2018 Working Papers: Marketing

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Push and pull: Using mobile platforms for consumer research, 29 pp.
A. D. J. Cooke and P. P. Zubcsek 
(Working Paper no. 6/2018) 
Research no.: 04370100

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Technology continually expands the tools available for conducting behavioral research. Each new tool brings with it different capabilities and constraints and is applicable to different research questions. One of the most basic differences among tools concerns the direction of the interaction: “Push” interactions allow the researcher to send stimuli, scale questions, and other materials to the research participant, whereas “pull” interactions enable the researcher to measure the participant’s behavior in a wide variety of settings. In this paper, we explore the differences between these two sorts of interactions and demonstrate that they align with separate research goals. We further argue that mobile technology, most notably smartphones, enables the development of tools that allow push and pull interactions to be integrated in a fashion that creates new research opportunities. We demonstrate these opportunities with our own mobile platform, mLab, and show some of the unique aspects of mobile behavioral research.

 

Let’s get together and make a difference: Experiencing a community in donation-based crowdfunding4 pp.
D. Ein-Gar ¶
(Working Paper no. 8/2018) 
Research no.: 00480100

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Taken together, the results of four studies show that activating the perception of a community increases donors' responsiveness and the important role that donors' sense of connectedness to other donors has on donation giving. These findings provide an important theoretical contribution to the literature on donation, crowdfunding and group processes as well as important implications for charitable organizations, crowdfunding platforms and campaign creators.

 

How does the expectation of shaming on social media affect the intention to donate?, 22 pp. (in Hebrew) 
D. Ein-Gar and S. Arieli
(Working Paper no. 9/2018) 
Research no.: 00470100

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How do people behave when they fear shaming?  Research shows that when people are shamed for violating moral codes (like not helping the needy), they retreat into themselves and avoid social settings that are likely to place them in a similar situation.  In other words, contrarily, people who have experienced shaming become less pro-social towards others than people who have not been shamed.  But what about situations in which people are not being subjected to shaming but the fear of shaming is in the air?  Interestingly, research to date has mostly focused on behavior in response to shaming and has practically not addressed how the fear of potential shaming can affect present behavior.  Focusing on today’s reality in the area of fundraising for charitable causes, with its internet campaigns that market on social media, the present research examines whether a response to a campaign is influenced by the fear that not responding positively will lead to public shaming.       With the prevalence of the virtual social network as the main focus of social interactions and the presence of supporting interest holders (businesses, social entrepreneurs, fundraisers, and so on), the connection between the fear of shaming and responding positively to an online fundraising campaign becomes relevant.  In this research we examine an important aspect of the social network, which has not yet been studied in the context of charitable donations, namely the type of social network relations.  Specifically, we examine how strong social relations (aka “strong ties”), as opposed to weak ones, affect the link between fear of shaming and the behavior of the potential donor. In two studies we found that donors are more responsive to donation calls shared by strong ties. However, weak ties may also have an effect on the intention to donate, but it arises from the fear of shaming.  Specifically, in the first study (N=284, Mean Age = 38), we found that the fear of shaming on the social network predicted willingness to donate when the request for a donation came from a weak tie on Facebook, but not when it came from a strong tie on Facebook, and also not when it popped up during surfing on the internet (the control group).  In the second study (N = 284, Mean Age = 52), we showed the same effect on the size of the donation, within another social network (WhatsApp).  In addition, we showed that the effect does not depend on the attitude towards the campaign, that is, the extent to which the potential donor thinks the campaign is important and effective, or the strength of the social norm, that is, the degree to which the potential donor thinks that the other members of the social network would donate.  We infer that while strong social ties in one’s network affect the intent to donate and the size of the donation in general, weak ties set in motion other mechanisms, like the fear of shaming.

 

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