall government performance and voting behaviour than “performance” factors. There are significant positive main and interaction effects on Conservative and Liberal Democrat party votes from Labour’s underperformance on the “basic” factors. The results have important implications for political marketing and voting behaviour research.

Originality/value

The study establishes the relevance of the three-factor theory of satisfaction within a political marketing context. It demonstrates that, controlling for party loyalty, perceived government performance on the hierarchical voter satisfaction factors explains voter perceptions and voting behaviour to a significant degree. In particular, it highlights the criticality for voting behaviour of both the direct and indirect impacts of “basic” factor underperformance.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 49 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 August 2023

Makoto Kuroki

This study aims to investigate whether objective and subjective rationality affects individual voters’ use of accounting information and if such use affects voting behavior. While…

1200

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate whether objective and subjective rationality affects individual voters’ use of accounting information and if such use affects voting behavior. While prior accounting studies assume voter rationality concerning financial performance and political outcomes, this study distinguishes between two types of voters: objective rational voters (who make voting decisions about multiple alternatives based on objective information) and subjective rational voters (who make decisions based on their subjective values, and thus do not explore information or explore only information biased toward one alternative). This study expects that accounting information can influence the voting behavior of objective and subjective rational voters.

Design/methodology/approach

Focusing on the 2020 Osaka Metropolitan Plan Referendum, this study used an online survey conducted on 768 respondents after the referendum.

Findings

This study finds that objective rational voters use accounting information more than subjective rational voters, voters who used accounting information were more likely to vote against the referendum, and voting behavior is not directly affected by the type of rationality of voters; rather, objective rational voters are more likely to use accounting information that has a mediating effect on voting behavior.

Originality/value

The results advance the understanding of public sector accounting research and practices by providing evidence of the individual voter’s use of accounting information and their voting behavior in political contexts.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2015

Tiffany Winchester, John Hall and Wayne Binney

This study aims to specifically focus on the lower-involvement young adult voters within the Australian compulsory voting context. It explores voters’ political decision-making by…

1861

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to specifically focus on the lower-involvement young adult voters within the Australian compulsory voting context. It explores voters’ political decision-making by considering the influence of the consumer behaviour theory of involvement.

Design/methodology/approach

A thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the interviews within the two research questions: information seeking and decision-making.

Findings

Key themes within information seeking are the reach of the information available, the frequency of the information presented, the creativity of the message and one-way versus two-way communication. Key themes within evaluation are promise keeping/trust, achievements or performance and policies. Lower-involvement decision-making has the potential to be a habitual, limited evaluation decision. However, issues of trust, performance and policies may encourage evaluation, thereby reducing the chances of habitually voting for the same party as before.

Practical implications

This new area of research has implications for the application of marketing for organisations and political marketing theory. Considering voting decision-making as a lower-involvement decision has implications for assisting the creation and adaptation of strategies to focus on this group of the population.

Originality/value

The compulsory voting environment creates a unique situation to study lower-involvement decision-making, as these young adults are less likely to opt out of the voting process. Previous research in political marketing has not specifically explored the application of involvement to young adult voting within a compulsory voting environment.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2022

Anthony Amoah, Edmund Kwablah, Andrews Kofi Taayeli and Benjamin Amoah

In this study, the authors investigate Ghana's Free Senior High School policy as an all-inclusive development policy that drives voting behaviour.

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, the authors investigate Ghana's Free Senior High School policy as an all-inclusive development policy that drives voting behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the snowball sampling technique and a statistically representative sample size of 413 eligible voters from Ghana, the authors estimate a multinomial logistic regression with its marginal effects.

Findings

The results show that as the number of Free Senior High School beneficiaries per household increases, the more the voters in that household are likely to vote for the policy implementor. Similarly, voters who believe that the Free Senior High School policy has had an impact on students' performance are more likely to vote for the policy implementor. By implication, an all-inclusive development policy such as the Free Senior High School educational policy has the probability of influencing voting behaviour in favour of the policy implementor.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the nexus between an all-inclusive Free Senior High School educational policy and voting behaviour in Ghana.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 49 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 April 2010

Joseph Ben‐Ur and Bruce I. Newman

The purpose of this paper is to provide an evaluation of a newspaper insert survey and web‐based voter surveys associated with the same newspaper, conducted before and after the…

1869

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an evaluation of a newspaper insert survey and web‐based voter surveys associated with the same newspaper, conducted before and after the 2004 US presidential election.

Design/methodology/approach

The study compares response rates, demographics, and political profiles of voters responding to these two different channels of communication and evaluates the success of each in predicting the election outcome.

