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Successful behavioral change is the Holy Grail for social marketers. Meta-analysis demonstrates that effect sizes of behavioral change in social marketing campaigns is typically low. The present case study uses 4 years of survey data from an Alabama weight loss and behavioral change campaign to develop an explanation for why some people are more successful in lifestyle change efforts than others. Comforting, a communicative form of prosocial behavior, produced the greatest magnitude of change when tested as an independent variable on dependent variables, including pounds lost, amount of dairy products and water consumed, and physical activities undertaken. The case study concludes by discussing implications for social marketing academics and practitioners. © The Author(s) 2013.

The authors utilized an experimental design across six sections of a managerial communications course (N = 173) to test the impact of instructor verbal aggressiveness and class attendance policies on student class attendance. The experimental group received a policy based on the principle of social proof (R. B. Cialdini, 2001), which indicated that for similar students, class attendance was linked to high academic performance. Students also assessed their instructor's level of verbal aggressiveness (D. A. Infante, 1979). Results suggest that instructor verbal aggressiveness did not influence class attendance. However, social proof did positively influence class attendance rates under certain circumstances. The authors discuss the study implications. © 2012, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Despite the danger of franchisee non-compliance as a severe impediment to overall franchise operation and performance, there is currently minimal understanding of the key factors that lead to these behaviors. Using a foundation of relational exchange theory, we construct and test a model that demonstrates how two distinct forms of trust, based upon perceptions of franchisor integrity and franchisor competence, are critical to explaining the roles that relational conflict and satisfaction play in influencing franchisee compliance. Implications of these findings are then demonstrated to have compelling relevance to the effective management of franchise systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A model of switching costs is applied to ad agency-client relationships using agency theory. Switching costs are comprised of set-up costs that create barriers to switching to new agencies and exit costs that are barriers to severing relationships with current agencies. Switching cost theory offers insights into why large clients can maintain agency relationships. A survey of American clients shows how client size is associated with set-up and exit costs. These relationships are explained through diversity and scope of services, the creative risk associated with major brands, and the need for more sophisticated monitoring, each acting as switching barriers, extending longevity. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

With social interaction, quantity does not equal quality. Persons may have frequent negative social interactions with other persons, such that the interactions are socially undermining, rather than socially supportive. Rook (1984) used regression analysis to demonstrate how negative social interactions impact upon well-being outcomes more powerfully and more consistently than do positive social interactions. Building upon Rook’s work, the present research examines a workplace weight loss intervention and demonstrates the power of socially supportive communication in measures of weight loss and healthy lifestyle changes. Management implications are discussed.

The creation of identities in immersive online digital environments has become commonplace in consumer behavior. Consumers frequently enter into socially networked, computer mediated environments (CME’s) as avatars. A user can design his or her avatar by choosing typologies of facial features, body types and clothing styles. The chapter concerns Avatar analysis as a system for generating and analyzing consumer information of practical value to marketers. Avatar analysis enhances understanding of brand perceptions and meanings, discovers new ways of positioning and differentiating brands, and provides insights for improving the effectiveness of brand communications. Using websites such as Second Life to draw avatars, consumer identity projections are elicited based on consumers’ perceptions and interpretations of their own digital figure drawings i.e., virtual social identities of consumers and brands. These identity projections disclose their real and ideal selves, brand-as-a-person, and imagery of a typical brand user.

