This article investigates the influence of including pictures in online consumer reviews on review helpfulness perceptions for different types of products (hedonic vs utilitarian). Based on the dual-process model of information processing and regulatory fit theory, the study finds that reviews composed mainly of pictures are more helpful for hedonic purchases, while reviews composed mainly of text are more helpful for utilitarian purchases. The reason is that a picture-based (vs text-based) review permits consumers to obtain more knowledge about a product’s emotional (rational) benefits, which fits with hedonic (vs utilitarian) products’ consumption motivation. Specifically, the effect of fit between hedonic (vs utilitarian) purchase and picture (vs text) presentation of a review on the review helpfulness perception is mediated by emotional (vs cognitive) engagement. JEL Classification: M31, M37

研究从积极视角出发,通过两项实验,探索了规避群体模仿行为和产品环保性质对消费者产品抛弃倾向的交互效应及其影响机制.研究结果显示,规避群体对非环保产品的模仿提升了消费者对被模仿产品的抛弃倾向;而对于环保产品而言,规避群体的模仿则降低了消费者对被模仿产品的抛弃倾向.此外,存在意义感中介了这一交互效应.上述发现延伸了模仿行为及环保消费等相关理论研究,对企业的营销策略也提供了一定的实践启示.

Why are men less likely to use electronic coupons than women? Previous studies have explained the gender difference in coupon usage by exploring roles within the household and personality traits of the sexes. However, this research offers a novel explanation for this phenomenon, that men’s reluctance to use e-coupons may derive from the prevalent stereotype that e-coupon users are feminine. Because of the feminine stereotype associated with e-coupon usage, acquiring and using e-coupons are inconsistent with men’s gender identity. Five studies combining real data analysis, an online survey and experiments are used to support the previous notion. Using e-coupon acquisition data from a platform, study 1 tests whether females are more likely to acquire and use e-coupons than males in the real world. Study 2 experimentally tests the coupon–feminine stereotype. Study 3 explores the mediation effect of gender identity threat. Study 4 and study 5 consider two boundary conditions under which male consumers may be motivated to use e-coupons: when male consumers’ masculine identity is affirmed, and when the association between e-coupons and femininity is weakened. The results explain the gender difference in e-coupon usage from the novel lens of the coupon–feminine stereotype, offering a new and important perspective to explore the effect of gender identity on coupon use. Practical implications such as breaking the coupon–feminine stereotype, adopting a masculine design and communicating an affirmation of gender identity are further discussed.

生产性消费的动机常常被认为是为了追求更高的体验感、独特性和产品质量,但心理需求对消费者来说同样至关重要.生产性消费可以带来内在的能力感知,而日常生活中无处不在的社会比较会让人感到能力不足和失败.从补偿性消费视角提出,社会比较所带来的能力感威胁可以通过生产性消费弥补.通过三个实验论证了社会比较对生产性消费的影响以及内在作用机制:与下行比较相比,上行比较会产生控制感威胁并导致更高的生产性消费偏好;上行比较对控制感的影响会受到自我肯定的调节作用;控制感对生产性消费偏好的影响也受到感知生产难度的调节作用.

在目标追逐中,消费者往往通过购买产品来帮助实现目标.目标追逐是一个动态过程,具有阶段性;目标追逐者的心理状态和关注点将随着目标阶段的变化而变化.企业常常借助特定群体的影响力来彰显其帮助消费者实现目标的能力.基于此,本研究聚焦参照群体对不同目标追逐阶段消费者所产生的影响,探讨处于目标追逐初期和后期的消费者对不同品牌群体标签的偏好.本研究通过4个实验得到以下结果:当处于目标追逐初期时(相比后期),消费者更倾向于选购具备成员群体标签(相比渴望群体标签)的产品;工具性价值在其间扮演中介变量的角色,目标可实现性调节了这一中介过程.当目标可实现性低时,在目标追逐后期,消费者对不同群体标签品牌的购买意愿无差异;当目标可实现性高时,在目标追逐初期,消费者对不同群体标签品牌的购买意愿无差异.本研究丰富了目标追逐、品牌群体标签和工具性价值等领域的理论研究,为企业塑造品牌群体标签提供了相应的管理启示.

近年来,大量企业用"别人家的孩子"来"贩卖焦虑",刺激消费者向优秀的他人靠拢,然而这种刻意营造的上行比较真的会产生积极影响吗?本研究基于社会比较理论和自我调节理论,以思维聚焦方式为切入点,探讨上行比较对消费者自控行为倾向的影响.研究发现:(1)思维聚焦方式会调节上行比较对消费者自控行为倾向的影响;在过程聚焦的情况下,上行比较会提升消费者的自控行为倾向;而在结果聚焦的情况下则相反;(2)自我效能在上行比较和思维聚集方式对消费者自控行为倾向的影响机制中起到中介作用;(3)自我接纳对这一机制起到调节作用,表现为在高自我接纳水平下,无论采用过程还是结果聚焦的思维方式,上行比较均能提升消费者的自控行为倾向.

