The curious case of the refrigerator-TV: similarity and hybridization

This article examines the role of similarity in the hybridization of concepts, focusing on hybrid products as an applied test case. Hybrid concepts found in natural language, such as singer songwriter, typically combine similar concepts, whereas dissimilar concepts rarely form hybrids. The hybridization of dissimilar concepts in products such as jogging shoe mp3 player and refrigerator TV thus poses a challenge for understanding the process of conceptual combination. It is proposed that models of conceptual combination can throw light on the judged future success and desirability of hybrid products in general. The composite prototype model proposes two stages of conceptual combination. In the first stage, the concepts are aggregated into an additive hybrid, simply by forming the union of the two sets of attributes. In the second stage, any conflicting attributes are identified and resolved, often with the introduction of emergent attributes, resulting in an integrative hybrid. Across four studies that varied the similarity and type of hybrid products, similar and integrative hybrids were valued more than dissimilar and additive hybrids. Critically, though, dissimilar hybrids were also highly valued if they were integrative. Results supported the two stages proposed by the composite prototype model, and implications for other models of hybrid formation are discussed.     

How does information from low and high spatial frequencies interact during scene categorization?

Current models of visual perception suggest that, during scene categorization, low spatial frequencies (LSF) are rapidly processed and activate plausible interpretations of visual input. This coarse analysis would be used to guide subsequent processing of high spatial frequencies (HSF). The present study aimed to further examine how information from LSF and HSF interact and influence each other during scene categorization. In a first experimental session, participants had to categorize LSF and HSF filtered scenes belonging to two different semantic categories (artificial vs. natural). In a second experimental session, we used hybrid scenes as stimuli made by combining LSF and HSF from two different scenes which were semantically similar or dissimilar. Half of the participants categorized LSF scenes in hybrids, and the other half categorized HSF scenes in hybrids. Stimuli were presented for 30 or 100?ms. Session 1 results showed better performance for LSF than HSF scene categorization. Session 2 scene categorization was faster when participants attended and categorized LSF than HSF scene in hybrids. The semantic interference of a semantically dissimilar HSF scene on LSF scene categorization was greater than the semantic interference of a semantically dissimilar LSF scene on HSF scene categorization, irrespective of exposure duration. These results suggest a LSF advantage for scene categorization, and highlight the prominent role of HSF information when there is uncertainty about the visual stimulus, in order to disentangle between alternative interpretations.     

Goal‐Derived Categories: The Role of Personal and Situational Goals in Category Representations

Prior research often emphasized a stimulus‐based or bottom‐up view of product category representations. In contrast, we emphasize a more purposeful, top‐down perspective and examine categories that consumers might construct in the service of salient (i.e., highly accessible) goals. Specifically, we investigate how the point of view imposed by salient consumer goals might affect category representations assessed by participants’ similarity judgments of food products. A key factor in our study is that we examine both individual and situational sources of variability in goal salience. In addition, we also vary the surface‐level, visual resemblance of the stimulus pairs of foods used in the study. The results suggest that personal goals (e.g., health) and situational goals (e.g., convenience) act in conjunction and exert a systematic impact on category representations. Both types of goals, when salient, enhanced the perceived similarity of goal‐appropriate products and reduced the similarity of product pairs when only one product was ideal for the particular goal. The similarity‐enhancing effect was most pronounced when the surface resemblance between the products was low, and the similarity‐diminishing effect was more apparent when surface resemblance was high. Implications are discussed for current theoretical assumptions regarding categorization in consumer research.     

Protecting the self through consumption: Status goods as affirmational commodities

Individuals conspicuously consume to signal their wealth. As a variant to this economic explanation, four studies explored individual’s psychological need for self-integrity as a potential motivating force for these consumption decisions. Relying on both field and experimental studies, and employing multiple instantiations of high-status goods and self-threat, we demonstrate that individuals consume status-infused products for their reparative effects on the ego. Individuals under self-threat sought ownership of high-status goods to nurse their psychological wounds (Study 1), and when afforded an alternate route to repair their self-integrity, sought these products less (Study 2). Furthermore, among a representative sample of US consumers, low-income individuals’ lowered self-esteem drove their willingness to spend on high-status goods (Study 3). Finally, these high-status goods serve the purpose of shielding an individual’s ego from future self-threats (Study 4). The compensatory role of high-status goods has important implications for consumer decision-making and public policies aimed at reducing consumer debt.     

