Consumer and Organizational Behaviour
Researchers in the Consumer and Organizational Behaviour (COB) cluster focus on the study of human behaviour in consumption and organizational contexts, with a particular focus on being, doing, and influencing. This includes studying the antecedents, processes, and outcomes of consumer, employee, and leader behaviour. Rather than viewing consumers and organizational members as having distinct roles, we take an interdisciplinary approach and study these entities as fulfilling both consumer and organizational roles, taking a social-psychological perspective to bridge the gap between consumer and organizational behaviour disciplines. COB goes deeper than examining how people consume at home and behave at work, it is about understanding how such phenomena impact our lives, our state of being, and the broader social world. By studying the perspective of individuals, groups, and society, we develop research that benefits organizational, consumer, and employee welfare, and quality of life for all.
Faculty research expertise in this domain includes examining globalization, culture, and consumption to consider how globalization is shaping culture, modifying value systems, affecting social identities, and ultimately, altering the dispositions and behaviours of individuals and groups worldwide; social influence topics such as conformity, normative social influence, the influence of leaders, social networks, social values and identities, and understanding social change; and, sustainability, where research focuses on conceptualizing sustainability from a consumer and employee perspective, on individual differences that impact sustainable behaviours, on situational changes that can be implemented to encourage sustainable outcomes, and on the role of labour market institutions in creating equitable and sustainable workplaces.
Selected Faculty Research
Cleveland, Mark & Bartsch, Fabian (2019: IN PRESS), “Global Consumer Culture: Epistemology and Ontology” International Marketing Review. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IMR-10-2018-0287/full/html?af=R
Cleveland, Mark & Balakrishnan, Anjana (2019), “Appreciating vs. Venerating Cultural Outgroups: The Psychology of Cosmopolitanism and Xenocentrism,” International Marketing Review, Vol. 36, No. 3, 416-444. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IMR-09-2018-0260/full/html
Cleveland, Mark & Bartikowski, Boris (2018), “Cultural and Identity Antecedents of Market Mavenism: Comparing Chinese at Home and Abroad,” Journal of Business Research, Vol. 82 (January), 354-363 . https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296317303247
Cleveland, Mark & Cecelia Xu (2019: IN PRESS), “Multifaceted Acculturation in Multiethnic Settings,” Journal of Business Research. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319300700
Cleveland, Mark (2015), Wanting Things and Needing Affiliation: Ethnic Consumers and Materialism (Chapter 10, pp. 147-182). In: Jamal, Ahmad, Peñaloza, Lisa & Laroche, Michel (Eds.), Routledge Companion on Ethnic Marketing, Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) London, UK. ISBN: 978-0-415-64363-4. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203080092.ch10
Rotman, J., Khamitov, M., and Connors, S. Lie Cheat and Steal: How Harmful Brands Motivate Consumers to Act Unethically. (2018), Journal of Consumer Psychology, 28(2), 353-361. (Equal authorship, order determined by random draw).
Connors, S., Anderson-MacDonald, S., Thomson, M. (2017). Overcoming the ‘Window Dressing’ Effect: Mitigating the Negative Effects of Inherent Skepticism towards Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 145(3), 599-621.
Connors, S., Khamitov, M., Moroz, S., and Campbell, L. (2016). Time, Money, and Happiness: Does Putting a Price on Time Affect Our Ability to Smell the Roses? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 67, 60-64.
Simpson, B., Robertson, J.L. , & White, K. (2019). How co-creation increases employee corporate social responsibility and organizational engagement: The moderating role of self-construal. Journal of Business Ethics. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04138-3. https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/how-co-creation-increases-employee-corporate-social-responsibili/16545126
Tian, Q., & Robertson, J.L. (2019). How and when does perceived CSR affect employees’ engagement in voluntary pro-environmental behaviour? Journal of Business Ethics, 155, 399-412. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10551-017-3497-3
Robertson, J.L., Dionisi, A.M., & Barling, J. (2018). Linking attachment theory to abusive supervision. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 33, 214-228. (Selected as a highly commendable paper in the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards).
Robertson, J.L. (2018). The nature, measurement and nomological network of environmentally specific transformational leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 151, 961-975. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-017-3569-4
Robertson, J.L., & Barling, J. (Eds.). (2015). The Psychology of Green Organizations. New York: Oxford University Press. (Nominated for the Organizations and The Natural Environment Division of The Academy of Management Book Award in 2016, 2017 and 2018). https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-psychology-of-green-organizations-9780199997480?cc=ca&lang=en&
Robertson, J.L., & Barling, J. (2013). Greening organizations through leaders’ influence on employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34, 176-194 . (Winning paper in the prestigious Emerald Citations of Excellence for 2016).
Simpson, Bonnie, Jennifer Robertson, and Katherine White (2019), “How Co-Creation Increases Employee Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Engagement: The Moderating Role of Self-Construal,” Journal of Business Ethics. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/mospub/9/
Simpson, Bonnie, Katherine White, and Juliano Laran (2018), “When Public Recognition for Charitable Giving Backfires: The Role of Independent Self-Construal,” Journal of Consumer Research 44 (6), 1257-73. [Their copyright protection is super tight, working on when they’ll let a version be released]
Bonnie Simpson and Scott K. Radford (2014) Situational Variables and Sustainability in Multi-Attribute Decision-Making. European Journal of Marketing: Vol. 48, No. 5/6, 1046-1069. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=mospub
Katherine White, Bonnie Simpson, and Jennifer J. Argo (2014) The Motivating Role of Dissociative Out-Groups in Encouraging Positive Consumer Behaviors. Journal of Marketing Research: Vol. 51, No. 4, 433-447. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=mospub
White, Katherine and Bonnie Simpson (2013) "The "Dos and Don'ts" of Normative Influence: When Do (and Don't) Normative Messages Lead to Sustainable Consumer Behaviors?," Journal of Marketing, 77 (2), 78-95. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=mospub
Weststar, J. & Legault, M.-J. (2019). Building momentum for collectivity in the digital games community. Television and New Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419851087
Campbell, S. & Weststar, J. (2019). Peering inside the ‘black box’: The impact of management-side representatives on the industrial relations climate of organizations. Labor Studies Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X19852696
Weststar, J, & Legault, M-J. (2018). “Women’s experiences on the path to a career in game development.” Feminism in Play. Gray, Voorhees & Vossen (Eds.). Palgrave MacMillan.
Legault, M.-J. & Weststar, J. (2017) “Videogame developers among ‘extreme workers’: Are death marches over?” E -journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies, 6(3): 1-29.
Weststar, J. & Legault, M-J. (2017) “Why might a video game developer join a union?” Labor Studies Journal, 42(4): 295-321.
Skerrett, K., Weststar, J., Archer, S. & Roberts, C. (Eds.). (2017). The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism. Labor and Employment Relations Association Research Volume. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Skerrett, K., Weststar, J., Archer, S. & Roberts, C. (2017). Introduction. In The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism. Skerrett, Weststar, Archer & Roberts (Eds.). Labor and Employment Relations Association Research Volume. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Weststar, J. (2017). Critical perspectives from the field of pension fund education. In The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism. Skerrett, Weststar, Archer & Roberts (Eds.). Labor and Employment Relations Association Research Volume. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Weststar, J. & Verma, A. (2017). Protector or activist? Consistency and contradiction in labor’s voice on pension boards. In The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism. Skerrett, Weststar, Archer & Roberts (Eds.). Labor and Employment Relations Association Research Volume. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
