Publications
Searchable database of research output across all disciplines.
78 publications
Seeing Oneself Seize: A Case Study on the Affordances of a Video-Based Diagnostic Encounter for a Patient with Functional Seizures
Paula Muhr
Culture Medicine and Psychiatry
Circular Luxury in the Asian Market: What Motivates Sustainable Purchases and Brand Loyalty?
Chong, M., ZHU Xiji, Limon-Calisan Y.
Care across spaces: Chinese displaced artefacts in the British Museum and social media platforms
Zhennuo Song, Zhaoyu Zhu, Thomas William Whyke, Lei Hao, Leighton Evans, Cheng Lyu, Yibo Fan
Cultural Trends
<p>In June 2025, the hashtag <em>#NoChineseCanLeaveTheBritishMuseumSmiling</em> circulated widely on the Chinese platform RedNote, sparking public debate over the British Museum's Chinese collections. This article examines how displaced Chinese artefacts are framed differently in the Museum's Chinese galleries and on digital platforms. Data were collected between October 2023 and August 2025 through two rounds of exhibition fieldwork and through a stratified sample of 622 RedNote posts drawn from 2,310 items. In addition, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with museum professionals globally. Drawing on Heidegger's concept of care, we argue that curatorial practices enact spatio-narrative hegemony by embedding artefacts in universalist narratives, while digital publics exercise narrative sovereignty – renegotiating authority, memory and belonging across physical and digital contexts. Theoretically, the article advances a phenomenologically grounded framework for analysing contested heritage in hybrid environments. Practically, it suggests that museums adopt more participatory curatorial strategies when addressing displaced collections in the digital age.</p>
The predictive role of implicit brand equity measures across decision contexts
Karantonis, K., Schnittka, O., Limon-Calisan, Y., & Riedel, C.
Journal of Brand Management
<p>This study examines the predictive validity of implicit evaluative brand association measures in real market outcomes and the boundary conditions of their effectiveness. Drawing on dual-process theories, we focus on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a tool for capturing subconscious brand associations. The research questions ask whether IAT-based brand image scores can predict actual market share and how this relationship might vary with key product category characteristics, specifically, consumers’ consideration set size and purchase frequency. We conducted a large-scale survey of toothpaste brands measuring implicit brand associations via the IAT and linked these scores to each brand’s market share data. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that implicit brand image significantly predicts market share in the product category. Moreover, the IAT’s predictive validity was stronger when the consumer’s consideration set was small, consistent with intuitive decision-making playing a greater role under low choice complexity. However, the expected moderation by purchase frequency was not supported, frequent, habitual purchasing did not further amplify the IAT–share link. Overall, the findings demonstrate that implicit measures can enrich brand equity assessment by capturing hidden drivers of brand preference that translate into market performance, especially in low-complexity choice contexts.</p>
Platformised Justice and the Cultural Politics of Consent: Digital Vigilantism in Chinese Sex-Crime Disputes
Yibo Fan, Zhennuo Song, Lei Hao
Australian Feminist Studies
This article explores how digital media shape the cultural politics of sexual consent and harassment in contemporary China. It examines two high-profile cases, the 2023 Datong engagement-rape judgment and the 2023–2025 Wuhan University sexual harassment lawsuit, to show how cultural expectations surrounding intimacy and marriage, evidentiary disputes and platform logics reshape popular understandings of justice and the authority of courts. Drawing on a mixed-methods content analysis of commentary on Zhihu and Xiaohongshu, the study traces how cultural expectations around intimacy were reframed as entitlement to sex, how judicial caution was translated into accusations of zero-cost claims and how complex forensic disputes were compressed into viral binaries of innocence or guilt. Remarkably, both Zhihu and Xiaohongshu, platforms often characterised as having different gendered user cultures, displayed strikingly similar discursive patterns, suggesting misogynistic narratives circulated across platform boundaries despite differences in user culture. The analysis highlights how media infrastructures displace punitive authority from legal institutions to digital publics, where practices of doxxing, blacklisting and reputational shaming operate as digital vigilantism. Overall, the article situates Chinese sex-crime debates within wider discussions of crime, media and culture, demonstrating how platformised justice reinforces misogynistic narratives while also enabling feminist legal consciousness.
