Daniel Boller

What is the rational for remarkable variations in market values among superstars – quantified performance, or simply popularity, or both? Based on a large‐scale field data sample, we investigate the effect of actual market value differences in superstar markets. Specifically, we propose that social attachment and reputation implies notable differences in superstar income creation (market values), and suppresses the role of actual talent and performance. This research has substantial theoretical and practical implications. The proposed research offers novel insights in the field of superstar theory; specifically, we show that popularity overwhelms the effect of actual quantified performance in superstar markets, respectively that actual performance and popularity contribute separately to, and in a divergent extent on actual monetary return. Furthermore, the derived results are of great importance for practitioners. Managers can evaluate which effects explain the market value (costs) of superstars and which social positioning strategies will result in a notable monetary benefit.

Mass customization is ubiquitous and various industries offer customizable products to their consumers. However, consumers often fail to customize products that they identify with and that meet their idiosyncratic preferences best. This research work proposes a novel customization architecture – preference based customization – which provides a consumer initial customized products that come close to her/his preferences. Empirical evidence from seven studies, including field and laboratory experiments across multiple product domains, demonstrate the effectiveness (i.e., increased choice confidence and willingness to buy) of preference based customization architectures relative to standard attribute-by-attribute customization architectures.

Human decision making does not exist in isolation, but is determined by consumers’ prior experiences expressed by the notion of “context-dependent choice” (Schwarz 2004). Few research has examined the effect of contextual factors on consumer decision making and there is a specific lack regarding how pre-shopping factors affect consumer decision making (Shankar 2010; Bell et al. 2011). The present research examines how consumers’ fluency experiences (e.g., experienced prior visiting a website) on their path to purchase affects their decision confidence. We provide novel insights into how fluency affects decision making by showing how predecisional fluency and subsequent fluency affect subsequent decision confidence. The insights of this research inform marketing practitioners about how to use referrer information to determine consumers’ experiences.

Human decision making does not exist in isolation, but is determined by consumers’ prior experiences, expressed by the notion of “context-dependent choice”. Few research has examined the effect of contextual experiences on consumer decision making, and there is a specific lack regarding how pre-shopping experiences in online ambiences affect consumer decision making. Our paper proposes a novel approach to extract information from the path, respectively, to derive a holistic understanding of path-dependent consumer decision making in online environments. Specifically, we offer new insights, how predecisional experiences based on path data (i.e., websites/content, consumer experienced prior the arrival of a specific website/shop) affect consumer decision making (i.e., the link between predecisional experiences and subsequent decision making). Thus, we contribute to the recent call of AMS, AMA, MSI, and SCP recommending a strengthening of research in online path data analysis, respectively, linking path data and consumer decision making. Furthermore, as a side finding, we extend the scope of prior work on fluency theory by enhancing the contextual embedding of predecisional experiences in stimuli processing with regard to consumer decision making. Additionally, the insights of this research inform marketing practitioners about how to use path data to determine consumers’ experiences on their website and how they can shape consumer decision making (i.e., the integration of individual consumer path data through responsive website-interfaces).

This paper examines how preference articulation prior a configuration task and receiving an initial configuration based on this preference articulation affects both consumers’ evaluation of the configuration process and the final product configuration. A combination of four experiments demonstrates that the preference articulation entry increases consumers’ choice confidence and consumers’ purchase intention. This process is driven by the extent to which consumers identify with the product configuration and a decreased choice complexity during the configuration process. The proposed research offers novel insights into product customization.