Advancing spillover research: behavioural, contextual and temporal approaches

Marketing can benefit individuals, consumers, employees, organisations, industries and society at large, as shown in a large body of research already published in the Journal of Marketing Management, which touched upon timely issues such as: food-well-being and sustainability among vulnerable consumers (Batat et al., 2017), child obesity (Shaw Hughner & Kurp Maher, 2006), smoking (Manyiwa & Brennan, 2012) and alcohol use (Gregory-Smith & Manika, 2017), environmentally friendly behaviour in consumption choices (Thøgersen & Zhou, 2012) and organisational settings (Gregory-Smith et al., 2015), and materialism (Shrum et al., 2014) amongst others. However, marketing’s reputation hangs on a thread as

… marketing is like a potent drug with potentially serious side effects, but in reality, there are no main effects and no side effects; these are just convenient labels applied to connote which effects are observed and measured and which effects are ignored. Today, the side effects of marketing-noise pollution, customer irritation, excessive consumption, unhealthy lifestyles tend to overwhelm the intended main effects. (Sheth & Sisodia, 2005)

Nonetheless, marketing can also be seen as a social agent fostering clear, direct and planned positive outcomes, as well as various beneficial spillover effects for consumers, organisations, society or the environment.

Spillover is understood as the transition of cognitive thoughts, emotions or actions from one area to another (see review by Verfuerth & Gregory-Smith, 2018) or the effect of one behaviour on another related behaviour (Lauren et al., 2016; Van der Werff et al., 2014) or unrelated behaviour (Truelove et al., 2014). Aligned with either of these definitions, spillover has been researched both at the individual and organisational level, with spillover effects being examined within (e.g., different types of household behaviours) and between (e.g., work and home; Verfuerth et al., 2019) settings/social contexts. In addition to this spillover classification by context (i.e. contextual spillover), Nilsson et al. (2017) draw attention to the existence of behavioural and temporal spillover, where the former is about transition between behaviours while the latter refers to effects of behaviour happening at time 1 on subsequent behaviour happening at time 2 (where these two behaviours might be or not be related; might or not happen within the same context). Nevertheless, despite the various definitions and classifications of spillover and its kinds, research in this area is still scant.

Currently, spillover research is geared towards bringing together interdisciplinary theoretical approaches and researchers from the field of psychology, behavioural economics, marketing, education etc. in trying to understand spillover manifestations, types (i.e. positive or negative) and specific outcomes. Most captivating present fields of enquiry include: health and wellbeing, sustainability, social responsibility, ethics, globalisation, consumption patterns, and social choices, which relate to timely worldwide issues. Remarkably, the majority of these areas that are still under-researched from a spillover perspective, fall within the remit of or are connected to marketing management research. For example, only a couple of articles published in JMM looked at the spillover effects in consumption contexts i.e. spillover of the Chinese milk scandal at the supply chain and industry level (Gao et al., 2012) and spillover in the context of the effect of kosher and halal labels on non-Jewish and non-Muslim Western consumers (Rauschnabel et al., 2015). Thus, further attention should be paid by marketers and managers to spillovers as a mechanism for fostering sustainable business practices, responsible management and social good. Providing an account of spillovers (with its mechanisms and effects) in marketing could help rebrand marketing as a ‘more positive’ business activity with wider reach and broader benefits, beyond the organisation and its self-centred interests.

In this special issue, we contribute to debates on marketing theory and practice related to spillover effects as an instrument to deal with global problems and to nurture sustainable business practices, responsible management and social good. The five papers in this special issue explore splillovers in relation to: discrete emotions and corporate social irresponsibility, technology adoption, branding and corporate social responsibility, meat consumption interventions in workplace settings, and forced shopping-related environmental behaviour change; while employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Individually, and collectively, they extend and enrich existing debates while also offering a forum that brings together empirical and practical insights, and theoretical contributions from marketing, management, information technology, and psychology. The authors of the special issue also cover a wide geographical scope, including Australia, Canada, France, Spain, USA and the UK.

The first paper, by Paolo Antonetti and Carmen Valour, introduces the concept of discrete emotion spillover i.e., ‘the content and valence of an emotion experienced towards target A spills over to target B, and indirectly influences subsequent behaviour towards target B’ and examines it within a corporate social irresponsibility context. Through scenarios that vary the status of the wrongdoer embedded within a survey, the authors demonstrate that anger towards the employee spills over towards the organisation, leading to punitive behaviour towards the firm. Hence, discrete emotion spillovers are pervasive in marketing, and raise important managerial implications.

The second paper, by Yang Lu, Savvas Papaginnidis, and Eleftherios Alamanis, explores the spillover effect of technology acceptance in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) using a large-scale survey. This study demonstrates that individuals’ emotions, well-being, and the overall value experienced in Internet usage spills over into the intentions to use IoT. The findings also indicate that technology acceptance should be seen as series of related acceptance events rather than isolated, separated occurrences.

The third paper, by Ali Tezer and Maryam Tofighi, examines via experimental studies the spillover effects of CSR activity in connection with competing brands. Particularly, this research demonstrates that information about a brand’s CSR activity has a negative effect on a competing brand’s evaluations, but only among consumers with high (versus low) product category knowledge. These insights show the spillover effect of CSR information is not always straightforward or as expected, which implies careful consideration of the use of CSR activities in brands’ marketing communications.

The fourth paper, by Caroline Verfuerth, Diana Gregory-Smith, Caroline J. Oates, Christopher R. Jones, and Panayiota Alevizou, looks at facilitators and barriers of contextual spillover in a real-world behaviour change intervention, implemented in a workplace canteen, promoting reduced red meat consumption. Qualitative data from interviews with employees before and after the intervention shows both positive spillover and lack of spillover from the workplace setting to the home setting. This (lack) of contextual spillover is driven by both facilitators and barriers, grouped in a three-dimensional typology which can be useful to practitioners for implementing future successful interventions.

The final paper, by Sebastian Isbanner, Jennifer Algie, and Nina Reynolds, looks at spillover in the context of forced consumption behaviour change, using a naturalistic time-series methodology. The findings imply that a forced behaviour change, such as the introduction of reusable shopping bags, can incidentally lead to changes in subsequent related environmental attitudes and behaviours. Based on the findings that point out to consumers’ underlying unconscious and automatic processes, the authors propose a revised definition of spillover including subsequent effects that are deliberate or incidental.

Overall, these articles offer a substantial and diverse contribution to recent developments in the spillover literature. We believe they will offer important perspectives to inform future debates and move forward research on this fundamental topic. The articles were selected following a thorough reviewing process. We would like to acknowledge all those who contributed to this special issue. We are especially thankful to all the reviewers who generously invested their time and helped the authors develop their papers and contributions.