When AI listens but also refuses: conditional recognition in AI-mediated disclosure among male survivors of child sexual abuse in China
Yibo Fan, Zhennuo Song, Cheng Lyu
Journal of Sexual Aggression
This study examines how artificial intelligence shapes disclosure among male survivors of child sexual abuse in China. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 44 adult survivors, it identifies three dynamics. First, AI can provide a de-stigmatised space that reduces interpersonal judgement and temporarily suspends masculine expectations of control and invulnerability. Second, AI actively guides disclosure by helping survivors narrate, organise and potentially share their experiences. Third, this process remains fragile, as generic therapeutic responses and policy-based interruptions may generate rejection, rupture and renewed self-censorship. The article develops the AI-Conditioned Disclosure Model, conceptualising disclosure as conditionally recognised rather than simply enabled. It argues that AI transforms disclosure into a mediated process shaped by gender norms, therapeutic discourse, platform governance and systemic refusal. The study extends CSA disclosure research beyond interpersonal and institutional settings while contributing to debates on human–AI interaction, trauma communication and technological mediation.PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT This study highlights the potential of conversational AI to serve as a relatively private and less socially exposing space for trauma disclosure. However, it also finds that generic responses, gendered assumptions, and abrupt interruptions may undermine the recognition and safety that such interactions initially provide. The findings encourage AI developers to give consideration to the sensitivities and vulnerabilities of trauma survivors, thereby supporting the development of safer, more responsive, and trauma-informed systems.
Wissenschaft und Technologie kommunizieren: Kontroversität, Dialog und Partizipation.
Manuel Bolz, Stefanie Mallon, Paula Muhr, Tim Schaffarczik, and Philipp Schrögel
transcript
Splitting FND: Differences in Targeted Therapies for Functional Movement Disorders and Functional Seizures
Paula Muhr
Social Science & Medicine
CIService AR: A Mobile Augmented Reality System to Enhance User Experience for Campus Information Access
Y. Gao, Z. Yu, C. Jin, H. Ji, G. Chen, K. Li, N. Xu, Y. Zhang
Immersion as Convergence: How Storytelling, Interaction, and Sensory Design Co-Produce Museum Virtual Reality Experiences
Zhennuo Song, Leighton Evans
Information
Cultural heritage institutions today are experiencing a digital transformation. Virtual Reality (VR), with the promise of immersive and interactive features, has drawn the attention of artists and curators. Some prior museology research has attempted to investigate digital innovations like virtual museums and VR-based exhibits to present the best of museum experiences; however, existing systematic research on the topic of interactive narrative experience with immersive VR technologies is rare. This paper reports on an original research project to understand the emergent issues concerning immersion, interactive and narrative in museum experience design. This research used multiple case studies, Claude Monet: The Water Lily Obsession; We live in the Ocean of Air; Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass; Curious Alice. In total, 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with VR experts and museum curators to understand the motivation of the designers and developers. This research hopes to contribute to the digital revolution of museums, providing a foundation for curators and artists who are interested in using VR technologies in exhibitions.
Neurotechnology Through the Lens of Users and as a Novel Field for Society
Danesh Ashouri Vajari, Ludwig Weh, Vera Borrmann, Christopher Coenen, Eva Maria Kraft, Viviana Loufs, Wenzel Mehnert, Paula Muhr, …, and Thomas Stieglitz
Social Science & Medicine
Brand and Myth
Waller, Stefan
English monograph on brands, myth, and cultural philosophy.
Realitätsgerechte Empörung. Anmerkungen zu Moral in der Markenkommunikation
Waller, Stefan
Forum Markenforschung 2025 – Tagungsband DER MARKENTAG / Springer Gabler
In Vorbereitung.
Cultural overflow vs. cultural export: Black Myth: Wukong and the evolution of Chinese gaming in global creative industries
Aiqing Wang, Thomas William Whyke, Zhennuo Song
Creative Industries Journal
This study examines Black Myth: Wukong, China’s first AAA (Triple-A) game, as a transformative medium that bridges traditional Chinese mythology and modern digital storytelling. Drawing from Journey to the West, a cornerstone of Chinese literary heritage, the game integrates advanced gaming technologies with immersive narratives, offering an organic reinterpretation of classical mythology for a global audience. Employing Walter Benjamin’s theory of storytelling and Carly Kocurek’s insights on interactive media, this research highlights how the game revitalises cultural narratives, fostering cross-cultural connections while maintaining authenticity. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates content analysis of narrative and visual elements, sentiment analysis of audience reception, and a dual deductive-inductive thematic analysis to uncover key trends and insights. This study also addresses controversies surrounding inclusivity and ethical storytelling, emphasising the challenges and opportunities in adapting traditional narratives to contemporary global contexts. By analysing the reception and cultural implications of Wukong, we underscore the potential of interactive media to serve as both a cultural bridge and an educational tool.
