Laura Marie Schons | University of Mannheim (original) (raw)

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Papers by Laura Marie Schons

Prior research has firmly established that consumers draw benefits from a firm's engagement in co... more Prior research has firmly established that consumers draw benefits from a firm's engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially the feeling of a “warm glow.” These benefits positively affect several desirable outcomes, such as willingness to pay or customer loyalty. The authors propose that consumers do not blindly perceive benefits from a firm's CSR engagement, but tend to suspect that a firm's prices include a mark-up to finance the CSR engagement. Taking customers' benefit perceptions and price mark-up inferences into account, the authors suggest that CSR engagement has mixed effects on consumers' evaluation of price fairness and, thus, subsequent outcomes such as customer loyalty. The authors conducted one qualitative study and four quantitative studies leveraging longitudinal field and experimental data of over 4,000 customers showing that customers in fact infer CSR price mark-ups, entailing mixed effects of firms' CSR engagement on price fairness. The authors find that perception critically depends on customers' CSR attributions and explore the underlying psychological mechanisms. They propose communication strategies to optimize the effect of CSR engagement on perceived price fairness.

Journal of Marketing, 2015

In our globalized and interconnected world, companies are increasingly donating substantial amoun... more In our globalized and interconnected world, companies are increasingly donating substantial amounts to good causes around the globe. Many companies choose to donate “at home” while others give to causes in faraway places where recipients are in dire need of support. Interestingly, past research on corporate donations has neglected the question of whether consumers differentially reward companies for geographically varying allocations of donation budgets. Through a mixed methods approach, this paper remedies this gap by developing and empirically testing a conceptual framework of consumers’ preferences for geographically varying allocations of corporate donation budgets. In a first step, two preliminary field studies (N 1 = 76; N 2 = 80) involving real donations explored customers’ preferences for donation allocations varying in geographical focus. A qualitative focus group study then investigated underlying rationales to inform the research and led to the development of hypotheses. Subsequently a large-scale between-subjects scenario experiment (N = 5770) tested the predictions. Overall, results indicate that, in contrast with current managerial practice, customers prefer companies that split donations equally between domestic and foreign recipients or even donate only abroad.

Drawing on neo-institutional and stakeholder theory, this study examines the link between a firm'... more Drawing on neo-institutional and stakeholder theory, this study examines the link between a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions and its financial performance. The authors investigate whether and how a firm's symbolic (“talk”) and substantive (“walk”) CSR actions, alone or combined, affect financial performance depending on the main stakeholder group they are directed at (i.e., high-proximity internal stakeholders such as employees versus low-proximity external stakeholders such as customers or the wider society). In a comparison of two domains targeting either high- or low-proximity stakeholders, results show that substantive/symbolic CSR actions have a positive impact/no impact on financial performance if directed toward high-proximity stakeholders, and that the opposite is true of actions directed at low-proximity stakeholders. Further, results show that low-proximity stakeholders have greater difficulty distinguishing between mere talk and real walk. The study relies on an international, cross-industry dataset from Thomson Reuters’ Asset4ESG and Datastream from 2002 to 2011.

Retailers are increasingly using round prices, a trend at odds with the marketing belief in the s... more Retailers are increasingly using round prices, a trend at odds with the marketing belief in the superiority of just-below prices. However, conclusive empirical evidence on the effectiveness of different price endings is still missing. Addressing this void, this paper presents four field-experimental studies with a broad array of samples revealing the central role of convenience in the context of price endings. Findings indicate that consumers perceive round prices as more convenient because their high cognitive accessibility saves time and effort during transactions, which is corroborated using a reaction time measure. Accordingly, round prices increase sales in purchase situations characterized by a high importance of convenience. Further, consumers’ convenience consciousness explains preferences for different price endings. This research thus contributes to the behavioral pricing literature by challenging traditional marketing beliefs and providing convincing evidence of the superiority of round prices in a complex world where many customers attach great importance to convenience.

This study is examines the dynamics in prices paid in “pay-what-you-want” situations over multipl... more This study is examines the dynamics in prices paid in “pay-what-you-want” situations over multiple customer–seller transactions on an individual customer level. The analysis of potential dynamism in prices paid allows for an assessment of the profitability of pay-what-you-want pricing for sellers of frequently bought products and services. To empirically validate the framework, the authors conduct a field study that focuses on the aggregate and individual dynamics in prices paid over customers’ multiple purchases. Using latent growth modeling, the authors find significant but declining decreases in prices paid. Further, they identify stable individual and relational difference factors which predict steeper or more gradual declines in prices paid. Customers’ individual preferences for fairness and price consciousness as well as their overall satisfaction with the seller alleviate price declines. The authors discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.

Loyalty programs have enjoyed a steady increase in popularity, particularly in retailing. Past re... more Loyalty programs have enjoyed a steady increase in popularity, particularly in retailing. Past research has explored whether the membership in a loyalty program affects important customer outcomes. However, none of the previous contributions has differentiated between the effects of different loyalty program types on customer retention. This paper intends to fill this research gap by focusing on the question whether different types of loyalty programs, i.e. multi-vendor loyalty programs (MVLP) or stand-alone programs (SAPs) are most effective in retaining customers. Based on a transaction cost theoretic analysis of benefits generated by the two types of programs, two empirical studies are conducted in the retail sector. Our results clearly indicate that a higher level of customer retention cannot be achieved by joining an MVLP, but by setting up an SAP. It is, however, possible to win new customers through joining an MVLP which does not seem feasible through setting up an SAP.

Hochkosten- und Niedrigkostensituationen wurden in der Literatur vielfach konzeptionell diskutier... more Hochkosten- und Niedrigkostensituationen wurden in der Literatur vielfach konzeptionell diskutiert
und besonders die „Low-Cost-Hypothese“ war Gegenstand zahlreicher Studien zu prosozialem Verhalten. In der
vorliegenden Studie werden Personen in Indonesien befragt, die bedingt durch ein sehr niedriges Einkommen unter einem
sehr starken çkonomischen Druck stehen. Wir bedienen uns eines Ansatzes aus der experimentellen Spieltheorie
(des Ultimatumspiels) und finden eindeutige Hinweise für die Existenz von Hochkostensituationen; Situationen also, in
denen die Befragten dazu gezwungen sind, sich den Prognosen der klassischen Rational-Choice-Theorie entsprechend zu
verhalten. Des Weiteren ermçglicht es unsere experimentelle Methodologie, die Effekte des Einkommens (als Restriktion)
und Spielbetrags (als situativen Anreizes) separat zu quantifizieren und auf Nichtlinearitäten zu überprüfen.

Journal of Marketing, 2015