News

The article  "The Effects of Model Ethnicity in Charity Appeals for Local and Global Charities"of Nathalie Dens, Patrick De Pelsmacker & Sarah De Meulenaer has been published in 

Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing Volume 34, 2022 - Issue 1 and can be consulted for free via this elink.

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Ana Isabel Lopes (UAntwerp) studied the impact of online reviews on customers and businesses

Almost everyone reads reviews on the internet. These reactions (and the way in which a business responds to them or not) have an impact on the consumer, according to PhD research done by Ana Isabel Lopes (UAntwerp).

Online reviews have become an integral part of consumers' lives. If we want to have a bite to eat or are looking for a hotel, we go through Google or TripAdvisor, and immediately get a whole series of reviews. These ‘reviews’ tend to look like comments or short lists of pros and cons, because they are seldom in-depth. However, it is undeniable that they have an impact, both on the consumer's final decision and on the turnover of hotels and restaurants.

Ana Isabel Lopes dedicated her PhD research at the Department of Marketing at the University of Antwerp to online reviews, supervised by Prof. Patrick De Pelsmacker and Prof. Nathalie Dens.

‘Today, giving your opinion on a service, a product or a brand is an integral part of our consumer experience’, she explains. ‘In my research, I focused on the impact of reviews on consumer choice and on the link between “webcare” – the response to those reviews by businesses – and the turnover of the business discussed.’

Stars have little value

Lopes' research shows that consumers attach little value to the 'stars' awarded in a review when there is review text available. When a review contains a strong argument, it is considered credible by consumers.

‘An experiment showed that a majority of negative reactions about different aspects of a brand can still lead to a positive evaluation of the brand, provided that the positive reviews focus on several substantively strong arguments’, Lopes explains. The researcher can also put a number to it: for every twelve reviews, there must be at least four positive ones to still lead to a positive brand experience.

Do not apologise

Business owners often wonder whether they should respond to online reviews, and how they should do so. The large-scale analysis of hotel reviews shows that paying attention to webcare can positively influence the number of bookings. Lopes: ‘The way in which you answer reviews is important. Asking customers to send their message through a private channel, going on the defensive by presenting valid counter-arguments, offering compensation and having the response signed by the manager themselves are strategies that pay off.’

The business owners who pay attention to webcare should avoid merely apologising, simply asking for more information, inviting people to visit them again and using informal non-verbal elements such as emoticons. Lopes' research also shows that expressing gratitude and addressing the reviewer personally have no impact on future hotel bookings.

Mass marketing scams and fake website solicitations are taking over. How can critical thinking and perceived benefit and risk help you to respond better? Dr. Yaniv Hanoch, Associate Professor at Southampton Business School, dives deeper into this topic during his research seminar on November 18. Our goal is to bring together like-minded spirits and stimulate debate and conversation on this matter. 

About Dr. Yaniv Hanoch

Dr Yaniv Hanoch is an Associate Professor at Southampton BusinessSchool. Prior to joining Southampton Business School, he was a professorof decision science at Plymouth University and postdoc at the UCLAschool of public health and the Max Planck Institute for HumanDevelopment (ABC group).Dr Hanoch’s research focuses on decision making and risk-taking acrossthe lifespan and across domains. He has over 130 publications ineconomics, public health and psychology journals. Yaniv’s research hasbeen published in leading journals such as the Journal of BehavioralDecision Making, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, HealthPsychology, Health Service Research Organizational Behavior andHuman Decision Process, Psychological Science, Risk Analysis, and manyothers. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor in the Journal ofBehavioral and Experimental Economics.

The article of Nathalie Dens, Clara Cutello, Carmem Meira Cunha, Michelle Symons, Karolien Poels & Heidi Vandebosch has been published in IJERPH as part of the Special Issue SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic and Physical Activity and is available here!

The NudJIT study focusses on stimulation of healthy behaviour using adaptive interventions. Want to know more about it? Click here!

The publication of the article of Freya De Keyzer, Nathalie Dens & Patrick de Pelsmacker was published here and was mentioned in  Contagious. 

Congratulations!

The article by Yana Avramova, Patrick De Pelsmacker & Nathalie Dens has been published in Journal of Business Research, Volume 128, May 2021, Pages 20-30. 

You can read the full article here!

The article of Ana Lopes, Nathalie Dens, Patrick De Pelsmacker & Freya De Keyzer has been published by Emerald in Vol. 45 No. 1, pp. 1-20

Read the full article here!