Findings

The study results show some significant differences between the two methods of voter data collection; nevertheless, each is useful in a comprehensive system that attempts to follow voter attitudes and intentions before the election and predict election outcome.

Origiality/value

The study relies on the use of an innovative marketing poll that goes beyond simple prediction of a voter's behavior and offers an explanatory component useful in the development of marketing strategies during a campaign.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 44 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 August 2019

Eric Van Steenburg and Francisco Guzmán

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether voters consider a candidate’s brand image when evaluating election alternatives. That is, how prominent a role does the…

1150

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether voters consider a candidate’s brand image when evaluating election alternatives. That is, how prominent a role does the candidate brand image have in the decision-making process? As election outcomes are behavior-driven, the goal is to examine the potential relationship between the candidate brand image, the self-brand image and voting intention.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected for the third week of October 2012 and again for the same time in 2016 – three weeks prior to the US presidential election each year. An online-based nationwide survey was leveraged, followed by correlation, regression and mediation analysis.

Findings

Candidate brand image has a role in US presidential elections. In addition, candidate brand image and self-brand image are significantly related to voting intention. In both elections, the losing candidate’s brand image was more of a factor when it came to voting intention, as both candidates’ brand image mediated the relationships between self-brand image and voting intention for all voters.

Research limitations/implications

A link between candidate brand image and voting intention was demonstrated for perhaps the first time. With results showing candidate brand image does relate to the voter’s self-brand image and voting intention, future research should investigate what other brand elements are a factor. There are undoubtedly other factors – some branding-related, others not branding-related – that go into voter decision-making. Because results were stronger for a losing candidate than a winning one, research should also examine whether this occurrence was coincidence or consistent voter behavior.

Practical implications

When voters considered who might best represent themselves, the brand image of the candidate enhanced the likelihood of voting for, or against, the candidate. Therefore, it is highly recommended that campaign managers understand not only the importance of their candidate’s brand image to develop and maintain a positive image among their supporters but also how to highlight what their supporters view as the negative aspects of the opposing candidates’ brand image to increase the lack of affinity for competitors.

Originality/value

This research demonstrates, for the first time, that candidates’ brand image is considered by voters in a US presidential election. In addition, it discovers the role candidate brand image plays in voting intention. Finally, it provides direction for campaign managers to conduct research into candidates as brands to build brand relationships with the electorate.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 53 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 June 2022

Srabanti Mukherjee, Abhinav Srivastava, Biplab Datta and Subhojit Sengupta

This article aims to examine political marketing strategies adopted by the politicians operating in base of the pyramid (BOP) areas and their impact on the BOP voters using the…

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to examine political marketing strategies adopted by the politicians operating in base of the pyramid (BOP) areas and their impact on the BOP voters using the tenets of the social influence theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors resorted to a qualitative phenomenological inquiry for this study. The responses obtained from two qualitative studies were subjected to thematic analysis. Two thematic maps were integrated into a conceptual model.

Findings

Study 1 indicates that the politicians operating at the BOP resort to vote-bank segmentation, clientelism, mobilizing opinion leaders, short guerilla war against opposition and communication bombarding. Study 2 has elaborated on how poor voters perceive these strategies and form their opinions towards the party/candidate.

Social implications

The findings of this study highlight the need for essential policy formulation to protect BOP consumers from deceptive political tactics.

Originality/value

This study develops a model of the effectiveness of voting strategies at the BOP. It also contributes to the literature on social influence theory by indicating how the three social influence processes (compliance, identification and internalization) result in different ways of accepting political influence.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 40 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 June 2016

Saikat Banerjee and Bibek Ray Chaudhuri

Political parties are continuously interested to gain knowledge about the factors that influence the voter to select political candidate of his/her choice. The purpose of this…

1647

Abstract

Purpose

Political parties are continuously interested to gain knowledge about the factors that influence the voter to select political candidate of his/her choice. The purpose of this paper is to examine cumulative impact of sources of associations on voters’ preference of the political party and to investigate the type of causal relationship that exists among those sources.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have proposed five key sources of associations of the overall political party, namely, campaign effectiveness, image of its leaders, intensity of anti-incumbency effect, meaning and trust attached with the party. Here the authors have considered four important political parties relevant to the voters of West Bengal. Those are Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and All India Trinamool Congress. The authors have used SEM method for estimating the model as the same is widely used for estimating a system of equations with latent variables.