Individual differences in consumer value for mass customized products

Mass customized products, compared with mass marketed alternatives, offer advantages for optimizing performance outcomes, improving aesthetic appeal, and matching products' symbolic meanings with consumers' expressive desires. Despite having identified these value drivers for mass customized products, extant research has not connected those value drivers to individual differences among consumers. As a result, researchers' and practitioners' abilities to predict consumer value for mass customized products remain limited. This study advances and tests a model of individual differences associated with the perceived value of a customized product and mediated by involvement and perceived risk. A field survey administered to a sample of 240 participants provided data to test the model. Path analysis using structural equations modeling suggests that consumer value for mass customized products differs according to individual differences in need for uniqueness, need for optimization, and centrality of visual product aesthetics. Results also suggest that product category involvement and perceived risk are informative theoretical perspectives from which to study consumer value for mass customized products. The findings hold implications for how firms should approach the design of mass customization toolkits and how they should structure marketing communications promoting mass customized products. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consumer reactions to the decreased usage message: The role of elaborative processing

This research examines consumer reactions to an emerging trend among corporate social responsibility initiatives—the promotion of decreased usage of the company's own core products. The results across three experiments suggest that the presence of a decreased usage message that highlights incongruity between the marketing message and the company's goals leads to negative company evaluations. The authors demonstrate that elaborative processing underlies these effects by examining the moderating role of the need for cognition and cognitive load. Further, perceived incongruity and cognitive elaboration mediate the findings. The implications for marketers and consumers are discussed.     

顾客为什么参与创造？ ——消费者参与创造的动机研究

从消费者参与企业价值创造的角度研究了消费者创造动机与创造意愿之间的关系,结果说明,一般创造性理论所证实的认知需求并未对消费者创造意愿产生显著影响,而独特性产品需求、独特性体验需求以及创造激励对消费者创造意愿产生了显著的正面影响研究还发现,信任和创造激励分别调节了独特性产品需求和独特性体验需求与创造意愿之间的关系     

A model for achievement motives, goal orientations, intrinsic interest, and academic achievement

This study investigated the effects of approach and avoidance achievement motives (the motive to achieve success and the motive to avoid failure) on three goal orientations (mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance goals) and the effects of goal orientations on intrinsic interest in learning and academic achievement for 157 tenth and 135 eleventh grade students of a Japanese girls' high school. Structural equation modeling indicated that mastery goals arose mainly from the motive to achieve success; however, the positive relation between the motive to avoid failure and mastery goals was also found. Performance-approach goals were related both the motive to achieve success and the motive to avoid failure. Performance-avoidance goals arouse mainly from the motive to avoid failure; however, the positive relation between the motive to achieve success and these goals was found. Mastery goals positively correlated with intrinsic interest and academic achievement, and scores on both performance-approach goals and performance-avoidance goals had no significant effects on either intrinsic or academic achievement.     

Distinguishing the desire to learn from the desire to perform: The social value of achievement goals

We sought to distinguish mastery goals (i.e., desire to learn) from performance goals (i.e., desire to achieve more positive evaluations than others) in the light of social judgment research. In a pilot study, we made a conceptual distinction between three types of traits (agency, competence, and effort) that are often undifferentiated. We then tested the relevance of this distinction for understanding how people pursuing either mastery or performance goals are judged. On self-perception, results revealed that effort was predicted by the adoption of mastery goals and agency by performance goals (Study 1). On judgments, results showed that (a) the target pursuing mastery goals was perceived as oriented toward effort, and (b) the target pursuing performance goals was oriented toward agency (Study 2). Finally, these links were shown again by participants who inferred a target’s goals from his traits (Study 3). Results are discussed in terms of the social value of achievement goals at school.     

IS SOCIAL VALIDITY WHAT WE ARE INTERESTED IN? ARGUMENT FOR A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH

It is argued that neither the term social nor the term validity is best to identify the processes used or the results obtained in questioning consumers about the goals set, procedures employed, or outcomes achieved in habilitative programming. The term consumer satisfaction acknowledges the fact that it is essentially a collection of consumer opinions. The underlying intent of the process might be called habilitative validation, a name that seems to better guide our validation efforts. More important, in carefully considering consumer satisfaction assessment, it becomes clear that not only does consumer satisfaction itself need to be validated, but also that more objective methods can be used for assessing habilitative validity. However, legitimate uses still remain for consumer satisfaction measurement, as long as we do not mistake it for strong evidence of the habilitative validity of our goals, procedures, or outcomes.     

