Understanding users' switching intention of cloud storage services: A push-pull-mooring framework

Highly sensitive and private information is stored in the cloud, so understanding how and why customers choose and switch between cloud storage service providers is pivotal. However, prior studies have tended to focus on users' adoption of cloud storage services, whereas little attention has been paid to their switching intention behavior based on non-functional factors. Using the push-pull model, developed from human migration theory, and by employing a survey (n = 326), we demonstrate that the push factor (i.e., satisfaction) has a significant negative effect, while the pull factor (i.e., alternative attractiveness) has a significant positive effect on users' switching intentions. Furthermore, mooring factors such as switching costs, habitual use, and past switching experiences have a varying moderation effect on the relationship between push and pull factors and switching intentions. The results offer several important theoretical and actionable managerial implications.     

Effects of payment notifications on consumer purchase decisions: The role of pain of payment

Payment notifications are becoming ubiquitous due to the popularity of online payment, which are usually considered to be records of consumption. However, the effect of payment notifications on consumer behavior has not been fully understood. Given this research void, this study explores the effects of payment notifications on consumers' consumption amount during a multiple-purchase shopping journey. Considering the prevalence of online payment in China, we conducted four experiments using Chinese samples. The results confirm that payment notifications can evoke consumers' pain of payment, which consequently reduces consumers' subsequent shopping amount. Additionally, we argue that the effects of payment notifications on consumer behavior are different in the early/late stage of the shopping journey or in the gift-purchasing/self-purchasing conditions. The findings of this article could help payment application developers to better design payment notification functions.     

A pull versus push framework for reputation

Reputation is a powerful driver of human behavior. Reputation systems incentivize 'actors' to take reputation-enhancing actions, and 'evaluators' to reward actors with positive reputations by preferentially cooperating with them. This article proposes a reputation framework that centers the perspective of evaluators by suggesting that reputation systems can create two fundamentally different incentives for evaluators to reward positive reputations. Evaluators may be pulled towards 'good' actors to benefit directly from their reciprocal cooperation, or pushed to cooperate with such actors by normative pressure. I discuss how psychology and behavior might diverge under pull versus push mechanisms, and use this framework to deepen our understanding of the empirical reputation literature and suggest ways that we may better leverage reputation for social good.     

Effects of Interruptions on Consumer Online Decision Processes

The growth of e‐commerce and its attendant new technology features has increased interactivity in consumer information processing and decision‐making processes. The pull and push of information can be both more personalized and more commonly used. The ease of pushing information may lead to interruptions in consumer information processing that are more pronounced than those experienced in non‐Internet environments. Our study investigated the impact of interruption frequency, timing, and content and the moderating effects of consumer knowledge, control, and goal type on time spent on the decision task as well as satisfaction with the decision process and the choice. Our results show that the right configuration of interruptions may lead to increased online viewing time, whereas ill‐designed interruptions may be detrimental.     

Exploring multi-homing behavior of ride-sourcing drivers via real-world multiple platforms data

Multi-homing behavior refers to the behavior that ride-sourcing drivers simultaneously register and sequentially provide services on multiple ride-sourcing platforms. The multi-homing behavior of ride-sourcing drivers significantly impacts the competition among multiple ride-sourcing platforms in a competitive market. To better understand the multi-homing behavior, we present exploratory evidence on the factors that influence drivers' platform switching behavior. The RF-MNL (random forest multinomial logistic regression) framework is applied to analyze multi-homing driver behavior in a competitive ride-sourcing market. Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) is adopted to model the platform switching behavior of multi-homing drivers. The random forest is employed to seek the best combination of variables for the MLR model, which is calibrated by using the one-month multi-platform ride-sourcing data in Hangzhou, China. A variety of explanatory variables that influence ride-sourcing drivers' multi-homing behavior are estimated. The results show that the driver's socio-demographic characteristics, income level, bonus income (e.g., long-distance price rise), and work time related factors (e.g., the time gap of order dispatching, and wait time) play an essential role in determining the platform switching decision. This study corroborates the evidence of significant factors that impact drivers' switching from one ride-sourcing platform to another, which can support decision-making for ride-sourcing platforms to attract drivers serving the platform exclusively. We also examine how heterogeneity in drivers' multi-homing tendencies affects the platform's policy. To our best knowledge, this paper is one of the first quantitative studies that empirically reveal the commonly observed multi-homing behavior of ride-sourcing drivers by exploring real-world city-wide data collected on multiple platforms.     

