This article evaluates when a user-design approach is and is not effective in strengthening brand preference. It specifically delves into the role of power-distance beliefs in influencing preferences for user-designed products and brands. The authors demonstrate that low-power-distance consumers prefer user-designed products to company-designed products, whereas this effect is attenuated or reversed for high-power-distance consumers. The authors find process evidence that both feelings of empowerment and values of expertise differentially mediate brand preferences depending on power-distance beliefs, thus extending prior research findings. Field experiments conducted in the United States and cross-culturally (Austria and Guatemala) with Facebook’s advertising platform provide convergent evidence using country and political orientation as managerially accessible proxies. This research sheds light on when and why firms should be wary of user-design approaches, based on how power-distance beliefs drive consumers’ preferences.
AakerJennifer L.MaheswaranDurairaj (1997), “The Effect of Cultural Orientation on Persuasion,” Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (3), 315–28.
2.
AllenB.J.ChandrasekaranDeepaBasuroySuman (2018), “Design Crowdsourcing: The Impact on New Product Performance of Sourcing Design Solutions from the ‘Crowd’,” Journal of Marketing, 82 (2), 106–23.
3.
AndersonJames C.GerbingDavid W. (1988), “Structural Equation Modeling in Practice: A Review and Recommended Two-Step Approach,” Psychological Bulletin, 103 (3), 411–23.
4.
BellezzaSilviaPahariaNeeruKeinanAnat (2017), “Conspicuous Consumption of Time: When Busyness and Lack of Leisure Time Become a Status Symbol,” Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (1), 118–38.
5.
BitterlSallySchreierMartin (2018), “When Consumers Become Project Backers: The Psychological Consequences of Participation in Crowdfunding,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 35 (4), 673–85.
6.
BrocknerJoelAckermanGrantGreenbergJeraldGelfandMichele J.FrancescoAnne MarieChenZhen Xiong. (2001), “Culture and Procedural Justice: The Influence of Power Distance on Reactions to Voice,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37 (4), 300–315.
DahlDarren W.FuchsChristophSchreierMartin (2015), “Why and When Consumers Prefer Products of User-Driven Firms: A Social Identification Account,” Management Science, 61 (8), 1978–88.
FernandesDanielMandelNaomi (2014), “Political Conservatism and Variety-Seeking,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24 (2), 79–86.
12.
FornellClaesLarckerDavid F. (1981), “Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error,” Journal of Marketing Research, 18 (1), 39–50.
13.
FuchsChristophPrandelliEmanuelaSchreierMartinDahlDarren W. (2013), “All That Is Users Might Not Be Gold: How Labeling Products as User Designed Backfires in the Context of Luxury Fashion Brands,” Journal of Marketing, 77 (5), 75–91.
14.
FuchsChristophSchreierMartin (2011) “Customer Empowerment in New Product Development,” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 28 (1), 17–32.
15.
GiddensAnthony (1998), The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
16.
GrahamJesseHaidtJonathanNosekBrian A. (2009), “Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Sets of Moral Foundations,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96 (5), 1029–46.
17.
HayesAndrew F. (2013), Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. New York: The Guilford Press.
18.
HofstedeGeert (1984), Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, Vol. 5. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.
19.
HofstedeGeert (2001), Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
20.
HossainMokterZahidul IslamK.M. (2015), “Generating Ideas on Online Platforms: A Case Study of ‘My Starbucks Idea’,” Arab Economic and Business Journal, 10 (2), 102–11.
21.
JavidanMansourHouseRobert J.DorfmanPeter W.HangesPaul J.De LuqueMary Sully (2006), “Conceptualizing and Measuring Cultures and Their Consequences: A Comparative Review of GLOBE’s and Hofstede’s Approaches,” Journal of International Business Studies, 37 (6), 897–914.
22.
JostJohn T.ThompsonErik P. (2000), “Group-Based Dominance and Opposition to Equality as Independent Predictors of Self-Esteem, Ethnocentrism, and Social Policy Attitudes Among African Americans and European Americans,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 36 (3), 209–32.
