Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

Targeting ads based on consumers’ real-time locations has evolved into a practice worth billions of dollars in the advertising industry. Yet, the implications of repeated mobile ad exposure are poorly understood, primarily due to the confounding effects of locational context. This research seeks to bridge this gap. Using two large datasets comprising more than three million observations from a major European mobile telecommunication company, the authors investigate how ad repetition and location revisits (i.e., returning to a previously visited location) jointly determine consumer response to mobile display advertising. The empirical strategy leverages coarsened exact matching combined with a logit model with fixed effects at the consumer-location level. The results show that the ad click-through rate is more than 26% higher at revisited locations than at locations visited for the first time. However, mobile ad repetition decreases click rates, and this effect is amplified at revisited locations. The results contribute to the theory and practice of mobile advertising.

Little research has examined how consumers describe their alcohol consumption generally and through online channels. Informed by theories of social norms and impression management, we use a custom dataset of online reviews from Drizly.com to explore the topics discussed in online consumer reviews of alcoholic beverage products. We examine whether review topics differ by product category (i.e., beer, wine, or spirits) and based on product review volume, a normative signal. Consumers generally elaborate on the consumption setting, negative perceptions of the product and/or consumption experience, product-lifestyle fit, drink preparation, and finally any positive perceptions. Consumption setting is the primary topic discussed by beer and wine consumers, and this tendency is strengthened by the presence of more product reviews. Consumers’ openness to discussing negative aspects of consumption contradicts the logic of impression management theory. Additionally, the finding that positive aspects of consumption are the least elaborated topic generally and among beer and wine consumers contrasts previous social media research suggesting it would be a more important topic. We also find that greater product review volume strengthens beer and wine consumes’ likelihood to discuss both the positive and negative aspects of consumption, suggesting that drinking narratives are altered by perceived prevailing norms.

Individuals are often biased in their judgments about AI, especially when it comes to customer-support-oriented service interactions. With three preregistered experiments (and three supplementary studies), the current research examines how marketplace status creates systematic differences in customer biases against chatbot-delivered services, and what firms can do to mitigate the impact of those biases on their evaluations. In Study 1 (N = 1,019), we show that high-tier (vs. basic) customers react more negatively to chatbot-delivered services, even when the objective service delivered is the same. We also demonstrate that greater perceptions of uniqueness neglect and entitlement among high-tier (vs. basic-tier) customers are possible explanations for this tier-based bias against chatbots. In Study 2 (N = 1,196), we demonstrate the effectiveness of three “framing interventions” that significantly reduced high-tier customers’ bias against chatbots. Finally, Study 3 (N = 899) examines different ways of acquiring a high marketplace status— earned vs. unearned— as a boundary condition for our main effect, while experimentally demonstrating the mediational role of entitlement in addition to uniqueness neglect. Together, our research advances the understanding of human-robot interactions from a marketplace status lens and provides concrete managerial strategies for communicating about automated customer support services.

In recent years, more and more consumers have defended brands online against criticism. Despite the high relevance of consumer brand defense (CBD) when recovering from adverse critique such as NWOM online, our understanding of the motives that drive CBD beyond emotionally intense consumer-brand connections remains limited. Building on a social media analysis of the phenomenon, qualitative in-depth interviews with consumers who defend brands, and a survey among brand defenders, we provide a better understanding of the motivational and relational drivers as well as the context factors of CBD. Specifically, our results show that brand defenders are driven by the motives of reciprocal altruism, equity restoration, and egoism as well as relational factors including brand satisfaction and attachment. Using a large-scale study with 570 actual brand defenders along with subsequent cluster analysis, we distinguish three distinct brand defender types: Brand promoters, justice promoters, and self-promoters. These defender types not only differ in their behavior but also in terms of contextual factors related to consumer characteristics, brand-related criticism, and company-related dynamics that influence their active engagement in CBD. Applying the distinct characteristics of the three defender types, we discuss how managers can more effectively motivate consumers to defend their brand online.

This paper approaches the intention–behaviour gap within the context of the privacy paradox from a novel perspective, focusing on the moderating roles of online shopping habits and regulatory foci in the relationship between disclosure intention and actual disclosure behaviour. The two distinct studies reveal that both factors significantly contribute to shaping this gap (Study 1) and provide further insights into the processes underlying the identified effects (Study 2). Specifically, our data suggests that online shopping habits and regulatory foci influence the extent to which individuals translate their disclosure intentions into actual information disclosure behaviour. By examining these moderating variables in depth, this paper contributes to the domain of consumer privacy by offering a novel interpretation of the reasons behind the privacy paradox. Based on this, practical implications and recommendations for future studies are provided.