Findings

Out of the eight path coefficients six are found to be statistically significant. Political campaign impacts brand trust positively and brand trust in turn impacts party preference positively. Again political campaign’s direct impact on political party preference is found to be positive. However, the impact of political campaign on party preference also runs through brand meaning. Both the path coefficients are significantly negative showing that more the voters develop understanding about political parties through different independent sources lesser are the impact of political campaigns as they highlight positive aspects of the party and the candidate only, ignoring facts. Interestingly leadership is impacting party preference negatively. Thus individual leadership traits have negatively impacted party preference in the sample.

Originality/value

In the paper, the authors have identified factors impacting political brand choice in an emerging country like India. This research explores the factors that need to be considered by the political parties to influence preference of voters for political brand. As far as the authors’ knowledge goes no such studies have been carried out in the Indian context and certainly not in the context of a regime change after three decades. Additionally, the theoretical model proposed is firmly grounded in theory and its estimation is based on well-developed scales. The approach is thus unique in this area of enquiry. Finally, application of SEM in political branding context is a significant contribution of this work.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 October 2018

Harsandaldeep Kaur and Seerat Sohal

Although the concept of political party brand personality has received substantial recognition in the political marketing literature, however, no study as yet has contributed in…

1064

Abstract

Purpose

Although the concept of political party brand personality has received substantial recognition in the political marketing literature, however, no study as yet has contributed in identifying a causal relationship between the party brand personality and voter behaviour. Therefore, this paper aims to address this gap in the academic literature by determining the relationship between the multifaceted advertising-brand personality-satisfaction-loyalty constructs in political context.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample for the study consisting of 930 responses was drawn from the major cities of Punjab state in India through multistage stratified random sampling. AMOS-based structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model.

Findings

Results revealed that voters’ attitude towards political advertisements had a significant effect on their satisfaction and loyalty when brand personality had a mediating role in this effect. Additionally, the influence of party brand personality on satisfaction and loyalty of voters was different for the selected four political parties.

Practical implications

The study carries strong implications for the political parties and the political marketers to develop pertinent marketing and communication strategies that are consistent with their personality traits, with an endeavour to enhance the satisfaction and loyalty of voters.

Originality/value

The most imperative discovery of this study is to determine the mediating role of party brand personality on relationship between political advertisements, voter satisfaction and party loyalty. Such a study of an emerging economy contributes significantly to the marketing theory and practice owing to the diversity and fragmentation across India with respect to religion, caste, creed and race of voters.

Details

Journal of Indian Business Research, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4195

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 February 2019

Aronté Marie Bennett, Chris Malone, Kenyn Cheatham and Naina Saligram

The cultivation and maintenance of a brand is becoming increasingly important as politicians seek to connect with constituents. Through the lens of social cognition and group…

1727

Abstract

Purpose

The cultivation and maintenance of a brand is becoming increasingly important as politicians seek to connect with constituents. Through the lens of social cognition and group dynamics, this paper aims to understand the impact of evaluations of politician brands on voter intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Three studies utilize the social cognition constructs of warmth and competence from the stereotype content model (SCM) and Brands as Intentional Agents Framework (BIAF) to evaluate the impact of brand perceptions on voting intentions, comparing fit between the models. The first study establishes the impact of these perceptions on existing politicians. The second study replicates these effects while controlling for party affiliation and extraneous factors and explicitly studies politicians as brands. The third study examines the formation of perceptions and assumptions when full information is unavailable.

Findings

Social cognition and group dynamics drive responses to politician brands. The data herein support perceptions of warmth and competence as significant predictors of voting intentions. Dependent upon whether the politician is being evaluated as a brand or a person, BIAF or SCM predicts the dimension that will be most impactful. These patterns persist in the absence of full information. As expected, voting intentions increased significantly when the voter was of the same (vs opposing) party as that of the candidate.

Research limitations/implications

Conducted during an election year, evaluations of politicians are susceptible to the current political climate and the predominantly two party political system in which the studies were conducted. The design of Studies 2 and 3 addresses some of these limitations. Results point toward the interrelated nature of warmth and competence perceptions and the usefulness of applying both BIAF and SCM to understand how voters view politicians and the drivers of voting intentions.

Practical implications

This study evidences the depth to which perceptions of candidates impact voting intent, establishing politicians’ unique position as both brands and people. These findings prove useful in interpreting the outcome of elections this year, and beyond.

Originality/value

Expanding a limited body of existing research, this work contributes to our understanding of the application of SCM within the context of politician brands. As the first concurrent investigation of SCM and BIAF, these findings are of value to political strategists and academics alike. The contribution is augmented by the consideration of the impact of party affiliation and missing information.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

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