Investigating the Continuous Intentions to Use Hybrid Cultural Gift in Collaborative Learning: A Study Design
H. Ji, C. Jin, N. Xu, Y. Zhang
Daniel, R. (Limon-Calisan, Y.: Herausgeberin)
Brand University Working Paper Series
Mediating Fatigue: From Promotional Material of Pharmaceuticals in the 1960s to Statistical Maps of Brain Dysfunction in Present-Day Neuroimaging
Paula Muhr, Milton Fernando Gonzalez Rodriguez
Relative (Non-) Existence of Female-Specific Neuropathology in Current Neuroimaging Research into Hysteria/Functional Neurological Disorders
Paula Muhr
Search for Elusive Neuroimaging Biomarkers: Machine Learning, Resting-State fMRI, and the Reconfiguration of Diagnosis in Functional Neurological Disorder
Paula Muhr
Digital Society
Brouillet’s Une leçon clinique à la Salpêtrière as an Epistemic Tool in Charcot’s Research on Hysterical Amnesia
Paula Muhr
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Linguistic Performance and Feminist Resistance: Exploring Digital Identity and Gender Fluidity in the Yu-C Community
Yu Xiao, Yibo Fan, Thomas William Whyke, Zhennuo Song
Australian Feminist Studies
This study explores the Yu-C (language cosplay) community, a female-dominated digital subculture within the Chinese internet landscape. Yu-C, a text-based role-playing platform, enables participants to construct and perform diverse identities—including cross-gender, non-human, and fictional personas—cultivating a unique site for storytelling, social interaction, and feminist expression. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 36 female participants, supplemented by online ethnographic observations, this research examines how Yu-C facilitates identity exploration, challenges patriarchal norms, and serves as a microcosm for feminist resistance and subcultural innovation. Utilising theoretical frameworks of cyberfeminism, queer theory, and intersectionality, the study analyzes the dynamics of inclusion, exclusion, and subcultural capital within the community. Findings reveal that Yu-C offers women a space for self-expression, emotional connection, and the reimagining of traditional gender roles. At the same time, it highlights the complexities of balancing exclusivity and inclusivity. This study contributes to feminist literature by demonstrating the transformative potential of digital spaces for identity reconstruction and collective empowerment, emphasising Yu-C’s role in challenging and reconfiguring societal narratives around gender and power.
Exploring the Activity of the Dying Human Brain. EEG, a new Experimental Systems, and the Search for Disconnected Consciousness
Paula Muhr
Jahrbuch für Tod und Gesellschaft / Annual Review of Death and Society
Collective Layoffs and Offshoring: A Social Contract Account
Granulo, A., Kranzbühler, A., Fuchs, C., Puntoni, S.
Journal of Consumer Research
Collective layoffs can occur for many reasons, often related to a firm’s pursuit of greater efficiency and cost reduction, and they tend to trigger negative reactions among the public. Anecdotal evidence suggests that offshoring, one of the most controversial and politicized aspects of globalization, evokes particularly negative reactions. We propose a social contract account of consumer reactions to collective layoffs and demonstrate differential consumer responses to collective layoffs due to offshoring versus other reasons, such as automation. Layoffs due to offshoring are perceived as an especially egregious violation of the normative expectation that firms should support members of their society. Data from nine experimental studies (N = 5,568; seven reported in the main paper and two in the General Discussion section), public consumer responses to layoffs in a large online community (N = 29,045), and layoff announcements in the European Union (N = 1,261) show that consumers react more negatively to collective layoffs due to offshoring compared to other reasons. Supporting our social contract account, the negative effect of offshoring is stronger when offshoring affects workers in the consumers’ home (vs. foreign) country, when the firm is domestic (vs. foreign), and when most customers are domestic (vs. foreign).