The sharing of internet memes on online social media is increasingly popular form of expressing opinions and complex sentiments in an easily understood image. Memes have been found to be an effective marketing tool if used appropriately. Marketers need to be aware when a meme’s use has become saturated, and its value is depreciating. As with many consumer uses of online social media, meme sharing is described as market for attention which can display dynamics as with cycle. This analysis models the dynamics of meme attention and estimates these dynamics from a panel of memes scraped from sub-Reddit meme forums and classified using a machine learning algorithm. Empirical analysis reveals patterns consistent with random shocks to meme entertainment value carrying over to the quality and quantity of subsequent expressions of the meme. Estimates indicate that a temporary elevation in attention dissipates within just one to two weeks. However, meme saturation then leads to less spread of the meme. To be effective meme marketers must remain attentive to where the meme they intend to use is within the fad cycle.

This study investigates the effect of game advertisement outcomes on a player’s subsequent gaming experience. Research on vicarious experience shows that individuals infer game difficulty to be higher when watching game advertisements where players lose (vs. win) the game. Building on the effort–paradox paradigm, the first of this three-part study shows that such higher inferred difficulty enhances enjoyment and engagement during subsequent gaming experiences, especially for advertisements featuring easy game levels. Solely manipulating the difficulty level, Study 2 confirms the underlying mechanism of inferred difficulty for the observed effect of game advertisement outcomes. Study 3a finds that the main positive effect of losing (vs. winning) ads does not hold for advertisements featuring difficult game levels. Study 3b further explores this by focusing only on advertisements with difficult game levels, investigating how variations in players’ self-efficacy might influence their response to losing advertisements depicting difficult game levels. The findings across four studies suggest that, when promoting easy game levels, marketers can use advertisements with losing outcomes to extend gaming sessions, thereby increasing revenue from in-game advertisements. However, for difficult game levels, advertisements with losing outcomes are effective only for those with high self-efficacy.

Influencers are a crucial strategic component for many brands because of their significant marketing value. This research integrates parasocial and signaling theories to posit that relationship-building signals and promotion-focused signals will differentially impact engagement with sponsored posts. The study investigates the role of linguistic personality and content characteristics in driving engagement on social media platforms, with a focus on how follower size moderates these effects. Text mining techniques are used to construct a data set of 961 sponsored posts from 71 influencers. Findings reveal that linguistic agreement, characteristics of the photo (whether the influencer and/or product appear), and of the text (hashtags and emojis) significantly influence engagement. Multiple facets of this influence are moderated by follower size. Specifically, agreeable language positively impacted engagement, while picturing the product and higher hashtag use negatively impacted engagement. Further, follower size moderated the effect of the variables on engagement such that influencers with larger followings benefit more from conscientious language, fewer hashtags, and inclusion of the influencer in the post photo. Influencers with smaller audiences benefit more from extraverted, agreeable, open, and emotionally stable language strategies. These insights offer practical implications for influencers and marketers, suggesting tailored strategies to optimize content.

Brand-to-brand (Br2Br) engagement on social media, where official brand accounts interact using various dialog strategies, is a growing trend in interactive marketing. This paper investigates the nature, nuances, and impact of Br2Br engagement on both participating brands and observing consumers, drawing from Language Expectancy Theory. To do this, we employ a mixed-methods approach, combining field data, qualitative and automated text analyses, and an experimental causal-chain mediation survey. In Study 1, we compare the effects of B2C versus Br2Br posts on consumer engagement, revealing that Br2Br posts generate higher engagement. Next, in Study 2, using typological theory building, we develop a framework of four overarching Br2Br engagement strategies—PR Hijacking, Praising, Teasing, and Spotlighting—differentiated by emotional tone and motivation. In Study 3, a causal-chain mediation analysis demonstrates that Teasing, as a violating strategy, leads to negative consumer responses, while Praising, PR Hijacking, and Spotlighting align with consumer expectations and result in favorable brand outcomes. These findings enhance the understanding of B2C and Br2Br communications on social media and provide actionable insights for digital marketers to optimize Br2Br engagement content.

Does male dominance of a product’s online community deter female community voices? Does it affect product ratings and the nature of content produced too? How might female consumers’ brand attitudes and intentions be affected ultimately? Utilizing a large panel dataset of online customer reviews in the beer industry and three experimental studies, these questions are empirically investigated. This product category is highly male dominant, on average, but there is significant variation across products to enable degrees of male dominance to be empirically examined. Other theoretical accounts of simple majority, tie-strength, homophily, and cultural masculinity are empirically considered as well. The findings serve to complement prior work on online word of mouth (OWOM), demonstrating that male dominance of an online community can deter contributions from female reviewers and generate lower rating departure from community average sentiment by female reviewers. The type of content that is generated by female reviewers is also affected, with a reduction in the evocation of femininity themes and an increase in the evocation of masculinity themes. Downstream brand attitudes and trial intentions are also impacted. A resulting implication of high product community male dominance is the availability of less information for consumers when evaluating products.

