Ellen Garbarino

Gender Differences in the Perceived Risk of Buying Online and the Effects of Receiving a Site Recommendation

This article examines how men and women differ in both their perceptions of the risks associated with shopping online and the effect of receiving a site recommendation from a friend. The first study examines how gender affects the perceptions of the probability of negative outcomes and the severity of such negative outcomes should they occur for five risks associated with buying online (i.e., credit card misuse, fraudulent sites, loss of privacy, shipping problems, and product failure). The second study examines gender differences in the effect of receiving a recommendation from a friend on perceptions of online purchase risk. The third study experimentally tests whether, compared to men, women will be more likely to increase their willingness to purchase online if they receive a site recommendation from a friend. The results suggest that, even when controlling for differences in Internet usage, women perceive a higher level of risk in online purchasing than do men. In addition, having a site recommended by a friend leads to both a greater reduction in perceived risk and a stronger increase in willingness to buy online among women than among men.

Cognitive Effort, Affect, and Choice

This article examines cognitive effort and its influence on choice outcomes through process-induced negative affect. We propose that an alternative that requires more cognitive effort to evaluate leads the decision maker to generate more negative affect and to choose that alternative less frequently than an alternative that is less effortful to evaluate. Two studies demonstrate that when different levels of effort are expended processing equivalent alternatives, the effort adversely affects choice of the more difficult to process alternatives. More respondents, especially those with less skill at the evaluation task, selected a brand and expressed a greater willingness to pay a premium for it when it was less effortful to evaluate. The second study shows that more negative affect was generated as the cognitive effort increased, lowering the likelihood of the difficult alternative being selected. The extent of negative affect generated was exaggerated under time pressure and increased the choice of the less difficult alternative. Although negative affect was generated, it did not influence choice when there was a clearly superior alternative.

Customer satisfaction, perceived risk and affective commitment: an investigation of directions of influence

– This paper aims to examine competing models of the directionality of influences between customer satisfaction, affective commitment, and the customers perceptions of risk associated with a service organization. It also aims to include the effects of a customers prior experience with the organization and experience with other organizations in the service category in the models., – Structural equation models of data from a survey to customers of a performing arts organization (sample size=401) are used to test the hypotheses., – The study suggests that commitment has a positive influence on customer satisfaction and diminishes risk perceptions. There is less support for a model in which satisfaction increases commitment and reduces perceived risk., – There has been recent controversy as to whether customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty. This study provides a different perspective by suggesting that customers with high commitment to an organization use satisfaction surveys to express their loyalty.

How cultural differences in uncertainty avoidance affect product perceptions

Purpose – To examine how people from countries that vary in uncertainty avoidance (UA) use information about product uncertainty when evaluating products.Design/methodology/approach – Two studies were conducted that vary in methodology, sampling and analysis. First, an experiment was designed to manipulate product uncertainty through the use of country of origin (COO) quality‐stereotypes. It was administered to university students from a diverse range of countries, all studying in the USA. Next, data from a large‐scale survey of consumers from ten countries was submitted to hierarchical binary regression analyses to include variables at the country and individual level.Findings – The studies support an interaction between product uncertainty (PU) and cultural UA on quality perceptions and behavioural intentions. Consumers from high UA countries evaluated high PU offerings less positively and held weaker behavioural intentions than those from low UA countries, but for low PU offerings, no difference was fo...

The Effect of Price History on Demand as Mediated by Perceived Price Expensiveness

Abstract A multistage process model is proposed that predicts past prices are used to form a reference price (stage 1), the reference price determines perceived expensiveness of the current price (stage 2), and the perceived expensiveness mediates the effects of past prices on demand (stage 3). This process model is tested by measuring the effect of past prices on perceived expensiveness and actual demand in a simulated shopping experiment. The robustness of the model is studied using several price histories and controlling for alternative processes by which past prices might influence demand. Results show that the influence of price history on current demand is mediated through perceived expensiveness as the model predicts; higher past prices lead to lower perceived expensiveness of the current price and this lower perceived expensiveness leads to higher demand.