The platformization of socially constructed gender realities: the ‘Fat Cat incident’ (2024)
Aiqing Wang, Thomas William Whyke, Zhennuo Song, Ze-Yang Wang, Yibo Fan
Feminist Media Studies
This paper examines the “Fat Cat Incident” (2024), where a young Chinese gamer’s suicide after an online relationship breakdown sparked intense online discourse. Through inductive thematic analysis and qualitative sentiment analysis of 1,200 user comments from the female-oriented Xiaohongshu and male-dominated Zhihu platforms, we demonstrate how Chinese social media facilitate the social construction of polarized gender realities. Xiaohongshu users predominantly framed Fat Cat as an emotionally impulsive “hopeless romantic” while defending his ex-girlfriend’s right to financial compensation, whereas Zhihu users portrayed Fat Cat as a manipulated victim while characterizing his ex-girlfriend as a calculated “gold-digger” employing PUA tactics. The incident reveals three key processes: (1) gender norm construction via polarized discourse, (2) tragedy commodification into “liuliang” (traffic) and memes, and (3) transactional relationship normalization and digital gender segregation. This demonstrates how platforms shape social realities by reinforcing gender divides, monetizing emotion, and commodifying personal loss, offering critical insight into gender politics in China’s digital public sphere.
A phenomenology study of transmedia museum storytelling and gamification through XR technologies
Zhennuo Song, Thomas William Whyke, Xiaolin Sun, Leighton Evans
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
<p>This study investigates the integration of transmedia storytelling (TMS) within immersive extended reality (XR)-enhanced museum experiences, focusing on its potential to transform cultural engagement. Employing Heidegger's fourfold model as a theoretical foundation, along with the authors' conceptual framework illustrating the synergy of fourfold elements in XR-enhanced museums, the research explores how interactive <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="topic-link" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/narrative"><u>narratives</u></a> align with the dimensions of Earth, sky, mortals and gods to create richer, more participatory museum experiences. Drawing on interviews with 27 experts from Asia, Europe, Canada and the United States, the study examines the challenges and opportunities of integrating TMS into museum practices. The research highlights the transformative potential of storytelling and interactive <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="topic-link" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/narrative"><u>narratives</u></a> to shift museum experiences from passive observation to active participation. This phenomenological orientation towards dynamic storytelling offers implications for designing richer, more engaging cultural heritage experiences and invites further inquiry into the role of TMS in the digital age.</p>
Digital echoes of conformity: navigating elderly fandom and intergenerational ‘creativity’ on Douyin within the shadow of the culture industry
Aiqing Wang, Thomas William Whyke, Zhennuo Song, Yibo Fan
Creative Industries Journal
This article examines how elderly audiences engage with internet celebrities on Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese equivalent) through the lens of the Frankfurt school – with Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse, and Habermas’s critical theories towards the cultural industry. According to them, the culture industry’s mass-produced cultural goods promote conformity, suppress critical thought, and encourage passive consumption to benefit capitalism. This study focuses on the digital presence of Chinese internet celebrities Xiucai and Yixiaoqingcheng, demonstrating how Chinese digital platforms continue the culture industry’s trends of commodification, standardisation, and passive consumption. It uncovers a paradox: digital media seemingly provides the elderly with a sense of participatory culture and community, yet it traps them in a commodifying system that exploits for profit. Furthermore, the interactions between younger users and these celebrities, through parody, highlight a generational dialogue that perpetuates the culture industry’s cycle of replacing genuine cultural and creative values with exchange values, thus sidelining critical social issues like the financial exploitation of the elderly. This research underscores the ongoing significance of the Frankfurt school and its critique of technology in understanding the current digital media landscape in China and calls for a deeper cultural engagement beyond the superficial participatory culture promoted by digital platforms.
Chinese Aesthetics in a Global Context
Yiping Zhang
Philosophy East and West
Marke und Mythos. Eine kulturphilosophische Betrachtung
Waller, Stefan
Kulturphilosophische Betrachtung der mythischen Dimension von Marken.
Evaluating Text-to-Image Generated Photorealistic Images of Human Anatomy
Paula Muhr, Yating Pan, Charlotte Tumescheit, Ann-Kathrin Kübler, Hatice Kübra Parmaksiz, Cheng Chen, Pablo Sebastián Bolaños Orozco, Soeren S. Lienkamp, Janna Hastings
Cureus
Student Identity in Transnational Higher Education: International Branch Campuses Versus Sino-Foreign Institutes
Cai, L., S. Wilkins, L. Zhao, Y. Zhang.
