Digital point-of-sale platforms disrupted the norm of privacy-while-tipping. Previous research indirectly suggests that firms can increase—or at least not decrease—tips by reducing tipping privacy. The effects of tipping privacy on non-tip responses, defined as customer responses subsequent to the tip selection, including repatronage and word-of-mouth, remain unexamined. Related voluntary payment contexts (e.g., donations) suggest consumers sometimes prefer public observability and other times prefer privacy. We examine how and why tipping privacy affects non-tip responses. A field study and four controlled experiments find that diminished tipping privacy reduces non-tip responses because customers feel less generous and in control. Allowing customers to change initial tip amounts mitigates these detrimental effects. Providing insight into the inconsistent effects of privacy on tips, we find that diminished perceived control increases tip amounts, while diminished perceived generosity reduces tips. Managers a
Warren, Nathan & Price, Linda (2024)
Consumer Dirtwork: What Extraordinary Consumption Reveals about the Usefulness of Dirt
Societies create material, social, and moral boundaries that define who and what is dirty. “Dirt” encompasses literal and figurative things—objects, beings, ideas—that transgress these boundaries and thus are “out of place.” Previous research describing how consumers avoid and manage dirt assumes that dirt is aversive. The concept of consumer dirtwork emerged from our examination of self-described “dirtbag” wilderness consumers. Dirtwork reveals the potential usefulness of dirt. Instead of cleaning, dirtworkers redraw dirt boundaries, revealing resources they then work to capture. Boundary redrawing describes a continuum of adjustments to dirt boundaries, ranging from small shifts to complete inversions. Resourcing work describes the efforts required to capture the resources that are uncovered by boundary redrawing. Dirtwork results in challenges and rewards, and offers the possibility of continued dirtwork-resourced consumption. Dirtwork contributes by revealing the process wherein consumers make use of dirt
Edelblum, Andrew B. & Warren, Nathan (2023)
Real men don’t share (online): perceived neediness and the frequent-posting femininity stereotype
Purpose
Research emphasizes the motivations underlying and potential harmful consequences of social media use, but there is little understanding of stigmas faced by individual social media users, particularly as they pertain to gender. The purpose of this study is to examine a unique stereotype related to men’s social media use.
Design/methodology/approach
Four experiments examine judgments of men based on how often they post on social media (frequently vs infrequently).
Findings
The authors find that posting frequently (vs infrequently) affects the perceived gender of men but not women. This frequent-posting femininity stereotype is explained by perceived neediness and holds regardless of whether posts are about others (vs the self) or whether posts are shared by influencers (vs ordinary users).
Research limitations/implications
Future research should examine other stereotypes of social media users – including those pertaining to gender – and ways to mitigate such negative attributions. Researchers should examine how the frequent-posting femininity stereotype and other social media use stereotypes affect social media consumption and consumer well-being.
Practical implications
Managers should adjust consumer engagement strategies and restructure platforms to address the unique stigmas facing different consumer groups.
Originality/value
Providing insights into the dark side of social media, the authors investigate a unique domain – stereotypes about individual social media users. The findings of this study uncover an emasculating stigma against men who post often on social media, which may discourage men from online participation.
To call attention to and motivate action on ethical issues in business or society, messengers often criticize groups for wrongdoing and ask these groups to change their behavior. When criticizing target groups, messengers frequently identify and express concern about harm caused to a victim group, and in the process address a target group by criticizing them for causing this harm and imploring them to change. However, we find that when messengers criticize a target group for causing harm to a victim group in this way—expressing singular concern for the victim group—members of the target group infer, often incorrectly, that the messenger views the target group as less moral and unworthy of concern. This inferred lack of moral concern reduces criticism acceptance and prompts backlash from the target group. To address this problem, we introduce dual concern messaging—messages that simultaneously communicate that a target group causes harm to a victim group and express concern for the target group. A series of several experiments demonstrate that dual concern messages reduce inferences that a critical messenger lacks moral concern for the criticized target group, increase the persuasiveness of the criticism among members of the target group, and reduce backlash from consumers against a corporate messenger. When pursuing justice for victims of a target group, dual concern messages that communicate concern for the victim group as well as the target group are more effective in fostering openness toward criticism, rather than defensiveness, in a target group, thus setting the stage for change.
Warren, Nathan & Hanson, Sara (2023)
Tipping, Disrupted: The Multi-Stakeholder Digital Tipped Service Journey
The shift from analog to digital point-of-sale systems (e.g. Square) and app-based service platforms (e.g. Uber) disrupted frontline services by creating new tipping processes that occur in an ever-expanding range of service contexts and involve new stakeholders. The increasing importance of tipping in the global economy and the uncertainty regarding tipping practices suggest the need for a comprehensive framework that accounts for evolving tipped service networks. We introduce the multi-stakeholder service journey lens to build a conceptual framework that accounts for the competing interests of customers, employees, frontline service managers, technology providers, and other stakeholders in emergent tipped services. This framework examines interactions between stakeholders at different points along the tipped service journey, while accounting for the technologies and contexts that shape stakeholder interactions and the sometimes divergent outcomes that result. Stakeholder interactions at each stage of the tipped service journey suggest theoretically rich research questions, such as “How do digital tipping technologies diffuse into and realign cultural practices?”, and important practical questions, such as “Which tip request framing and formatting choices result in the highest tips, most customer satisfaction, and optimum employee outcomes?” Our conclusion emphasizes the importance of multi-stakeholder service journey perspectives for examining digitally disrupted services.
Warren, Nathan & Warren, Caleb (2023)
Trying too hard or not hard enough: How effort shapes status
Is trying to earn status effective or self-defeating? We show that whether effort increases or decreases admiration and respect (i.e., status) depends on how the person is trying to earn status. Groups evaluate people along multiple status dimensions (e.g., wealth, coolness). Each dimension is associated with a different ideology, or set of beliefs, that ascribe status to behaviors that contribute to the group's goals. Whether behaviors, including effort, increase status, thus, depends on the ideologies that people use to interpret if a behavior contributes to the group. Four experiments demonstrate that people earn more status when they try to become wealthy compared to when they are effortlessly wealthy, but earn less status when they try to become cool compared to when they are effortlessly cool. Effort increases status when directed at wealth but not at coolness because contemporary ideologies suggest that people who gain wealth through effort contribute more to society, whereas people who gain coolness through effort contribute less.
