The amount of digital text available for analysis by consumer researchers has risen dramatically. Consumer discussions on the internet, product reviews, and digital archives of news articles and ...press releases are just a few potential sources for insights about consumer attitudes, interaction, and culture. Drawing from linguistic theory and methods, this article presents an overview of automated text analysis, providing integration of linguistic theory with constructs commonly used in consumer research, guidance for choosing amongst methods, and advice for resolving sampling and statistical issues unique to text analysis. We argue that although automated text analysis cannot be used to study all phenomena, it is a useful tool for examining patterns in text that neither researchers nor consumers can detect unaided. Text analysis can be used to examine psychological and sociological constructs in consumer-produced digital text by enabling discovery or by providing ecological validity.
•We examined changes in order sizes and rates as customers become mobile shoppers.•After customers become mobile shoppers (M-shoppers), their order rates go up.•For low-spenders, both order sizes and ...rates increase after adopting M-shopping.•Customers tend to M-shop for habitual products that they have purchased before.•Retailers should invest in M-storefronts, especially to promote habitual products.
Mobile shopping (M-shopping) has become increasingly important in marketing and retailing. Using a unique dataset from an Internet-based grocery retailer, we evaluate changes in customers’ spending behavior upon adopting M-shopping, i.e., using smartphones or tablets to compose, modify, or place orders online. We find that order rate, i.e., number of orders placed per year, increases as customers adopt M-shopping. Especially for low-spending customers, both their order rate and order size, i.e., the amount of the order in dollars, increase as they become accustomed to M-shopping. In addition to the effect on customer's spending behavior, we also find that M-shoppers tend to use mobile devices to shop for habitual products that they already have a history of purchasing. We propose that customers utilize mobile devices because the technology provides convenient access, which leads them to incorporate M-shopping into their habitual routines. Managerially, we recommend that firms should fully leverage their mobile platforms, but they should also keep in mind that mobile devices may not be the most optimal channel for launching new products or promoting products that require more consideration during the buying process.
In recent years, firms launch interactive technologies to engage and communicate with their customers. Branded mobile applications (apps) are one example. In light of this trend, understanding mobile ...adopters' cross-platform and engagement behavior is essential in managing customer relationships. This research proposes the context complementarity hypothesis and shows that a branded app is complementary to a firm's other engagement platforms such as PC and mobile websites. PC and app users are also more likely to respond to e-mail promotional offers and have higher spending than non-users. These influences differ by customer segment and brand relationship. Specifically, low-tier customers show a more significant increase in cross-platform engagement than customers who are already loyal. On the other hand, high-spending customers that are relatively new to the firm show a higher increase in spending and promotional responses than low-tier customers. In addition to substantive insights, we conclude with managerial implications and future directions regarding branded apps, mobile and digital platforms, and customer relationship management.
•Branded app adoption and uses increase customers' website interactions.•They also increase customers' spending and promotional responses.•These effects differ by customer segment and brand relationship.
Mobile applications (apps) have become an important platform for brands to interact with customers, but few studies have tested their effects on app adopters’ subsequent brand purchase behavior. This ...paper investigates whether adopters’ spending levels will change after they use a brand’s app. Using a unique dataset from a coalition loyalty program with implementations of propensity score matching and difference-in-difference-in-difference methods, we compare the spending levels of app adopters with those of non-adopters. Specifically, we examine whether the use of the app’s two main interactive features—information lookups and check-ins—influences adopters’ spending levels. We find that app adoption and continued use of the branded app increase future spending. Furthermore, customers who adopt both features show the highest increase. However, we also observe “the recency effect” – when customers discontinue using the app, their spending levels decrease. Our findings suggest that sticky apps which attract continuing uses can be a persuasive marketing tool because they provide portable, convenient, and interactive engagement opportunities, allowing customers to interact with the brand on a habitual basis. We recommend that firms should prioritize launching a mobile app to communicate with their customers, but they should also keep in mind that a poorly designed app, which customers abandon after only a few uses, may in fact hurt their brand experience and company revenues.
•We examine the effects of adopting and using a brand's mobile application on subsequent purchases.•We provide quantified evidence of the effects of mobile app using customers' mobile application log data and transaction histories that are more improved measures of these behaviors.•A brand's mobile app adoption has a positive effect on subsequent purchases.•The effect is elevated when customers use more interactive features available on the app.•Repeated use of the app increases future spending even more, while discontinuing the use of the app decreases it.
As consumers move through their decision journey, they adopt different goals (e.g., transactional vs. informational). In this research, the authors propose that consumer goals can be detected through ...textual analysis of online search queries and that both marketers and consumers can benefit when paid search results and advertisements match consumer search–related goals. In bridging construal level theory and textual analysis, the authors show that consumers at different stages of the decision journey tend to assume different levels of mental construal, or mindsets (i.e., abstract vs. concrete). They find evidence of a fluency-driven matching effect in online search such that when consumer mindsets are more abstract (more concrete), consumers generate textual search queries that use more abstract (more concrete) language. Furthermore, they are more likely to click on search engine results and ad content that matches their mindset, thereby experiencing more search satisfaction and perceiving greater goal progress. Six empirical studies, including a pilot study, a survey, three lab experiments, and a field experiment involving over 128,000 ad impressions provide support for this construal matching effect in online search.
