Consumer Perception of Corporate Value Communication

Last registered on August 06, 2024

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Consumer Perception of Corporate Value Communication

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0013861

Initial registration date

July 30, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

August 06, 2024, 1:22 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Andreas Ziegler

Affiliation

University of Essex

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Sili Zhang

PI Affiliation

LMU Munich

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-07-31

End date

2025-03-31

Keywords

Behavior, Firms & Productivity

Additional Keywords

Corporate Values, Consumer Social Responsibility, Greenwashing

JEL code(s)

D12, D62, D64, D90, D91

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

We study how consumers react to and reason about sellers' value communication.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Zhang, Sili and Andreas Ziegler. 2024. "Consumer Perception of Corporate Value Communication." AEA RCT Registry. August 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13861-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2024-07-31

Intervention End Date

2024-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Consumers’ willingness to pays (WTPs) for a T-Shirt; beliefs about sellers' endorsement

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

See the PAP for a more detailed discussion on the outcome variables.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

narratives and reasoning patterns coming from open-ended questions and structured question

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

See the PAP for a more detailed discussion on the outcome variables and treatments.

Experimental Design

We compare consumers' WTPs for a T-Shirt when sellers endorse values across five potential conditions:
1) A neutral condition, where the seller has no ability to endorse a value;
2) An endorsement condition, wherein a 2x2 design we vary whether a seller's value endorsement is
i) strategic or non-strategic
ii) cheap talk or a costly signal

We explore how consumers respond to and reason about value communication by sellers, and how this depends on the costly nature of the value endorsement.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization into treatments in Qualtrics.

Randomization Unit

Participant-level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Each observation is an independent observation, see below for the number of observations.

Sample size: planned number of observations

800 consumers and 120 sellers

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

800 consumers, in two between-subject treatments: 400 cheap talk, 400 costly signals (within each between-subject treatment, within-subject variation: 200 see strategic sellers first and 200 see non-strategic sellers first);
120 sellers (40 neutral, 40 strategic (20 costly signal, 20 cheap talk), 40 non-strategic, (20 costly signal, 20 cheap talk)).

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB