CERES :: Browsing by Author "Dimitriu, Radu"

Browsing by Author "Dimitriu, Radu"

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Open Access
Antecedents of retweeting in a (political) marketing context
(Wiley, 2017-02-13) Walker, Lorna; Baines, Paul R.; Dimitriu, Radu; Macdonald, Emma K.
Word of mouth disseminates across Twitter by means of retweeting; however the antecedents of retweeting have not received much attention. This study uses the CHAID decision tree predictive method (Kass, 1980) with readily available Twitter data, and manually coded sentiment and content data, to identify why some tweets are more likely to be retweeted than others in a (political) marketing context. The analysis includes four CHAID models: (i) using message structure variables only, (ii) source variables only, (iii) message content and sentiment variables only and (iv) a combined model using source, message structure, message content and sentiment variables. The aggregated predictive model correctly classified retweeting behavior with a 76.7% success rate. Retweeting tends to occur when the originator has a high number of Twitter followers and the sentiment of the tweet is negative, contradicting previous research (East, Hammond, & Wright, 2007; Wu, 2013) but concurring with others (Hennig-Thurau, Wiertz, & Feldhaus, 2014). Additionally, particular types of tweet content are associated with high levels of retweeting, in particular those tweets including fear appeals or expressing support for others, whilst others are associated with very low levels of retweeting, such as those mentioning the sender’s personal life. Managerial implications and research directions are presented. The study makes a methodological contribution by illustrating how CHAID predictive modelling can be used for Twitter data analysis and a theoretical contribution by providing insights into why retweeting occurs in a (political) marketing context.
Open Access
The best I can be: how self-accountability impacts product choice in technology mediated environments
(Wiley, 2017-04-11) Rowe, Zoe O.; Wilson, Hugh; Dimitriu, Radu; Breiter, Katja; Charnley, Fiona
Technology-mediated environments are important not only as the location for an increasing proportion of purchases, but also as an even more pervasive part of the purchase journey. While most research into online consumer behavior focuses on attitudes as an antecedent of product choice, this article focuses on an important but hardly explored variable that may be impacted by technology-mediated environments: self-accountability. Laboratory experiments suggest that self-accountability may influence online purchases, but this has not been confirmed in field studies. Furthermore, although this prior work suggests that self-accountability may impact product choice through the elicitation of guilt, the role of positive emotions has not been explored. Using two surveys with online retailers, this paper (a) shows that in a technology-mediated environment, self-accountability influences product choice; (b) proposes and confirms a complementary route for this effect through pride that is stronger than that through guilt; and (c) evidences the relationship between self-accountability and perceived consumer effectiveness. These results show a clear opportunity for digital marketers to encourage self-accountability, to thereby elicit pride and not just guilt, and hence to impact consumer decision making in technology-mediated environments, particularly when choices have sustainability implications.
Open Access
Brand extension similarity can backfire when you look for something specific
(Emerald, 2016-07-02) Dimitriu, Radu; Warlop, Luk; Samuelsen, Bendik Meling
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show that high similarity between a parent brand and an extension category can have a detrimental effect on how a brand extension is perceived to perform on specific attributes. This happens because similarity influences the perceived positioning of a brand extension: lower similarity extensions can be perceived as “specialized” products, whereas high similarity extensions are perceived as “all-in-one” products not performing exceptionally well on any specific attribute. Design/methodology/approach The authors test the hypothesized effect through three experimental studies. The authors manipulate similarity both within subjects (Study 1a) and between subjects (Study 1b and Study 2). Further, the authors test the effect for specific attributes that are physical/concrete in nature (Study 1a and Study 1b) as well as attributes that are abstract/imagery-related in nature (Study 2). Findings High compared to low similarity improves perceptions of overall performance (i.e. performance across all attributes). But as expected, the authors also find that a high similarity brand extension is perceived to perform worse on the attribute on which a low similarity brand extension specializes, even when the parent brands of the extensions possess that attribute to the same extent. This perception of attribute performance carries on to influence brand extension purchase likelihood. Practical implications The degree of brand extension similarity has consequences for how brand extensions are perceived to be positioned in the marketplace. Although high similarity extensions receive positive evaluations, they might not be suitable when a company is trying to instil a perception of exceptional performance on a specific attribute. Originality/value The authors demonstrate a consequential exception to the marketing wisdom that brands should extend to similar categories. Although the degree of brand extension similarity has been repeatedly shown to have a positive effect on brand extension evaluation, the authors document a case when its effect is actually detrimental. This study’s focus on the dependent variable of perceived performance on specific attributes is novel in the brand extension literature.
