Gifts and Lying and how it influences consumers
My goal with this application if to create the right prerequisites for focusing on research that targets the best journals in my field. I have during a number of years worked to raise the level (ABS) on where I publish my research. I raised the bar from level 2-3 to level 4 – and I would like to take the next step and publish my research on level 4*. Publishing on that level takes more time than I have the possibility to allocate within my day-to-day work. The manuscripts that I would like to focus on build on relatively unique ideas and large datasets that already have been collected. The first two manuscripts focus on lying behavior and how that influences the interaction between employees and customers. Existing models in marketing take for granted that we are truthful, but our data shows that 92% of consumers admit to lying in service encounters. Employees also lie to make the customer buy more or to not hurt their feelings. The third manuscript focus on the role of gift giving from firms to consumers and how it influences what they spend. The research is performed together with international scholars, why I intend to spend time at BI (Norway), University of Queensland (Australia) and University of Alabama (USA). These universities have built strong research environments in marketing that can give me the right prerequisites to reach my goals.
Final report
The project “Gifts, Lies and its influence on consumers” has been performed during 2020 as a sabbatical for Professor Lars Witell, Linköping University. Lars is also affiliated with CTF – Service Research Center at Karlstad University. The main idea was to perform a project on the role of gifts and lies in service encounters. The project started with existing data that had been gathered during the last couple of years, but where there had not been an opportunity to take the manuscripts to submission. Within the project there has been co-operation with researchers at University of Alabama (US), University of Queensland (Australia) and BI (Norway). Before the outbreak of COVID-19, a shorter visit at University of Cambridge was conducted. The other visits where not possible to perform due to the travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19. The intended visits have been replaced by co-operation through digital platforms such as ZOOM, Teams and Skype. The digital way of working has enabled participation in seminars, workshops and working on shared manuscripts. This way of working has not been optimal, but all planned activities have been performed. This includes participation in workshops with firms, seminars with leading scholars as well as presentation of the research project.
In the area of lying behavior, two manuscripts have been finished and submitted for review in international journals. One manuscripts concerns consumer lying behavior towards employees in service encounters. In the manuscript, we develop a conceptual model about consumer lying behavior in service encounters and illustrate it with consumer lies from the field. Existing theoretical models assume that consumers are honest, while our data suggests that 90% of consumer lie on a regular basis. We view the manuscript as central for introducing dishonesty and lying behavior in service research. The second manuscript concerns how employees lie to consumers in service encounters. The manuscript focuses on how service firms encourage their frontline employees to lie in service encounters and how this influences both the employee and the consumer. Finishing these two manuscripts have also provided a research agenda with new research questions, where there are opportunities to pursue new studies and new type of analyses to better understand the concept of lying behavior. We have identified two research questions that we will start working on. The first is an operationalization of the conceptual model of consumer lying behavior. It enables us to estimate the financial, behavioral and emotional effects of consumer lying behavior for the consumer, the employee and the service firm. The second builds on studying how the same type of lie is perceived by the liar and the receiver of the lie. Here, text analysis can be an important tool that we believe can identify systematic differences in the language between the sender and receiver of the lie.
In the area of gift giving, a manuscript has been developed and submitted for review in an international journal. The research concerns how retail stores use gift-giving as a strategy to influence their customers and what effects this have for the business. The results of our research clearly show that gift-giving has direct effects on both customer satisfaction and consumer spending. In particular, our research unfolds the mechanisms that causes these effects. The mechanisms can be explained by the interplay between gratitude and obligation and how these two concepts together lead to the effects on customer satisfaction and consumer spending. The research builds on studies both performed in a lab and in the field and it shows how service research successfully can combine these two types of studies. Based on the results, there are several avenues for further research. There are research questions regarding the timing of gift-giving in the service encounter, as well as, the long-term effects of gift-giving. If a gift is given to a consumer in a service encounter – does the consumer remember this in their choice of service provider for their next visit, and if they do, what effect does it have in this service encounter? At the present, the involved researchers focus their efforts on working on lying behavior, but also the implications of the gift-giving project is of interest for further research.
