Researchers in Marketing Gilles Laurent of ESSEC Business School and Marc Vanhuele of HEC Paris study how consumers read and assimilate prices while shopping. Their novel theory refutes the intuitive hypothesis made by previous research in consumer behavior that prices are read from left to right, and has implications for policy regulations, to prevent misleading consumers in their purchase decisions.
By Marc Vanhuele
Many luxury brands have engaged in corporate social responsibility by linking products to a charitable cause. But altruism is at odds with the materialistic motivations to purchase fancy watches or handbags. So how do luxury brands overcome the paradox and get their clients to engage in charitable giving? Find out in this new study by HEC Paris Marketing Professor L. J. Shrum and PhD Sukhyun Kim, and Kiwan Park of Seoul National University.
By L. J. Shrum
Many E-commerce sites such as Amazon, YouTube, and Netflix, but also online advertisers, use recommender systems. Recommender systems are algorithms that, based on data sets, recommend to users contents and products that match their preferences. In this interview, Xitong Li of HEC Paris, Associate Professor of Information Systems and a Hi! PARIS center’s research fellowship holder, reveals new research, a joint work with two German researchers, and explains how recommender systems induce consumers to buy.
By Xitong Li
This research studies people’s tendency to seek or avoid choice closure with past consumer decisions. Consumers achieving choice closure come to see a decision as finished and resolved. Past research has shown that this sense of choice finality can be externally triggered without consumers being aware of it, for example by asking them to close a menu after selecting one of the featured food items. The current research asks the following questions: What is the effect of choice closure on consumers’ satisfaction following decisions with negative or positive outcomes? Do consumers correctly predict the effect of choice closure on their satisfaction? The answer to these questions allows us to offer insights for marketers and sales people on when and how to use choice-closure triggers as means to enhance satisfaction with the outcome of a decision they have made.
By Yangjie Gu
Consuming can boost self-worth feelings, but might adversely impact consumer well-being. Our new research published in Journal of Consumer Research shows that consumption of certain products can restore feelings of self-worth that have been damaged for whatever reason. However, this boost or restoration effect is diminished by overt marketing tactics like slogans or taglines that make products’ link to the hurt self-identity aspect overly explicit.
By L. J. Shrum , Dr. Nimish Rustagi
