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Purpose Emerging direct-to-consumer brands offer a single option to consumers before expanding their assortment as the business grows. This provides a counterexample to commonly held beliefs concerning consumers’ aversion to single options. The purpose of this paper is to study when, for whom and why offering two product options (vs a single option) is valued by consumers. Design/methodology/approach Across six experiments, this research investigates consumers’ locomotion orientation (a motivation for controlling progress), which affects the valuation of choice (vs single options). Findings Consumers’ locomotion orientation determines perceived product value for products chosen from a two-option set (vs when considering a single option) because choice offers active control, which is engaging for high-locomotion consumers. Expanding the set to six options has no such effect. Research limitations/implications Studies 1, 4a and 4b are set in the context of expert-selected single options, while Studies 2, 3 and 5 do not involve expert selection. However, the authors does not contrast expert vs non-expert conditions directly. Practical implications Managers can increase consumers’ willingness to pay by using advertisements to induce locomotion or segmenting consumers based on locomotion orientations. Originality/value Research suggests that consumers value choice between options, yet many emerging brands succeed with a single option. The authors reconcile this by providing insights into motivations that determine when, for whom and why choice (vs a single option) is valued.

Researchers are increasingly confronting the need to examine the impacts of social media on democratic discourse. Analyzing 55,560 tweets from the official Twitter accounts of the Democratic and Republican Parties in the United States, the authors examine approaches used by political parties to encourage sharing of their content within the contemporary political divide. They show that tweets sent by the Republican Party are more likely to be predominant in the language of assessment and that tweets predominant in the language of assessment lead to more retweets. Further, this effect is reduced as political parties gain control of successive branches of government because successive increases in political power create fewer impediments to the implementation of a party’s political agenda. As impediments to action are reduced, so is regulatory fit for assessment-oriented language. Goal pursuit language shared on Twitter therefore reveals distinct approaches to obtaining and wielding power across the U.S. political system and constitutes an important tool for public policy makers to use in successfully conducting policy debates.

Labor shortages in health care pose significant challenges to sustaining high-quality care for people with intellectual disabilities. Social robots show promise in supporting both people with intellectual disabilities and their health care professionals; yet, few are fully developed and embedded in productive care environments. Implementation of such technologies is inherently complex, requiring careful examination of facilitators and barriers influencing sustained use. This research aimed to evaluate the value creation and implementation of social robots for people with intellectual disabilities and health care professionals, examining facilitators of and barriers to sustained use across 6 care organizations. A qualitative field study was conducted involving 19 cases of robot implementation across 6 care organizations in the Netherlands; each case consisted of people with intellectual disabilities (clients) and the involved health care professionals. The study examined actual robot deployment in daily care practice between April 2023 and October 2023. Semistructured interviews were conducted with health care professionals after 2 months of implementation. Analysis followed a thematic approach guided by the nonadoption, abandonment, scale-up, spread, and sustainability framework and a model for tracing facilitators of and barriers to the adaptive implementation of the robot. Facilitators were classified as key drivers (complex), enablers (complicated), and minor benefits (simple), whereas barriers were categorized as deal-breakers (complex), obstacles (complicated), and minor hurdles (simple). The robots' sustained use (ie, robot use continuance at 2 months after implementation) served as a key indicator of success. After 2 months, robot use continued in 63% (12/19) of cases. For successful cases, the robot created distinct value among both clients (enhanced daily structure, improved emotional well-being through nonjudgmental interactions, and increased independence) and health care professionals (reduced workload through automation, improved quality of client interactions, and reduced emotional burden). Client characteristics (cognitive capabilities and care predictability), health care professional factors (available time and digital competency), contextual conditions (timing and connectivity), and organizational support (training and resources) influenced sustained use. Main implementation barriers included complex or unpredictable care needs, insufficient programming time, and contextual factors affecting care environments. The findings inform long-term care organizations on the implementation and value of the sustained use of social robots for both people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. Social robot Ivy demonstrates potential for supporting care delivery to people with intellectual disabilities when implemented under appropriate conditions. Success requires careful matching of robot capabilities with client needs, sufficient time and support for health care professionals, and stable care environments. Future research should examine longer-term sustainability and integrate direct client feedback.

E-commerce firms such as Amazon, eBay and JD.com extend large assortments across diverse geographical areas, operating under the assumption that online shopping behavior is unaffected by physical location. However, this assumption is increasingly questioned by two contrasting perspectives. One suggests that consumers in densely populated areas benefit less from large assortments, while another argues that large assortments help consumers regain a sense of control in densely populated environments, which can lead to more positive product evaluations. Analyzing a large-scale e-commerce dataset and conducting two follow-up experiments with incentive-compatible measures, we find strong support for the latter perspective. Consumers in densely (vs. sparsely) populated areas evaluate products chosen from large assortments more positively. These findings suggest that managers can tailor assortments to align with population density or use advertisements featuring densely populated areas to improve the evaluation of products chosen from a large assortment.

[Display omitted] •Retail platforms can increase product valuation by offering large assortments.•Assortment effects depend on customer assessment orientation as a state or trait.•Effects on valuation are mediated by customer engagement and attitude certainty.•A field study demonstrates 27% increase in product selection likelihood. Popular digital platforms, such as Netflix and GrubHub, purposefully aggregate offerings, according to the premise that customers value products chosen from plentiful assortments. Yet academic literature provides little clarity about when, for whom, or how larger online retail assortments affect the value of the products. To provide new insights, the current article aims to address ambiguous extant findings about the effects of larger product assortments. Specifically, this research tests whether customers with high, as opposed to low, assessment orientation value products more when they have chosen them from larger, as opposed to smaller, assortments. Four experiments affirm this idea, such that customers with a high assessment orientation value products more when they have chosen them from platforms with relatively larger assortments. Sequential mediation of the effect occurs through increased choice engagement and attitude certainty. For managers, customer segmentation along the assessment dimension offers benefits, while assessment type marketing communications can increase the likelihood of product selection, like in our field study, where we find an increase of 27%.