Open Access
Consumers’ social media brand behaviors: uncovering underlying motivators and deriving meaningful consumer segments
(Wiley: 24 months, 2017-04-11) Dimitriu, Radu; Guesalaga Trautmann, Rodrigo
The current research identifies the range of social media brand behaviors (i.e., brand touch points) that consumers can exhibit on social media, and subsequently queries a representative sample of consumers with regard to such behaviors. The analysis reveals four underlying motivators for consumers’ social media behaviors, including brand tacit engagement, brand exhibiting, brand patronizing and brand deal seeking. These motivators are used to derive meaningful consumer segments identified as content seekers, observers, deal hunters, hard-core fans, posers and respectively patronizers, and described through co-variates including brand loyalty, brand attachment and social media usage. The findings are critically discussed in the light of literature on the needs that consumers meet through brand consumption and on the types of relationships consumers build with brands. Not least, the managerial implications of the current findings are debated.
Open Access
The Effect of Knowledge Miscalibration on the Dimensions of Consumer Value
(Cranfield University, 2015-03) Razmdoost, Kamran; Dimitriu, Radu; Knox, Simon
Consumer value is an important determinant of consumers’ post-use behaviour, for example satisfaction, repeat purchase and word of mouth. The existing research mainly looks at the factors associated with the product and service providers to improve consumer value. Few studies on the role of the consumer in shaping consumer value have found consumer knowledge to be an important element in shaping consumer value. Adopting critical realism, this PhD expands this area of knowledge by investigating knowledge miscalibration (i.e., the inaccuracy in subjective knowledge) as a significant antecedent of consumer value. Most of the time, consumers’ perceptions of what they think they know (i.e., subjective knowledge) has been shown to be different from what they actually know (i.e., objective knowledge). Thus, subjective knowledge is usually inaccurate. This inaccuracy in subjective knowledge relative to objective knowledge is called knowledge miscalibration. Although the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumers’ purchasing decisions has been investigated in the consumer behaviour literature, its role in the use stage of consumption has received much less attention. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of knowledge miscalibration on product or service use, and more specifically on the value consumers derive from actually using products or services (i.e., value-in-use). In this research a critical realism paradigm is pursued, implying that reality exists in the three domains of the empirical, the actual and the real. The research starts with observing regularity in the empirical domain (i.e., consumer value) followed by imagining the causal power in the actual and the real domains (i.e., knowledge miscalibration), shaping the research question. A retroductive strategy is followed, firstly by proposing the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumer value and secondly by conceptually and empirically testing this relationship. This research conceptualises that knowledge miscalibration influences consumer value dimensions, described as efficiency, excellence, play and aesthetics. It is suggested that underconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective knowledge is deflated) and overconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective knowledge is inflated) influence consumer value dimensions differently as they generate different consequences in use. Therefore, a conceptual model is developed that describes the effect of knowledge miscalibration (i.e., overconfidence and underconfidence) on the dimensions of consumer value. The empirical part of the research is designed by conducting a covariance-based study and an experimental investigation in order to gain both internal and external validity. The covariance-based investigation is conducted in the context of amazon.com online shopping. Knowledge miscalibration and consumer value dimensions are measured in this study. This study supports the negative effect of underconfidence on efficiency, excellence, play and aesthetics and the negative effect of overconfidence on play. The experimental investigation is designed in the context of prezi.com, an online dynamic presentation creation website that enables its users to move between slides, words and images during their presentations. In this study, overconfidence and underconfidence are manipulated and their effects on the dimensions of consumer value are examined. The findings of this study show that underconfidence negatively influences efficiency, excellence and aesthetics, while overconfidence negatively impacts excellence, play and aesthetics. Overall, this PhD concludes that knowledge miscalibration negatively influences the dimensions of consumer value, with the exception of overconfidence impacting efficiency. The contradictory results of the covariance-based study observed in the experimental study can be explained through its inability to account for reciprocal relationships (i.e., where consumer value dimensions also impact knowledge miscalibration) and the existence of a third variable affecting both independent and dependent variables. Furthermore, the context of the experimental study (employing a new consumption task) is proposed to be the main reason for the lack of support for the effect of underconfidence on play.
