Hierarchical and Role-Based Differences in the Perception of Organizational Listening Effectiveness

A growing body of research underscores the importance of how effectively (or poorly) organizations listen and respond to key external publics and stakeholders. This paper describes research focusing on how organizational hierarchy and member roles impact perceptions of organizational listening effectiveness, specifically the process of capturing, analyzing, disseminating, and utilizing the “Voice of the Consumer” (VoC). After reviewing literature in three relevant areas of research, the paper describes a study in which senior executives’ perceptions of the effectiveness of consumer listening efforts in their respective organizations are compared with those of lower-level consumer intelligence providers and users. Results indicate that senior executives assess VoC program effectiveness in their organizations more favorably than consumer intelligence providers/users with respect to 10 key aspects of organizational listening. Implications for theory-building and knowledge development, along with implications for practitioners and directions for future research, are discussed.

Sharing-Dominant Logic? Quantifying the Association between Consumer Intelligence and Choice of Social Access Modes

With sharing economy and access-based consumption, consumers increasingly access goods through social access modes other than private ownership—such as co-ownership, leasing, or borrowing. Prior research focuses on consumers’ attitudinal motivations and consumption-cultural use experiences pertaining to such social exchange–based access modes. In so doing, prior research has overlooked the influence that consumers’ fundamental, even biologically shaped, cognitive traits may have on their choice of access modes. To fill this research gap, this study analyzes a data set of more than 30,000 new car registrations by male consumers in Finland, including cognitive test data from the Finnish Defense Forces and covariates from other governmental sources. The field data suggests that consumers’ intelligence scores and their choice to co-own and lease their cars are positively associated. Econometric evidence further suggests that the association between intelligence and choice of social exchange–based access modes can be explained by intelligent consumers’ higher social trust in people and institutions, as well as two circumstantial mechanisms: their financial standing and tendency to seek savings. The findings from the field data are supported by an additional survey study (n = 460). Implications for the evolution of markets and consumption, as well as human intelligence and cooperation, are discussed.

The ethics of “smart” advertising and regulatory initiatives in the consumer intelligence industry

Purpose – This paper aims to study the ethics of “smart” advertising and regulatory initiatives in the consumer intelligence industry. Increasingly, online behavioural advertising strategies, especially in the mobile media environment, are being integrated with other existing and emerging technologies to create new techniques based on “smart” surveillance practices. These “smart” surveillance practices have ethical impacts including identifiability, inequality, a chilling effect, the objectification, exploitation and manipulation of consumers as well as information asymmetries. This article examines three regulatory initiatives – privacy-by-design considerations, the proposed General Data Protection Regulation of the EU and the US Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2013 – that have sought to address the privacy and data protection issues associated with these practices. Design/methodology/approach – The authors performed a critical literature review of academic, grey and journalistic publications surrounding behavioural advertising to identify the capabilities of existing and emerging advertising practices and their potential ethical impacts. This information was used to explore how well-proposed regulatory mechanisms might address current and emerging ethical and privacy issues in the emerging mobile media environment. Findings – The article concludes that all three regulatory initiatives fall short of providing adequate consumer and citizen protection in relation to online behavioural advertising as well as “smart” advertising. Originality/value – The article demonstrates that existing and proposed regulatory initiatives need to be amended to provide adequate citizen protection and describes how a focus on privacy and data protection does not address all of the ethical issues raised.

Internet Marketing and Consumers Online

The internet plays two important roles in marketing-influencing consumer behavior and harnessing consumer intelligence. While its vital for organizations to evaluate consumer intentions and provide consumers the necessary information they are looking for, equally important is the need for collecting consumer data by studying the consumer behavioral patterns on the internet and subsequently nurturing long term relationships with consumers. This study aims at identifying the dimensions of website attributes that represent intentions of consumers for visiting product and brand websites and examines the relationship between various website attributes, with respect to the function performed by the attribute. The methods on how the results were obtained and used will be explored further in this article. This research will be further used for analyzing website attributes with respect to Web Traffic, Website Reputation, Alexa Reach & Readability.

Consumer Intelligence, Creativity, and Consciousness: Implications for Consumer Protection and Education

This research represents an exploratory investigation of the relationship between consumers’ intellegence, creativity, and ability to activate consumption-relevant information. Within the cohort sample used, it was found that these three characteristics were positively related. The implications of this pattern for public policies designed to inform and educate consumers are discussed.