@misc{FlorianPeschke, author = {Florian, Dost and Peschke, Christiane}, title = {When Influencers Promote Their Own Products: Trust Perceptions Following Explicit Versus Implicit Promotion Styles}, series = {Proceedings International Marketing Trends Conference 2024, Venice}, journal = {Proceedings International Marketing Trends Conference 2024, Venice}, isbn = {978-2-490372-18-8}, pages = {1 -- 8}, abstract = {In recent years, influencer marketing has become a powerful tool for promoting products due to influencers' unique ability to captivate their followers' attention effectively. Moreover, influencers often enjoy a high level of trust among their followers, enhancing the persuasiveness of their product endorsements. However, a relatively unexplored question in the current literature is how trust perceptions are affected when influencers promote their own branded products. Our research investigates the impact of influencers' own brand promotions on trust, considering explicit endorsement versus subtle implicit integration into content. We find that trust increases when influencers implicitly integrate their branded products, akin to product placement. This is particularly noteworthy when influencers are endorsing their own, lesser- known products, as compared to national brand products. Nevertheless, the implicit promotion may reduce awareness of the promoted product. Mediation analyses reveal opposing effects of trust towards the influencer and product awareness on purchase intentions, nearly offsetting each other.}, language = {en} } @misc{ReichsteinDostGalle, author = {Reichstein, Thomas and Dost, Florian and Galle, Clara}, title = {May I have your attention, please! Social Media Engagement does not always reflect user attention}, abstract = {User engagement with social media content is the primary currency for social media marketers. An implicit assumption is that high engagement reflects high user attention to content. Surprisingly, this assumption has not been tested, and many users may only habitually engage with content without paying much attention to it. Using an eye-tracking experiment to examine subjects' gaze trajectories across 161 social media posts, we show that attention is indeed a strong predictor of engagement. However, the strength of the prediction is moderated by text length and emojis, with surprising results. Thus, the implicit assumption that engagement reflects attention is often misplaced.}, language = {en} } @misc{WernerDost, author = {Werner, Bastian and Dost, Florian}, title = {Range-based versus Point-based WTP/WTA Measures: New Findings for the Endowment Effect}, series = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy}, journal = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy}, number = {53}, abstract = {Previous research has examined the well-known endowment effect using point-based measures of willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) values and found that this effect leads to market failure because sellers' WTA often exceeds buyers' WTP. This research examines the endowment effect using range-based measures of WTP and WTA, providing a more realistic perspective given bounded rationality and uncertainty conditions. To confirm the conceptual extensions and modifications of the endowment effect, we conceptually replicate a comprehensive point-based study on the endowment effect (Jefferson/Taplin, 2011) using range-based measures. Our results show an increased endowment effect but also less severe inefficiencies in a market, as there is significant overlap between WTP and WTA ranges, leading to a more efficient market than previously thought and more transactions taking place.}, language = {en} } @misc{MaierDost, author = {Maier, Erik and Dost, Florian}, title = {Preventing the Death of the High Street}, series = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy}, volume = {53}, journal = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy}, abstract = {Inner-city store closures, the so-called "death of the high street", are a phenomenon that affects retailers and municipalities across the globe. Extant research lacks an understanding of potential interventions that help mitigate this phenomenon. The present research uses unique observational panel data from 17,000 stores for the years 2015 and 2022 to test the effects of city-level government intervention (inner-city investment prize) on the propensity of local stores to fall empty or empty stores to see a store opening. Using a quasi-experiment (discontinuity of prize competition participants with or without prize money) and a Markov model, our results indicate that even modest government investment can help to reduce the probability of vacancies and increase the probability of store openings.