Motivational Influences on Cognitive Performance in Children: Focus Over Fit

Cognitive psychologists have begun to address how motivational factors influence adults' performance on cognitive tasks. However, little research has examined how different motivational factors interact with one another to affect behavior across the life span. In the current study, the authors examined how children perform on a classification task when placed in a regulatory fit or mismatch. Nine-year-old children performed a classification task in which they either gained or lost points for each response. Additionally, children were given either a global promotion focus (trying to earn a gift card) or a prevention focus (trying to avoid losing a gift card). Previous work indicates that adults in this task tend to perform better when there is a match (or fit) between the incentive to gain, or avoid losing, a global reward, and the more local task reward structure to either maximize points gained or minimize points lost on a trial-by-trial basis. Unlike adults, 9-year-olds perform better in the promotion condition than in the prevention condition regardless of task reward structure. Possible explanations for the differences between adults' and children's performance are discussed as are possible applications for academic settings.     

“We” are Different: Exploring the Diverse Effects of Friend and Family Accessibility on Consumers' Product Preferences

Prior research suggests that close friends and family members exert similar effects on consumer behavior because both represent strong social ties and are subject to communal norms. However, drawing on regulatory focus theory, we postulate that accessibility of friend and family can have divergent impacts on consumers' subsequent purchase decisions. Across four experiments, as well as a pilot study, we demonstrate that accessibility of friend (vs. family) is more likely to activate a promotion focus, which results in more favorable consumer responses toward products with promotion‐focused appeals, whereas accessibility of family (vs. friend) is more likely to activate a prevention focus, which leads to more positive consumer responses toward products with prevention‐focused appeals.     

Does digital content marketing affect tourism consumer behavior? An extension of technology acceptance model

With the rapidly dramatic environmental change and intensive competition, tourism organisations are required to adopt advanced marketing strategies and techniques. Recently, digital content marketing (DCM) has become one of the most prominent marketing tools that has substantial benefits and influences in different settings and domains. To this end, it is crucial to understand the effect of DCM on consumer behavior within the tourism context. Therefore, this research empirically examines an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) model to investigate and compare the influence of DCM on travel and tourism consumer behavior in two distinct countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. A quantitative approach was adopted by collecting surveys from a convenience sample of 285 and 122 participants in Egypt and Oman, respectively. The findings of PLS‐structural equation modelling revealed that the TAM major constructs were good elucidating the attitude and behavior toward using of DCM for tourism purposes. It is also found that perceived enjoyment and perceived convenience are antecedents of customers' attitudes, which in turn, influence their intention and behavior of using DCM to buy or select a certain tourism product/service. The current study contributes to knowledge of DCM literature in the tourism field in general and within the MENA region in particular. It also adds to studies on TAM and digital technologies by extending two critical constructs related to tourism consumer behavior. The practical implications will greatly support tourism marketers and authorities to develop their tourism strategies and marketing activities. Future research can be expanded to study different target groups comprehending region differences.     

The seven sins of consumer psychology

Consumer psychology faces serious issues of internal and external relevance. Most of these issues originate in seven fundamental problems with the way consumer psychologists plan and conduct their research—problems that could be called “the seven sins of consumer psychology.” These seven “sins” are (1) a narrow conception of the scope of consumer behavior research; (2) adoption of a narrow set of theoretical lenses; (3) adherence to a narrow epistemology of consumer research; (4) an almost exclusive emphasis on psychological processes as opposed to psychological content; (5) a strong tendency to overgeneralize from finite empirical results, both as authors and as reviewers; (6) a predisposition to design studies based on methodological convenience rather than on substantive considerations; and (7) a pervasive confusion between “theories of studies” and studies of theories. Addressing these problems (“atoning for these sins”) would greatly enhance the relevance of the field. However, this may require a substantial rebalancing of the field's incentives to reward actual research impact rather than sheer number of publications in major journals.     

Stigmatized‐Identity Cues: Threats as Opportunities for Consumer Psychology

In their review of the literature on stigmatized‐identity cues, Chaney, Sanchez, and Maimon (2019—this issue) summarize evidence that stigmatized‐identity threat and safety cues drive consumer behavior through their effects on consumers’ inferences about the company's ideology and their consequential impact on feelings of belonging. The authors also identify various factors that moderate the relationship between these identity cues and consumers’ belonging perceptions. In our commentary, we identify future research opportunities by: (a) encouraging efforts to broaden the proposed framework to account for stigmatized identities defined in terms of consumption activities, (b) highlighting concepts and relationships that may require re‐examination or deeper understanding, and (c) proposing additional consumer behaviors that punish or reward companies that use stigmatized‐identity threat and safety cues, respectively.     

