Knowledge that Transforms

Willingness to pay (WTP) is a metric that is widely valued and utilized among both practitioners and academics. However, the conceptualization of WTP is ambiguous, and this ambiguity is reflected across existing methods of measuring WTP. The authors first present a formal mathematical framework that clarifies WTP as a distributional concept—rather than a single number—constructed as a function of customers, comparisons, and situations. The framework further reveals the operation of two comparative mechanisms, direct and indirect, by which situational factors affect WTP. They then introduce a new method to measure WTP—the comparative method of valuation (CMV)—that, unlike existing methods, is designed to account for the inherently comparative and situational nature of WTP. Across nine studies reported in the article and four additional studies in the Web Appendix, the authors (1) examine differences in results between CMV and choice-based conjoint as well as between CMV and the classic Becker–DeGroot–Marschak methodology, (2) demonstrate that CMV is a valid and reliable measure of WTP, and (3) illustrate applications of CMV to managerial problems. This article offers both conceptual clarity and methodological advances to understanding the construction and measurement of WTP for practitioners and academics alike.

Shared coupons, a new form of coupon, differ from coupons distributed directly from businesses (i.e., direct coupons) in that shared coupons combine two influential components: economic savings (e.g., $5 off) and social sharing (e.g., from friends). Using two lab experiments and two large-scale field experiments on social media, the authors find that regular shared coupons underperform direct coupons in terms of coupon redemption because of the norm conflict between economic incentives and communal relationships (i.e., friendships), whereas shared coupons with experience cocreation, in which coupon givers and coupon receivers must invest joint efforts to create a shared experience before redeeming the coupons, outperform direct coupons. Experience cocreation can advance social goals (e.g., building friendships), reduce the norm conflict, and thereby make customers more likely to share and to redeem coupons. The authors further investigate the effects of two strategies for driving the redemption of shared coupons with experience cocreation: changing the coupon's face value (low vs. high) and using ex post communication (social messages vs. economic messages). They find that social messages can make low-value coupons as effective as high-value coupons, thereby enabling the firm to “do more with less.”

Online platforms aggregating brands, such as Amazon and Alibaba's Tmall, have emerged as powerful intermediaries for brands. Although these platforms offer unprecedented access to consumers, the platform controls this access. Thus, concerns are raised about how these platforms interfere with the brand experience and, ultimately, performance. The question of how brands can govern their platform operations more effectively thus arises. There are essentially two types of governance models: a one-party (1P) marketplace (wholesaling to the platform) and a third-party (3P) marketplace (selling directly to the consumer on the platform). However, it is unclear how 1P or 3P operations affect brand performance. To that extent, the authors study the market share implications of operations on JD.com, a 1P platform, and Tmall, a 3P platform, for almost 2,000 brands. On average, 1P operations decrease shares, whereas 3P operations lift shares. These changes depend on different brand-specific moderators. For 1P operations, share drops are more substantial for brands that are unable to elicit a trustworthy consumer relationship, when alternative brands abound and rogue-seller activities are severe in the product category. The 3P share lifts, in contrast, are more substantial for premium-priced, nonleading brands with prior direct-to-consumer experience.

Using a longitudinal analysis of publicly traded Fortune 500 firms, the authors find support for their hypotheses that a relative increase in female influence in the top management team (FITMT) is positively associated with (1) customer orientation of the firm and (2) long-term financial performance (i.e., Tobin's q). They demonstrate that customer orientation partially mediates the relationship between FITMT and long-term financial performance. The authors also explore environmental and corporate governance factors that moderate the link between FITMT and customer orientation. They find that this link is attenuated for firms that operate under high environmental dynamism and low environmental discretion, and for firms with high family ownership. Having high female representation among board members and more marketing-experienced board members strengthens the link between FITMT and customer orientation. These findings have important implications for scholars, boards, chief executive officers, and investors interested in identifying environmental and corporate governance factors that facilitate a greater focus on customers at the highest levels of the firm.

Publicly listed firms have discretion to disclose (or not) advertising spending in their annual (10-K) reports. The disclosure of advertising spending can provide valuable information because advertising is a leading indicator of future performance. However, estimates of advertising spending are available from data providers, arguably mitigating the need for its formal disclosure. This article argues that firms’ disclosure of advertising spending provides more complete and public information and therefore lowers investor uncertainty about future firm performance (idiosyncratic risk). Empirical analyses show that the effect is largely driven by the negative effect of disclosure of advertising spending on analyst uncertainty. Consistent with agency theory, the negative effect of the disclosure of advertising spending on analyst uncertainty is stronger for firms with more financial resources, firms with lower disclosure quality, and firms that are in more competitive industries. Additional analyses show that the disclosure of advertising spending has a significant positive effect on firm value in specific sectors. These results, therefore, identify an avenue for chief marketing officers to play a greater role in managing investor relations. In addition, they suggest strong merit for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board to reconsider current regulations governing advertising spending disclosure.

