Better to be Loved by Some? What New UNO CBA Research Shows

OMAHA – Is it better to court the love of some groups of people and worth the risk of being disliked (or worse?) by others? That is what UNO CBA Management Professor Erin Bass, and her co-authors try to answer in their new paper recently published by the journal Academy of Management Review.

Bass and her co-authors theorize that firms use a range of behaviors they term as “flaunting” to display their affluence and robust resource base. Companies like Go Daddy will rent out Major League Baseball Stadiums for multi-million-dollar corporate parties with performances by Hollywood stars while Tesla or Yeezy will give out lavish designer gifts and hold exclusive concerts.

But why do they do this? The group says one reason may be to reduce the impact of a future negative event. In the wake of several Tesla car fires, some Tesla followers said the media made too much of the fires, suggesting that combustion engine fires happen all the time.

"A lot of research suggests ways to appeal to all (or most) stakeholder groups. We pivot from that research to suggest a behavior that plays on the differences among stakeholder groups, and in particular, that will only appeal to a few stakeholder groups, but that can work in a company’s favor if a negative event occurs,” Dr. Bass said.

While flaunting can be both enticing and off-putting, Bass says that courting the love of some stakeholder groups may be worth the cost of being disliked (or worse) by others when an unpredictable negative event occurs.

To learn more about this study, you can watch an interview with Bass here: https://youtu.be/DwZumb7B2Bs.