Boosting Strengths or Fixing Weaknesses? A Preference Mismatch between Product Providers and Choosers in Product Improvement Decisions
Prof. Yanping TU, Associate Professor of Marketing, Peking University
Date: 12 May 2023 (Friday)
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Venue: E22-G015
Host: Prof. Kao SI, Assistant Professor in Marketing
Online registration: https://umac.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e3TyizuHGj3XcFM
Abstract
Every product has its relative strengths and weaknesses, albeit both usually have improvement potential. Product providers often make product improvement decisions yet are bounded by resources to improve only some aspects. Do product providers make optimal decisions about boosting strengths versus fixing weaknesses? Eight experiments (4 pre-registered), using racing cars in a mobile game (Study 1 and Study 1 supplement), Airbnb apartments (Studies 2A and 3), restaurants (Studies 2B and 4), mountain bikes (Study 2C), and cars (Study 5B) as the target products, converge to yield a preference mismatch: Product providers prioritize fixing weaknesses more than choosers would appreciate. This effect is further supported by a secondary dataset spanning 70 months in the car market (Study 5A). To explain this preference mismatch, a novel evaluatee-evaluator framework is proposed: Product providers (i.e., evaluatees) experience evaluation apprehension, worrying that their decision outcome may be negatively evaluated by choosers (i.e., evaluators), which directs them to fix weaknesses. Consistent with our theorizing, two interventions that relieve providers’ evaluation apprehension – (1) boosting providers’ task efficacy (Study 3) and (2) alleviating providers’ decision consequences (Study 4) – reduce the preference mismatch. Together, this research offers both descriptive and prescriptive insights into product improvement decisions.
Speaker
Prof. Yanping TU is an associate professor of marketing at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. She obtained her PhD degree in Marketing from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and her BS in Psychology and BA in Economics from Peking University. She studies consumer behavior and decision making. Her work has been published in leading Marketing, Management, and Psychology journals, such as the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and so on.
All are welcome!