Seismocardiography (SCG) is a measure of chest vibration associated with heartbeats. While skin soft electronic tattoos (e‐tattoos) have been widely reported for electrocardiogram (ECG) sensing, ...wearable SCG sensors are still based on either rigid accelerometers or non‐stretchable piezoelectric membranes. This work reports an ultrathin and stretchable SCG sensing e‐tattoo based on the filamentary serpentine mesh of 28‐µm‐thick piezoelectric polymer, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). 3D digital image correlation (DIC) is used to map chest vibration to identify the best location to mount the e‐tattoo and to investigate the effects of substrate stiffness. As piezoelectric sensors easily suffer from motion artifacts, motion artifacts are effectively reduced by performing subtraction between a pair of identical SCG tattoos placed adjacent to each other. Integrating the soft SCG sensor with a pair of soft gold electrodes on a single e‐tattoo platform forms a soft electro‐mechano‐acoustic cardiovascular (EMAC) sensing tattoo, which can perform synchronous ECG and SCG measurements and extract various cardiac time intervals including systolic time interval (STI). Using the EMAC tattoo, strong correlations between STI and the systolic/diastolic blood pressures, are found, which may provide a simple way to estimate blood pressure continuously and noninvasively using one chest‐mounted e‐tattoo.
A hair thin, skin soft, and highly stretchable e‐tattoo is created for high fidelity electro‐mechanoacoustic cardiovascular monitoring, made of Au electrodes and polyvinylidene fluoride vibration sensors. Such synchronous measurement affords the extraction of many characteristic cardiac time intervals among which the systolic time interval is found to have a strong negative correlation with blood pressure.
Marketing scholars and practitioners have long recognized that the power of electronic negative word-of-mouth (e-NWOM) can influence brand revenues and firm performance, but most previous studies ...have only examined the effect of viewing. This study is one of the initial attempts to test the effects of e-NWOM on both posters and viewers. We also test the moderating effects of company usefulness and company apology in a separate study. Using an observational dataset that contains NWOM viewing and posting records and customers' purchase transactions from a real company, Study 1 finds that viewing e-NWOM has a negative effect on subsequent purchases, whereas posting e-NWOM has a positive interaction effect with company usefulness. Study 2 shows that a company's public apology has a positive effect on viewers, but not posters. We conclude with the theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications of e-NWOM and webcare research.
•We distinguish the effects of posting and viewing e-NWOM on purchase behavior.•We identify two moderators of e-NWOM and test their effects in two studies.•Viewing e-NWOM decreases subsequent purchases.•Posting e-NWOM has a positive interaction effect with company usefulness.•Company apology only works for e-NWOM viewers, not posters.
Disorders of hyperpigmentation are common and, depending on the extent and location of involvement, can affect the quality of life and pose a significant psychologic burden for patients. Given the ...similarities in presentation of the various causes of hyperpigmentation, it is often difficult to elucidate the etiology of these conditions, which is important to guide management. Furthermore, certain disorders, such as lichen planus pigmentosus and ashy dermatosis, have similar clinical and/or histologic presentations, and their classification as distinct entities has been debated upon, leading to additional confusion. In this review, the authors selected commonly encountered disorders of hyperpigmentation of the skin, subdivided into epidermal, dermal, or mixed epidermal-dermal disorders based on the location of pigment deposition, along with disorders of hyperpigmentation of the mucosa and nails. Melanocytic nevi, genetic disorders, and systemic causes of hyperpigmentation were largely excluded and considered to be outside the scope of this review. We discussed the pathogenesis of hyperpigmentation as well as the clinical and histologic features of these conditions, along with challenges encountered in their diagnosis and classification. The second article in this 2-part continuing medical education series focuses on the medical and procedural treatments of hyperpigmentation.
•Retailers may send customers conditional review requests following a purchase.•Conditional requests ask customers to write a review only if it will be favorable.•Customers who receive conditional ...requests are less loyal to the retailer afterwards.•Retailers making conditional requests are viewed as manipulative and untrustworthy.•Modified conditional requests that restore customer trust mitigate harm to loyalty.
Online retailers frequently solicit reviews from customers who have recently purchased their products or services. This research examines how consumers react to conditional requests—wherein a retailer explicitly asks them to consider their experience but to only leave a review if this experience was favorable—versus more neutral unconditional requests. The provision of conditional requests is widespread, presumably because retailers believe that such requests will yield more positive reviews. Irrespective of whether these potential benefits materialize, the present research demonstrates that the consequences of conditional requests on customer loyalty (i.e., retailer engagement and repeat purchase behavior) are uniformly negative and surprisingly expansive. Six experiments with over 3,000 participants reveal that customers who receive conditional (vs. unconditional) requests are subsequently less loyal to the retailer, whom they perceive as manipulative and untrustworthy. This research also shows that easily implementable message modifications can attenuate (although not necessarily eliminate) the adverse effects of conditional requests on customer loyalty. Substantively, this work highlights how the messaging used in a review request affects customers’ inferences as well as their later judgments and behaviors. Managerially, the findings should exhort online retailers to exercise caution before sending conditional review requests given the risk of reputational harm.
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Key challenges in the management of pigmentary disorders such as melasma and postinflammatory hyperpigmentation are their resistance to treatment, tendency to recur after treatment, and the risk of ...exacerbating hyperpigmentation with many treatment modalities. The second article in this 2-part continuing medical education series on pigmentary disorders focuses on the evidence behind medical and procedural treatments of dyschromias, including photoprotection, topical lightening agents, oral agents, chemical peels, and laser therapy.
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