Article

Stock Ownership as a Motivation of Brand-Loyal and Brand-Supportive Behaviors

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Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explicate the psychological motivations underlying this influence as well as to provide empirical evidence of it. Individuals' consumption psychology and investment psychology have been traditionally viewed as rather separate realms. However, researchers have recently begun to imply that an individual's stock ownership in a company may positively influence his/her brand loyalty towards the company. Design/methodology/approach A survey study of 293 individual stockowners of three companies is presented. Findings The analysis shows that, for a large proportion of individuals, becoming a stockowner of a company leads to positive, increased motivation to exhibit brand loyalty towards the company, in terms of his/her personal purchases of the company's products. Second, the analysis shows how stock ownership often leads to increased motivation to engage in other brand‐supporting behaviors, such as positive word‐of‐mouth. Research limitations/implications The self‐reported data used on individuals' motivations somewhat restrict the results, which can be dealt with in further research. Practical implications The findings imply opportunities for managers to benefit from the tendency of individual stockowners to engage in repeat purchasing of the company's products and word‐of‐mouth, so as to increase the sales of the company. Originality/value The paper explicates the individual psychology motivations underlying the influence of a consumer's stock ownership in a company on his/her brand loyalty towards the company – and provides empirical evidence of the motivations.

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... As the individual investor maintains a monetary relationship with the company he or she holds shares of, there is an economic and financial bond that ties him to the company (Arantola 2002). Hence, it is in the shareholder's interest to also be customer of the particular company and contribute to the company's profits rather than buying at the competition (Aspara 2009;Aspara & Tikkanen 2008). The benefits from these economic and psychological bonds are reflected in repeat purchases and brand loyalty, which translate in higher purchase volumes and lower price sensitivity. ...
... The benefits from these economic and psychological bonds are reflected in repeat purchases and brand loyalty, which translate in higher purchase volumes and lower price sensitivity. Further, shareownercustomers are less likely to switch to the competition, and more likely to tell positive things about the company and encourage others to buy from the company they own shares of which creates brand loyalty (Aspara 2009;Aspara & Tikkanen 2008). Heskett (2002) specifies loyalty as repeat purchases from a single supplier where a customer spends a big part of his share of wallet. ...
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... As shown in Table 1 Ali, Lynch, Melewar, & Jin, 2015, Tracey, 2014, and number of employees (Cravens & Oliver, 2006). We also used the respondent rating of their brand familiarity (Akhter & Ahmed, 2013;Aspara, 2009, 2013, Ali, et al., 2015De Vris, Erasmus, & Gerber, 2017, Frieder & Subrahmanyam, 2003, 2012, McCorkindale, 2008, Schoenbachler, Gordon, & Aurand, 2004, Tat Keh & Xie, 2009). ...
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... The investing in the support of the company which means the shareholders become customers of the company, during repurchasing of shares the company focus on their attitudes and purchasing behavior regarding help of company. Aspara (2009) who investigate that investors who invest in by purchasing company's products (stocks) and services in terms of support to the company. ...
Preprint
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Companies spend lots of time and money on complex tools to assess customer satisfaction. But they're measuring the wrong thing. The best predictor of top-line growth can usually be captured in a single survey question: Would you recommend this company to a friend? This finding is based on two years of research in which a variety of survey questions were tested by linking the responses with actual customer behavior--purchasing patterns and referrals--and ultimately with company growth. Surprisingly, the most effective question wasn't about customer satisfaction or even loyalty per se. In most of the industries studied, the percentage of customers enthusiastic enough about a company to refer it to a friend or colleague directly correlated with growth rates among competitors. Willingness to talk up a company or product to friends, family, and colleagues is one of the best indicators of loyalty because of the customer's sacrifice in making the recommendation. When customers act as references, they do more than indicate they've received good economic value from a company; they put their own reputations on the line. And they will risk their reputations only if they feel intense loyalty. The findings point to a new, simpler approach to customer research, one directly linked to a company's results. By substituting a single question--blunt tool though it may appear to be--for the complex black box of the customer satisfaction survey, companies can actually put consumer survey results to use and focus employees on the task of stimulating growth.
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Assessing the price evolution of houses on the basis of average sales prices, as is current practice in Belgium, might be misleading due to changing characteristics of the houses sold in the periods observed. A hedonic index which takes into account changes in characteristics is more appropriate. We use the budget surveys of the Belgian Statistical Institute to illustrate how this also applies for Belgium. The estimated hedonic price index for house sales on the secondary market is practically always below the index based on average sales values for the period considered. This demonstrates the need to collect more extensive data on the characteristics of the dwellings sold in Belgium.
Article
A unique data set allows us to monitor the buys, sells, and holds of individuals and institutions in the Finnish stock market on a daily basis. With this data set, we employ Logit regressions to identify the determinants of buying and selling activity over a two-year period. We find evidence that investors are reluctant to realize losses, that they engage in tax-loss selling activity, and that past returns and historical price patterns, such as being at a monthly high or low, affect trading. There also is modest evidence that life-cycle trading plays a role in the pattern of buys and sells. Copyright The American Finance Association 2001.
Article
We contribute to the debate on the optimal design of multiunit auctions by developing and testing robust implications of the leading theory of uniform price auctions on the bid distributions submitted by individual bidders. The theory, which emphasizes market power, has little support in a data set of Finnish Treasury auctions. A reason may be that the Treasury acts strategically by determining supply after observing bids, apparently treating the auctions as a repeated game between itself and primary dealers. Bidder behavior and underpricing react to the volatility of bond returns in a way that suggests bidders adjust for the winner's curse. Copyright 2005 by The American Finance Association.
Theories of Cognitive Consistency: A Source Book
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  • E Aronson
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Australia's Share Owners: An ASX Study of Share Investors in 2004
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Equity Ownership in America 2002
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The social organization of relationships
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Privatisation in Australia
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Canadian Shareowners Study
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Toronto Stock Exchange (2004), Canadian Shareowners Study 2004, TSX Group, Toronto, Canada.
Selling the product to stockholders”
  • B Watson
Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework”Stock ownership as a motivation of brand-loyal and brand-supportive behaviors”. Accepted for publication in J ournal of Consumer Marketing A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
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Dick, A.S., and Basu, K. (1994), “Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 99-113. rAspara, Jaakko (2009, forthcoming). “Stock ownership as a motivation of brand-loyal and brand-supportive behaviors”. Accepted for publication in J ournal of Consumer Marketing. 28 Festinger, L. (1957), A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA
the stock market participation has rapidly risen, in the 1980s and 1990s, from about ten or twenty per cent to even half of the population. In the USA, the share of families owning stock directly or indirectly (through e.g. mutual funds or various retirement vehicles) went up from 19 % in
  • Usa For Instance In The
  • Uk Canada
For instance in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia, the stock market participation has rapidly risen, in the 1980s and 1990s, from about ten or twenty per cent to even half of the population. In the USA, the share of families owning stock directly or indirectly (through e.g. mutual funds or various retirement vehicles) went up from 19 % in 1983 to 49 % in 1998
in Canada from 13 % in 1983 to 49 % in
  • Kennickell Aizcorbe
(Aizcorbe, Kennickell, and Moore, 2003; ICI and SCA, 2002), in Canada from 13 % in 1983 to 49 % in 1998 (Toronto Stock Exchange, 2004), and in the UK from 9 % in 1978 to 34 % in 2000
Privatisation in Australia”, Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin
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