VALUES CREATED FROM FAR AND NEAR: INFLUENCE OF SPATIAL DISTANCE ON BRAND EVALUATION

Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu, Chun-Tuan Chang, and Angela Y. Lee
FEBRUARY 19, 2021| Journal of Marketing

This research examines how the spatial distance between the product and the consumer/mannequin/model affects consumers’ perception of the product/brand. When the brand image is associated with status and luxury, consumers are more willing to pay for a product with a distance since distal distance serves as a signal of prestige. When the brand image is perceived as popular and friendly, consumers showing more favorable attitudes and higher willingness to pay arising from a proximal spatial distance is driven by perceived social closeness. Effective use of spatial distance is not a one-size- fits-all strategy.

Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00222429211000706

Keywords: brand image, product and brand evaluations, perceived closeness, perceived prestige, spatial distance, visual marketing

Leaders’ responses to receipt of proactive helping: Integrating theories of approach-avoidance and challenge-hindrance

Hun Whee Lee, Nai-Wen Chi, You Jin Kim, Hanho Lee, Szu-Han (Joanna) Lin, and Russell E Johnson.
October 27, 2022| Human Relations (FT50)

How do leaders lead in a complex environment? Leaders often rely on help from others. However, not all help is necessarily beneficial to leaders, especially when it is offered without being asked (i.e., proactive helping). Unfortunately, theory to date has failed to understand the consequences associated with leaders’ receipt of proactive helping at work. To address this shortcoming, we integrate theories of approach–avoidance and challenge–hindrance to unravel how leaders respond to receipt of proactive helping at work, which enabled us to capture both favorable and unfavorable responses to receipt of proactive helping. Our results demonstrated that leaders with higher levels of approach-oriented characteristics were likely to perceive the receipt of proactive helping as more challenging and less hindering. We further found that leaders’ challenge and hindrance appraisals prompt them to engage in transformational and laissez-faire leadership behaviors, respectively. Our work provides an answer to the question of why and under what conditions leaders’ receipt of proactive helping results in constructive leadership.

Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00187267221137991

Keywords: Proactive helping; challenge/hindrance; approach/avoidance; transformational leader behavior; laissez-faire leader behavior