Compare A Journal of Comparative and International Education
Establishing Trust in Algorithmic Results: Ground Truth Simulations and the First Empirical Images of a Black Hole
Paula Muhr
What We Thought Was Unseeable’: Die mediale Konstruktion der ersten authentischen empirischen Bilder eines Schwarzen Lochs
Paula Muhr
The Biologically Vulnerable Brain: Emerging Neuroimaging Research on the Roles of Early-Life Trauma, Genetics, and Epigenetics in Hysteria/Functional Neurological Disorder
Paula Muhr
Limon-Calisan, Y. & Heimers, R.
Essentials
<p>Dieses <em>essential </em>gibt einen fundierten Überblick über das Thema Brand Purpose und beschreibt den Wandel des Markenbegriffs von statischen Konstrukten zu dynamischen, partizipativen Ökosystemen. Im Zentrum stehen dabei der Brand Purpose sowie die Relevanz und Positionierung der Marke für eine langfristige, tiefere Bindung an den Konsumenten. Anhand von Fallstudien zeigen die Autorinnen, wie Unternehmen Ideale und Werte mit der eigenen Marken verbinden und stellen abschließend das Business Canvas Model vor, mit dem Gründer und Marketers Schritt für Schritt den eigenen Brand Purpose entwickeln und umsetzen können.</p>
The museum of digital things: extended reality and museum practices
Zhennuo Song, Leighton Evans
Frontiers in Virtual Reality
This study presents a philosophical reconceptualisation of museums using phenomenological frameworks. It explores the role extended reality (XR) “things” play in the museum experience and studies how their function differs from traditional objects. Existing studies highlight the technological tools, solutions and various visitor experience modalities in the museum sector. However, only a few papers focus on the theoretical aspects of using XR in museums. This empirical study adopts a qualitative research methodology, and 22 semi-structured interviews with specialists in XR design and development, museum culture, curation and museum exhibitions are conducted. The findings suggest that XR enhances museum curation and exhibition practices by providing new dimensions for interacting with museum objects. This aligns with Heidegger’s “the thing” and “fourfold” concepts—the integration of mortals (i.e., museum visitors), earth (i.e., the activities participated in by the visitors), sky (i.e., the potentialities and ideas stimulated by the artefacts) and divinities (i.e., the visitors’ emotions while interacting with the exhibits). Therefore, these new interactions, enabled by XR, can accentuate the narratives attached to and the meaning of the artefacts within the digital museum space, facilitating new understandings and relationships with history due to the digitisation of objects. Furthermore, this can potentially impact XR’s use in developing multi-channel curation and multi-sensory visitor experiences in museums and cultural heritage institutions.
Can the farmers speak? The paradox of the subaltern narrative in Return to Dust
Aiqing Wang, Thomas William Whyke, Zhennuo Song, Zhaoyu Zhu, Joaquín López-Múgica
Journal of Chinese Cinemas
This article examines 隐入尘烟 Yinru Chenyan ‘Return to Dust’ (2022) (henchforth Dust), directed by Li Ruijun, as a powerful critique of rural marginalization and socio-economic inequities in contemporary China. The film illustrates the hardships faced by Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying, representing rural individuals marginalized by prevailing urban narratives and enduring institutional neglect and exploitation. Using narrative analysis and building on the surrounding paratextual film reviews of Dust, this study engages the notion of subalternity to reveal how the film amplifies the voices of rural communities through narrating about three disparate subaltern subjects: the peasants; the marginalized in the rural society; the rural women. Then, through examining the film reviews from state-sponsored media and social media, this paper explores how the subaltern narrative engenders an ideological confrontation between the state-sponsored media discourse and the grassroots discourse from the rural communities. Although the subaltern narrative may be misrepresented as a series of positive messages by state-sponsored media, it concurrently possesses the capacity to provoke public critique of both films and state-sponsored media on social media platforms, advocating for more just representations of social responsibility.