}, language = {en} } @misc{ReichsteinBruschDostetal., author = {Reichstein, Thomas and Brusch, Ines and Dost, Florian and Brusch, Michael}, title = {How To Optimize Your Social Media Caption To Generate More Engagement :) \#Captionize \#SocialMedia}, series = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, EMAC 2023 Annual, Odense, Denmark, May 24, 2023}, journal = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, EMAC 2023 Annual, Odense, Denmark, May 24, 2023}, publisher = {European Marketing Academy}, abstract = {Maximizing engagement is an important issue for social media managers. Science has already provided guidance on how to make content more engaging. However, one easy-to-edit part of the social media post has received little attention: The caption. We show that the caption has an underestimated impact on engagement and we specifically address text length. The relationship between text length and engagement is not linear as described in previous literature but follows an inverted U-shape. Using field data, we estimate the optimal length of captions and provide surprising results. We show that captions are mostly too short instead of too long and that an optimal length can increase the engagement rate by up to 17\%.}, language = {en} } @misc{WernerDost, author = {Werner, Bastian and Dost, Florian}, title = {Behavioral Pricing and Innovative Pricing Mechanisms in Purchase Decisions- a Review and Recommandations for Future Research}, series = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, EMAC 2023 Annual, Odense, Denmark, May 24, 2023}, journal = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, EMAC 2023 Annual, Odense, Denmark, May 24, 2023}, language = {en} } @misc{RennieCleophasSykulskietal., author = {Rennie, Nicola and Cleophas, Catherine and Sykulski, Adam and Dost, Florian}, title = {Outlier detection in network revenue management}, series = {OR Spectrum}, journal = {OR Spectrum}, issn = {0171-6468}, doi = {10.1007/s00291-023-00714-2}, abstract = {This paper presents an automated approach for providing ranked lists of outliers in observed demand to support analysts in network revenue management. Such network revenue management, e.g. for railway itineraries, needs accurate demand forecasts. However, demand outliers across or in parts of a network complicate accurate demand forecasting, and the network structure makes such demand outliers hard to detect. We propose a two-step approach combining clustering with functional outlier detection to identify outlying demand from network bookings observed on the leg level. The first step clusters legs to appropriately partition and pools booking patterns. The second step identifies outliers within each cluster and uses a novel aggregation method across legs to create a ranked alert list of affected instances. Our method outperforms analyses that consider leg data without regard for network implications and offers a computationally efficient alternative to storing and analysing all data on the itinerary level, especially in highly-connected networks where most customers book multi-leg products. A simulation study demonstrates the robustness of the approach and quantifies the potential revenue benefits from adjusting demand forecasts for offer optimisation. Finally, we illustrate the applicability based on empirical data obtained from Deutsche Bahn.}, language = {en} } @misc{RennieCleophasSykulskietal., author = {Rennie, Nicola and Cleophas, Catherine and Sykulski, Adam and Dost, Florian}, title = {Analysing and visualising bike-sharing demand with outliers}, series = {Discover Data}, journal = {Discover Data}, number = {1}, issn = {2731-6955}, doi = {10.1007/s44248-023-00001-z}, abstract = {Bike-sharing is a popular component of sustainable urban mobility. It requires anticipatory planning, e.g. of station locations and inventory, to balance expected demand and capacity. However, external factors such as extreme weather or glitches in public transport, can cause demand to deviate from baseline levels. Identifying such outliers keeps historic data reliable and improves forecasts. In this paper we show how outliers can be identified by clustering stations and applying a functional depth analysis. We apply our analysis techniques to the Washington D.C. Capital Bikeshare data set as the running example throughout the paper, but our methodology is general by design. Furthermore, we offer an array of meaningful visualisations to communicate findings and highlight patterns in demand. Last but not least, we formulate managerial recommendations on how to use both the demand forecast and the identified outliers in the bike-sharing planning process.