Knowledge that Transforms

Evidence from four studies suggests that the moral opposition toward genetically modified (GM) foods impedes the perception of their benefits, and critically, marketers can circumvent this moral opposition by employing subtle cues to position these products as being “man-made.” Specifically, if consumers view the GM food as man-made, and if they understand why it was created, moral opposition to the product diminishes, and the GM food's perceived benefits increase, which subsequently increases purchase intentions for the product. This effect is replicated in the field (in both controlled and naturalistic settings), in a laboratory experiment, and with an online consumer panel. The results suggest that marketers can help consumers better consider all information when assessing the merits of GM foods by using packaging and promotion strategies to cue consumers to view the GM food for what it is (i.e., a man-made object created with intent). The findings have implications for the recent GM food labeling debate.

This article uses multimethod approaches to develop a conceptual foundation for and empirical evidence of the performance implications of business-to-government (B2G) relationships. In-depth interviews reveal unique characteristics that differentiate B2G exchanges from commercial exchanges (e.g., procurement mission; regulations and oversight; scale, scope, and planning horizon) and highlight the resultant cost–benefit trade-offs for firms in this environment. Empirical longitudinal analyses of secondary data show that a firm’s government customer emphasis (firm revenue dependence on B2G relationships) exerts a positive nonlinear effect on firm value but also increases firm risk (idiosyncratic and systematic). Government customer breadth and depth are two critical customer portfolio characteristics that moderate these effects. High government customer breadth creates more costs associated with an increasing government customer emphasis, mitigating the positive nonlinear effect on firm value. However, breadth provides diversification benefits that alleviate the increase in idiosyncratic risk that comes with greater government customer emphasis. Deep B2G relationships give firms key customer domain knowledge and insights, which help counteract the increased idiosyncratic and systematic risks of government customer emphasis. The authors discuss the implications for marketing theory and practice.

The authors hypothesize that customer presence in the boardroom of business-to-business (B2B) firms brings customer orientation and customer knowledge to the board of directors and thereby enhances B2B firm performance. Using an objective measure of customer presence in the boardroom and a sample of 329 B2B firms over a nine-year period, the authors find support for this hypothesis. Moreover, relying on the resource-based view, they hypothesize that the performance benefit of customers in the boardroom is contingent on the value, rarity, inimitability, and organizational fit of customer resources. Specifically, they find that a customer on the board is more effective when demand uncertainty is high but is less effective when the firm is highly diversified. Moreover, a board member who is an independent director of the customer firm is less effective than a board member who is an executive at the customer firm. The authors also find that research and development intensity partially mediates the relationship between customer presence on the board and firm performance.

Prior research has shown the independent effects of average product ratings and number of reviews for online purchases, but the relative influence of these aggregate review attributes is still debated in the literature. In this research, the authors demonstrate the conditional influences of these two attributes as a function of the valence of average product ratings and the level of review numbers in a choice set. Specifically, they argue that the diagnosticity of the number of reviews, relative to average product ratings, increases when average product ratings are negative or neutral (vs. positive) and when the level of review numbers in a choice set is low (vs. high). As a result, when consumers choose among the best options on one of the review attributes (average product ratings or the number of reviews), their preference shifts from the higher-rated option with fewer reviews toward the lower-rated option with more reviews. The authors demonstrate this preference shift in seven studies, elucidate the underlying process by which this occurs, and conclude with a discussion of the implications for retailers and brands.

This research investigates how provision of calories-per-serving information on serving size labels affects snack consumption quantity. Drawing from expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this research shows that providing calories-per-serving information can ironically create a consumption backfire effect (consumers eat more when presented with calories-per-serving information) for snacks perceived as unhealthy but not for snacks perceived as healthy. The authors find that this effect arises when calorie expectations are higher than the posted calories-per-serving level—a frequent occurrence due to stated serving sizes that are typically smaller than amounts consumed in one sitting. The authors also show that attention to calorie information plays a key role such that the backfire effect occurs among consumers who pay more attention to calorie information. Furthermore, motivational factors including individual differences and perceptions of the risk associated with consuming a snack also play a role in driving consumption differences. The authors offer managerial, policy, and consumer welfare implications, including proposing and testing larger stated serving sizes as an intervention.