Consumer perception of salesperson influence strategies: an examination of the influence of consumer goals

• Consumers regularly interact with retail salespeople in order to make purchases across a wide range of products and services. Retail sales encounters occur on a daily basis yet we know little about these complex interactions, especially from the consumer's perspective in terms of his or her perceptions with regard to these types of persuasive attempts. Understanding consumer perceptions is an important precursor to understanding consumer behavior during retail sales encounters. In three experiments subjects' perceptions of specific influence strategies were measured with regard to the degree of sales‐orientation of each strategy. Support was found for hypotheses that proposed that certain influence strategies would be perceived as significantly more sales‐oriented than others and that the interaction of consumer goals with salesperson influence would affect how influence strategies are perceived. Willingness to interact with and purchase from a salesperson using specific influence strategies was also examined in order to shed light on how the use of specific influence strategies is likely to affect consumers' intentions.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

U.K. consumers' perceived risk of buying products from emerging economies: A moderated mediation model

Although considerable research has been conducted on consumer attitude towards foreign products, most of these studies focus on the attitude of products from Western developed countries. Our study intends to investigate the effects of consumers' national identification and culture sensitivity on their perceived risk of buying products from Eastern developing countries. Especially, this study advances the literature by identifying the mediation effect of consumer ethnocentrism and the moderating effect of consumer value consciousness. Taking China and India as focal emerging economies, the consumer survey (n = 308) in the United Kingdom produced the following results. First, U.K. consumers' national identification is positively related to their perceived risk of buying Eastern products through consumer ethnocentrism, whereas their cultural sensitivity has a negative relationship. Second, the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on the perceived risk of buying Eastern products is moderated by consumer value consciousness. Third, value consciousness also attenuates the indirect relationships between national identification or cultural sensitivity and perceived risk via consumer ethnocentrism.     

Motivation and the Self Concept: Persisting Goals of Young Women and Men

This study undertook to measure important goals and their persistence over time for young men and women belonging to two age groups using a theoretical framework derived from recent advances in motivation which links motivation to the self concept. A method for categorising subject goals was adapted from Nuttin (1985), namely the Motivational Content Analysis. The new system for categorising goals can be useful to psychologists, vocational counsellors, etc. Results of the study indicated that females had more persisting goals than men, and that there were significant main effects for sex in persisting goal types of Physical, Character, Autonomy, Intimacy and Contact in General with others. Sex × age interaction effects were found for Character and Autonomy, with 20-year-old females obtaining significantly higher scores for these persisting goals than other groups. Findings are discussed in terms of gender identity, and what Nuttin (1984) calls “crossroads” in adult development.     

Averaging expectancies and perceptual experiences in the assessment of quality

This study examines whether people integrate expectancy information with perceptual experiences when evaluating the quality of consumer products. In particular, we investigate the following three questions: (1) Are expectancy effects observed in the evaluation of consumer products? (2) Can these effects be viewed in cognitive processing terms? (3) Can a mathematical model based on the averaging of attribute information describe the effects? Participants in two experiments blindly evaluated (with the product names removed) consumer products from six sensory modalities: vision (computer printer output), tactile (paper towels), olfaction (men's cologne), taste (corn chips), auditory (audio cassette tapes), and tactile/medicinal (hand lotion). Participants in both experiments were asked to: (1) rate the overall quality of the product given arbitrary quality labels (High Quality, Medium Quality, or Low Quality); (2) rate the overall quality of the product without the labels, and (3) estimate the scale values for the quality labels alone. Group results revealed main effects of the quality labels in all product categories. The pattern of results could be described by an averaging model based on Information Integration Theory. These results have implications for placebo effects in consumer behavior and decision making.     

消费者自我构念、独特性需求与品牌标识形状偏好

市场上品牌标识形状各具形态,它们已成为吸引消费者眼球的重要品牌要素,如何设计出科学实效的品牌标识形状已成为营销策略中基础而又关键的内容。什么形状的品牌标识更能获得目标群体的偏爱?本文从自我构念的水平视角出发,推论认为不同自我构念的个体在"独特性需求"上具有显著差异,由此形成对多角和圆润的品牌标识形状的偏好差异,独特性需求在自我构念与品牌标识形状偏好之间起中介作用。文章通过4个实验,一致证实独立型自我构念的消费者独特性需求更高,偏爱多角的品牌标识;相依型自我构念的消费者,独特性需求更低,偏爱圆润的品牌标识。但上述效应只存在于公开产品购买情境,当消费者购买和使用私人产品时,无论个体的自我构念是独立型还是相依型,他们对品牌标识多角与圆润的偏好没有显著差异。本文推进了自我构念、独特性需求、品牌标识形状等领域的理论研究,为企业在设计、调整品牌标识形状及制定配套营销策略方面提供了丰富的战略启示。     

Interference Effects of Contextual Cues in Advertisements on Memory for Ad Content

