Sara Kim’s research focus is on consumer and managerial decision making and its implications for marketing management. She is particularly interested in antecedents of consumers’ sense of self including self-affirmation, identity threats, mortality salience, and implicit theories of personality, and the impact of consumers’ sense of self on various consumer judgments and behaviors such as consumer emotions, word-of-mouth, prosocial behavior, and anthropomorphism. Her work has appeared in such publications as Journal of Consumer Research and Psychological Science. Her research has received media coverage by outlets such as New York Times, Time, Science Daily, and Medical News Today.
Sara Kim received her BBA and MS from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), as well as her MBA and PhD from Chicago Booth. She joined the University of Hong Kong in 2012.
公司普遍將其服務員工的表現，歸因於其盡心努力或天賦才能。然而，我們尚未清楚兩者如何影響客戶對服務員工的評核和待客成效。此外，過往的研究僅主要分析對自己績效的歸因，對他人績效歸因的影響著墨甚少。借鑒有關熱情–勝任力框架和績效歸因的研究，是次的研究指出，當服務員工表現稱職歸因於努力而非才能時，客戶期望更多以共享為導向而非以交換為導向的關係，因為努力（相對於才能）會令客戶覺得服務員工更為熱情。作者繼而提出，客戶的協助行為是關係期望的下游結果，而努力（相對於才能）更有可能促使客戶的口碑和想法分享行為。研究結果通過將績效歸因確定為關係期望的管理上有意義的前因，豐富了現有文獻，並為營銷人員如何影響客戶對關係的期望和協助行為提供了實用的指引。
Opinion piece by Dr. Sara Kim, Associate Professor in Marketing
市場上並沒有關於表情符號在商業關係中所扮演角色的研究，而在市場學範疇以外的相關研究分析則參差不齊。本研究旨在透過分析親切度和能力這兩大基本要素，以及顧客受其個人及環境因素影響所產生對關係規範的看法（共有規範 vs. 交換規範），來闡釋過往的研究結果。透過實驗室及實地的試驗，現時的研究顯示顧客認為使用表情符號的服務人員，相比沒有使用的人，其親切度較高，但能力較低 （研究一）。我們進一步發現，當服務人員使用表情符號，具共有取向的顧客會傾向認為服務人員親切度較高，因而對服務較滿意；同樣情況，具交換取向的顧客則會傾向認為服務人員能力較低，因而對服務滿意度較低（研究二）。此外，我們亦研究了顧客不滿意的服務 （研究三） 及員工的額外角色服務 （研究四） 這兩個更能凸顯某種關係規範的重要服務情況。我們推測哪些機制有可能導致這些影響，並在進行討論理論及實際用途時，發掘更多研究機會。
Across five studies, the current research demonstrates that imbuing money with humanlike characteristics can enhance charitable giving. Based on mind perception theory, we propose that anthropomorphizing money can induce people to attribute to money the capacity to feel and sense (i.e., warmth) and the capacity to do things (i.e., competence). Further, we argue that enhanced warmth perception increases charitable giving. Studies 1a and 1b provided initial evidence that money anthropomorphism increased charitable giving by measuring real monetary donation behavior (study 1a) and by adopting a practical method to anthropomorphize money in charitable appeals (study 1b). Study 2 showed that money anthropomorphism enhanced both warmth and competence perceptions of money, but that only enhanced warmth perception increased donation intention. Study 3 showed that money anthropomorphism did not enhance other types of charitable giving, such as signature provision. Study 4 showed that the money anthropomorphism effect was unique to money and that anthropomorphizing other financial instruments, such as a credit card, did not induce the same effect.
