Data-Driven Discrimination, Perceived Fairness, and Consumer Trust–The Perspective of Consumer Attribution

With the development of consumer-centric data collection, storage, and analysis technologies, there is growing popularity for firms to use the behavioral data of individual consumers to implement data-driven discrimination strategies. Different from traditional price discrimination, such data-driven discrimination can take more diverse forms and often discriminates particularly against firms’ established customers whom firms know the best. Despite the widespread attention from both the academia and the public, little research examines how consumers react to such discrimination enabled by big data. Based on attribution theory, this paper examines how different ways of consumer attribution of data-driven discrimination influence perceived fairness and consumer trust toward the firm. Specifically, we hypothesize that controllability by consumers and locus of causality of data-driven discrimination interactively influence perceived fairness, which further affects consumer trust. We conduct two experiments to test the hypotheses. Study 1 uses a 2(controllability: high vs. low)×2(locus of causality: internal vs. external) between-subjects design. The results show a significant interaction between controllability and locus of causality on consumer trust. When consumers attribute data-driven discrimination to themselves (internal attribution), consumer trust is significantly lower in low-controllable situations than that in high-controllable situations. When consumers attribute the discrimination to the firm (external attribution), however, the impact of controllability on consumer trust is nonsignificant. Moreover, we show that perceived fairness plays a mediating role in the interaction effect of controllability and locus of causality on consumer trust. Study 2 uses a similar design to replicate the findings of Study 1 and further examines the moderating role of consumer self-concept clarity. The results show that the findings of study 1 apply only to consumers with low self-concept clarity. For consumers with high self-concept clarity, regardless of the locus of causality (internal or external), consumer trust is significantly higher in high-controllable situations than that in low-controllable situations. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications and conclude the paper by pointing out future research directions.

Promoting Reviewer-Related Attribution: Moderately Complex Presentation of Mixed Opinions Activates the Analytic Process

Using metacognition and dual process theories, this paper studied the role of types of presentation of mixed opinions in mitigating negative impacts of online word of mouth (WOM) dispersion on consumer’s purchasing decisions. Two studies were implemented, respectively. By employing an eye-tracking approach, study 1 recorded consumer’s attention to WOM dispersion. The results show that the activation of the analytic system can improve reviewer-related attribution options. In study 2, three kinds of presentation of mixed opinions originating from China’s leading online platform were compared. The results demonstrated that mixed opinions expressed in moderately complex form, integrating average ratings and reviewers’ impressions of products, was effective in promoting reviewer-related attribution choices. However, too-complicated presentation types of WOM dispersion can impose excessively on consumers’ cognitive load and eventually fail to activate the analytic system for promoting reviewer-related attribution choices. The main contribution of this paper lies in that consumer attribution-related choices are supplemented, which provides new insights into information consistency in consumer research. The managerial and theoretical significance of this paper are discussed in order to better understand the purchasing decisions of consumers.

Can donations be too little or too much?

Purpose Charities depend on giving behaviors of organizations to fulfil their purpose, whereas corporations seek to improve their image in return. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to investigate optimal donation thresholds for organizations to enhance their corporate social responsibility (CSR) image. Design/methodology/approach Experiment 1 (N = 482) tests whether CSR image improves with donation amount up to the point at which it becomes excessive (H1) and whether this point differs between firms in a positive versus negative economic situation (H2). Experiment 2 (N = 432) examines the role of consumer attribution of firm motives through mediation of these effects (H3), while also exploring consumer donation expectations by testing an “undefined” amount. Experiment 3 (N = 400) validates the role of attributions through the moderating effect of motives. Findings The experiments demonstrate an optimal interval between inferior and superior donation amounts that maximize the impact of corporate giving on CSR image through the attribution of society-serving motives. Furthermore, the economic situation of the company alters these thresholds – higher donations are required to positively influence the CSR image when the company is in a favorable situation. Research limitations/implications This research answers a long-term call to provide more reliable tools on which to base charitable giving decisions. It also identifies perceived donating motives as the psychological process underlying consumers’ response to donation magnitudes. Practical implications The authors determine psychological donation thresholds by examining amounts perceived as insignificant in comparison to excessive and provide managers with an easy-to-implement method to determine optimal donation amounts from their target market. Originality/value By examining charitable giving at the micro-level, this research provides practical advice to companies on how to determine, ahead of time, how much to donate and what exactly to communicate in which economic situation.

The credibility and attribution of online reviews

Purpose To understand the effectiveness of electronic word of mouth, the purpose of this paper is to examine how high- vs low-knowledge consumers judge and attribute the credibility of positive and negative online reviews by drawing upon accessibility–diagnosticity theory and attribution theory. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts an observation-based study in an online forum and a 2 (review valence) × 2 (consumer knowledge) between-participants factorial experiment to examine the proposed hypotheses. Findings High-knowledge consumers elicit less perceived credibility and make more non-product-relevant attribution than low-knowledge consumers in negative online reviews. Consumer attribution is also found to mediate the effects of the review valence by consumer knowledge interaction on review credibility. Originality/value This study adds to extant research by examining how consumer knowledge plays a key role in determining consumer perception of online review credibility. This study also advances the understanding of different casual inferences about online reviews between high- and low-knowledge consumers.

Perceived Brand Globalness- Impact on Women Consumer Response in Indian Fashion and Lifestyle Market

This study aims to investigate the effects of perceived brand globalness (PBG) on consumer affective and behavioral responses to brand failures and for how consumer perceives global and local brands and their responses in the event of failure present or absent related to brand performance and brand familiarity, brand presence and prestige, brand equity, product country match, country ethnocentrism.This research is conducted in regards to women consumers in two cities in North India related to global and local brands with impact of perceived brand globalness to brand failures present or absent scenario based on consumer responses. The research explored into four main factors as dependent variables on which PBG effects are examined and observed in failure present as well as failure absent scenario. This research consists of mainly two studies and two preliminary tests. Study 1 is executed basically to investigate and to test consumer responses towards brand failures of fictitious brands. Study 2 is designed to examine consumer responses to brand failures of established brands.The study found that PBG effects are more positive on Global brands as compared to the local brands and concluded that consumer is less negative and less impulsive to the global brands when they met failure scenario. The study could not find any significance and examined that customer ethnocentrism does not interrupt with buying behavior. This research was able to test whether global brands are still perceived superior to local brands in the context of Indian consumer and also test whether the effects of PBG on consumer responses to brand failures will be mediated by consumer attribution as blaming or fault accountable in the event of encountering.Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 5, Issue-1: 18-30