Consumer research is characterized by two types of research contributions: qualitative researchers propose original theory and quantitative researchers test existing theory. We describe a novel research approach that uses quantitative research methods to propose original theory. The method relies on an iterative investigate‐learn‐update research process that generates, but does not test, original theory. The method places a special emphasis on conducting informed exploratory studies that rely on a breadth of domains, procedures, populations, and analyses. This research approach has three benefits. First, it promotes the discovery of original theory in understudied domains. Second, the method encourages broad, boundary‐expanding exploration, hence, has the potential to propose original theories that encompasses a large set of relationships. Third, the iterative nature of the method mitigates the inclusion of idiosyncratic construct relationships in the proposed theory. We provide a hypothetical illustration of the method and provide examples of research topics that might benefit from the approach.

In an increasingly globalized marketplace, it is common for marketing researchers to collect data from respondents who are not native speakers of the language in which the questions are formulated. Examples include online customer ratings and internal marketing initiatives in multinational corporations. This raises the issue of whether providing responses on rating scales in a person's native versus second language exerts a systematic influence on the responses obtained. This article documents the anchor contraction effect (ACE), the systematic tendency to report more intense emotions when answering questions using rating scales in a nonnative language than in the native language. Nine studies (1) establish ACE, test the underlying process, and rule out alternative explanations; (2) examine the generalizability of ACE across a range of situations, measures, and response scale formats; and (3) explore managerially relevant and easily implementable corrective techniques.

In an increasingly globalized marketplace, it is common for marketing researchers to collect data from respondents who are not native speakers of the language in which the questions are formulated. Examples include online customer ratings and internal marketing initiatives in multinational corporations. This raises the issue of whether providing responses on rating scales in a person's native versus second language exerts a systematic influence on the responses obtained. This article documents the anchor contraction effect (ACE), the systematic tendency to report more intense emotions when answering questions using rating scales in a nonnative language than in the native language. Nine studies (1) establish ACE, test the underlying process, and rule out alternative explanations; (2) examine the generalizability of ACE across a range of situations, measures, and response scale formats; and (3) explore managerially relevant and easily implementable corrective techniques.

We examine consumers' forgetting to buy items they intended to buy. We show that the propensity to forget depends on the types of items consumers intend to purchase and the way consumers shop. Consumers may shop using a memory-based search by recalling their planned purchases from memory and directly searching for the products. For example, consumers may use the search function at an online store. Alternatively, consumers may use a stimulus-based search by systematically moving through a store, visually scanning the inventory and selecting the required items as they are encountered. Using an online shopping paradigm, we show that consumers are more likely to forget the items they infrequently buy when using the memory-based search, but not when using the stimulus-based search. In fact, when using the stimulus-based search, consumers are sometimes even better able to remember the items they infrequently (vs. frequently) buy. Moreover, consumers fail to take these factors into account when predicting their memory. As a result, they do not take appropriate actions to prevent forgetting (e.g., using a shopping list).

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