We develop a theory of advertising agency compensation, client evaluation and switching costs, with extensions to agency theory. When clients are exposed to high switching costs, they become more vulnerable to the risk of agency costs. In response, clients can select compensation and evaluation decisions that convey fairness, signal their commitment, and invite agency reciprocity. With high switching costs, outcome-based compensation and formal evaluation procedures are likely. High switching costs are associated with signifi'cant relationship investments, mature relationships, large clients, formal evaluation, and with clients that use their agencies as strategic partners. Clients surveyed in North America support the theory. © 2010 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Given the continued importance of the globalization era, there is an ever-increasing interest in the correlation between marketing mix standardization and the firm's market performance. This issue focuses on the firm's pursuit of global markets in an environment conditional to internal and external market factors. The research examines factors on multinational firm's marketing mix (program and process marketing) from Australia, Japan, and the United States and the impact on market performance. The results are mixed providing some support for marketing standardization and profit performance. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose – Globalization has fostered greater interest in all aspects of standardization theory including the 4Ps of the marketing mix or program and process marketing. The purpose of this paper is to probe the question: “Is there a benefit to the firm's strategy of marketing standardization that correlates positively to the firm's profit?”. Design/methodology/approach – Multinational firms from Australia, Japan and the USA operating in a global environment were studied in order to correlate marketing standardization to profit performance. Several methods of analysis were used including regression and analysis of variance measures. Findings – The results indicate there is increasing support for a strategy of standardizing marketing mix components and contributing to a firm's profit performance. Originality/value – The paper adds to the current literature by providing further empirical research correlating marketing mix standardization to profit. © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Globalization has fostered greater interest in all aspects of standardization theory, including the four Ps (product, price, place [distribution], and promotion) of the marketing mix. The study researches the firm's strategy of marketing standardization as it correlates to the firm's profit. Multinational firms from Japan and the United States operating in a global environment were studied in order to correlate marketing standardization to profit performance. The results indicate there is increasing support for a strategy of standardizing marketing mix components and contributing to a firm's profit performance. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Six women faculty came together to research their peers asking other women in COAMFTE-accredited programs about their personal and professional identities. The goal of this research was to develop recommendations for the field of Couple/Marriage and Family Therapy to support the engagement and advancement of women faculty. The research collaboration itself became a heuristic, feminist praxis, a co-creation of insight, support network, and professional relationships which had liberating results for the collaborators. We intended to create a research project that would be collaborative, empowering, and transformative for participants; in the process, the collaboration became empowering and transformative for ourselves. This article will reflect on our experiences and provide recommendations for future feminist research teams. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Trends in popular belief about same-sex relationships have undergone noteworthy change in the United States over the last decade. Yet this change has been marked by stark polarizations and has occurred at varying rates depending upon regional, community, racial, religious, and individual family context. For queer youth and their families, this cultural transformation has broadened opportunities and created a new set of risks and vulnerabilities. At the same time, youth's increasingly open and playful gender fluidity and sexual identity is complicated by unique intersections of class, race, religion, and immigration. Effective family therapy with queer youth requires practitioner's and treatment models that are sensitive to those who bear the burden of multiple oppressions and the hidden resilience embedded in their layered identities. We present case examples of our model of family therapy which addresses refuge, supports difficult dialogs, and nurtures queerness by looking for hidden resilience in the unique intersections of queer youths' lives. These intersections provide transformational potential for youth, their families and even for family therapists as we are all nurtured and challenged to think more complexly about intersectionality, sexuality, and gender. Las tendencias en la creencia popular acerca de las relaciones entre personas del mismo sexo han sufrido un cambio considerable en Estados Unidos durante la ultima decada. Sin embargo, este cambio se ha producido a ritmos diferentes segun las comunidades locales y regionales, y el contexto familiar individual. En el caso de los jovenes queer y sus familias, esta transformacion cultural ha ampliado oportunidades y creado un nuevo conjunto de riesgos y vulnerabilidades. Los jovenes queer y sus familias, al intentar desarrollarse en numerosos contextos, estan marcados por divergencias crueles en actitudes y creencias. Al mismo tiempo, la fluidez del genero y la identidad sexual cada vez mas abiertas y ludicas de los jovenes estan complicadas por intersecciones unicas de clase, raza, religion e inmigracion. Una terapia familiar eficaz con jovenes queer exige modelos de tratamiento y profesionales que sean sensibles a aquellas personas que cargan sobre sus espaldas numerosas opresiones y una resiliencia oculta incorporada en sus identidades multiples. Presentamos ejemplos de casos de nuestro modelo de terapia familiar que aborda el refugio, respalda los dialogos dificiles y apoya la sexualidad alternativa buscando la resiliencia oculta en las intersecciones unicas de las vidas de los jovenes queer. Estas intersecciones ofrecen posibilidades transformacionales para los jovenes, sus familias e incluso los terapeutas familiares mientras nos estimulan y nos desafian a todos a pensar de forma mas compleja acerca de la interseccionalidad, la sexualidad y el genero.

Mindfulness has recently gained significant attention and momentum in academia and popular culture. There is, however, a paucity of literature on how students make sense of contemplative practices. This paper proposes that mindfulness meditation is not merely a useful tool for stress reduction, but also a metacognitive meaning-making practice.

Gossip is often portrayed as a trivial and even destructive behavior at work. This paper integrates previous studies on gossip using a multilevel evolutionary framework and proposes a few empirical propositions to develop a more balanced view on gossip as a medium of informal communication in organizations.

This article explores the adaptive functions of storytelling in the workplace from an evolutionary perspective. Based on the analysis of ethnographic studies on hunter-gatherer and modern work organizations, this article claims that storytelling, as an adapted cognitive device, was selectively retained by natural and sexual selection, because of its survival and reproductive payoff. The narrative production through storytelling is a natural coping mechanism and has been functional in both old and new ways of working life under different ecological conditions. This article also highlights underlying adapted psychological mechanisms of storytelling and discusses some evolutionarily informed practical implications and pedagogical applications. © 2013 by the Association for Business Communication.