The publication of Clara Cutello's article in Risk Analysis was noticed by the press here and here.

Congratulations Clara! 

Patrick De Pelsmacker, Ingrid Moons, Freya de Keyzer & Kristien Daems won the Outstanding Paper in the 2020 Emerald Literati Awards of Young Consumers with the publication 'Personalized and cued advertising aimed at children’. Published in 2019, volume 20, issue 2

De glastuinbouwsector, de wetenschap en de high-tech industrie bouwen samen aan innovaties.

Dagelijks zijn telers op zoek naar efficiënte manieren om het hoogst haalbare resultaat te behalen. De kostprijs moet namelijk blijven concurreren met zowel Europese, als niet-Europese telers. Het behouden van deze concurrentiepositie vraagt om innovatie. Maar in realiteit sluiten de ontwikkelde innovaties vaak niet aan op de praktijk. Daarom gaat innovatie niet zonder samenwerking, ofwel co-creatie. Echter, is dit geen gemakkelijk proces. Om co-creatie in de Nederlandse en Vlaamse glastuinbouw te vergemakkelijken, ontwikkelde GLITCH het GLITCH Kompas, een online tool die ondersteund bij het realiseren van innovaties middels co-creatie.

Het GLICH Kompas
Het GLITCH Kompas is een online tool die ambitieuze personen actief in de glastuinbouwsector van Vlaanderen (België) en Nederland begeleidt bij het realiseren van relevante innovaties middels co-creatie. Het GLITCH Kompas neemt het team mee vanaf de starfase van ideevorming tot het eindpunt, een ontwikkelde innovatie die een oplossing vormt voor een probleem of een verbetering is van reeds bestaande toepassingen en systemen.

Het GLITCH Kompas biedt een stapsgewijze structuur aan, bestaande uit zeven verschillende fasen die u als teler of toeleverancier op weg helpen doorheen een innovatie-ontwikkeling via co-creatie die toepasbaar is in de teeltpraktijk.
Ontdek hier het GLITCH Kompas: www.hetglitchkompas.eu

Druk op sector
Veel telers zijn op zoek naar onafhankelijke inzichten en adviezen over potentiële innovaties. In de huidige markt worden er veel innovaties geïntroduceerd, waardoor telers door de bomen het bos niet meer zien. Een weloverwogen keuze maken is erg lastig en daarom is er behoefte aan onafhankelijk advies vanuit bijvoorbeeld proefcentra.
Daarnaast is er in de glastuinbouw een hoge druk op de kostprijs, waardoor individueel innoveren bijna onmogelijk is. Telers zijn vaak zelf niet in staat om, bijvoorbeeld, grote testproeven op te zetten en zoeken daardoor aansluiting bij andere instellingen. De combinatie tussen onderzoek en praktijk zorgt voor een implementeerbare en relevante innovatie. Maar de verschillende blikken/visies, maken de samenwerking complex.

‘Met behulp van het GLITCH Kompas kan het gezamenlijke doel worden gevormd. Omdat alle partijen hun eigen weg daarnaartoe hebben, biedt het GLITCH Kompas structuur aan het innovatieproces.’
Thom van Mullekom, Multigrow Grashoek B.V.

Co-creatie als succesfactor
Uit onderzoek blijkt dat de slagingskans van een innovatie zonder co-creatie erg laag is. Onderzoek sluit niet aan op de praktijk, waardoor veel innovaties in de praktijk dus niet toepasbaar blijken. Het GLITCH Kompas biedt handvaten voor het doorlopen van het co-creatie proces. Zodoende vormen de juiste partijen een team en kan er een implementeerbare innovatie ontworpen worden.

‘Het GLITCH Kompas biedt heel handige tools om stapsgewijs met diverse partijen aan een gemeenschappelijk doel te werken.’
Bart van Calenberge, Proefstation voor de groententeelt.

The paper Motivations to Use Different Social Media Types and Their Impact on Consumers' Online Brand-Related Activities (COBRAs), authored by Cristian Buzeta, Patrick De Pelsmacker and Nathalie Dens, is now electronically available in the website of the Journal of Interactive Marketing. It will be included in the November 2020 issue of the journal.

