Jia Li Paper Accepted for Publication by Journal of Retailing

A paper co-authored by Associate Professor Jia Li has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Retailing, making it one of the first, if not the first, accepted paper to the Journal’s new section, “First Insights in Retailing.” This section is dedicated to fostering innovative topics that are deeply rooted in real-world marketing phenomena.

Titled “The role of political ideology on variety-seeking behavior during crisis-induced threats,” the paper provides insight into how political ideology influences consumers’ variety-seeking behaviors when they experience crisis-induced threats—specific events that are perceived to endanger physical and financial well-being—versus normal conditions.

“This was a large-scale, big-data study that analyzed 32 million transaction records before and during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Li. “This paper also employs the “Empirics First” methodology, which was heralded very recently (ref. Golder et al. 2023) for generating relevant marketing knowledge, emphasizing an empirical data-driven foundation for theoretical advancement.”

Undertaken by Li and his co-authors Ada Choi, Steven Lu, and Jarrod Vassallo from Australia, the team set out to answer three primary questions: (1) How does political ideology influence variety seeking under normal conditions? (2) How do crisis-induced threats influence variety seeking? and (3) How does political ideology influence variety seeking under crisis-induced threats? The subsequent findings serve to provide retail practitioners with marketing-relevant insights and strategies, tailored to the political composition of their consumer base, that can enhance their crisis preparedness and responses.

“Our study found that normally, conservatives seek more variety in their grocery purchases than liberals,” said Li. “During crisis-induced threats, however, conservatives seek less variety in their purchases than usual, while liberals seek more variety than usual.”

Boasting one of the highest impact factors and the second highest citation among all marketing journals, the Journal of Retailing is devoted to advancing the state of knowledge and its application with respect to all aspects of retailing, its management, evolution, and current theory.