• Trickle-Round Signals: When Low Status Is Mixed with High
  Silvia Bellezza, Columbia University
  While trickle-down theories suggest that fashion starts with the elites and moves downward, some high-end restaurants serve lowbrow food like potato chips or macaroni and cheese, and some fashion trends are poached from blue-collar workers before they become popular. When and why do high-status individuals adopt items associated with traditionally low-status groups? We use a signaling perspective to explain this phenomenon, demonstrating that highs adopt some items associated with low-status groups to distinguish themselves from middle-status individuals. Emulating low-status groups is risky and costly for middles, and, as a result, adopting such items grants distinction to the elites. Further, the presence of multiple signaling dimensions facilitates this effect, allowing highs to mix-and-match items in a way that differentiates them from lows. These findings deepen our understanding of signaling dynamics, support a trickle-round theory of fashion, and shed light on alternative status symbols.
• The Effect of Duration Metrics on Consumer Satisfaction
  Tari Dagogo-Jack, Boston College
  In an increasingly time—and attention—scarce world, companies must effectively manage consumers’ expectations about the time costs involved in consumption-related activities. Accordingly, many marketers in time-intensive industries have begun providing consumers with duration metrics—information about how long people typically spend on a given activity (e.g., reading news articles). How does such information actually influence consumers’ engagement and satisfaction? Tari Dagogo-Jack will present findings from media website engagement data and controlled laboratory experiments suggesting that setting higher expectations for time expenditures can increase satisfaction and word-of-mouth.
• Break Through the Clutter and Promote Persuasion
  Daniella Kupor, Boston University
  Marketers fiercely compete to motivate consumers to click on their advertisements in order to nudge them along the path to purchase. When marketers urge consumers to learn more about the products they promote, they often have the option to highlight aspects of those products that have either changed, or that have longevity. Daniella Kupor will describe research which finds that framing messages and offerings around the notion of change can enhance persuasion by stimulating a precious cognitive reaction: the curiosity to learn more. She will provide findings from an online field experiment as well as controlled lab studies that demonstrate how these findings can be applied across a range of domains.
• Organizational Buying and Innovation Adoption Under Share of Wallet Contracts
  Navid Mojir, Harvard University
  B2B markets are typically characterized by organizational buying involving a buying center with multiple stakeholders (e.g., buyers, users) who have different preferences and costs. A common feature of pricing in B2B markets is the “share of wallet” contract, designed to induce and reward customer loyalty by offering discounts when a customer contracts and commits to buying more than a threshold share in the category from the supplier. We explore the impact of these contracts on purchasing decisions and how they can potentially speed up diffusion of innovation in the context of a medical device market. We also showcase how having a better understanding of internal dynamics of buying organizations could help with developing more efficient marketing strategies.
• Love, Lies, and Money: Financial Infidelity within Romantic Relationships
  Hristina Nikolova, Boston College
  Romantic relationships are built on trust, yet when it comes to money, partners are not always honest about their financial practices—partners may hide spending, debt, and even savings and income from one another. Although financial infidelity is common among couples and has direct implications for consumption, it been largely ignored by marketing scholars. Hristina Nikolova will present her new work on financial infidelity in which she and her co-authors define what financial infidelity is and what types of behaviors fall under this umbrella term; develop and validate a 12-item Financial Infidelity Scale (FI-Scale) to assess individual variation in consumers’ financial infidelity proneness; and, most importantly, demonstrate the impact of financial infidelity proneness on consumer choices (e.g., preferences for discreet payment methods, non-descript product packaging, digital receipts, and stores). Hristina Nikolova will also discuss the practical implications of these findings for marketers and financial planners.
• Understanding How Social Influence Affects Product Spread with Randomized Experiments
  Dylan Walker, Boston University
  Word-of-mouth and social influence driven diffusion can be instrumental in launching new products or services, promoting existing ones, nudging behaviors and promoting positive social change. But context is everything. Firms can first discover the role that social influence plays in diffusion of their products or services and leverage it with carefully designed networked randomized controlled trials. This work features prominent examples and key insights from several networked RCTs and the broader testing design and analysis strategies that can be generalized to firm-specific contexts.
• Online Reputation Management
  Georgios Zervas, Boston University
  With the increasing impact of online reviews on consumer decision making, what can firms do to manage their online reputations?
• AGC Winners
  Dafna Goor, Harvard University – “Branding in the New World: How Luxury Consumption, Social Comparison, and Brand Secrecy Impact Symbolic Consumption”
  Tesary Lin, University of Chicago – “Measuring Intrinsic and Instrumental Preferences for Privacy”

1. Yakov Bart, Northeastern University – Social Media and Connected Consumers
2. Alexander Chernev, Northwestern University – Running Meaningful Field Experiments
3. Peter S. Fader, University of Pennsylvania – Customer Centricity/Valuation
4. Henrik Hagtvedt, Boston College – Sensory Marketing
5. Gary Lilien, Pennsylvania State University – B2B Innovation
6. Koen Pauwels, Northeastern University – Marketing Attribution and Analytics
7. Shuba Srinivasan, Boston University – Path to Purchase

Academic Trustee/Executive Directors Council Meeting
For members of the committees

Marketers must deliver more personalized, measurable experiences in a responsible way to drive business growth. In this session, David Kaul aims to educate attendees on the implications of original research done with Bain & Company and BCG. The presentation will also include measurement practices of today’s leading marketers, as well as a leave behind that allows attendees to self-assess, receive a follow up playbook, and follow subsequent events to keep up with industry best practices.