}, language = {en} } @misc{DostMaier, author = {Dost, Florian and Maier, Erik}, title = {Promoting Price Discounts across Channels: The Role of Discount Level and Product Sales Frequency}, series = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, EMAC 2023 Annual, Odense, Denmark, May 24, 2023}, journal = {Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, EMAC 2023 Annual, Odense, Denmark, May 24, 2023}, publisher = {European Marketing Academy}, issn = {2709-1589}, abstract = {The most common promotional activity are price discounts, and retailers have to choose whether to further promote their price discounts with ads in offline (e.g., print) or online (e.g., banner ads) channels. However, retail managers lack guidance for which promotional channel (offline or online) would support price discounts best and what types of products (high or low sales frequency) would benefit most. Using a field experiment, we disentangle the interacting effects of price discounts (at various discount levels) and their supporting promotional channel. We find that digi-tal promotions of price discounts are more effective than non-digital print campaigns to increase sales beyond the base price discount effect. In addition, the product's sales frequency matters: rela-tively, digital promotions best support price-discounted low-sales-frequency products, and steeply discounted high-sales-frequency products receive additional support from offline ads.}, language = {en} } @misc{DostPhieler, author = {Dost, Florian and Phieler, Ulrike}, title = {How To Set Up Seeded Marketing Campaigns with Offline-Focused Nano-Influencers That Create Engagement, Sales, and Return-On-Investment}, series = {Reconnecting and reconceiving the marketplace : AMA Winter Academic Conference 2023 : AMA educators proceedings volume 34 : online, 6 February, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 10 - 12 February 2023, part 1}, journal = {Reconnecting and reconceiving the marketplace : AMA Winter Academic Conference 2023 : AMA educators proceedings volume 34 : online, 6 February, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 10 - 12 February 2023, part 1}, publisher = {American Marketing Association}, address = {Chicago, ILL.}, isbn = {978-0-87757-015-8}, pages = {194 -- 196}, abstract = {Marketers know the majority of impactful product and brand recommendations happen in offline conversations. To become part of these conversations, marketers increasingly utilize thousands of nano-influencers---ordinary consumers who "buzz" about a brand---with specialized marketing formats: seeded marketing campaigns (SMCs). The idea is to equip a large number of nano-influencers with the product or brand to be marketed, then encourage them to share their brand experiences and excitement with their peers. Overall, the created seed activity from SMCs has been shown to increase sales (Dost et al. 2019, Chae et al. 2017, Godes and Mayzlin 2009) at comparably low cost, which makes SMCs an attractive marketing mix addition for managers. The key challenge with SMCs, and a major difference to marketing campaigns with professional online influencers, is that nano-influencer activity is not contractually specified, and managers cannot economically engage with thousands of nano-influencers individually. Instead, managers have to rely on their initial campaign setup decisions to activate nano-influencers. SMC setup comprises SMC size and selection (how many nano-influencers, and who from where to select?), SMC content (which products and incentives to send the nano-influencers?), and SMC timing (how long should the campaign run?). Managers actively seek advice from literature to improve their setup decisions; however, extant research offers them only incomplete setup recommendations. This leaves managers at a loss and complicates result- and cost-conscious campaigns set-ups. With a unique dataset of 148 SMCs comprising the activity of nearly 700,000 nano� influencers and covering about a twentieth of all SMCs in the EU during data collection, we comprehensively model how setup decisions affect all relevant campaign outcomes---seed activity, sales, cost, and return-on-investment---while considering marketing and brand context. Our cross-campaign data enables a comparison of various SMC setups to find out which of managers' available setup decisions aid in planning effective and/or efficient SMCs. Results show that campaign success lies mostly in managers' hands, as setup decisions show the highest impact on campaign outcomes. Brand context plays only a minor role---contrasting organic word-of-mouth settings. Marketing context, such as parallel advertising or product price, matter differently, depending on the campaign goal. We identify trade-offs between effective brand building (maximum seed activity), effective promotion (maximum sales), and efficient (maximum return-on-investment) campaigns, reconciling conflicting suggestions from extant research. Our model predicts that managers could increase seed activity by 97\%, sales by 162\%, or return-on-investment by 100\% compared to current practice.}, language = {en} }