Using a six-dimension uses and gratifications (U&G) framework, the authors explore how social media use motivations drive consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs: consumption, contribution, and creation of brand-related content). They examine these relationships for different social media types by drawing on two previously suggested dimensions, namely their nature of connections and level of customization of messages. Using a US-based sample (n = 939), findings of a PLS-SEM procedure show that “traditional” U&G hardly explain social media COBRAs. In contrast, Empowerment and Remuneration motives—two U&G specifically relevant for social media use—are the most critical COBRAs drivers. Multigroup analyses suggest that the relation between U&G and COBRAs differs between social media platforms classified either as: (a) profile- or content-based; or as employing (b) customized or broadcast messages. The authors argue for a specific design of brand-related activities on different social media in order to incentivize users' engagement with brand-related content.

You can access and download the paper here.

Survey: exercise during the coronavirus pandemic

Researchers of the department Mrketing set up this survey to learn more about how much people exercise, how motivated they are to get moving and if there are differences in physical activities during this COVID-19 pandemic compared to before.

You can take the survey here.

On the 10th of may Prof. dr. Nathalie Dens from our department appeared on the show 'Wakker op Zondag' (awake on sunday) at ATV (the regional channel for news in the Antwerp area).

Among with other guests she talks about the consequenses of the Corona-pandemic. 

Watch the fragment via:
https://atv.be/programmas/wakker-op-zondag-wakker-op-zondag-10-mei-2020-97999
(Prof. dr. Dens appears from min 29.00)

Proud to announce the first blog post on the Corona Blog of the UAntwerpen by the marketing department.

You can find the English version here.

On January 24, Bram Roosens succesfully defended his doctoral thesis "Aligning expectations and marketing communications for multi-stakeholder innovation networks". His research focussed on communication about co-creation with multiple stakeholders during innovation, and on collaboration dynamics within innovation networks.
Bram Roosens was complemented by the jury for his wide and thorough research, and presentation. 

Carmem Meira Cunha was one of the 13 young researchers awarded with the Unilever Research Prize. This annual award is presented to 13 outstanding students - one from each Dutch university. The prize was established in 1956 to strengthen the bond between industry and academic research, and to motivate students to excel. Today, the prize rewards research in the field of one or more UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Freya De Keyzer, Nathalie Dens and Patrick De Pelsmacker have won a Facebook Research Award. Last June, Facebook launched a request for proposals focused on economic development within digital platforms in the United States. Out of 78 proposals, eight were selected to receive research awards. Our department congratulates its colleagues with their winning proposal 'How small businesses can effectively use social media advertising'. More information can be found here.

The International Marketing Trends Conference has nominated Freya De Keyzer for the Best Thesis Award. This award is given to recognize and encourage Ph.D. in Marketing and to emphasize their talent. In October 2019, Freya De Keyzer successfully defended her Ph.D.-thesis "Brand Communication on Social Networking Sites". 
The laureate will receive the Best Thesis Medal and Diploma at the International Marketing Trends Conference on Friday January 17th 2020 in Paris.

Nathalie Dens has won the FBE Research Award. This prize is awarded annually to a member of the academic staff with exceptional research performance in the previous year. The decisive criterion in this regard is impact, whether scientific or social. 

On October 8, Freya De Keyzer obtained her Ph.D. after successfully defending her thesis "Brand Communication on Social Networking Sites". The main objective of this dissertation was to study consumers’ responses to brand communication on social networking sites. This objective was explored from two different angles by examining consumer responses to both personalized advertising and word-of-mouth.
The jury complimented Freya De Keyzer on her thorough work and approach. 

For over 25 years the Emerald Literati Awards celebrate and reward the outstanding contributions of authors and reviewers to scholarly research.
The criteria used to judge the awards are based on six areas that inform the development of Emerald publishing's products: internationality; diversity; support for scholarly research; encouragement of applied research (impact); commitment to high quality scholarship; and a desire to ensure reader, author and customer experience is the best it can be.

The article “Effects of country-of-origin stereotypes on consumer responses to product-harm crises ” (Camilla Barbarossa, Patrick De Pelsmacker & Ingrid Moons) has been selected as Highly Commended in the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards. The article was published in International Marketing Review, volume 35, issue 3.

In their master thesis, TEW-graduates Sarah Van Eester en Lore Vanpaeschen investigated sponsor-disclosure in YouTube-vlogs. As primary outcome, they state that YouTube-vloggers mentioning sponsorship at the beginning of their vlogs are regarded as more competent and authentic. A sponsor-disclosure at the end of the film can make the viewer feel betrayed. You can read the article here (in Dutch).

Our chair Nathalie Dens was interviewed for KMOinsider magazine (June 2019). In the article, she offers an insight into the world of online marketing with, amongst others, tips and good practices. You can read the article here (in Dutch).