Tracing Hysteria’s Recent Trajectory: From a Crisis for Neurology to a New Scientific Object in Neuroimaging Research
Paula Muhr
The Speechless Patient: Charcot’s Diagnostic Interpretation of Vocal, Gestural and Written Expressions in Hysterical Mutism
Paula Muhr
The Unobserved Anatomy: Negotiating the Plausibility of AI-Based Reconstructions of Missing Brain Structures in Clinical MRI Scans
Paula Muhr
The effect of meat-shaming on meat eaters’ emotions and intentions to adapt behavior
Kranzbühler, A., Schifferstein, H.
Food Quality and Preference
<p>Eating meat can have detrimental effects on the environment, animal welfare, and a person’s health. However, consumers are often reluctant to reduce their meat consumption and public information-based awareness campaigns show little effect. As an alternative, some vegan activists and pressure groups employ emotion-based campaigns using meat-shaming techniques in the hope to change people’s meat consumption behavior. By publicly and often drastically criticizing consumers, they try to make them experience negative emotions and ultimately change their behavior. In three experimental studies, we explore whether a confrontational approach of putting meat-shaming messages on products is likely to affect consumer behavior. Specifically, we find that meat-shaming messages trigger shame but also other negative emotions that translate into reduced purchase intentions. The content of the message largely determines the different emotions that are evoked. The messages can activate both restore and protect motivations, either stimulating or hindering behavioral change. Interestingly, it does not seem to matter whether the meat-shaming message stems from a governmental organization, activist group, or private person and whether it is framed with a personal or informational appeal. If the source looks credible, the message influences consumer experience and behavioral intentions.</p>
Customer Engagement through Loyalty Programs in the Wine Industry
Reimers R., Rueger-Muck E., Limon-Calisan Y. und Theuvsen, L.
The ‘Cartographic Impulse’ and its Epistemic Gains in the Process of Iteratively Mapping M87’s Black Hole
Paula Muhr
Media+Environment
Purpose is dead, long live purpose! Fresh potential in times of dynamic brand management.
Duerl F., Flentje Ch., Limon-Calisan Y., Heimers R.
Epistemic Productivity of Seemingly Failed Approaches in fMRI-Based Research into Hysteria
Paula Muhr
From Photography to fMRI: Epistemic Functions of Images in Medical Research on Hysteria
Paula Muhr
Image
<p>Hysteria, a mysterious disease known since antiquity, is said to have ceased to exist. Challenging this commonly held view, this is the first cross-disciplinary study to examine the current functional neuroimaging research into hysteria and compare it to the nineteenth-century image-based research into the same disorder. Paula Muhr's central argument is that, both in the nineteenth-century and the current neurobiological research on hysteria, images have enabled researchers to generate new medical insights. Through detailed case studies, Muhr traces how different images, from photography to functional brain scans, have reshaped the historically situated medical understanding of this disorder that defies the mind-body dualism.</p>
Visualising the Muscular Force: A Comparison of Charcot’s and Féré’s Approaches to Investigating the Strained Hysterical Body
Paula Muhr
Tito/Tata: Fiction and Factuality in Documentary Photographs of the Father Figure in Communist Yugoslavia
Paula Muhr
Refract An Open Access Visual Studies Journal
Integration of Art and Technology: A Study on Digital Media Design
Zhang Yiping
China Atomic Energy Press
Beyond valence: A meta-analysis of discrete emotions in firm-customer encounters
Kranzbühler, A., Zerres, A., Kleijnen, M., Verlegh, P.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
Distinguishing between consumers’ positive and negative affect is a popular approach in both marketing research and practice, but such valence-based approaches sacrifice specificity and explanatory power. As emotions of the same valence can greatly differ with regard to their underlying appraisal patterns, they also differently affect consumer judgment and behavior. Our meta-analysis of 1035 effect sizes (N = 40,777) across 10 discrete emotions shows that analyzing discrete emotions clearly outperforms models of core affect (valence and arousal) when studying firm–customer encounters. Specifically, we find that the greatest impact stems from the medium-arousal emotion of gratitude and that positive emotions show consistently stronger effect sizes than do negative emotions. We also examine how effects are moderated by situational characteristics of the experience triggering the emotion. Based on our findings, we develop recommendations that help marketers identify and manage consumers’ emotions more effectively.
Kranzbühler, A., Kleijnen, M., Verlegh, P., Teerling, M.
