Andrea Ordanini

Taking a relational approach, this research investigates why people are so prone to gossip about their favorite celebrities relative to other targets. We focus on the emotional dynamics that characterize the choice of whether to gossip and compare parasocial relationships—one‐sided bonds in which celebrities influence consumers, but not vice versa—with more balanced social relationships. Across five preregistered studies, we show gossiping about one's favorite celebrity evokes less anticipated guilt and more perceived excitement than gossiping about other targets (e.g., friends, acquaintances, ex‐partners, and non‐favorite celebrities). These two emotional responses help explain the effect of relationship type on the likelihood of gossiping. We also find that gossiping about one's favorite celebrity can increase consumers' willingness‐to‐pay for celebrity‐related products. Taken together, this research contributes to the literature on word‐of‐mouth, parasocial relationships and information sharing, while shedding light on a psychological mechanism that helps sustain the ubiquity of celebrity gossip.

This research investigates how reviewers’ self-presentation strategies influence their posting behavior. We find reviewers are less likely to post negative reviews early in their review history due to concerns that doing so would make them appear as lacking warmth. This concern diminishes as the number of reviews associated with their profile increases, resulting in a discernable negative trend in ratings at the reviewer level. We document this trend across two well-known review platforms (Yelp and TripAdvisor). A series of controlled laboratory studies replicate the effect while demonstrating the role played by self-presentation concerns in explaining the downward trend of ratings. Specifically, we find that concerns about appearing to lack warmth influence reviewers’ initial reluctance to post negative (but not positive) reviews, whereas concerns about appearing competent do not. We identify two theoretically consistent managerial interventions that moderate the effect. Allowing reviewers to rate experiences without associating a review with their profile reduces the effect of the number of prior reviews on their likelihood to post, as does prompting them to mention one positive element in their written comments. Our findings underscore the common concern that online review platforms provide positively skewed ratings and offer insight into how to address this.

Research about innovation management explores how the future is created—who is creating it (organizations, collaborations, etc.), for what aims (customer satisfaction, market performance, etc.), and with what broader effects (social, environmental, etc.). With this extended essay, we explore the potential futures of innovation management research in three ways. First, we briefly review the history of past research agendas and priorities published in the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), highlighting three broad topic areas (technological, social/environmental, and organizational) that have emerged over time and their potential disruptive implications for innovation management research. Second, we describe the outcome of a gathering of leading scholars in innovation management tasked with the challenge of identifying critical research paths for our field. This collaboration resulted in five “deep dive” essays into areas ripe for innovation management research in the years ahead: liquid innovation, artificial intelligence in innovation, business model innovation, public value innovation, and responsible innovation. Third, we reflect on this expansive effort and offer a discussion of implications (tensions, challenges, and opportunities) for future innovation management scholarship.

This work illustrates a case in which the implementation of automated digital screens in an apparel retail store led to unintended side effects involving decreased customer spending. Using an empirics-first approach, researchers have investigated this topic through the conducting of field experiments, intercept surveys, and online experiments involving both consumers and frontline employees (FLEs). In this research, the unintended outcomes of technology implementation are first revealed, and then the potential reasons and boundary conditions underlying those outcomes are explored. The findings indicate that while automated digital screens increase customer convenience, they can also restrict the ability of FLEs to perform extrarole behavior. This restriction results in a negative shopping experience and reduced spending, particularly in settings in which FLE interaction is critical. The research also reveals that reintroducing extrarole behavior in the presence of technology can offset this negative effect. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are then discussed, and future research directions are proposed.

This paper investigates the underlying mechanisms of crowdfunding behavior (forward-looking delaying investment behavior and social interactions), which lead to the crowdfunding dynamics.

In many service contexts, customers share the service setting with other customers. However, knowledge about the influences of fellow customers’ copresence remains largely fragmented. We address this deficiency by introducing the integrative concept of customer copresence influence modes (CCIMs) and investigate its potential consequences for service perceptions and evaluations. Following a grounded theory approach and drawing on in-depth, qualitative interviews with both managers and customers of a leading service company, we develop a typology of CCIMs, categorizing the various ways—interactions (reactive/proactive and social/instrumental), observations (information-seeking/comparative), and spillovers (spatial/behavioral)—in which fellow customers might influence the focal customer. Building on this typology, we propose a conceptual framework with a set of testable propositions about consequences of CCIMs for the focal customer’s service experience and the service provider’s image. The CCIM typology and propositional inventory, in addition to offering directions for further research, emphasize the need for service managers to pay special attention to customer copresence because (1) its influence on service experience is contingent on a variety of factors, including some within the managers’ control, and (2) customers might assign responsibility to the service provider for both desirable and detrimental effects of customer copresence.