Understanding the factors that promote employability orientation: The impact of employability culture,career satisfaction,and role breadth self‐efficacy

This study among 702 Dutch employees working in the health care and welfare sector examined individual and organizational factors that are related to workers' employability orientation and turnover intention. Additionally, push and pull motives were examined of employees who aimed to leave their job. Results indicated that a strong employability culture adds extra variance over and above individual factors such as career satisfaction and role breadth self‐efficacy in the explanation of employability orientation, turnover intention, and push motives of employees who aim to leave their job. That is, employability culture is positively related to employability orientation, but negatively related to turnover intention and to push motives of those who aim to leave. Pull motives of employees who want to leave are explained by individual factors only, such as career dissatisfaction and role breadth self‐efficacy, but not by employability culture. These findings suggest that organizations that need to adapt to changing environments should implement a strong employability culture, because such a culture stimulates employability orientations among their employees while simultaneously decreasing turnover intentions.     

Involvement,attributions, and consumer responses to rebates

This paper examines effects of both purchasing involvement and product involvement on consumers' responses to rebates. In Part One, the study examines the effects of involvement on consumer responses to a rebate price promotion. Specifically, the study reports that consumers with high levels of purchasing involvement and consumers with high levels of product involvement are more likely to experience satisfaction with a shopping experience involving a rebate and, subsequently, are more likely to express intentions to engage in repeat purchase behavior and word-of-mouth communication about the product. High purchasing involved (but not high product involved) customers are also more likely to use rebates. In Part Two, the study examines effects of involvement on consumer attributions for satisfaction with the price deal and reports that high purchasing involvement is significantly related to a tendency to make internal, rather than external, attributions for satisfaction with a rebate shopping experience. Results of hierarchical moderated regression suggest that consumer responses to the rebate price promotion are moderated by these internal attributions. Implications of the findings for a theoretical understanding of involvement effects on attributions and for the effectiveness of price promotion strategies in the marketplace are discussed.     

市场规范与社会规范冲突视角下的奖励推荐计划作用机制

奖励推荐计划(referral reward program, RRP)越来越成为企业获取新顾客和保留老顾客的有力武器, 然而有关RRP对消费者推荐行为影响的研究却较为匮乏。从RRP引发社会规范与市场规范冲突的视角出发, 以营销学、动机心理学、情绪心理学及行为经济学为基础, 系统研究RRP对推荐行为的影响。具体内容包括：研究奖励框架与社会规范对消费者推荐动机的作用; 探究情绪在动机一致性与推荐行为之间的中介作用; 关注因果定向、自我意识及文化价值观等自我层面因素对以上过程的调节作用。将主要采用系列实验并结合神经营销学方法, 力图彻底搞清现有研究中的争论话题和填补研究空白, 这对从社会规范与市场规范相冲突的视角探讨以动机为主题的RRP研究具有重要的理论意义, 同时对中外企业了解奖励对消费者推荐行为的影响机制以及设计合理有效的RRP具有显著的指导意义。     

Changing commuters’ behavior using rewards: A study of rush-hour avoidance

In a 13-week field study conducted in The Netherlands, participants were provided with daily rewards – monetary and in-kind, in order to encourage them to avoid driving during the morning rush-hour. Participants could earn a reward (money or credits to keep a Smartphone handset), by driving to work earlier or later, by switching to another mode or by teleworking. The collected data, complemented with pre and post measurement surveys, were analyzed using longitudinal techniques and mixed logistic regression. The results assert that the reward is the main extrinsic motivation for discouraging rush-hour driving. The monetary reward exhibits diminishing sensitivity, whereas the Smartphone has endowment qualities. Although the reward influences the motivation to avoid the rush-hour, the choice how to change behavior is influenced by additional factors including education, scheduling, habitual behavior, attitudes, and travel information availability.     

Understanding Japanese consumers: Some important underlying factors

This article reviews existing findings and outlines some general points that need to be considered when trying to understand Japanese consumer behavior. In addition to various psychological variables, researchers need to attend to a set of unique sociocultural factors. Among the factors considered are Japan's setting, population density, economic prosperity, modernization, homogeneity, and group orientation. Other issues that are raised are the implications of a well informed society, and the importance of both age and aesthetic values. The article also discusses risk aversion, eclecticism, lack of time and space, the importance of quality and image to the Japanese, and recent changes as they affect consumer behavior. In addition to universals, there are some unique factors that should be considered in order to understand Japanese consumer behavior, much as, undoubtedly, another set of unique features should be considered for the study of any other society.     

