Whereas the traditional focus in Word-of-Mouth (WOM) literature has been on understanding how WOM of a movie influence the box office of its own, this research investigates the impact of WOM on box office in a dynamic competitive view. We propose that movies released in the same schedule compete with each other dynamically, thus the box office of a movie not only depends on the WOM of its own, but also relates to the WOM of peer movies’ in the same schedule. Using box office and WOM data of 780 movies during 2011-2014 in mainland china, we found that the gap between a focal movie’s WOM valence and the highest WOM valence in the same schedule has a negative impact on the box office of the focal movie. Moreover, this effect is moderated by the number of movies in the schedule and the season the movie is released (whether it’s high season or not). The marketing strategy is discussed as well based on these findings.

Commodity display is an important cue for consumers’ prediction of the goods they purchase. Then why neat display (compared to messy one) of the commodity usually results in better product evaluation? Besides the contamination effect in literature, current research brings forward the existence and conditions of “the pictorial effect", i.e. when the goods are neatly displayed (relative to messily), consumer’s attitude toward the display becomes more positive, leading to a higher product evaluation, and the consumer’s attitudes toward display fully mediates the pictorial effect. However, the pictorial effect does not always occur, for the importance of the product appearance plays a moderator role in the effect. If consumer thinks the product appearance is not important, the pictorial effect could not be observed, which means there’s no difference in product evaluation between messy and neat display of the commodity, and only when the product appearance is important, does the pictorial effect occur. By 3 lab experiments, we proved the existence of "pictorial effect", making a theoretical contribution to the research in store display. And in application, current research supports “the necessity of tally” in the site management of retailing, and further answers the question as to what kind of product need more effort to be kept in good order in their displays.

It’s ubiquitous that new products receive reviews with high variance, which means there exist inconsistent opinions, but does this type of controversy necessarily exert negative effect on consumers’ purchase intention and product performance? Previous research that focus on review variance do not distinguish between existing product and new product and the conclusions are not consistent. Difference between existing product and new product matters because consumers will pay more attention to social value of new product than existing product, which lead to positive effect of high variance of reviews for a new product. We use a field data and two experiments to address this question. In the empirical study in film context, we find that the high review variance increases box office. In order to take into account different types of new product, we introduce the new product type (radical vs. incremental) as a moderating variable. Experiment 1 indicates that high variance of new product reviews has positive effect on purchase intention, and the effect is stronger when the new product is radical (vs. incremental). Experiment 2 shows that perceived social value is the mediator and the new product type have moderating effect on the mediator.

Based on moral affect theory, this paper focuses on how corporate cross-border philanthropy influences consumers’ brand evaluation and its underlying mechanism. This paper further finds that different cross-border philanthropy will arouse consumers’ different moral emotions. Specifically, foreign (Chinese) corporations do charity in China (foreign countries) will arouse consumers’ admirable (angry) moral emotions. This paper will also help corporations to decide suitable communication strategies. Compared (empathetic) communication strategy is better for foreign (Chinese) corporations doing charity in China (foreign countries).

Across 4 empirical experiments, it’s demonstrated that when the product consumers originally want to buy is out of stock, more available options that correspond target selection can enhance consumers’ intention to switch to alternative items, and this effect is mediated both by perceived choice freedom and by the perceived degree to which consumers can rediscover the suitable items from available target choice set; more interestingly, if available options that correspond target selection are too limited, more available options that don’t correspond target selection but are related to it, also enhance consumers’ intention to switch to alternative items, and this effect is mediated by perceived choice freedom. A discussion of theoretical contributions, practical implications and further research is included in the end of the paper.

This study builds on fluency theory within an environmental psychology framework. Employing 3(Carbon Labeling components: color, shape, text)×2(Carbon Labeling visual complexity) subject repeated experiment, we shed lights to the effect between visual complexity of Carbon Labeling and consumers’ attractiveness. Our findings provide there is a significant differences in total fixation duration and number of fixations of consumers on the Carbon Labeling’s shapes, and the texts in terms of on the Carbon Labeling’s shapes, and the texts in terms of whether it’s simple or complex, shapes, texts, and the texts in terms of whether it’s simple or complex, shapes, texts, the simpler of the shapes and texts of Carbon Labeling, the labels are more attractive; the Carbon Labeling which are overall simple（colors, shapes, texts）are more attractive than complex ones for consumers. Furthermore, both studies confirm that processing-fluency mediate the visual complexity-attractiveness relationship. The visual complexity of Carbon Labeling brings low processing fluency to consumers, then reduce attractiveness. In addition, Our findings provide suggestions on the design of carbon labeling from consumer preference perspective, thus giving significant reference to label design of commodities in other types.

Based on 3 empirical studies, the authors analyze the influence of recognition’s type on subsequent donation performance. Study 1 discovers that gratitude recognition can promote subsequent donation performance and commend recognition inhibit subsequent donation performance. Public degree doesn’t influence the effect of gratitude recognition on subsequent donation behavior, but decreases the donation performance of individuals who receive commend recognition. Moral identity internalization is positive related to the influence of both two recognitions on subsequent donation performance. The current study provides suggestions for charities to employ appropriate recognitions.

This is an article about blood glucose levels and consumer shopping self-control. Through a lab test and an online test, we examined 320 subjects in blood glucose changes which lead to different shopping self-control. In this paper, the research results show that when consumer has definite self-control willpower, the ‘free candy bait’ may lead to a reverse result, it will make the consumer more self-control, more resistant to temptation. Through this research, the marketing staff could have a clear idea that how to provide the exactly free food to consumers to Improve their shopping impulse and reduce their shopping self-control.

Humans like and seek variety. However, the effect of variety on people’s behavior and cognition has not been vigorously studied. In the current paper, we sought to test a novel hypothesis that high (vs. low) variety promotes creativity. We report four experiments which provided convergent evidence in supportive of our hypothesis. In Study 1 and study 2, we exposed participants to pictures of either low or high variety and we found that exposure to high variety (vs. low variety) boosted performance on a task that measures divergent creativity. In Study 3, we manipulated the number of colors participants saw to create low vs high variety primes. The results showed that high variety (vs. low variety) exposure led to heightened performance on a convergent creativity task. Lastly, we conducted a field study to investigate how wearing school uniform or not impacted high school students’ creativity performance. We found that students who were allowed to wear the clothes they liked (i.e. high variety) outperformed their counterparts who were required to wear school uniforms on the divergent creativity task used in the first two studies.