Jörg Lindenmeier

The willingness to donate blood: an empirical analysis of socio-demographic and motivation-related determinants

Since the willingness to donate blood is not very high among large parts of the population, a better understanding of the determinants for the willingness to donate blood is of significant importance. This article is intended to contribute to higher uniformity of results in the context of research on blood donation behaviour. Exploratory factor analysis and non-parametric tests are used to accomplish this. Potentially important socio-demographic and motivation-related variables particularly affecting the willingness to donate blood are examined. As an addition to the existing literature, the influence of the individual importance of structural characteristics of blood donation facilities, such as the standard of the facilitys medical equipment or the training of the facilitys staff, will be tested for its effects on the willingness to donate blood. The analysis will also include the influence of direct or indirect personal involvement on the part of the respondent. The results of the study indicate that typical blood donors are young women or men who are studying or possess a higher level of education. Furthermore, potential blood donors can easily be attracted by pecuniary incentives and word of mouth. Unlike non-donors, potential blood donors are not idle, have no fear of infections due to the donation and want reasonable opening hours of blood donation facilities.

Do Patient Perceptions Vary With Ownership Status? A Study of Nonprofit, For-Profit, and Public Hospital Patients

Recent research indicates that consumers associate nonprofit organizations mainly with the trait “warmth,” whereas for-profit organizations are perceived as being “competent.” Trustworthiness is another dimension of consumer perceptions of nonprofit organizations. This article attempts to combine two strands of research: Aaker, Vohs, and Mogilner’s research on perceptions of warmth and competence and Handy et al.’s and Schlesinger, Mitchell, and Gray’s research on individuals’ perceptions of trustworthiness in nonprofits. Our study indicates that “warmth,” “trustworthiness,” and “competence” are distinct dimensions of patient perceptions of hospitals. Perceptions of these traits vary across different manifestations of ownership status. Nonprofit hospitals are perceived as more trustworthy and warm but less competent than their for-profit competitors. With nonurgent care, analysis shows that only trustworthiness and competence influence patients’ hospital evaluations. Nonprofit hospitals should try to make their ownership status public as well as to alleviate detrimental deviations of perceived competence from actual competence.

Guilt Appeals and Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Anticipatory Versus Reactive Guilt Appeals on the Effectiveness of Blood Donor Appeals

This study investigates the effectiveness of guilt-arousing communication in promoting prosocial behavior. By analyzing the distinct effects of anticipatory versus reactive guilt appeals, we contribute to the discussion of guilt appeals as drivers of prosocial behavior, especially blood donation. Research on persuasive communication provides the theoretical basis of our study and we validate our hypotheses by means of two 2 × 2 factorial between-subjects designs. We find that anticipatory rather than reactive guilt appeals are more effective in generating prosocial action tendencies. Compared to noninformational reference group influences, messages endorsed by members of informational reference groups yielded more favorable attitudinal responses. Besides their significant main effect, two-sided messages reinforce the favorable impact of anticipatory guilt appeals. The study concludes with practical implications for nonprofit organizations and public blood donor services as well as avenues for future research.

Applying the concept of consumer confusion to healthcare: Development and validation of a patient confusion model

As patient autonomy and consumer sovereignty increase, information provision is considered essential to decrease information asymmetries between healthcare service providers and patients. However, greater availability of third party information sources can have negative side effects. Patients can be confused by the nature, as well as the amount, of quality information when making choices among competing health care providers. Therefore, the present study explores how information may cause patient confusion and affect the behavioral intention to choose a health care provider. Based on a quota sample of German citizens (n = 198), the present study validates a model of patient confusion in the context of hospital choice. The study results reveal that perceived information overload, perceived similarity, and perceived ambiguity of health information impact the affective and cognitive components of patient confusion. Confused patients have a stronger inclination to hastily narrow down their set of possible decision alternatives. Finally, an empirical analysis reveals that the affective and cognitive components of patient confusion mediate perceived information overload, perceived similarity, and perceived ambiguity of information.

Bedeutung der Konsumentenforschung für die Markenführung

Fragestellungen, die das Management von Marken betreffen, sind in den letzten Jahren in ihrer Bedeutung gestiegen. So zahlt das renommierte Marketing Science Institute die Messung und Steuerung von Markenwerten zu den herausragenden Forschungsprioritaten fur die Jahre 2002 bis 2004 im Bereich der Marketingforschung (Marketing Science Institute o. J.). In vielen Fallen machen diese Markenwerte einen wesentlichen Teil des Gesamtwerts von Markenunternehmen aus. Folglich haben auch uber die akademischen Kreise hinaus Markenhersteller die zunehmende Wichtigkeit der Effekte einer effizienten Markierung von Unternehmensleistungen erkannt. Marken werden dementsprechend als (immaterielle) Vermogensgegenstande angesehen, deren Wert mithilfe gezielter markenpolitischer Masnahmen gesteigert werden sollte (Sattler 2001, S. 19ff.).

