Research
Notable Papers
On Brands and Word of Mouth
By Mitchell J. Lovett, Renana Peres & Ron Shachar
Brands and word of mouth (WOM) are cornerstones of the marketing
field, and yet their relationship has received relatively little attention. This study aims to enhance understanding of brand characteristics as
antecedents of WOM by executing a comprehensive empirical analysis.
Advertising, the matchmaker
By Bharat N. Anand & Ron Shachar
We empirically study the informational role of advertising in matching consumers with products when consumers are uncertain about both observable and unobserved program attributes. Our focus is on the network television industry, in which the products are television shows. We estimate a model that allows us to distinguish between the direct effect of advertising on utility and its effect through the information set.
Finding brands and losing your religion?
By Cutright, Keisha M.,Erdem, Tülin,Fitzsimons, Gavan J. & Shachar, Ron
Religion is a powerful force in many people’s lives, impacting decisions about life, death, and everything in between. It may be difficult, then, to imagine that something as seemingly innocuous as the usage of brand name products might influence individuals’ commitment to religion. However, we demonstrate across 6 studies that when brands are a highly salient tool for self-expression, individuals are less likely to report and demonstrate strong religious commitment. We suggest that a desire to maintain consistency among self-identities is one important driver of this relationship and find that the effect is mitigated when the perceived distance between brands and religious values is minimized.
Recent working papers
Shedding a Light on the Teller:
On Storytelling, Meaning in Life, and Personal Goals
By Haran Einam, Mario Mikulincer & Ron Shachar
This paper demonstrates that an overlooked personality ability—storytelling—plays a significant psychological role: individuals proficient in storytelling exhibit a stronger sense of meaning in life (MIL) and endorsement of high-level goals (EHG) compared to their less adept counterparts.
We employ two distinct methods to assess the storytelling ability: we developed a self-report scale for storytellers and also gathered assessments from listeners. The listeners comprise three categories: (a) close friends, (b) strangers who listen to the storyteller's narratives, and (c) trained coders who observe videos of these stories.
The relationship between storytelling and both the sense of meaning-in-life and endorsement of high-level goals is consistent across all measures. Additionally, this relationship persists whether the narrative concerns a personality trait or is constructed from three random words. Furthermore, the results are consistent across two different cultures (US and Middle Eastern).
Finally, these relationships are most pronounced among introverts and least evident among extraverts, suggesting that storytelling may compensate for the absence of extraversion in meaning construction and cognitive abstraction.
Who let the dogs out? News media attention stimulates negative political advertising
By Kang Huang, Mitch Lovett and Ron Shachar
This paper demonstrates that media attention has a meaningful impact on candidates’ strategies in political campaigns. This finding adds a critical dynamic overlooked in previous studies of political campaigns.
To illustrate the critical role of media on candidates, we (1) focus on one of the most pivotal decisions candidates make—whether and when to “go negative,” and (2) analyze a period during which the influence of news media can be clearly distinguished. Our dataset comprises a daily panel of Congressional races in the USA.
A key challenge in identifying the impact of the news media on tone is the potential endogeneity of news coverage. To resolve this challenge, we identify two sets of instrumental variables. The first involves the observed ownership of local newspapers by media conglomerates. Ownership shifts some of the editorial decisions (such as how much attention to pay to politics) from the local level to the national level, which is exogenous to daily tone decisions. The second exploits variables that capture newsworthy events at the daily and local levels--severe weather events, sporting contests, and major crime stories. These events can crowd-out the space allocated for political reporting.
Using a 2SLS approach (with fixed-effects and clustered standard-errors) we find that the attention of the news media encourages the candidates to employ negative ads. When the media turns its attention to a race, the candidates' likelihood of going negative increases meaningfully.
Recently published papers
On the monetization of mobile apps
By Gil Appel, Barak Libai, Eitan Muller & Ron Shachar
Though the mobile app market is substantial and growing fast, most app providers struggle to monetize apps profitably. Monetizing apps is done in two ways: a) selling advertising space within a free version of the app, and b) selling a paid version, termed freemium or in-app purchase strategy.
When and Why Consumers “Accidently” Endanger Their Products
By Yaniv Shani, Gil Appel, Shai Danziger & Ron Shachar
In this research, we examine whether consumers may “accidently” endanger a product they own when a new version of the product is introduced. We propose owners endanger their product when they want to upgrade to a new version but have difficulty justifying the upgrade and that owners find justification more difficult when a new version offers an improved design but does not offer a significant technological improvement. Owners endanger their product hoping it will be “fortuitously” damaged. Product damage provides owners with a good reason to upgrade.