Journal of Medical Internet Research
<p><strong>Background: </strong>Increasing numbers of patients consult Web-based rating platforms before making health care decisions. These platforms often provide ratings from other patients, reflecting their subjective experience. However, patients often lack the knowledge to be able to judge the objective quality of health services. To account for this potential bias, many rating platforms complement patient ratings with more objective expert ratings, which can lead to conflicting signals as these different types of evaluations are not always aligned.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study aimed to fill the gap on how consumers combine information from 2 different sources—patients or experts—to form opinions and make purchase decisions in a health care context. More specifically, we assessed prospective patients’ decision making when considering both types of ratings <em>simultaneously</em> on a Web-based rating platform. In addition, we examined how the influence of patient and expert ratings is conditional upon rating volume (ie, the number of patient opinions).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In a field study, we analyzed a dataset from a Web-based physician rating platform containing clickstream data for more than 5000 US doctors. We complemented this with an experimental lab study consisting of a sample of 112 students from a Dutch university. The average age was 23.1 years, and 60.7% (68/112) of the respondents were female.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The field data illustrated the moderating effect of rating volume. If the patient advice was based on small numbers, prospective patients tended to base their selection of a physician on expert rather than patient advice (profile clicks beta=.14, <em>P</em><.001; call clicks beta=.28, <em>P</em>=.03). However, when the group of patients substantially grew in size, prospective patients started to rely on patients rather than the expert (profile clicks beta=.23, SE=0.07, <em>P</em>=.004; call clicks beta=.43, SE=0.32, <em>P</em>=.10). The experimental study replicated and validated these findings for conflicting patient versus expert advice in a controlled setting. When patient ratings were aggregated from a high number of opinions, prospective patients’ evaluations were affected more strongly by patient than expert advice (meanpatient positive/expert negative=3.06, SD=0.94; meanexpert positive/patient negative=2.55, SD=0.89; <em>F</em>1,108=4.93, <em>P</em>=.03). Conversely, when patient ratings were aggregated from a low volume, participants were affected more strongly by expert compared with patient advice (meanpatient positive/expert negative=2.36, SD=0.76; meanexpert positive/patient negative=3.01, SD=0.81; <em>F</em>1,108=8.42, <em>P</em>=.004). This effect occurred despite the fact that they considered the patients to be less knowledgeable than experts.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>When confronted with information from both sources simultaneously, prospective patients are influenced more strongly by other patients. This effect reverses when the patient rating has been aggregated from a (very) small number of individual opinions. This has important implications for how to present health care provider ratings to prospective patients to aid their decision-making process.</p>
Kranzbühler, A., Kleijnen, M., Verlegh, P.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
<p>Firms struggle to manage touchpoints in their customer journey that consumers perceive as dissatisfying. Based on attribution theory and associative learning we examine <em>branded outsourcing</em> as a strategic means to reduce such touchpoints’ negative impact on brand evaluations. We find in the field and in a series of experimental studies that brands can reduce the detrimental impact of dissatisfying touchpoints. This effect is reversed for satisfying touchpoints. Importantly, we find that the explanation for the effect of branded outsourcing goes beyond consumers’ responsibility attributions. Rather, we find evidence that branded outsourcing reduces the extent to which consumers mentally associate the focal brand with the outsourced touchpoint, which results in a shift in brand evaluations. In an additional study we show that a strong third-party brand is not always more beneficial than a weak third-party brand, which further enhances the managerial relevance of our findings.</p>
Visualising the Hypnotised Brain: Hysteria Research from Charcot to Functional Brain Scans
Paula Muhr
Culture Unbound Journal of Current Cultural Research
The multilevel nature of customer experience research: an integrative review and research agenda
Kranzbühler, A., Kleijnen, M., Morgan, R., Teerling, M.
International Journal of Management Reviews
Over the last three decades, customer experience (CE) has developed from a burgeoning concept to a widely recognized phenomenon in terms of both research and practice. To account for the complexity of consumption decisions, the CE literature encompasses both the rational information processing approach to consumer decision-making and the experiential approach, which includes emotions, feelings and sub-consciousness. The authors classify and examine CE research on two levels. Studies on static CE analyze experiences during touchpoints at one point in time, while studies on dynamic CE assess how experiences evolve over time. Furthermore, both static and dynamic CE research take place from two distinct theoretical perspectives: the organization and the consumer. As both theoretical perspectives essentially deal with the same phenomenon – the organizational perspective with the creation of CEs and the consumer perspective with the perception of customer experiences – there is potential for a productive symbiosis between them. The authors propose that connecting insights from both perspectives can contribute to a better understanding of what constitutes a CE for consumers and how firms can effectively manage it. First, the authors discuss the development of CE and argue that it has evolved into a broad and fragmented ‘umbrella construct’. Second, after distinguishing and defining static and dynamic CE, they systematically evaluate the state of knowledge in both the organizational and consumer perspectives. Finally, they develop an agenda for future research that integrates the consumer perspective into organizational CE research.