PurposeThis study employs S-D Logic to examine the hotel booking behaviors of individuals, with a focus on the impact of service customization on service cancellation. Additionally, the moderating role of social co-creation is explored to provide further insight.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on booking data from two hotels: a resort hotel with 40,060 recorded bookings, including 11,122 cancellations, and bookings from a city hotel with 79,330 bookings, including 33,102 cancellations.FindingsThe result reveals that bookings with higher levels of initial customization, such as special requests, are more likely to be modified later and less likely to be canceled. Interestingly, while multi-adult bookings were found to have a higher cancellation rate than individual bookings, the effects of customization commitment were more pronounced for multi-adult bookings.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to establish a connection between service customization, the number of adults on a booking and the likelihood of cancellation, thus providing new empirical evidence for the emergence of customization effects in services. Additionally, the study identifies important contingencies based on the number of consumers in a booking.

Brand managers have to allocate limited resources between developing new brand extensions and supporting parent brands. We contribute by demonstrating how social media engagement can be optimised by creating a fit between social media language and extensions versus parent brands. This is important given that literature suggests that (a) extensions and parent brands should use the same social media strategy and (b) establishing fit between extensions and parent brands should be the focus of brand managers. This study contributes by analysing over 40,000 tweets made by 26 Google-branded twitter accounts (i.e. @google, @gmail). Results show for brand extension (vs. parent brand) and use of locomotion (vs. assessment) language produce regulatory fit and increase engagement. A 10% increase in locomotive language increased favouriting by 19% and retweeting by 11%. Alternatively, for parent brands, a 10% increase in assessment language increased favouriting by 9% and retweeting by 4%.

PurposeMisinformation is notoriously difficult to combat. Although social media firms have focused on combating the publication of misinformation, misinformation accusations, an important by-product of the spread of misinformation, have been neglected. The authors offer insights into factors contributing to the spread of misinformation accusations on social media platforms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a corpus of 234,556 tweets about the 2020 US presidential election (Study 1) and 99,032 tweets about the 2022 US midterm elections (Study 2) to show how the sharing of misinformation accusations is explained by locomotion orientation.FindingsThe study findings indicate that the sharing of misinformation accusations is explained by writers' lower locomotion orientation, which is amplified among liberal tweet writers.Research limitations/implicationsPractitioners and policymakers can use the study findings to track and reduce the spread of misinformation accusations by developing algorithms to analyze the language of posts. A limitation of this research is that it focuses on political misinformation accusations. Future research in different contexts, such as vaccines, would be pertinent.Practical implicationsThe authors show how social media firms can identify messages containing misinformation accusations with the potential to become viral by considering the tweet writer's locomotion language and geographical data.Social implicationsEarly identification of messages containing misinformation accusations can help to improve the quality of the political conversation and electoral decision-making.Originality/valueStrategies used by social media platforms to identify misinformation lack scale and perform poorly, making it important for social media platforms to manage misinformation accusations in an effort to retain trust. The authors identify linguistic and geographical factors that drive misinformation accusation retweets.

Purpose Sequel advertisements, although used often in practice, are not well studied in literature. This study aims to define sequel advertisements, investigate their effectiveness on customer attitudes towards ads/brands and identify key elements leading to their effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach The authors first conduct a field study using Facebook data to show that sequels are more effective than non-sequels and repeat ads. Study 2 experimentally tests recall and brand attitudes of sequels over new advertisements, Study 3 tests the effectiveness of different character retention and plot extension variations in sequels and Study 4 experimentally establishes the cognitive path that leads to greater effectiveness of sequel advertisements. Findings Sequel advertisements are more effective on consumer recall and brand attitudes as compared to new or repeat advertisements, with message format of the first advertisement moderating the effectiveness of the sequel. Consumers’ recognition of the prior-sequel connection mediates the effectiveness of the sequel advertisement. Plot extension with character retention is the most effective sequel advertising strategy. Research limitations/implications This research opens opportunities for research on the effectiveness of sequels across different media formats/product categories and sequential ads. Practical implications The findings suggest that managers can profitably adopt a strategy of narrative ad followed by a sequel that extends the plot while retaining the characters. Originality/value The authors define sequel advertisements, describe the process mechanisms leading to greater effectiveness of sequels and identify superior sequel advertising strategies.

PurposeThis study investigates how actual donations towards social causes within fashion supply chains can be increased in the face of negative country-of-origin effects.Design/methodology/approachLiterature reports a lack of sustained consumer support for social causes within fashion supply chains. Driven by perceived psychological distance between the manufacturer and the fashion consumer, negative country-of-origin effects have an impact on donation behaviour. Using two online experiments, this study shows that including a garment worker’s image in swing tags mitigates negative country-of-origin effects on actual donations.FindingsFashion consumers’ actual donations towards worker rights increased with the presence of a garment worker’s image. In the higher psychological distance condition, exposure to the image reduced negative country-of-origin effects, increasing actual donations. This increase in actual donations is driven by pleasure-seeking, thus indicating that consumer support for social causes within fashion supply chains is underlined by hedonism.Originality/valueThis study focuses on a visual cue-based mechanism of promoting actual donations towards social causes and the role of pleasure-seeking in this process – two previously under-explored areas in the fashion marketing literature. The use of an incentive-compatible measure that required participants to donate real money allows the demonstration of actual donation behaviour, providing robust evidence of the impact of visual cues and their potential to be applied in the real-world.