Board diversity has become a major topic in a developed context, yet its impact has not been examined by scholars in emerging economies where the liberalization of women is not equally popular. Based on upper echelons theory, this study explores the impact of female board directors on corporate environmental investment (CEI), as well as its boundary conditions under different institutional backgrounds. Taking 463 A-share listed corporations in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2008–2017 as examples, we reveal that female board directors are positively related to CEI. In addition, provincial pollution level and regional legal development strengthen the positive relationship between female board directors and CEI. These findings contribute to upper echelons theory that board diversity facilitates corporate pro-social behaviors, especially under pressure from the external environment, emphasizing the influence of female directors’ characteristics. Our research also has managerial implications that corporations may enhance their representation of female directors for better environmental actions and subsequent better marketing performance as well as improved reputation. Moreover, the government is suggested to put forward regulations that increase the proportion of female directors in order to enhance corporate environmental investment.

在展厅和反展厅现象同时发生的情形下,本研究构建一个由线下和线上零售商组成的双寡头垄断市场,探讨消费者的非电子属性的质量期望对反展厅购买行为,以及线下和线上商店之间的价格竞争的影响和作用.研究结果显示,在非电子属性的质量期望是外生给定的情形中,当非电子属性的质量期望小于真实值时,随着消费者对非电子属性质量的期望越低,线下和线上零售商的价格越高.此时线上零售商的均衡利润可能先增加后减少,而线下零售商的均衡利润总是减少;当非电子属性的质量期望值大于真实值时,允许反展厅现象存在,可能是线上零售商的最优决策.进一步,内生化非电子属性的质量期望时,产品的电子属性质量越高对线上零售商可能产生负面或正面影响越大.

This study mainly explores the relationship between company governance, company operation characteristics, management connection and corporate environmental investment. Based on the theory of stakeholders and principal-agent, it expounds the factors affecting the environmental behavior of companies, and empirically tests the relationship of the involved variables. This study takes the non-financial listed companies of Shanghai Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2011 as a sample, and conducts empirical research on corporate governance, business operation characteristics, management connection and corporate environmental protection investment. The results show that under the same circumstances, if the CEO is also the chairman of the board of directors, it will lead to opportunistic situation of the controlling shareholder, and the degree of willingness to invest in environmental preservation is low, which is negatively related to environmental protection investment. The more redundant resources or the higher the production efficiency exist, the higher the willingness of enterprises to invest in environmental protection will be stimulated.

This study investigates the underlying mechanisms through which proactive environmental strategy develops organizational capabilities. The results of a survey of publicly listed companies in China reveal that proactive environmental strategy has a more positive influence on stakeholder integration capability than on innovation capability. Moreover, organizational learning plays a greater role in mediating the effect of proactive environmental strategy on innovation capability than on stakeholder integration capability, whereas cross-functional coordination plays a greater role in mediating its effect on stakeholder integration capability than on innovation capability. These findings provide important implications on organizational capability building via proactive environmental strategy.

Prior research has consistently demonstrated that consumers have a negative preference for brands associated with dissociative groups. Conditions under which these preferences might be changed have remained largely unexamined. The current work investigates the effect of threat of freedom on consumers' preferences for brands associated with dissociative groups. We propose that consumers who experience a high level of threat of freedom will prefer brands associated with dissociative groups. This effect is mediated by a heightened feeling of psychological reactance induced by the high level of threat of freedom. We also examined the moderating role of narrative and self-esteem on the effect. One pilot experiment and three laboratory experiments were conducted to test our conceptualization. In experiment 1, we assessed the basic effect by which threat of freedom influences consumers' preferences for brands associated with dissociative groups. In this experiment, we also examined the mediating effect of psychological reactance. In experiment 2, we tested the robustness of the effect found in experiment 1 and investigated the moderating role of means of narrative through a two-by-two inter-subject design (freedom threat: low vs. high and means of narrative: yes vs. no). In experiment 3, we investigated the moderating role of self-esteem through a two-by-two mixed design (freedom threat: low vs. high and self-esteem: low vs. high). The results of three experiments confirm our predictions. The results of experiment 1 showed that the participants in the high threat-of-freedom group tended to prefer brands associated with dissociative groups. This effect was found to be mediated by psychological reactance. In experiment 2, our findings showed that the influence of threat of freedom on consumers' preference for brands associated with dissociative groups was replicated when a non-narrative information transmission model was used, and the effect was mitigated when a narrative information transmission mode was used. Finally, experiment 3 confirmed the moderating role of self-esteem by showing that participants with high self-esteem tended to prefer brands associated with dissociative groups when they experienced high vs. low threat of freedom. For participants with low self-esteem, such effects became non-significantly different. The current research has theoretical and practical contributions in the following aspects. First, it contributes to the literature of dissociative groups by documenting a condition in which consumers' negative attitude toward brands associated with dissociative groups can be improved. Second, this research extends the current literature on threat of freedom by revealing a preference for brands associated with dissociative groups as a new behavioral downstream. Finally, our findings have clear marketing implications. Certain types of consumers may experience varying levels of threat of freedom. Marketers may consider using actors who represent a dissociative identity in their marketing communications to attract this type of consumers.