Von der Interaktion zur Erfahrung
Zhang Yiping
MARKENARTIKEL
Limon Y., Reimann M., Orth U.R. & Bechara A.
Developments in marketing science: proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science
<p>In: Campbell, C. L. (Hrsg.): The Customer is NOT Always Right? Marketing Orientationsin a Dynamic Business World. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Cham: Springer.</p>
Selbstbild und Sollen. Überlegungen im Anschluss an Gehlen und Kant
Waller, Stefan
Puls / Schramm / Waller (Hrsg.): Kultur. Freiheit. Technik. / Brill | mentis
Framing the Hysterical Body: A Comparative Analysis of a Historical and a Contemporary Approach to Imaging Functional Leg Paralysis
Paula Muhr
INTERCHANGE. Magazin für Designaustausch, Zhuhai
Waller, Stefan
INTERCHANGE
Mitherausgeber.
Leben in Entlastung. Mensch und Naturzweck bei Arnold Gehlen
Waller, Stefan
UVK
Dissertation über Arnold Gehlens philosophische Anthropologie.
Creativity for Tomorrow
Zhang Yiping
Shanghai Hongkong Joint Publishing
Persönlichkeitstransfer von Fürsprechern auf Marken: Psychologische und Neuronale Mechanismen.
Orth, U. & Y. Limon
Schriftenreihe der Agrar- und Ernährungsws. Fakultät der Universität Kiel, Vorträge zur Hochschultagung 2011
Vom Verschwinden des Wissens: Robert Menasses Phänomenologie der Entgeisterung
Waller, Stefan
Dangel / Kömürcü / Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Dichten und Denken. Perspektiven zur Ästhetik
Consumer Metacognitions: The Ease, Speed, and Accuracy of Inferring Meaning from Wine Packages.
Orth U., Bechtold K, Limon Y.
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research,
Boosting Trait Inferences: Psychological and Neural Mechanisms in the Effect of Faces on Brand Perceptions
Dissertation
Store-Evoked Affect, Personalities, and Consumer. Emotional Attachments to Brands,
Orth, U., Limon, Y. & Rose, G.
Journal of Business Research
Designing Wine Retail Interiors to Elicit Desirable Consumer Impressions
Orth, U. R., Heinrich F. & Limon, Y.
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research
Vernetzung und Institutionsabbau – ein Blick auf Arnold Gehlens Kulturphilosophie
Waller, Stefan
Sozialpsychiatrische Informationen
Global standardisiertes oder lokal adaptiertes Marketing?
Orth, U. & Limon, Y.
Schriftenreihe der Agrar- und Ernährungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Kiel,
Package Design as a Communications Vehicle in Cross-Cultural Values Shopping
Limon, Y., Kahle L. & Orth, U.
Journal of International Marketing
Die Moral des Machens. Helmut Schmidt und die Philosophie
Waller, Stefan
Zeitschrift für Hamburgische Geschichte
Packaging from a Cross-Cultural Perspective
Limon, Y.
Eurotürk
Konstruktion und Wahrnehmung: Sol LeWitt, Erwin Heerich, Rolf Bergmeier und Raimer Jochims
Waller, Stefan
66–03. Werke aus der Sammlung Lafrenz und Reinking, Weserburg/Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen
Beiträge zu Werken von Felix Droese, R. Penck, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Rainer Oldendorf, Sabine Mohr
Waller, Stefan
Uwe Fleckner (Hrsg.): Kunst in der Stadt Hamburg. 40 Werke im öffentlichen Raum
Kriticki osvrt na pet pozicija u savremenoj srpskoj fotografiji [A Critical Consideration of Five Positions in Contemporary Serbian Photography]
Paula Muhr
Journal of the Museum of Applied Arts