Open Access
Influencing sustainable product choice through anticipated pride and guilt: the role of self-accountability and recalled emotions.
(2017-01) Rowe, Zoe; Charnley, Fiona; Wilson, Hugh; Dimitriu, Radu
Consumption choices are significant in determining sustainability outcomes. Therefore, an area of particular interest for both scholars and practitioners is that of consumer behaviour and the challenge of encouraging sustainable consumption habits. Sustainable consumer behaviour is important, yet slow to change, with many individuals stating that they care about being sustainable, yet not demonstrating this in their actual behaviour choices. This research proposes two related new theoretical routes to sustainable product choice, namely through self-accountability and through recalled emotions. First, a systematic review of the extant literature was deemed necessary. A conceptual framework was developed that identified the antecedents to and moderators of sustainable behaviour change, informing a number of testable propositions and future research directions. Moreover, this synthesis uncovered the gaps in current knowledge that informed the research question and design of the empirical research that follows. Adapting aspects of self-standards and self-discrepancy theory, the second stage of this research explored the construct of self-accountability for influencing anticipated pride and guilt about sustainable purchase behaviours, and thereby influencing the behaviour itself. Two field surveys tested a number of structural models to measure the effect of self-accountability on purchase intentions, mediated by feelings of anticipated pride and guilt. The results found that consumers with higher levels of self-accountability are more likely to be influenced by anticipated feelings of pride towards the outcome of sustainable purchase behaviour. The third part of this research tested a manipulation of recalled pride and guilt across two experimental studies, to explore their effect on feelings of anticipated pride and guilt and hence on sustainable purchase intentions. The studies showed that the manipulation of recalled pride was more significant than that of recalled guilt, as compared with a neutral recall, in influencing purchase intentions. There was a significant mediation effect of both anticipated pride and guilt, with anticipated pride again showing higher significance. Overall, this research highlights the significant role of pride and guilt for encouraging sustainable purchase choices. Specifically, it highlights the superior role of pride and offers two complementary mechanisms for engendering feelings of anticipated pride and guilt. A manipulation is proposed whereby appraisal of pride and guilt can be a suitable mechanism to trigger sustainable purchase intentions, contributing to both theory and practice.
Open Access
No I won’t, but yes we will: driving sustainability-related donations through social identity effects
(Elsevier, 2016-04-25) Champniss, Guy; Wilson, Hugh; Macdonald, Emma K.; Dimitriu, Radu
Shifting consumers towards sustainable behaviours is difficult, with an attitude–behaviour gap persistently reported. This study proposes a route towards sustainable behaviours that does not depend on individual attitudes or values: social identity forces within novel online brand-convened consumer groups. A field experiment using a fictitious fruit drink brand demonstrates that by assembling an online consumer group and providing it with sustainability objectives, consumers will engage in a sustainability-aligned behaviour, namely donating to social or environmental charities at the request of the firm, irrespective of their individual attitudes. Furthermore, this behaviour is accompanied by an improvement in brand attachment. As these effects are found within a newly-formed online group, practitioners may be able to achieve sustainability objectives through this mechanism even in the absence of well-established brand communities. The study contributes to social identity literature by demonstrating the impact of group identity effects in a consumer context, and by showing a mechanism by which the negative side of group identity – out-group derogation – can be avoided.