Bram Roosens' paper "How Innovation Partners should Communicate about Joint Innovation Efforts" has won the Best Paper Award at the ISPIM Florence Conference (16-19 June 2019, Italy).

This piece of research was presented on June 18, in the session 6.5 'Open Innovation 6: Intermediaries'. The conference's main topic was to 'celebrate innovation', with the commemoration of 500 years since Da Vinci was born. The conference program can be checked here.

Nathalie Dens and Patrick De Pelsmacker won the International Journal of Advertising Best Paper Award for the paper "How consumers' values influence responses to male and female gender role stereotyping in advertising" (De Meulenaer Sarah, Dens Nathalie, De Pelsmacker, Patrick en Eisend, Martin).
The paper was published in the International Journal of Advertising, volume 37 (6), pp. 893-913.

You can read the paper here.

At the ICORIA conference (June 27-29 2019, Krems, Austria), Freya De Keyzer won the Best Student Award for the paper "Which Personalization Elements Cause Consumers to Perceive Ads on Facebook as more Personalized? A Conjoint Analysis." Freya De Keyzer, Nathalie Dens and Patrick De Pelsmacker.

Collaboration with Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University

Ana Isabel Lopes (PhD researcher) visited Northwestern University (Chicago, USA) from April 8th to May 4th 2019, starting a collaboration project with the Spiegel Research Center at Medill School, Northwestern University. Together with Prof. Edward Malthouse, Ana Isabel Lopes, Prof. Patrick De Pelsmacker and Prof. Nathalie Dens, they have been working on a project related to big data and the study of the effect of online reviews in the hospitality industry. This collaboration with Northwestern University will continue in the coming months by developing research that may result in scientific papers.

Research visit to the University of Chile

Cristian Buzeta (PhD researcher) visited the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Chile from April 4th to April 21th 2019, on a research visit organised by the Graduate School and Business Management department of that university. The main goal of the visit was to collaborate with Prof. Rodrigo Uribe on a project related to marketing on social media platforms and influencers. Also, Cristian presented his current research topics as part of the Digital Marketing research seminars of the mentioned department.

The paper How consumers’ media usage creates synergy in advertising campaigns was selected as a finalist for the MRS Silver Medal, awarded annually for the best paper published in the preceding year’s International Journal of Market Research. This piece of research was included in the short list of best papers from the volume 60 of this prestigious academic journal.

This work was authored by Nathalie Dens, Patrick De Pelsmacker, Peter Goos, Leonids Aleksandrovs and David Martens.

You can see a list of the other finalists here.

Prof. Annouk Lievens organised the sixth version of Belgian Service Research Day (BSRD2019), held by Marketing Department of the University of Antwerp during the past 26^th April 2019.

Several students and researchers gathered in the city of Antwerp and attended to the nine presentations on topics related to service marketing research.

• Thijs Zwienenberg (KULeuven) - To solicit or not? Exploring the effects of soliciting reviews in the collaborative economy on review content and style.
• Laurens De Gauquier (VUB) - Working with Robots: a Curse or a Blessing? Integrating the Job Demand-Resources model to understand frontline employees’ attitudes toward robots.
• Stephanie van de Sanden (VUB) - How customer attributions affect technology-mediated service adoption: the case of self-service technology in a DIY store.
• Annelies Costers (KULeuven) - There’s no such thing like a free lunch: A qualitative approach towards the effects of Pay-What-You-Want pricing systems on frontline employees.
• Daria Novikova (UHasselt) - Understanding Customer learning in Service: Process and Antecedents.
• Alain Decrop (UNamur) -  Choice overload in services: The role of decision strategies.
• Jérôme Mallargé (UNamur) - Service failures in the sharing economy: Consumer tolerance towards collaborative service quality.
• Bram Roosens (UAntwerp) - How stakeholders’ expectations shape the dynamics in innovation networks.
• Cécile Delcourt (Management School of the University of Liege) - Service research: A literature review and research agenda.

The American Academy of Advertising (AAA) yearly awards the Ivan L. Preston Outstanding Contribution to Research Award. This award honors those who have made a lasting and systematic contribution to academic research in advertising.

At its 2019 Conference (March 28-31, Dallas, USA), the AAA presented the award to Patrick De Pelsmacker, professor of marketing at the University of Antwerp.

Professor De Pelsmacker is the first academic in Europe to receive this prestigious award and is thus part of a group of leading academics, "Be brave. Do what you want. And do things that make sense and impact", Patrick De Pelsmacker told the international audience of academics and marketers present at the event.