Maximilian Stieler

Co-destruction of value by spectators: the case of silent protests

Research question: This exploratory paper aims to introduce the concept of value co-destruction in the field of sport management and research. We asked whether all groups of spectators at a sport stadium experienced value co-destruction in the same way. Moreover, we analysed how the prior expectations of the various stadium spectator groups influenced their experience of value. Our definition of value co-destruction comprises not only an actual decline in value experienced, but also the negative deviation from the expected enhancement of well-being. Research methods: Value co-destruction was investigated at two German Bundesliga football games during the 2012/2013 season. Spectators of both games deliberately refused to cheer. As a result, the entire stadium remained silent for 12 minutes at the beginning of each game. We conducted qualitative interviews with different types of spectators. This allowed us to measure value co-destruction at the individual level, in line with service-dominant logic. Spectators were interviewed either before or after the game, or during half-time. Results and Findings: Our results show that value co-destruction is one of many different possible outcomes of the interaction between actors in a sport stadium. Like co-creation, co-destruction mainly depends on the value expectation: interactions in the stadium that co-create value for one actor can co-destroy value for another. Our findings indicate that this holds true specifically for stadium atmosphere as one of the most important value dimensions of spectators. Implications: For sport management practice, we thus recommend assessing the positive or negative value effect of the interaction processes that contribute to stadium atmosphere individually for each actor.

The ties that bind us: feelings of social connectedness in socio-emotional experiences

Purpose This paper aims to focus on similarity cues that may strengthen bonds among crowd members and that serve as “glue” between individual group members in the context of collective football-viewing events. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 is a qualitative field study that focused on the subjective socio-emotional experiences of event visitors, whereas Study 2 tested the hypotheses quantitatively. Findings The qualitative pre-study revealed a variety of discrete emotions that consumers experienced through the course of consumption. Apart from individualistic emotions, respondents reported feeling common bonds with fellow crowd members. Respondents used a variety of emotion terms to express this experience. Moreover, we found different types of similarity cues which strengthen feelings of connectedness among crowd members in a football-watching scenario. Collaborative actions and team identification, as a sports-specific variable, foster a feeling of social connectedness, which in turn directly positively affects consumer enjoyment. Research limitations/implications Experiencing a feeling of social connectedness may serve as a starting point for a long-term relationship with the service itself or with associated brands. Future experimental studies might isolate the antecedents of a feeling of social connectedness and, thus, enhance the understanding of consumers’ emotional states during the course of hedonic consumption. Practical implications Service providers should encourage consumers to perform collaborative actions, as consumers potentially infect others and start a ripple effect. Originality/value This paper differs from existing work on crowds, in that the authors focus on similarity cues as antecedents of feelings of connectedness among group members.

When Brand Representatives Act as Sales Associates : Mechanisms and Effects of Native Selling and its Disclosure

Johanna Held is Research Assistant and Doctoral Student at the Chair of Marketing, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95444 Bayreuth, Germany, Phone: +49/921-556145, E-mail: Johanna.Held@ uni-bayreuth.de. Maximilian Stieler is Research Assistant and Doctoral Student at the Chair of Marketing, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95444 Bayreuth, Germany, Phone: +49/921-556136, E-mail: Maximilian. Stieler@uni-bayreuth.de. Claas Christian Germelmann is Professor of Marketing at the University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95444 Bayreuth, Germany, Phone: +49/921-556130, Fax: +49/921-55-6132, E-mail: C.C.Germelmann@ uni-bayreuth.de. *Corresponding author Laurence Ashworth is Associate Professor at The Stephen J.R. Smith School of Business, Goodes Hall, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6, Phone: +1/613-5333206, E-mail: lashworth@ business.queensu.ca. When Brand Representatives Act as Sales Associates: Mechanisms and Effects of Native Selling and its Disclosure

Who Is to Blame? The Role of Perceived Deception and Moral Emotions in Consumers' Attributional Search : a Structured Abstract

Questions of morality arise with many business decisions and practices, specifically when consumers are involved. Businesses as well as consumers have moral standards they cling to when interacting with other actors. These moral standards can be seen as individuals’ knowledge about implicit moral rules, norms, and laws of social life (Tangney et al. 2007). Moral emotions are the connecting link between moral standards and moral behavior and can be defined as individuals’ considerations about what is “good and bad, right and wrong and ought and should” (Weiner 2006, p. 87). In business practices, moral standards could be openness and honesty in communication. On the other side, lying, cheating, deceiving, and other incidents can be classified as morally inacceptable behavior. In the field of consumer behavior, deception has been investigated as one of these moral transgressions (Gardner 1975; Darke and Ritchie 2007; Darke et al. 2010; Boush et al. 2009). This chapter investigates a sales strategy by retailers and companies which is potentially misleading for consumers. Specifically, we are interested in the role of moral emotions when consumers perceive deception.

Fan Experience in Spectator Sports and the Feeling of Social Connectedness

Hedonic consumption is often characterized by joint social experiences (Arnould and Price 1993; Holt 1995). Joint experiences involve sharing emotions with each other (Argo et al. 2008; Ramanathan and McGill 2007) and a certain feeling of belongingness may lead to increased hedonic value (Raghunathan and Corfman 2006). Customers of a hedonic mass service, e.g., spectator sports, may experience a variety of emotions during the course of consumption. These feelings vary from positive to negative, from strongly felt emotions to more subtle feelings, and have an impact on the value that a customer draws from the experience. However, to our knowledge the emotional state that arises because a customer feels connected to the collective of other customers has not been described yet. From the field of community research we know that people may feel relational bonds to others (McMillan 1996; McMillan and Chavis 1986). Such a feeling of connectedness may be viewed as the “emotional glue” between all customers in a spatially and timely limited frame. This emotion is qualitatively and semantically different from other feelings such as joy, fear, or anger and can be seen as a sign of homogeny of the group of customers. Despite the fact that customers differ strongly in psychometric and sociodemographic variables, they are all equal in the characteristic that they form a collective gathering. To a certain extent, a feeling of social connectedness may arise between consumers who do not even know each other.