Open Access
An Olympic brand
(2012-04-01T00:00:00Z) Dimitriu, Radu
Open Access
Organisationa heritage: exploring effects on employee outcomes and perceptions of organisational attractiveness
(2017-06) Pidcock, Leslie G.; Dimitriu, Radu
This research study is one of the first to explore how Organisational Heritage may affect employees and potential employees. It examines employee outcomes that may be related to heritage and provides insight into the effect heritage can have on potential employees’ perception of organisational attractiveness. The first part of the study focused on heritage characteristics and employees of a Corporate Heritage Brand (CHB). In-depth interviews were conducted with employees of a Canadian CHB to determine if heritage was a significant organisational identity characteristic, to establish which employee outcomes it was likely to influence and to explore the effects it had on the outcomes being identified. Results suggested that heritage characteristics are a distinct part of the organisational identity (the organisational heritage identity) which may positively affect organisational identification, organisational affective commitment, employee engagement, organisational pride and intent to stay. Heritage also appeared to diminish the negative impact of transformational organisational change on employee outcomes. A model is presented that summarizes the findings. The second study used the repertory grid technique to determine the characteristics that a sample of potential employees used to differentiate between employer organisations which included CHB and non-CHB companies. Honey’s content analysis was used to ascertain which of these characteristics positively affect perceptions of organisational attractiveness. The study looked specifically at heritage as an organisational characteristic. The results identified nine characteristics, including heritage, which potential employees use to differentiate amongst employer organisations. Another set of nine characteristics were found to be strongly aligned with organisational attractiveness. Four characteristics were common to both groups, and importantly heritage was a part of these. A matrix is presented that categorises organisational characteristics on two dimensions: potential for differentiation and alignment with organisational attractiveness. Four types of characteristics were defined in the matrix: Key Organisational Identity (KOICs) – high differentiation, high attractiveness, Hygiene – low differentiation, high attractiveness, Differentiator – high differentiation, low attractiveness and Low Value – low differentiation, low attractiveness. Heritage was categorized as a KOIC. The discussion suggests heritage can be key to increasing perceptions of organisational attractiveness and organisational identification. Employer branding can be proactively used to convey the organisational heritage. In general, employer branding efforts to communicate key organisational identity and hygiene characteristics to potential employees can increase the likelihood of inclusion in the potential employees’ employer consideration set. Overall, this research contributes to our increased understanding of heritage in an organisational setting. Specifically, it is one of the first academic efforts to provide empirical evidence in the nascent field of organisational heritage. The first part identified five employee outcomes likely to be affected positively by heritage. The findings also suggested that heritage may diminish the negative impact of organisational change on such organisational outcomes. The second part examined the importance of heritage in regard to potential employees and found evidence that heritage may be activated to differentiate employer organisations and can increase the perceived attractiveness. The findings allowed classifying several elicited organisational characteristics (including heritage) along their potential for organisational differentiation and organisational attractiveness.
Open Access
Pride in my past: influencing sustainable choices through behavioral recall
(Wiley, 2018) Rowe, Zoe O.; Wilson, Hugh N.; Dimitriu, Radu; Charnley, Fiona J.; Lastrucci, Giovanna
Emotional appraisal research has demonstrated that recalling a past behavior and its associated emotions can influence future behavior. However, how such recalled emotions shape sustainable consumer choice has not been examined. This study examines the role of recalled pride and guilt in shaping sustainable purchase intentions, and the mediating role of anticipated pride and guilt. A conceptual model is proposed for motivating sustainable purchase intentions through the emotions associated with behavioral recall. The model is applied in two experiments with online consumers examining purchase intentions of low carbon cars. Recalling feelings of pride associated with a past sustainability-related behavior increases sustainable purchase intention, as opposed to a neutral recall. This effect occurs through the mediation of both anticipated pride at the prospect of a sustainable behavior choice, and anticipated guilt if the future choice is not sustainable. Similar hypotheses relating to recalled guilt at past unsustainable behavior were not supported. The study contributes to research on sustainable consumption, revealing an emotional route by which past behavior can influence future behavior. It also adds to emotional appraisal research by showing the role of specific self-conscious emotions in forming this route, as prior research has focused more broadly on emotional valence.