Impact of consumers' corporate social responsibility‐related activities in social media on brand attitude,electronic word‐of‐mouth intention,and purchase intention: A study of Chinese consumer behavior

This study examines how consumers' corporate social responsibility (CSR)‐related activities in social media affect their responses to brands. We defined consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media as the extent to which consumers use social media to engage in CSR communication by companies. An online survey was conducted to examine social media users in China, the largest consumer market in today's global economies. This study developed a theoretical model and empirically tested the relationships between consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media, identification with the brand, and three consumer behavior outcomes: electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) intention, brand attitude, and purchase intention. The results suggested that consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media significantly impacted eWOM intention and purchase intention through enhancing identification with the brand and positive brand attitude. This study provides important insights on consumer behavior and CSR by investigating social media, an important and emerging marketing platform. Moreover, this study fills in the research gap about the association between consumers' CSR‐related activities in social media and their responses to brands. Theoretical and managerial implications for CSR strategies in social media are discussed.     

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Understanding How British and Indonesian Extremists Disengage and Why They Don't

This article compares how individuals from two different Salafi-jihadi groups disengage from high-risk activism and political violence. Drawing on original interviews, we explore the “push” and “pull” factors that influence our respondents' decisions to leave. We identify numerous push-and-pull factors that are consistent with previous research, including disagreements with group leaders over strategy and practices and educational and employment opportunities. We also contribute to existing research by including “persistent activists” in our sample who did not disengage. Surprisingly, these respondents remained in their groups despite experiencing some of the same push-and-pull factors as those who left. Including this variation allows us to separate necessary but insufficient conditions of disengagement from factors that exert a more profound impact. We highlight the influence of one key factor—and its absence—in our discussion: alternative social networks with supportive outsiders for those who left and the lack of such meaningful relationships for those who remained. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research for countering violent extremism.     

From Functional Efficiency to Temporal Efficiency: Multifunctional Products Increase Consumer Impatience

Multifunctional products are ubiquitous in consumers' daily lives. However, scant research has examined whether and how the presence of multifunctional products systematically alters consumer behavior beyond product evaluations and adoption. Across four experiments and three supplementary studies, the authors identify a multifunction-impatience effect. They show that after exposure to multifunctional (vs. single-function) products, consumers are more likely to choose a smaller but sooner (vs. a larger but later) reward (Study 1), report more impatience when waiting for the web search results to load and perceive the loading time as longer (Study 2), and are willing to pay more for expedited shipping (Study 3). The authors further show that the effects occur because multifunctional products activate an efficiency goal among consumers, which renders them less patient (studies 2 and 3). In addition to the regular, “sequential” multifunctional products for which each of the functions has a specific usage situation, the proposed effect also applies to “simultaneous” multifunctional products whose functions operate simultaneously during consumption (Study 4). Taken together, this research broadens the scholarly understanding of the effects of multifunctional products from consumers' responses to these products to the unintended impact of such products on consumer impatience.     

流畅体验、内/外动机、数学焦虑及数学成绩的路径分析

目的：研究旨在考察数学学习中的流畅体验,探讨流畅体验、内/外动机、数学焦虑及数学成绩的关系。方法：招募296名高中生,在数学月考后完成自编考试流畅体验量表、学习动机量表、数学焦虑量表。结果：路径分析表明,存在四条显著路径,即内部动机→流畅状态→数学成绩;数学焦虑→流畅状态→数学成绩;外部动机→流畅状态→数学成绩;外部动机→数学成绩。结论：只有通过考试过程中的流畅体验,内部动机和数学焦虑才能影响考试成绩。     

Online shopping hesitation.

This study was designed to understand which factors influence consumer hesitation or delay in online product purchases. The study examined four groups of variables (i.e., consumer characteristics, contextual factors perceived uncertainty factors, and medium/channel innovation factors) that predict three types of online shopping hesitation (i.e., overall hesitation, shopping cart abandonment, and hesitation at the final payment stage). We found that different sets of delay factors are related to different aspects of online shopping hesitation. The study concludes with suggestion for various delay-reduction devices to help consumers close their online decision hesitation.