In recent years, many news providers have begun monetizing online content through paywalls. While the premise behind paywalls is that the subscription revenue can be a new source of income, the externalities that might arise from this pricing change are unclear. The authors study two potential externalities of newspaper paywalls: (1) the effect of a paywall on the engagement of its online reader base and (2) the spillover effect on the print version of the newspaper. The engagement effect considers how the paywall altered the various engagement metrics among light and heavy readers of online news. The spillover effect is likely to arise if readers view print and online versions of a newspaper as substitutes, implying that increasing the price of the latter is likely to increase the demand for the former. Moreover, many newspaper paywalls offer bundles wherein print subscribers are provided free access to the online newspaper. Therefore, the value that a reader derives from the print subscription could be higher after the erection of the paywall. As a result, paywalls are likely to have a positive spillover effect on print subscription and, consequently, circulation. The authors document the sizes of the two externalities for the New York Times paywall and compare them with the direct subscription revenue generated. They comment on implications for newspapers and online content providers that are seeking mechanisms to monetize digital content.

The success of a freemium model depends on the number of customers who purchase the premium version in the presence of the free version. The authors investigate the strategy of extending the premium product line to spur demand for the existing premium version. Extending the results of the standard product line model is insufficient in such cases because of the conceptual nuances in a freemium context. The authors conduct a randomized field experiment with an online content provider that offers book titles in a PDF version for free and sells the paperback version for a premium. The authors show that paperback titles accompanied by an additional premium version, either in e-book or hardcover format, have higher sales than those in the control condition. The positive impact on paperback sales is stronger for titles that are more popular or cheaper, and the effect of introducing the e-book version is higher when the e-book price is closer to the paperback price. By analyzing individual customer choices, the authors identify the existence of the compromise effect and the attraction effect in the extended product line setting, a significant contribution not only in the freemium context but also to the product line literature.

Seeded marketing campaigns (SMCs) have become part of the marketing mix for many fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. In addition to making large investments in advertising and sales promotions, these firms now encourage seed agents or microinfluencers to discuss brands with friends and acquaintances to create further value. It is thus critical to understand how an FMCG seeding program interacts with traditional marketing tools when estimating the effectiveness of such efforts. However, the issue is still underexplored. The authors present the first empirical analysis of this question using a rich data set collected on four brands from various European FMCG markets. They combine advertising and sales promotion data from FMCG brand managers with sales and retail variables from market research companies as well as firm-created word-of-mouth variables from SMC agencies. The authors analyze the data using several approaches, confronting challenges of endogeneity and multicollinearity. They consistently find that firm-created word of mouth through SMC programs interacts negatively with all tested forms of advertising but positively with promotional activities. This phenomenon has significant implications for understanding the utility of SMCs and how they should be managed. The analysis implies that SMCs may increase total sales by approximately 3%–18% throughout the campaigns.

Scholars have expressed concern that marketing's influence at the strategic levels of the firm is waning. Consistent with this view, only 2.6% of firms’ board members have marketing experience. The authors suggest that this is shortsighted and that including more marketing-experienced board members (MEBMs) will increase firm growth by (1) helping firms prioritize growth as a strategic objective and (2) contributing their expertise to improve the effectiveness of revenue growth strategies. Drawing on the behavioral model of corporate governance, the authors develop a theoretical framework explicating the situational, dispositional, and structural influence moderators that alter the impact of MEBMs on firm growth. Using 64,086 director biographies from S&P 1500 firms, the authors find that MEBMs positively affect firm-level revenue growth and that this relationship is strengthened or weakened by important contingencies that occur in the firm. The findings suggest that the common practice of not including experienced marketers on boards of directors puts firms at a competitive disadvantage.

The literature examining the effect of sales control on salesperson performance is, at best, equivocal. To reconcile inconsistencies in empirical findings, this research introduces two new types of salesperson learning: exploratory and exploitative learning. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the authors conceptualize exploratory learning as promotion focused and exploitative learning as prevention focused and find that salespeople exhibit both exploratory and exploitative learning, though one is used more than the other depending on the type of sales control employed. The results also suggest that the fit between salesperson learning type, customer characteristics (i.e., purchase-decision-making complexity), and salesperson characteristics (i.e., preference for sales predictability) is critical to salesperson performance and that salesperson learning mediates the relationship between sales control and salesperson performance (Study 1). Study 2 corroborates the findings using new panel data collected over two waves. The results of this research have important implications for integrating sales control, salesperson learning, and salesperson performance.