Open Access
The relationship between consumer calibration and consumer value : a systematic review
(Cranfield University, 2011-08) Razmdoost, Kamran; Dimitriu, Radu; Knox, Simon
Consumers’ perceptions of their resources in consumption tasks (that is, their abilities and endowments to perform consumption tasks) are many times not accurate. This misjudgement of resources negatively influences their performance in consuming or using products and services. Further, this carries on to influence consumers’ perceived value of products or services. In order to represent this phenomenon, consumer calibration is defined as the agreement between the subjective and objective assessment of consumer resources required in a consumption task. Therefore, it is crucial to discover the role of consumer calibration in the consumption experience. This paper proposes that consumer calibration occurs at two levels: of the task and of the self. Consumer task calibration refers to the extent of error in the task-required resource appraisal, whereas consumer self-calibration is the degree of accuracy in one’s self-perception of abilities. This systematic literature review is conducted to explore the relationships between consumer self and task calibration, on the one hand, and consumer value, on the other hand. After screening 2297 studies, based on their relevance and quality, forty texts in three main academic domains of Marketing, Psychology and Information Systems are selected for analysis and synthesis. The results reveal that subjective and objective assessments of consumer resources and task-required resources influence consumer value through their impact on functional performance and emotional consequences. The findings also suggest that, although a relationship between consumer task and self-calibration exists, their relationship with consumer value and their emotional consequences need further scrutiny. Consequently, a model for the effect of consumer calibration on consumer value is developed, based on the relationships established in the literature reviewed and the interpretation of the findings in the studies reviewed.
Open Access
Segmenting customers based on their unconscious needs.
(2018-09) Simmons, Sid; Baines, Paul R.; Dimitriu, Radu
This paper contributes to the literature by proposing a new methodological approach for understanding customers’ unconscious needs. This approach combines Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) with Choice-Based Conjoint (CBC), for the first time, to identify needs that segment members are either unaware of, or unable/unwilling to articulate. This methodological approach identified an additional market segment, distinct from those identified by a traditional customer segmentation approach based on customer need articulation. Ergo, understanding unconscious needs may provide additional customer insight and aid marketeers in developing new propositions and gaining market share. This study, therefore, makes a methodological contribution to the literature. The study involves the segmentation of buyers of snack bars (i.e. cereal bars), based on subjective nutritional information importance (as revealed on packaging). Separate samples of buyers were recruited: one group as a control sample completing a traditional CBC exercise; a second group completing the same CBC exercise but asked to complete a UTT working memory distraction-task between each choice-task and responding to it. This allowed a comparison of the segmentations of two groups (one which incorporated unconscious thought theory and the other which did not). Latent Class Segmentation (LCS) analysis indicated that whilst both approaches generate four similar segments, the CBC/UTT approach revealed a fifth (hidden) segment, unidentified in the other sample. In addition, the nutritional preferences of four of the five segments produced via the CBC/UTT approach matched those demonstrated by the participants’ store card behavioural data in a manner unobserved for the traditional CBC approach. This research provides a framework for further exploration and identifies a number of issues, such as which types of working memory distraction-tasks are most effective, that could potentially improve the approach if replicated.
Open Access
Unmake up your mind: why some reversible decisions lead to more choice satisfaction than others.
(2018-07) Moisieiev, Dmytro; Dimitriu, Radu; Guesalaga, Rodrigo
Consumers can often make reversible decisions, e.g. make purchases where items can be returned for exchanges or refunds or where purchases can be cancelled. Having the option to reverse a purchase decision (decision reversibility) has been linked to lower choice satisfaction, prompting scholars to think that being able to return goods for a refund or to cancel a purchase should make consumers less satisfied with their purchases. In this thesis I qualify this notion. I refine the construct of reversible decisions, showing that there are two distinct kinds of them: when consumers have an option to remake a choice (exchange the chosen item for a non-chosen one) and when consumers have an option to unmake a choice (cancel an order or return items for a refund). I conduct four experiments that show that consumers who can unmake a choice are more satisfied with it than those who can remake it. I thus refine the link between reversible decisions and choice satisfaction and recommend that retailers do not adopt exchange-only return policies. I explain the mediating mechanism for this effect: the extent of post-choice comparison between the chosen and foregone alternatives that is higher in decisions where a choice can be remade, rather than unmade. I also show that the effect of the different decision reversibility options (unmake choice vs remake choice) on choice satisfaction is stronger for neurotic consumers. Cognitively depleting consumers or prompting them to seek variety in their choices removes the effect of decision reversibility options on choice satisfaction, suggesting some ways in which retailers can contain consumers’ dissatisfaction with exchange-only return policies.

Browsing by Author "Dimitriu, Radu"

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