Brian R. Kinard

Are You Entertained? The Impact of Brand Integration and Brand Experience in Television-Related Advergames

Results of an online experiment using advergames associated with television series suggest playing advergames results in behavioral change toward the parent brand only for consumers who lack prior brand experience. In essence, advergames appear to be more effective as a promotional tool used to encourage new product trial behavior. In addition, advergames with highly integrated brand elements produce more negative attitudes toward the advergame than advergames with fewer brand elements. Thus, advergame designers must delicately balance the use of brand elements to encourage product trial without being perceived as unnecessary advertising clutter that distracts from the enjoyment of game play.

Odd pricing effects: an examination using adaptation‐level theory

Purpose – Using adaptation‐level theory as a conceptual framework, the purpose of this research is to determine what effect, if any, marketplace conditioning has on consumer price estimates and product evaluations.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 475 subjects participated in two experiments that required them to read a scenario, evaluate a series of advertised products, and perform an aided price recall task.Findings – The results suggest consumers are more likely to recall the correct price when more of the rightmost digits end in 0 or 9. Moreover, when prices are incorrectly recalled, consumers are likely to inadvertently assume prices end in commonly used rightmost digits (i.e. 5 and 9). Combined, the results demonstrate odd pricing effects are likely a result of marketplace price conditioning rather than truncation of rightmost digits as suggested by the analog model of numerical cognition.Practical implications – Findings suggest that use of atypical rightmost digits in odd prices fails as a ...

Insta-Grams: The Effect of Consumer Weight on Reactions to Healthy Food Posts

Each day, social networking sites become increasingly inundated with food imagery. Since many of these images are of fresh, vibrant, and healthy eats, photo sharing of food through social media should have a long-term positive effect on consumption habits. Yet, obesity rates in the United States continue to rise, suggesting that people are spending more time posting images of healthy foods and paying less attention to the actual foods they consume. This confounding relationship could be explained by consumer weight, in that overweight consumers desire to engage with social media maybe for the purpose of expressing, presenting, and identifying with a healthy lifestyle. In the context of food posts, individuals higher in body mass index may be more likely to engage in social media activity (e.g., likes, shares, comments) that validates healthy food choices to others in their online community. A between-subjects experimental design tested this proposed effect using a manipulated Instagram post of a healthy food item (i.e., black bean veggie burger). Results indicate that obese individuals are more likely to engage with healthy food posts compared with their normal weight and overweight counterparts. The effect is even more pronounced when posts are absent of prior social media activity. Based upon these results, obese individuals are encouraged to establish and maintain social network connections with others who routinely post images of healthy food in their social media feeds. Limitations and directions for future research are provided.

The looming health care crisis. Fact or myth

Health care literature succinctly describes the challenges faced by hospitals today: shortages of skilled workers, escalating costs, government regulations, shortfalls in revenue, and similar concerns. To assess the relative importance that hospitals attach to these challenges, as perceived by hospital HR managers, a nationwide survey of 400 randomly selected HR managers was conducted. These HR directors were asked to rank-order various hospital concerns, assess the success their employers have achieved in dealing with such problems, and predict the difficulty of recruiting and retaining qualified workers in various job categories throughout this decade. In contrast to hospital CEOs, who regard financial concerns as their top priority, hospital HR managers rank shortages of skilled workers first. These HR managers anticipate continued difficulty in recruiting and retaining RNs, pharmacists, anesthetists, and some therapists and technicians throughout this decade.

The effects of motivational priming on food portion size behavior

ABSTRACT This research relied on regulatory focus theory to explore the extent to which the priming of a consumer’s goals or motivation toward promotion or prevention significantly affects their food portion size behavior. Two different experiments employing randomized post-test only with control group designs were executed. In Study 1, consumers’ motivations were moderately primed; the results supported regulatory focus theory in that a promotion prime led to an increase in food portion size behavior, and a prevention prime caused a decrease in food portion size behavior. In Study 2, consumers’ motivations were primed more subtly. When primed subtly or implicitly, regulatory focus theory was supported only for promotion-oriented consumers.

Implementing a Delight Strategy in a Restaurant Setting The Power of Unsolicited Recommendations

Identifying specific initiatives that can be undertaken by frontline employees to enhance customer delight is of great interest to service firms. In the hopes of contributing to this objective, the current research evaluates the impact of server recommendations on customer delight. Findings indicate that unsolicited server recommendations have a significant positive impact on customer delight. Moreover, the research provides no evidence to suggest that repercussions will result for the service provider even if the provision of an unsolicited recommendation leads to a negative outcome. The mediating role of expectations is examined to gain a better understanding of these recommendation effects. Consistent with self-fulfilling prophecy, the results reveal that customers are capable of experiencing delight even in heightened pre-experience expectation situations. These results provide evidence that the pursuance of customer delight as a strategic objective may warrant additional consideration.

Visual Effects of Variety and Area Saliency on Food Product Volume Estimates

ABSTRACT This paper aims to assess the combined effects of variety and area saliency on consumer estimates of product volume. In the first of two studies, we examine the effect of color variety on perceived quantity estimates of cereal in a bowl. In addition, this study was designed to determine if the saliency of the area occupied by the cereal in the bowl moderates any effect of color variety. The second study utilizes a matching task to determine if product variety and area saliency cause consumers to pour more cereal into bowls due to perceptual errors in volume estimation. Findings reveal that consumers use visual cues of area saliency first when approximating quantity. When area saliency cues are removed, consumers base quantity approximations on visual cues provided by product variety. This suggests that container design plays an important role in perceived quantity expectations by moderating the influence of perceived variety.

Straight talk for health care managers: back to the basics of leadership.

Managers in the health care field should continually reflect on their leadership practices and the performance of individuals in their respective units, with an eye toward continuing improvement. A critical part of the reflective process is a review of the basics of leadership. This article presents information concerning 18 critical leadership topics and offers suggestions for improving performance.

Employment-at-Will: guidelines for health care managers.

Employment-at-will is a doctrine that allows an employee or employer to terminate the employment relationship at any time for any reason. This doctrine has eroded over time with the enactment of federal legislation that gives workers job protection. Moreover, various states recognize 3 major exceptions to the doctrine. This article examines the historical development of employment-at-will, discusses the pros and cons of at-will employment, describes the exceptions to the doctrine, and discusses at-will employment issues in the health care industry.