A study involving unobtrusive observations of salespeople's behaviors in sales settings surfaces a novel insight: a salesperson's selling effectiveness with a customer may be enhanced by the way the salesperson interacts with secondary entities, such as objects and people outside the core salesperson–customer dyad. Based on this insight and social interest theory, this research introduces the construct of secondary selling. It refers to a salesperson interacting with secondary entities in a manner that indicates to a focal customer that the salesperson values these entities. The pattern of results from four follow-on studies using multiple methods and data sources indicates that, in general, secondary selling reduces a focal customer's reactance to a salesperson's recommendations, which leads to higher sales revenue and customer satisfaction. Customers with high persuasion knowledge (compared with customers with lower persuasion knowledge) are more favorably influenced by secondary selling involving company property but less favorably influenced by secondary selling involving nonfocal customers. In addition to reducing a focal customer's reactance to sales recommendations, secondary selling also helps primary selling (targeted at a focal customer) reduce the customer's reactance to a greater extent. Overall, the results provide evidence of the pervasive and influential role of secondary selling in boosting sales revenue and customer satisfaction in sales exchanges.

People with the personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (i.e., the “dark triad”) are prevalent in the sales profession. Yet research into sales performance drivers tends to focus on positive personality traits. The authors examine the dark triad's effect on salesperson performance and reveal some conditioning factors that influence these links. A longitudinal study that pairs surveys and objective performance data from a national insurance agency reveals the complex effects of dark triad traits on performance over time. Another study, based on data from a direct sales organization and employing social network analysis, relies on partial least squares structural equation modeling to determine the role that the social structure plays in conditioning the relationship between dark triad traits and performance. The results yield insights into both the challenges and the opportunities that dark traits present for managers and scholars.

The question of how to improve the effectiveness of charitable solicitation has long been a subject of investigation for charity organizations. Through six studies, including four incentive-compatible studies and a field study, the present research demonstrates an easy, actionable, and widely applicable semantic-framing strategy that can be utilized to promote charitable giving. Semantically framing charitable giving as a gift (rather than a donation) increases not only donors’ intention to contribute but also their actual contribution amount (Studies 1–3). Both mediation (Study 4) and moderation (Study 5) approaches provide convergent evidence that the effect of framing charitable giving as a gift rather than a donation on contribution is driven by donors’ perceived social distance from beneficiaries. The authors further find that this framing effect is weakened when soliciting contributions from donors who see social distance as desirable (e.g., those with a high need for status; Study 6). The current work contributes to the literature streams on charitable giving, social exchange, and semantic framing and provides strong managerial implications for charity organizations.

This systematic literature review enhances paradigmatic/metaphysic analyses by examining how value-based commitments, intellectual personae, and stances impact the diversity, relevance, and consideration of ethics in gender research published by the top-tier marketing journals in the past 30 years. Theoretical contributions (1) explain how commitments to research values and practices constitute personae and particular stances toward research, (2) attribute value commitments to quantitative/positivist as well as qualitative/neohumanist research, and (3) implicate stances that favor particular theories and procedures and in turn enable the hierarchical development of gender research and its marginalization in the field. Recommendations elaborate the analytic, reflexive, and administrative training and research activities that will foster and reward more relevant, accurate, and ethical research on gender in the marketing academy and in industry. This work is of interest to persons dealing with gender identities, communities, and social issues, those working for greater gender representation and participation in firms and civic organizations, and those concerned with leveraging better marketing research for a better world.

Brand acquisitions are a popular growth strategy. However, both anecdotal evidence and initial empirical evidence suggest that acquisitions can harm the acquired brand. This article proposes and tests a theoretical framework that aims to explain when and why consumers react negatively to acquired brands. Across ten studies using different methods, research designs, product categories, and brands, the authors demonstrate that these negative brand reactions can be explained by the perceived loss of a brand's unique values. Building on this values authenticity account, they document that the negative effect of acquisitions depends on the acquired brand's values, brand age, leadership continuity, and the alignment between acquiring and acquired brands. The findings offer important theoretical and managerial implications, helping managers predict and mitigate the negative effects of acquisitions for brands.