香蕉秀

Spearheading the gathering were Assistant Professor聽Nailya Ordabayeva聽and Coughlin Sesquicentennial Assistant Professor聽Hristina Nikolova, both of the Marketing Department.

Nikolova delivered a presentation titled 鈥淟ove, Lies, and Money: Financial Infidelity with Married Couples,鈥� summarizing research by her and three collaborators who have developed a scale for measuring a person鈥檚 inclination to commit financial infidelity. Such infidelity is defined by the three as 鈥渢he intentional failure to disclose to one鈥檚 romantic partner any financial behavior that is expected to be disapproved of by them.鈥� Examples included starting a secret bank account and concealing purchases of expensive gifts for others.

Ordabayeva鈥檚 presentation was titled 鈥淭he Upside of Negative: Social Distance in Online Reviews.鈥� Together with two other researchers, she has conducted studies indicating that consumers who identify with a particular brand will often see a negative review of its products as threatening, leading them to identify even further with that brand. This is especially so when the negative reviewer is 鈥渟ocially distant鈥� from the reader鈥攆or example, someone from another region or country, Ordabayeva said.

Among the 22 other presentations that day were 鈥淭he Paradox of Luxury Consumption: When Aspirational Products Backfire,鈥� by Dafna Goor of Harvard Business School (with three co-authors including Ordabayeva). She has found that a luxury product can trigger a sense of inauthenticity in some consumers due to their 鈥渇eelings of unworthiness of the product.鈥� This is particularly true of consumers who don鈥檛 have a marked sense of entitlement, according to the findings.