To get the opportunity to focus one year on research in this specific area has been rewarding. To do this project during a pandemic has enabled a focus on both finishing ongoing manuscripts and to further develop the research. In the project, the submitted manuscripts have all been sent to international journals where they can be published as open access. I see this year as a researcher as a milestone in my academic career and in my personal development as a researcher. Having a sabbatical has given me the time to learn new type of analyses and to further deepen my research collaborations. It has also given me the opportunity to develop my academic writing and the skills needed to manage the academic publishing process. To publish strong manuscripts in my research field (Business Administration) takes time, and revisions of the manuscripts will continue for a couple of years. My hope is that all three manuscripts in the end will be published in strong international academic journals. More information on the results of the research project will be available on my webpage at Linköping University (https://liu.se/medarbetare/larni66).
In the area of lying behavior, two manuscripts have been finished and submitted for review in international journals. One manuscripts concerns consumer lying behavior towards employees in service encounters. In the manuscript, we develop a conceptual model about consumer lying behavior in service encounters and illustrate it with consumer lies from the field. Existing theoretical models assume that consumers are honest, while our data suggests that 90% of consumer lie on a regular basis. We view the manuscript as central for introducing dishonesty and lying behavior in service research. The second manuscript concerns how employees lie to consumers in service encounters. The manuscript focuses on how service firms encourage their frontline employees to lie in service encounters and how this influences both the employee and the consumer. Finishing these two manuscripts have also provided a research agenda with new research questions, where there are opportunities to pursue new studies and new type of analyses to better understand the concept of lying behavior. We have identified two research questions that we will start working on. The first is an operationalization of the conceptual model of consumer lying behavior. It enables us to estimate the financial, behavioral and emotional effects of consumer lying behavior for the consumer, the employee and the service firm. The second builds on studying how the same type of lie is perceived by the liar and the receiver of the lie. Here, text analysis can be an important tool that we believe can identify systematic differences in the language between the sender and receiver of the lie.
In the area of gift giving, a manuscript has been developed and submitted for review in an international journal. The research concerns how retail stores use gift-giving as a strategy to influence their customers and what effects this have for the business. The results of our research clearly show that gift-giving has direct effects on both customer satisfaction and consumer spending. In particular, our research unfolds the mechanisms that causes these effects. The mechanisms can be explained by the interplay between gratitude and obligation and how these two concepts together lead to the effects on customer satisfaction and consumer spending. The research builds on studies both performed in a lab and in the field and it shows how service research successfully can combine these two types of studies. Based on the results, there are several avenues for further research. There are research questions regarding the timing of gift-giving in the service encounter, as well as, the long-term effects of gift-giving. If a gift is given to a consumer in a service encounter – does the consumer remember this in their choice of service provider for their next visit, and if they do, what effect does it have in this service encounter? At the present, the involved researchers focus their efforts on working on lying behavior, but also the implications of the gift-giving project is of interest for further research.
To get the opportunity to focus one year on research in this specific area has been rewarding. To do this project during a pandemic has enabled a focus on both finishing ongoing manuscripts and to further develop the research. In the project, the submitted manuscripts have all been sent to international journals where they can be published as open access. I see this year as a researcher as a milestone in my academic career and in my personal development as a researcher. Having a sabbatical has given me the time to learn new type of analyses and to further deepen my research collaborations. It has also given me the opportunity to develop my academic writing and the skills needed to manage the academic publishing process. To publish strong manuscripts in my research field (Business Administration) takes time, and revisions of the manuscripts will continue for a couple of years. My hope is that all three manuscripts in the end will be published in strong international academic journals. More information on the results of the research project will be available on my webpage at Linköping University (https://liu.se/medarbetare/larni66).