Attentional strategies in the form of focused and defocused attention can be used for generating new product ideas. Focused attention refers to limiting the mental scope, whereas defocused attention refers to a widening of the mental scope. In two empirical studies, we investigate the effect of focused and defocused attentional strategies on the novelty, usefulness, and symbolism of the resulting product ideas and consumer response to these ideas. Study 1 shows that defocused (vs. focused) attention leads to ideas that are more novel, which in turn increases the desirability of these ideas to consumers. Study 2 replicates the link between defocus and novelty. Also, it shows that focused (vs. defocused) attention increases the usefulness of ideas, while defocused (vs. focused) attention increases the symbolic qualities of the product idea. Further, all three dimensions—novelty, usefulness, and symbolism—mediate the relationship between (de)focused attention and the desirability of a new product idea.

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Purpose: Development of new products is important for firm success; however, firms often struggle to identify the best ideas from multiple options. The purpose of this paper is to study how innovators and early adopters can be used for identifying the best ideas, i.e. the ideas that appeal to mass-market customers. Design/methodology/approach: Two empirical studies were conducted. Study 1 concerned the development of a symbolic innovation, whereas Study 2 focused on a functional innovation. Each study consisted of two parts: idea generation and idea evaluation. In Study 1 there were 124 idea generators and 248 idea evaluators. In Study 2 there were 104 idea generators and 108 evaluators. Findings: Both studies demonstrate that innovators and early adopters are able to predict the ideas that appeal to mass-market customers. Yet, it was also shown that this prediction depends on the nature of the idea. In the case of ideas for products that are predominantly symbolic in nature (Study 1), innovators and early adopters predict the buying intentions of mass-market consumers via the perceived novelty of the idea. In turn, for ideas that are predominantly functional in nature, innovators and early adopters predict the buying intentions of mass-market consumers directly via buying intentions. Originality/value: These findings show that innovators and early adopters can be used for selecting the best ideas from a plethora of available options. This is the first time that innovators and early adopters have been empirically demonstrated to hold such a role.

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It is commonly known in the positive psychology literature that people who want to increase their
happiness ought to engage in so-called happiness-enhancing activities. Building on this stream of research, work that emphasizes the duality of happiness (affect vs. meaning) is introduced in order to propose a new conceptualization of happiness activities. The new conceptualization distinguishes between self- and other-focused happiness activities, and argues for the importance of other-focused activities over self-focused ones. Results from a six-week long study show that other-focused happiness activities consistently outperformed self-focused ones in terms of raising participants’ levels of happiness. Although self-focused happiness activities also increased happiness, by showing increases over time relative to participants’ baseline level, other-focused happiness activities
consistently outperformed such increases.@en

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine women’s reactions to celebrity endorsers holding positive and negative public images and the consequences for purchase intentions of the endorsed
product.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the social comparison literature and applies the theory of upward and downward comparisons to the celebrity endorsement context.
Findings – Study 1 shows that exposure to celebrities holding a positive public image decrease consumers’ temporal self-esteem, while celebrities holding a negative public image increase temporal self-esteem. Study 2 suggests that this change in self-esteem transfers to the product depending upon the type of social comparison focus (similarity vs dissimilarity) which people have. Study 3 shows that for consumers low in true self-esteem, i.e. self-esteem based upon a stable foundation, celebrities holding a positive public image decrease purchase intentions. For consumers high in true self-esteem, there was no difference between exposure to celebrities holding a positive and a negative public image for purchase intentions. Study 4 focused on replicating the results found in Studies 1-3 in the context of an achievement celebrity (as opposed to a regular celebrity). The findings in Study 4 provide further support for the results of Studies 1 and 3, and identify expert celebrities as a boundary condition for the
effects found in Study 2.
Practical implications – The results provide evidence suggesting that celebrities holding a negative
public image can be used as celebrity endorsers in product categories in which it can be considered
helpful to protect women’s self-esteem, such as beauty products or self-expressive products.
Originality/value – This research contributes to the literature on celebrity endorsement by adding a
boundary condition for the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. According to the results, choosing a
positive celebrity can, for some groups, have negative effects on purchase intensions and that a negative
celebrity might be the safer choice.@en

Previous research has argued that in order to become happier, consumers should prefer experiences over material objects. However, this experience recommendation is based upon measures of short-term happiness. In two empirical studies, we test the experience recommendation for both short- as well as long-term happiness. In line with previous results, it was found that the experience recommendation holds for short-term happiness but data did not support the superiority of the experience recommendation for long-term happiness. More specifically, it was documented that adding a material component to the experience had the best effect upon long-term happiness.@en