We investigated the effects of group affiliation, enjoyable communication, and identity expression on Chinese consumers’ tendency to form sports brand love. Participants were 251 undergraduate students from 2 universities in Southern China, who were asked to name a brand they loved, then complete measures of sports brand love, need for group affiliation, enjoyable communication, identity expression, and sports involvement. Results showed that although the influence of enjoyable communication on sports brand love was nonsignificant, group affiliation and identity expression positively influenced consumers’ tendency to form sports brand love. The effect of group affiliation was moderated by consumers’ sports involvement, because it remained significant only when their sports involvement was high (vs. low). Further, the moderating effect of sports involvement was nonsignificant for identity expression and enjoyable communication. Theoretical implications and practical implications for managers in the sports industry are discussed.

针对品牌的粉丝群体、敬畏感、神圣化的新现象和相关研究正在成为品牌研究学者关注的前沿课题,然而已有文献并未揭示忠实粉丝与其热衷的对象品牌之间的关系性质和特征.以苹果品牌的忠实粉丝为研究对象,论文遵循消费者文化理论范式,首先通过网络志收集网络社群中的网帖作为质性数据,然后采用崇拜性维度理论对数据进行分析和解释,从而对品牌崇拜的概念进行了探索和界定,并构建了其三维度模型,包括品牌信念、品牌崇敬感和品牌热诚.论文发现忠实粉丝与其所热衷的对象品牌之间的关系已经超越了世俗情感依恋关系,开始向精神层面上升并具有了崇拜性特征,是对消费者品牌关系理论的补充和拓展.

This study distinguishes two features of a firm's knowledge base - breadth - and depth and elucidates their interplay in determining new product performance. Papers drawing from the knowledge-based view of the firm often argue a positive role for knowledge base in new product development, however empirical evidence shows an equivocal relationship between knowledge base and new product performance. The empirical results from a sample of 192 high-tech firms indicate that a deep knowledge in a specific industry is imperative to a firm's new product success. However, the effect of knowledge breadth is contingent on knowledge depth: a firm's deep knowledge in a specific field causes a systematic shift in the effect of knowledge breadth, from a negative to a positive effect. In other words, knowledge breadth has a negative effect on new product performance for lower levels of knowledge depth, but a positive effect for higher levels of knowledge depth. These findings offer valuable managerial implications for knowledge management, i.e. if firms expand their knowledge base across various fields or submarkets, they need to correspondingly accumulate deep knowledge in each specific field to take advantage of a broad knowledge base.

本文旨在探讨绿色产品诉求对消费者绿色购买意愿的影响,以及产品利益关联性、消费者身份凸显和绿色社会规范对上述影响关系的调节作用.通过三个实验,本文发现,在绿色产品利益与消费者本人关联性强(与他人关联性强)的情况下,企业利己诉求(利他诉求)更容易促使消费者进行绿色购买;在消费者凸显个人(集体)身份的情况下,企业利己诉求(利他诉求)更容易促使消费者进行绿色购买;社会规范未包含绿色消费的情况下,企业利己诉求更容易促使消费者进行绿色购买.

2014 was called "the first year of the crowdfunding in China". The State Council executive meeting on Nov. 19, 2014 put forward that we must establish a rapid refinance mechanism for capital markets, trying to launch equity crowdfunding. In December, the Securities Association of China solicited opinions on management measures of the private equity crowdfunding, which boosted the crowdfunding into the "fast track". A lot of crowdfunding platforms appeared including the three giants (Jingdong, Taobao, Suning). The three giants occupied most of the market share. Other platforms constantly followed. Domestic crowdfunding industry has entered the flourishing mode. This paper analyzes the domestic developments of various crowdfunding platforms.

本文将个体之间因为某些个人背景要素相似而建立的一种蕴含“情感”成分的关系,如老乡、校友关系等统称为拟亲关系,探讨了顾客与一线员工之间拟亲关系对顾客重购意愿的影响机制,并检验了一线员工沟通风格和顾客感知背叛的调节作用.实验研究结果表明:①拟亲关系会通过顾客感知与一线员工的亲密性正向影响顾客购买意愿.②员工沟通风格会调节拟亲关系与亲密性之间的关系,当顾客与员工之间存在拟亲关系,互动导向风格更有利于提高亲密性.③顾客感知背叛程度和感知背叛类型均会调节拟亲关系对顾客重购意愿的影响作用,即在感知低背叛情况下,顾客与一线员工之间存在拟亲关系时顾客的重购意愿低于无拟亲关系的情况;而在感知非关联背叛情况下,相比无拟亲关系,顾客与一线员工之间存在拟亲关系时顾客的重购意愿更高.