23.
JostJohn T.GlaserJackKruglanskiArie W.SullowayFrank J. (2003), “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,” Psychological Bulletin, 129 (3), 339–75.
24.
JungKijuGarbarinoEllenBrileyDonnel A.WynhausenJesse (2017), “Blue and Red Voices: Effects of Political Ideology on Consumers’ Complaining and Disputing Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (3), 477–99.
KimJeehye ChristineParkBrianDuboisDavid (2018) “How Consumers’ Political Ideology and Status-Maintenance Goals Interact to Shape Their Desire for Luxury Goods,” Journal of Marketing, 82 (6), 132–49.
27.
KirkmanBradley L.ChenGiladFarhJiing-LihChenZhen XiongLoweKevin B. (2009), “Individual Power Distance Orientation and Follower Reactions to Transformational Leaders: A Cross-Level, Cross-Cultural Examination,” Academy of Management Journal, 52 (4), 744–64.
28.
KullAlexander J.HeathTimothy B. (2016), “You Decide, We Donate: Strengthening Consumer–Brand Relationships Through Digitally Co-Created Social Responsibility,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33 (1), 78–92.
29.
LalwaniAshok K.ForcumLura (2016), “Does a Dollar Get You a Dollar’s Worth of Merchandise? The Impact of Power Distance Belief on Price-Quality Judgments,” Journal of Consumer Research, 43 (2), 317–33.
30.
MoreauC. PageHerdKelly B. (2010), “To Each His Own? How Comparisons with Others Influence Consumers’ Evaluations of Their Self-Designed Products,” Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (5), 806–19.
31.
NishikawaHidehikoSchreierMartinFuchsChristophOgawaSusumu (2017), “The Value of Marketing Crowdsourced New Products as Such: Evidence from Two Randomized Field Experiments,” Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (4), 525–39.
PrahaladCoimbatore K.RamaswamyVenkat (2004), “Co-Creation Experiences: The Next Practice in Value Creation,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18 (3), 5–14.
36.
PrattoFelicia (1999), “The Puzzle of Continuing Group Inequality: Piecing Together Psychological, Social, and Cultural Forces in Social Dominance Theory,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 191–263.
37.
PrattoFeliciaSidaniusJimStallworthLisa M.MalleBertram F. (1994), “Social Dominance Orientation: A Personality Variable Predicting Social and Political Attitudes,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67 (4), 741–63.
38.
SchreierMartinFuchsChristophDahlDarren W. (2012), “The Innovation Effect of User Design: Exploring Consumers’ Innovation Perceptions of Firms Selling Products Designed by Users,” Journal of Marketing, 76 (5), 18–32.
39.
SidaniusJimPrattoFeliciaBoboLawrence (1996), “Racism, Conservatism, Affirmative Action, and Intellectual Sophistication: A Matter of Principled Conservatism or Group Dominance?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70 (3), 476–90.
40.
SongXiaobingZhangYinlongMittalVikas (2017), “How Does Power Distance Belief Affect Consumers’ Preference for User- Versus Designer-Designed Products?” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 45, GneezyAyeletGriskeviciusVladasWilliamsPatti, eds. Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, 894–95.
41.
SpencerSteven J.ZannaMark P.FongGeoffrey T. (2005), “Establishing a Causal Chain: Why Experiments Are Often More Effective Than Mediational Analyses in Examining Psychological Processes,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89 (6), 845–51.
42.
UlrichKarl T. (2011), Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
43.
Von HippelEric (2005), Democratizing Innovation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
44.
WinterichKaren PageZhangYinlong (2014), “Accepting Inequality Deters Responsibility: How Power Distance Decreases Charitable Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (2), 274–93.
ZhangYinlongWinterichKaren PageMittalVikas (2010), “Power Distance Belief and Impulsive Buying,” Journal of Marketing Research, 47 (5), 945–54.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