Loss Aversion and Lying Behavior: Theory, Estimation and Empirical Evidence

We theoretically show that loss-averse agents are more likely to lie to avoid receiving a low payoff after a random draw, the lower the ex-ante probability of this bad outcome. The ex-ante expected payoff increases as the bad outcome becomes less likely, and hence the greater is the loss avoided by lying. We demonstrate robust support for this theory by reanalyzing the results from the extant literature and with two new experiments that vary the outcome probabilities and are run doubleanonymous to remove reputation effects. To measure lying, we develop an empirical method that estimates the full distribution of dishonesty

Waiting To Give: Stated and Revealed Preferences

We estimate and compare the effect of increased time costs on consumer satisfaction and behavior. We are able to move beyond the existing literature, which focuses on satisfaction and intention, and estimate the effect of waiting time on return behavior. Further, we do so in a prosocial context and our measure of cost is the length of time a blood donor spends waiting. We find that relying on satisfaction data masks important time cost sensitivities; namely, it is not how the donor feels about the wait time that matters for return behavior, but rather the actual duration of the wait. Consistent with theory we develop, our results indicate that waiting has a significant longer-term social cost: we estimate that a 38% increase (equivalent to one standard deviation) in the average wait would result in a 10% decrease in donations per year. This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.

Using attribution to foster public support for alternative policies to combat obesity

Purpose An increasing array of policies have been suggested to combat rising obesity. Regardless of the policy intervention that is selected each comes with a cost in the form of imposition on the public purse, or regulative restrictions on business or individuals. Consequently, potential opposition makes it critical to garner sufficient public support for whichever policy is selected. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of attributional framing for the causes of obesity (framed around locus of control and controllability) to increase support for a range of policy interventions designed to reduce obesity. Design/methodology/approach Using an online panel, the authors manipulate the perceived cause of obesity along the internal/external locus and controllability/uncontrollability dimensions to assess whether attribution of causes of obesity can influence support for policy interventions that either encourage positive behaviour or discourage negative behaviour. Findings The authors find that framing the causes of obesity to emphasise internal/external locus and controllability/uncontrollability has significant and predictable effects on policy support for men but not for women. In this American study, they show that men are more open to persuasion because their views on the causes of obesity are less firmly held than women. Practical implications Highlighting the external and controllable causes of obesity was the most effective, suggesting that emphasising the role of the food industry in obesity can garner public support amongst males for a broad range of policy types. The limited effectiveness with women suggests that media focus be directed at male-oriented channels and outlets. Originality/value The authors show that, at least amongst men, attribution framing can be used as a tool to increase support for policy interventions to prevent obesity.

Give blood today or save lives tomorrow: Matching decision and message construal level to maximize blood donation intentions

ABSTRACT The research extends construal theory by testing if a match between the temporal construal framing of a blood donation decision and a blood donation request leads to higher donation intentions than a mismatch. Results show participants considering future donation who read an abstract donation request have significantly higher donation intentions than those who read a concrete request. Conversely, participants considering donating today who read a concrete donation request have significantly higher donation intentions than those who read an abstract request. This study confirms the importance of matching the construal framing of the communication to the temporal framing of the decision.

Effects of Internal Reference Prices and Marketers’ Ability to Influence Which Reference Price Buyers Use

Using variations in past prices and product category desirability, we examine the antecedents and uses of three commonly discussed internal reference prices: Expected, Fair and Reservation price. Differences in the antecedents are predicted to determine the relationships among the reference prices. The fair and expected reference prices are market-level focused reference prices; they can be evaluated based on market- level information without reference to ones own utility or preferences. Conversely, the reservation price is focused at the individual level; based on personal utility as well as market information. This level of focus (either market or individual level) is predicted to determine their usage on outcome measures. As hypothesised, we find past prices systematically affect all reference prices; higher (lower) past prices lead to higher (lower) reference prices. As predicted by the level of focus, personal category desirability does not affect the market-level focused fair and expected reference prices but category desirability does have a dramatic affect on the individually-focused reservation price. The perception of the expensiveness of a given price is a market-level evaluation; it can be judged for the marketplace independently of individual preferences and hence should be assessed using a market-level reference price. We find that for both desirable and less desirable product categories the market-focused fair reference price determines perceived expensiveness. Conversely, demand is an individually-focused evaluation and so should be determined by an individually-focused reference price. We find for both desirable and less desirable categories the individuallyfocused reservation price determines the demand. An additional study which overtly cued respondents to a specific reference price, either the fair price or the reservation price was unable to influence what reference price people used.