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J ust when that new gym membership is looking like a mistake, reminding consumers of the price strengthens the buyer's purchase choices and leads to long-term satisfaction. Suggested Reading click on image New research from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management says that even though most people value higher functionality over the long-term, they tend to prefer no-hassle convenience in the short-run. If it's a digital camera they need in a hurry, they may buy the easy-to-use version, only to later regret that it doesn't have the features they'd like. When it comes to health clubs, consumers may forget or ignore the many long-term benefits that made them sign up in the first place, in favor of the easier choice of staying on the couch and avoiding the short-term inconvenience of working out. In both cases, researchers say that highlighting and reminding consumers of the product's price helps them stick to their long-term preferences by prompting ...

Source: personal.psu.edu   C old and flu season is here, and with it the economic impact of employees either missing work or worse, going into work when ill and then spreading their illness to co-workers and customers alike. Recommended Reading Click on image The common cold is well, common, affecting adults approximately 2-3 times a year and children under age 2 approximately 6 times a year. Symptoms such as sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, cough and malaise are usually worse in days 1-3 and can last 7-10 days, sometimes as long as 3 weeks. "Although self-limiting, the common cold is highly prevalent and may be debilitating. It causes declines in function and productivity at work and may affect other activities such as driving," write Drs. Michael Allan, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, and Bruce Arroll, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Colds are costly It is estimated that direct me...

The Ross Island Grocery & Cafe, in a Southwest neighborhood of Portlandia. (The author's favorite.) O f all the fancy often expensive sales training and merchandising entrepreneurs employ, research clearly shows that certain, very inexpensive, tactics are far more effective in creating loyal customers. Why put a big comfy couch in the corner of the local bookshop? Why provide stacks of board games free of charge at the corner café?  Why give out complimentary backstage passes after the show? Because by making people feel at home in a commercial space, marketers can turn their own clients into salespeople. Suggested Reading Click on image A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research takes a closer look at this new trend in marketing and proves that a sense of homeyness results in a fierce loyalty in customers, who in turn demonstrate an enthusiasm and sense of commitment that goes beyond the norms. These emotionally attached customers pay higher tips, volunteer to help the bu...

" When people feel financially deprived they are more likely to relax their standards and transgress to improve their financial situation ." We like to think we'd stick to our ethical principles no matter what. But when people feel financially deprived -- as many did from losses suffered thanks to the last market and banking meltdown -- they are more likely to relax their moral standards and transgress to improve their financial situation. They are also more likely to judge other deprived moral offenders who do the same more leniently, says a paper to be published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes this past fall. Suggested Reading Click on image "We found that most respondents did not think financial deprivation would lead them to behave immorally," said Nina Mažar, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and one of the lead researchers of the study. "Yet, once they actually ex...

" Only 40 percent of Americans get enough sleep on most nights and a commonly cited reason is smartphone usage for work ." Using a smartphone to cram in more work at night results in less work the next day, indicates new research co-authored by a Michigan State University business scholar. Recommended Reading Click on image In a pair of studies surveying a broad spectrum of U.S. workers, Russell Johnson and colleagues found that people who monitored their smart phones for business purposes after 9 p.m. were more tired and were less engaged the following day on the job. "Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep," said Johnson, MSU assistant professor of management who acknowledges keeping his smartphone at his bedside at night. "Because they keep us mentally engaged late into the evening, they make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep." More than half of U.S. adults own a smartphone. Many consider the devices to be a...

The Seven Deadly Sins of Business email : Ping pong -- constant emails back and forth creating long chains Emailing out of hours Emailing while in company Ignoring emails completely Requesting read receipts Responding immediately to an email alert Automated replies According to research just released, employees obsessed with checking their emails could be damaging their own mental health and that of their colleagues.  How? Recommended Reading Click image for details Dr Emma Russell, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at Kingston Business School, believes she has identified the seven deadly email sins that can lead to 'negative repercussions' if not handled correctly.  She identified seven habits which can be positive if used in moderation but are likely to have a negative impact if not handled correctly. " This research reminds us that even though we think we are using strategies for dealing with our email at work, many of them can be detrimental to other goals a...

Wow, really?  Have we become addicted to our cell phones? Recommended Reading Can it really be? Oops, gotta a call coming in.  Just a moment. . . Okay,  Just a friend asking what I'm doing right now. Where were we? Oh, cell phone addiction.  According to a 2012 study out of Baylor University, we are and more to the point, this is driven by "materialism and impulsiveness."  Worse yet, this addiction can be "compared to pathologies like compulsive buying and credit card misuse." Pathologies.  Whoof. "Cell phones are a part of our consumer culture," said study author James Roberts, Ph.D., professor of marketing and the Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing at Baylor's Hankamer School of Business. "They are not just a consumer tool, but are used as a status symbol. They're also eroding our personal relationships." Cell phones are part of the conspicuous consumption ritual  pacifies the impulsive tendencies of the user, and play an import...

" Health and wealth may be more strongly connected than previously thought ." We ring in the New Year with hopes of being healthy, wealthy, and wise. A new study from researchers John W. Ayers of San Diego State University and Benjamin Althouse of the Santa Fe Institute and their colleagues suggests that health and wealth may be more strongly connected than previously thought. Suggested Reading Click on image The group examined Americans' Google search patterns and discovered that during the recent Great Recession, people searched considerably more frequently for information about health ailments. The kinds of problems indicated by the queries weren't life threatening, but they could keep someone in the bed a few days, like ulcers, headaches, and back pain. In total, the team found there were more than 200 million excess queries of this kind during the Great Recession than expected. "While it's impossible to uncover the motives for increased searches, they li...

" Emphasis on the entrepreneur is directly related to the probability of success in securing seed funding in the artistic category ." Early on in our careers, many of us were tutored as to how to best write an effective and attention-getting curriculum vitae (CV) in looking for a job. But in today's world, many are looking not for just a job, but are engaged in wide, often Internet-based searches for seed money to launch entrepreneurial ventures of one sort of another. But what guidelines exist as to the best way to go about securing this kind of funding? To look into this issue and provide some answers, an extensive research project was launched at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in which the researchers sought to resolve these questions: Are prospective investors being influenced in their investment decisions by the entrepreneurs' description? Should entrepreneurs focus their business pitches on themselves or on their projects? The answer, for some fund seekers,...