Anticipated Consumer Guilt: An Investigation into its Antecedents and Consequences for Fair-Trade Consumption

This study considers fair-trade as a collaborative strategy of dealing with the wicked problem of apparel sweatshops. The study assumes that consumer guilt increases the market share of fair-trade products which can be regarded as a favorable change in the marketing system’s output. The paper develops and validates a model of guilt-induced fair-trade buying based on this notion. The model comprises negative affect, ethical judgment, and self-efficacy as antecedents of anticipated consumer guilt. The study’s results, based on a sample of American consumers (n = 430) and analyzed in a structural equation model, reveal anticipated guilt as a major driver of fair-trade buying behavior. Furthermore, anticipated consumer guilt mediates the effects of its antecedents on fair-trade buying intention. The paper provides implications for macro-decision making (e.g., guilt-inducing nudges) as well as suggestions for marcromarketing research.

Emotions in Prosocial Decision Making: An Editorial Essay

The world is confronted with immense problems, including extreme poverty in developing countries, aging populations in industrialized countries, armed conflicts, environmental pollution, and global warming. During various financial and economic crises, nations and supranational organizations appear to be overwhelmed by the process of seeking solutions to these problems. Civil society and, thus, the prosocial commitment of individual citizens or groups of citizens, must be regarded as decisive in addressing these global problems. Within this context, nonprofit and voluntary organizations play an important role as coordinators and catalyzers of social innovation and change. Because of resource dependency (Helmig, Jegers, & Lapsley, 2004), nonprofit organizations fundamentally depend on individual charitable contributions such as donations, endowments, and volunteering. Similarly, segments of the population have critical attitudes toward the prevailing economic and social system. As a result, protests against the state (Fitzgibbon, 2013), as well as against multinational corporations (e.g., Tyler, 2013; Lindenmeier, Schleer, & Pricl, 2012) have flared up on a regular basis in recent years. The individual decision to participate in these protest actions (e.g., consumer boycotts, sit-ins, or protest marches) could be analyzed within the prosocial behavior framework (e.g., Klein, Smith, & John, 2004). Finally, the prosocial behavior perspective is highly relevant in health care contexts. This is because health services are frequently provided by nonprofit and public organizations (e.g., Drevs, Tscheulin, & Lindenmeier, 2014), and these organizations and their patients depend on individual willingness to donate blood, organs, or bone marrow.

Zu den Herausforderungen der Informatisierung der Service-Ökonomie aus einzelwirtschaftlicher Sicht

Die fortschreitende Durchsetzung von Informationstechnologien ist eines der zentralen Themen der Gegenwart und der absehbaren Zukunft. Es kann daher wenig uberraschen, dass sowohl die theoretischen, als auch die praktischen Diskurse kontinuierlich neue Begrifflichkeiten produzieren, die aber letztendlich allesamt auf ein und dasselbe Phanomen verweisen; namlich auf die bereits vor vier Dekaden von Nora und Minc (1978) attestierte Informatisierung und damit auf die zunehmende Durchdringung samtlicher Gesellschaftsbereiche mit Informationstechnologien.

Kundenseitige Präferenz für Basistechnologien ‚smarter‘ Produkte: eine Untersuchung am Beispiel von ‚Smart Lighting‘-Systemen

Angetrieben durch den technologischen Fortschritt u.a. im Bereich der Transponder- und Sensortechnologien rucken die sogenannten ‚intelligenten und vernetzten‘ bzw. ‚smarten‘ Systeme verstarkt in den Fokus der Wissenschaft, Politik und allgemeinen Offentlichkeit. Diese Entwicklung wird insbesondere auch durch diesteigende Bedeutung des Internets der Dinge, d.h. der Digitalisierung und Vernetzung der physischen Umwelt, reflektiert (Bullinger/Hompel 2007). In vielen Bereichen des Alltagslebens wie bei sportlichen Aktivitaten (‚Wearables‘ zur Aufzeichnung der Laufgeschwindigkeit und -strecke beim Jogging), im Einzelhandel (RFID-Chips zum Tracking von Produkten) oder auch in Wohnhausern und Wohnungen (‚Smart Home‘-Technologien) werden bereits zum heutigen Zeitpunkt unterschiedlichste Objekte bzw. Gerate vernetzt und bspw.

Attitudes and Motivations Toward Craft Beer Consumption: An Explanatory Study in Two Different Countries

ABSTRACT This study adopts a revised model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour incorporating self-identity and desire for unique consumer products to understand and predict consumers’ motivation to drink craft beer in Germany (N=210) and Italy (N=211). Data were analysed using Partial Least Squares modelling (PLS) approach. The findings provide support that the extended TPB model is a useful tool for understanding the consumers’ choice to drink craft beer. The results confirm the major role played by consumers’ attitudes and self-identity. Mediation analysis indicates a potential indirect effect from self-identity, subjective norms and the desire for unique consumer products on individual behaviour both in the German and Italian sample. Implications for theory are discussed for further research developments within the context of consumption of crafted food products.