Sport brands are pursuing new avenues that affect consumer–brand relationships through digital engagement platforms based on fan tokens, a specific type of cryptocurrency. These metaverse-enabling technologies offer novel stimuli to enhance fans’ brand experiences, but their impact on fans’ intentions and behaviors has yet to be determined. Drawing on social identity theory and customer engagement literature as a theoretical lens, this paper examines how the meanings attached to fan-token-related activities impact on team brand identification and the associated social influence mechanisms between fans, concurrently with brand co-creation awareness. Results show that meanings associated with fan-token-related activities have positive influence both on identification and engagement with fans’ favorite team brands, while intentions to continue using and recommending these digital assets depend primarily on the meanings that fans associate with these activities. This study has several theoretical and practical implications. It questions the ways through which metaverse technologies are affecting brand co-creation mechanisms and fan engagement. In managerial terms, it suggests that teams should primarily define an “open brand” structure to keep fans involved in these digital engagement platforms and reap the benefits of positive non-transactional behaviors from these engaged fans.

Well-known actors, or stars, clearly are relevant for movies. Today, their influence also extends to interactive video games, for which budgets have reached triple-digit millions of dollars. Yet no existing research addresses the economic impact of star power on video game success, across various game traits and reviews. Analyzing video games released on the popular distribution platform Steam between 2008 and 2022, the current study reveals that casting stars as game characters has positive effects on the valence of professional reviews, which in turn affect game success. Stars can therefore increase the quality of a game and also reduce uncertainty about it. This impact varies depending on game traits though. Based on these results, the authors develop an interactive dashboard that managers can use to simulate how they can strategically leverage star power to increase game success.

There are increasing concerns raised in the academic literature about the impact of social media on teenagers’ well-being. While becoming inextricable to our daily lives, online social media are blamed for increasing mental health problems in teenagers. This research addresses this problem by conducting a comprehensive and systematic review of the “Impact of Social Media on Teenagers” literature from 2005 to 2023. The search strategy resulted in 256 studies, of which 99 were identified as primary studies, and a synthesis of key themes pertinent to this study is presented. To cast light on this area's origins, trends, and future research directions, this study employs bibliometric content analysis to map the existing literature on the impact of social media on teenagers. The study addresses a critical gap in the literature by proposing relevant strands for future deliberation and actionable research. Notably, we observe that suicide, education, school children, quality of life, attitude to health, social media, anxiety, teenagers’ behavior, risk assessment, online social networking, deep learning, and emotions are major research topics in the area of social media's impact on teenagers.

Because social networking sites facilitate social comparison, consumer envy becomes inevitable among social media users. Drawing on social comparison and coping theories, this study examines how different types of envy lead to consumers’ distinct behaviors on social networking sites, some of which are self-directed and focus on self-enhancement, while others are either positive or negative interactions with the envied person. Employing both the contexts of luxury product and service sharing experiences on Instagram, the authors consistently show in four studies that whereas consumers who experience benign envy are more likely to interact with the envied person positively, such as liking the envied person’s posts, those who experience malicious envy are more likely to engage in negative interactions, such as unfollowing the envied person. Benign enviers are more likely to engage in self-enhancement actions on social networking sites, such as posting images/videos more frequently, compared with malicious enviers. When coping with the negative feeling of envy, positive interactions help benign enviers improve their sense of belonging. In contrast, malicious enviers tend to engage in maladaptive coping behaviors, such as engaging in negative interactions with the envied, which may diminish their sense of belonging and lead to negative self-perceptions.

Many brands periodically respond humorously to the content that other brands and celebrities post on social media. Drawing on three scenario-based experiments and a content analysis of humorous tweets based on their likes and retweets, the authors use the benign violation theory to understand whether using humor constitutes a benign (i.e., translating into amusement) or malign (i.e., translating into ulterior motives) violation. The success of a humorous brand-to-brand interaction (i.e., brand attitudes and purchase intentions) depends on its ability to generate amusement without causing customers to suspect ulterior motives. Study 1’s results reveal that customers respond more favorably when brands use affiliative humor rather than aggressive humor. Affiliative humor constitutes a benign violation that generates amusement, while aggressive humor constitutes a malign violation that leads customers to infer that brands have ulterior motives. Study 2 shows that aggressive humor partially compensates for its weaknesses over affiliative humor when brands target competing brands. Studies 3A and 3B reveal a reversed effect depending on brand positioning (top dogs versus underdogs). While underdog brands should always use affiliative humor, top dog brands could perform better by favoring aggressive humor (i.e., such brands could receive more likes and retweets without lowering customers’ purchase intentions).