The effectiveness of advertisements has been an issue of great concern to marketers, especially with the rapid increase in the number of marketing communications that the average consumer receives every day. Prior research has examined the impact of verbal interference on consumers’ memory for different elements of the advertisement—that is, interference caused by similar verbal elements in advertisements for brands in the same product category. This study examined the impact of similar contextual or background stimuli on consumers’ memory for different elements of the advertisement. Consumers were exposed to print advertisements for products in different product categories. The similarity of contextual cues—that is, background scenes—was manipulated (similar vs. dissimilar). Using a 2 (contextual cues interference: low and high) x 2 (processing goal: ad and brand) x 3 (cues: brand name, ad photo, product class) between‐subjects design, it was found that exposure to ads with similar contextual elements reduced individuals’ ability to recall not only contextual or background elements but also brand name from a target advertisement.     

Social entrepreneurship: understanding consumer motives for buying The Big Issue

This paper examines consumer response to a particular social entrepreneurship initiative, The Big Issue. Focusing on consumer motivation, the research explores the utilitarian value of the product as compared to the desire to help the homeless as the primary motivation for purchase. The research found that, although the utilitarian value partly motivated purchase, consumers widely perceived there to be a helping dimension to the exchange. Consumers valued the empowerment goals espoused by The Big Issue and found it rewarding to play a part in the empowerment process. The appearance and manner of The Big Issue vendors influenced consumer reactions to the initiative, indicating a need for careful management of ‘beneficiary portrayal’ in this context.     

Finding Motivation to Learn: Exploring Achievement Goals in California Community College CalWORKs Students

This study investigated the achievement goals and motivations of California Community College CalWORKs students in an effort to better support student success and persistence. This study was guided by three research questions: (1) What type of achievement goals do CalWORKs students enter with? (2) What are their rationales for these types of achievement goals? (3) How malleable are these achievement goals? Interviews with 48 participants focused on better understanding the relationship between achievement goal type and motivation changes while in college. Findings indicate that CalWORKs students enter college with a range of goal types, but formany changes in goal type led to more intrinsic motivation and ultimately persistence toward graduation and career goals. Findings from this study also reveal thatexperiences highlighting students' ability to be competent as learners while balancing other roles helped catalyze change in achievement goal type and/or rationale. The results of this study emphasize that CalWORKs students' achievement goals are malleable, and particular college experiences can facilitate students' movement toward more academically focused goals. More specifically, placing more focus on additional student support programs that can foster peer networking, faculty interactions, and additional career exploration opportunities can lead to change in academic persistence.     

Moving and memorizing: Motor planning modulates the recency effect in serial and free recall

Motor planning has generally been studied in situations where participants carry out physical actions without a particular purpose. Yet in everyday life physical actions are usually carried out for higher-order goals. We asked whether two previously discovered motor planning phenomena - the end-state comfort effect and motor hysteresis - would hold up if the actions were carried out in the service of higher-order goals. The higher-order goal we chose to study was memorization. By focusing on memorization, we asked not only how and whether motor planning is affected by the need to memorize, but also how memory performance might depend on the cognitive demands of motor planning. We asked university-student participants to retrieve cups from a column of drawers and memorize as many letters as possible from the inside of the cups. The drawers were opened either in a random order (Experiment 1) or in a regular order (Experiments 2 and 3). The end-state comfort effect and motor hysteresis were replicated in these conditions, indicating that the effects hold up when physical actions are carried out for the sake of a higher-order goal. Surprisingly, one of the most reliable effects in memory research was eliminated, namely, the tendency of recent items to be recalled better than earlier items - the recency effect. This outcome was not an artifact of memory being uniformly poor, because the tendency of initial items to be recalled better than later items - the primacy effect - was obtained. Elimination of the recency effect was not due to the requirement that participants recall items in their correct order, for the recency effect was also eliminated when the items could be recalled in any order (Experiment 3). These and other aspects of the results support recent claims for tighter links between perceptual-motor control and intellectual (symbolic) processing than have been assumed in the past.     

The effect of product type on value linkages in the means‐end chain: implications for theory and method

Means‐end chain (MEC) theory proposes that consumer motivation can only be understood in terms of the hierarchical linkages between attributes, consequences and values. Other researchers have suggested a much more immediate impact of values on motivation. Seeking to explain these conflicting views, this research suggests and empirically tests the proposition that the role of values in consumer motivation differs by product type and also tests that the linkages are not affected by individual differences in the need for cognition. A sample of 191 consumers indicated their motivation to consume utilitarian and non‐utilitarian products using an adapted association pattern matrix technique. Responses were analysed using mixed‐design ANOVAs with planned comparisons. Results indicate significant differences related to product type in the role of values in consumer motivation. Limitations, implications for MEC theory and future research are discussed. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.