Jeffrey R. Parker

Staying the Course: The Option of Doing Nothing and Its Impact on Postchoice Persistence

Individuals regularly face adversity in the pursuit of goals that require ongoing commitment. Whether or not individuals persist in the face of adversity greatly affects the likelihood that they will achieve their goals. We argue that a seemingly minor change in the individual’s original choice set—specifically, the addition of a no-choice option—will increase persistence along the chosen path. Drawing on self-perception theory, we propose that choosing from a set that includes a no-choice (do nothing) option informs individuals that they both prefer the chosen path to other paths and that they consider this path alone to be worth pursuing, an inference that cannot be made in the absence of a no-choice option. This unique information strengthens individuals’ commitment to, and increases their persistence on, their chosen path. Three studies employing incentive-compatible designs supported our predictions and ruled out several rival accounts.

Cross-Buying After Product Failure Recovery? Depends on How You Feel About It

Cross-selling to customers during product failure recovery (PFR) encounters can be challenging as customers are reluctant to cross-buy after having recently experienced a failure, despite it being recovered. We examine several models of cross-buying and failure/recovery characteristics using a large-scale experiment and secondary transaction data from a Fortune 100 computer systems firm. We find that customers’ integral-affective responses dominate their cognitive responses. Further, customers are more willing to cross-buy when the firm’s recovery effort increases for more severe product failures or those with unstable attributions. Yet, greater recovery effort does little to diminish the negative effect of attributing the failure to the firm. Overall, understanding the relative dominance of a sequence of affective versus cognitive factors and the critical role that contextual factors play in customer cross-buying decisions will help managers design PFR encounters to increase the odds of cross-selling.