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Empowering customers through participation is known to enhance brand promotion. A popular strategy involves asking customers to vote on marketing communication tactics, which activates empowerment effects through increased psychological ownership. Prior research has found that while winning voters experience empowerment effects, losing voters report lower psychological ownership, product evaluations, and demand. In this research, through four studies we develop and test a parsimonious common customer identity framework to understand and reduce the effects of losing. This research advances marketing communication theory by highlighting the distinctive processes underlying the empowerment versus losing effect and demonstrating the value of engaging losing voters by enhancing intergroup interdependence through the activation of cooperative mindsets. Specifically, the study identifies that framing a voting event as a collaborative (versus competitive) effort is effective in mitigating the losing effect, particularly among those with high self–brand connection. Therefore, this research offers managerial implications on managing empowerment strategies, which is potentially generalizable to other marketing communication channels involving customer participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Multiple studies have shown that digitally mediated decision aids help prepare patients for medical decision making with their providers. However, few studies have investigated whether decision-support preferences differ between non-English-speaking and English-speaking Latino men with limited literacy. Objective. To identify and compare health information seeking patterns, preferences for information presentation, and interest in digital decision aids in a sample of Southern Californian underserved Latino men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer at a county hospital. Methods. We conducted semistructured, in-depth telephone interviews with 12 Spanish-speaking and 8 English-speaking Latino men using a purposive sampling technique. Following transcription of taped interviews, Spanish interviews were translated. Using a coding protocol developed by the team, two bilingual members jointly analyzed the transcripts for emerging themes. Coder agreement exceeded 80%. Differences were resolved through discussion. Results. Thematic differences between groups with different preferred languages emerged. Most respondents engaged in online health information seeking using cellphones, perceived a paternalistic patient-provider relationship, and expressed willingness to use hypothetical digital decision aids if recommended by their provider. English speakers reported higher digital technology proficiency for health-related searches. They also more frequently indicated family involvement in digital search related to their condition and preferred self-guided, web-based decision aids. In comparison, Spanish speakers reported lower digital technology proficiency and preferred family-involved, coach-guided, paper and visual decision aids. English speakers reported substantially higher levels of formal education. Conclusion. Preferences regarding the use of digital technology to inform prostate cancer treatment decision making among underserved Latino men varied depending on preferred primary language. Effective preparation of underserved Latino men for shared decision making requires consideration of alternative approaches depending on level of education attainment and preferred primary language.

Three studies examine the effectiveness of social norm messaging in a green consumption context. The overall goal is to identify theory-based ways to increase consumer choice of biodegradable take-out food packaging with an extra charge versus single-use plastic with no charge in the US and South Korea. Results indicate that descriptive norm messaging is superior to prescriptive norm messaging in both countries. Prescriptive norm messaging produced significantly higher reactance and more negative attitudes toward the packaging selection experience in the US, suggesting serious backfire effects in that country, but not in South Korea. Results advance theory regarding the use of social norm messaging to increase consumers' willingness to pay an additional charge for take-out food packaging that is biodegradable versus single-use plastic. Managerial and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research in international markets has yielded two seemly opposing views regarding customer engagement with local/domestic versus foreign-made brands: a preference for foreign brands based largely on country-of-origin effects or a preference for local/domestic brands based primarily on consumer ethnocentrism. In the present research, the authors contextualize the investigation across international markets and propose that, in two national markets with different cultural characteristics, a combination of local and foreign appeals leads to more favorable brand and product evaluations, compared with either local or foreign appeals alone, due to a heightened level of perceived brand globalness, a phenomenon called "the coalescence effect." The authors report results from seven studies conducted in China and the United States and discuss ways to design branding strategies that enhance customer engagement in an era of intensified global competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed and shared decision making are critical aspects of patient-centered care, which has contributed to an emphasis on decision support interventions to promote good medical decision making. However, researchers and healthcare providers have not reached a consensus on what defines a good decision, nor how to evaluate it. This position paper, informed by conference sessions featuring diverse stakeholders held at the 2015 Society of Behavioral Medicine and Society for Medical Decision Making annual meetings, describes key concepts that influence the decision making process itself and that may change what it means to make a good decision: interpersonal factors, structural constraints, affective influences, and values clarification methods. This paper also proposes specific research questions within each of these priority areas, with the goal of moving medical decision making research to a more comprehensive definition of a good medical decision, and enhancing the ability to measure and improve the decision making process., Author(s): Jada G. Hamilton [sup.1] , Sarah E. Lillie [sup.2] , Dana L. Alden [sup.3] , Laura Scherer [sup.4] , Megan Oser [sup.5] , Christine Rini [sup.6] [sup.7] , Miho [...]

In this research, four longitudinal studies investigate changes in post-purchase brand attitude. Following predictions based on adaptation theory, Studies 1a & 1b reveal that brand attitude declines over time after purchase. This research further identifies moderators that counteract post-purchase brand attitude decline. In the first two studies, long-term (versus short-term) temporal orientation is associated with relatively more positive post-purchase brand attitudes. In Studies 2 and 3, brand singularization exerts a similar effect. These studies also point to an important congruence effect such that brand attitude change is relatively more positive when consumers' long-term (short-term) time orientations are concordant with affiliative (autonomous) brand singularization. The positive congruency effect is mediated by self-brand connections. Overall, our study results advance theoretical and applied understanding of the understudied area of post-purchase brand attitude management., Author(s): Yi He[sup.1] , Qimei Chen[sup.2] , Dana L. Alden[sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) College of Business and Economics, California State University, East Bay, 25800 Carlos Bee Boulevard, 94542, Hayward, CAUSA [...]