We examine how heterogeneity among investors' goals, personality, and motivations affect their current portfolio allocation and future portfolio plans. We asked 1347 investors from a national US sample the extent to which they agreed with 28 statements that reflected their investment strategy (adapted from Hoffmann and Shefrin, 2011; e.g., "My investment decisions are driven by hope for a positive outcome"), susceptibility to normative influence (Bearden et al., 1989), risk attitude and confidence (Wood and Zaichowsky, 2004). We used cluster analysis to categorize investors into different groups, leading to the emergence of four types of investors: The Hopeful, the Fearful, the Experts, and the Socially Conscious. These four categories of investors differ in terms of
their current portfolio allocation (ranging from checking accounts, and mutual funds to commodities and ETFs). They have very different motivations to invest. For example, the "fearful" investor has the highest economic motivation to invest (e.g., "I want to safeguard my retirement," Hoffmann 2007), and the "hopeful" investor has the lowest psychological motivation to invest (e.g., "It makes me feel smart," Chandon et al. 1990). The investor segments also vary in terms of the importance associated with investment features such as fees versus volatility of returns. These preferences are strongly related to stable personality constructs such as investors' overall optimism and pessimism (Schreier et al., 1994), as well as their promotion and prevention focus (Carver & White, 1994).
Evidence from four experiments shows that construing the presentation of information about innovations in part as a game increases innovation adoption relative to the unrestricted presentation of the same information. This effect is sequentially mediated by the state of playfulness via an increased curiosity.
Although of present economic importance, to date marketing research knows only little about cross-cultural variations of consumers' design preferences. In two studies featuring participant samples from China, Germany and the USA, an investigation of consumers' perception of car fronts is pursued. Building on previous research on anthropomorphic (human-like) product design and emotion perception, it is found that consumers across all countries perceive anthropomorphic car fronts on two affective core dimensions. However, clear differences emerge with respect to the effect of particular design features on the participants' liking between East and West. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
This paper examines how different leadership styles (transformational versus transactional) of sales managers cascade downwards into corresponding (relational versus transactional) selling approaches of salespersons, thereby affecting customer-level outcomes. Results of multilevel analyses of a multisource data set on 517 customers, 265 sales representatives, and 111 sales managers of a financial services company show that a sales manager's transformational leadership style translates into increased satisfaction, loyalty, and cooperation on the part of customers by shaping salespersons' selling approach towards a relational style. In contrast, a sales manager's transactional leadership style appears to translate into decreased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and cooperation by shaping salespersons' selling approach towards a transactional style.
Anthropomorphism, the tendency to apply human traits to non-living objects, is a widespread principle in product design. In an eye tracking experiment, we investigated how gaze patterns for manipulated car faces changed with respect to the affective state displayed by the car. Going beyond traditional region-of-interest methods (ROI), we implemented a novel approach for analyzing eye tracking data based on spatiotemporal scan analyses that overcome shortcomings of the ROI methodology. Our results showed that threatening headlights attract fewer gazes than non-threatening design variations, which can be seen in general accordance with theories of biological preparedness.
Eye tracking has traditionally relied on regions of interest as a data source for analysis. Although widespread, this methodology is prone to several limitations. A new approach for eye tracking data analysis relying on spatiotemporal scan statistics is proposed and an exemplary experiment on anthropomorphic car front design is conducted.
Analysis of eye-tracking data in marketing research has traditionally relied upon regions of interest (ROIs) methodology or the use of heatmaps. Clear disadvantages exist for both methods. Addressing this gap, the current research applies spatiotemporal scan statistics to the analysis and visualization of eye tracking data. Results of a sample experiment using anthropomorphic car faces demonstrate several advantages provided by the new method. In contrast to traditional approaches, scan statistics provide a means to scan eye tracking data automatically in space and time with differing gaze clusters, with results able to be comprehensively visualized and statistically assessed.
Product design is a key driver for market and sales success, a fact which can be straightforwardly observed when reviewing today's most successful consumer goods - be it goods from the rapidly developing electronics branch, more traditional industries like automobiles or goods from furniture industry, which are often considered as timeless. It may seem almost surprising that only in recent years has marketing research pursued greater efforts to investigate the role of product design. However, first publications in this area suggest the development of an exciting and important field of research.
The current work contains several articles that contribute in various ways to the knowledge base on consumers' perception of product design and related scientific areas. Literature on the perception of anthropomorphic, human-like product designs such as car fronts served as a starting point for the research.
A first endeavor was to show that affect-laden anthropomorphic product designs are not only perceived subjectively as human-like and evoke affective responses in consumers like the perception of emotional human faces, but can also lead to implicit behavioral reactions in the viewer. Those observed responses can be explained from the perspective of evolutionary theories, and results provide a valuable insight for product managers and designers in their quest to find appealing and outstanding product designs. The investigation was conducted relying on eye tracking experiments with anthropomorphic car fronts. While Article I provides a methodological extension of existing eye tracking analysis techniques, Article II focusses on the outlined perceptual topic.
Contemporary research on product design nowadays concentrates mainly on customers from Western cultural backgrounds, but in an era of globalized markets, this focus is probably too narrow. Article III addresses culture-specific differences concerning the perception of affective anthropomorphic car front designs, comparing participant samples from China, Germany and the United States. Finally, Article IV focuses on the general perception of globally manufactured, branded products and highlights the importance of participants' subjective brand awareness perceptions that even likely outweigh the highly variable importance of country of origin information when it comes to the prediction of the consumers' willingness to purchase.
