Vincentia Yuen
Ph.D. Candidate in Marketing, University of Miami
1. Yuen, Vincentia, Claudia Townsend, and Michael Tsiros, “The Smartphone Intuition: How Smartphone Use Decreases Decision-Making Confidence,” revising for 2nd-round review, Journal of Marketing.
Through a sales dataset, a field study with an e-commerce company, and seven experiments, this research explores how device use influences consumer confidence and choice likelihood. It identifies a "smartphone intuition," wherein consumers perceive smartphone use as inducing lower decision-making thoughtfulness than PC use, affecting their confidence, even after considering variables like user demographics, location, goal, input interface, screen size, and performance. These findings offer insights for mobile marketing, addressing lower conversion rates on smartphones compared to PCs.
2. Yuen, Vincentia, Michael Tsiros, and Eugene Pavlov, “Signaling the Presence of Private Manager Response as eWOM Intervention Strategy,” revising for 2nd-round review, Journal of Marketing.
Through field data analysis of Twitter activity, a pilot study, and five controlled experiments, this research demonstrates that the mere presence of this signaling, even without disclosing its content, leads to more favorable consumer responses. This includes increased product evaluations, preferences, choices, and donation likelihoods, as well as decreased complaint publicization (e.g., views, comments, retweets, and quotes). These findings offer insights for electronic word-of-mouth management.
3. Yuen, Vincentia, Caglar Irmak, Benjamin Bornstein, and Vamsi K Kanuri, “Give and You Shall Receive: Understanding How Engaging in Prosocial Behavior Increases Subsequent Financial Risk-Taking,” revising for 2nd-round review, Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Through a natural experiment examining individuals' stock market investment behavior following their donation to Indian Ocean tsunami victims, along with three controlled experiments, this research shows that individuals who engage in prosocial acts tend to take more financial risks due to their belief in imminent justice, expecting rewards for their good deeds and anticipating better financial outcomes.
4. Yuen, Vincentia and Claudia Townsend, “Review Update Effect: How Mere Update Cues Influence Consumer Reliance on Online Reviews in Decision-Making,” under review, Journal of Marketing.
Using a large dataset of over 34 million Amazon reviews and six controlled experiments, this research shows that review updates, whether consistent or contradictory to initial reviews, exert a stronger influence on consumer preference compared to single-occasion reviews. This highlights the dynamic nature of reviews and suggests practical strategies, such as post-service recovery reviews.
5. Bornstein, Benjamin, Claudia Townsend, Caglar Irmak, and Vincentia Yuen, “The Device Mobility Effect on Online Donations,” finalizing for submission.
Through a field study in collaboration with a charity and three controlled experiments, this research demonstrates that using more mobile devices (e.g., smartphones), compared to less mobile devices (e.g., PCs), increases donations to charities supporting distant beneficiaries. The authors reveal that this effect is driven by a heightened sense of mobility mindset induced by mobile device usage, making consumers feel closer to distant others and resulting in higher donations to charities serving faraway beneficiaries.
CV/ Research
vincentiayuen@miami.edu
To see a full list of my research projects, please see my CV.
