Citation: van Laer, T. (2015). The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A metaanalysis of the antecedents and consequences of consumers' narrative transportation. Paper presented at the Research Seminar, 22 Jan. 2015, University of Sydney, Australia. This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version.  On an individual level, stories represent one of the first-if not the firstform of cultural transmission after birth. Permanent repository link Relevance of stories A Story about StoriesNarratology, or the study of stories, implies a holistic appreciation of stories by means of an "examination of the content, structure, and context" (Stern, Thompson, and Arnould 1998, 199): Structural analysis (Barthes 1975) consists of inspecting the "basic rules of narrative accounting" (Gergen and Gergen 1988, 30), which make stories much more than a sequence of propositions (Adaval, Isbell, and Wyer 2007; Adaval and Wyer 1998; Pennington and Hastie 1988) . Post-structural analysis directs attention to the cultural, historical, and social context in which the story unfolds and that make it possible and interpretable (Holt 1997; Shankar et al. 2001; Thompson 1997). Interpreting storiesA Story about Stories Stories in consumer researchStories have attracted much scholarly attention of consumer researchers. We identify two disciplinary approaches of consumer research to stories:  Stories as a persuasive lever, whenever scholars' attention focuses on stories' capacity of activating affective and cognitive changes in story-receivers-that is, consumers of the story-that may eventually affect their beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviours (Gerrig 1993; Green 2008). A Story about Stories Stories in our researchOur research focuses on: Narrative transportation occurring whenever the consumer experiences a feeling of entering a world evoked by the narrative and is thus 'lost in the story ' (Nell 1988). This particular state of suspension of disbelief and deep involvement is possible when certain contextual and personal preconditions are met, as Green and Brock (2002) 1. Develop a model that integrates the antecedents and consequences of narrative transportation.2. Empirically assess the model with a quantitative metaanalysis of extant research.3. Uncover issues that deserve further attention and provide directions for further research. A Story about Stories Gap and research objectivesNarrative Transportation Key constructs: Ingredients of the potionThe conceptual building blocks of our work are four:1. Story 2. Narrative 3. Narrative transportation 4. Narrative persuasion Narrative Transportation Key constructs: Ingredients of the potionFormer works use the concepts of story and narrative interchangeably (Chase 1995; Grayson 1997; Shankar et al. 2001). Yet, on closer inspection of Thompson's (1997, 438) hermeneutic analysis of consumer stories we read that a narrative is derived from a process of attribution of meaning to and interpretation of a story. ...

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Many consumers base their purchase decisions on online consumer reviews. An overlooked feature of these texts is their narrativity: the extent to which they tell a story. The authors construct a new theory of narrativity to link the narrative content and discourse of consumer reviews to consumer behavior. They also develop from scratch a computerized technique that reliably determines the degree of narrativity of 190,461 verbatim, online consumer reviews and validate the automated text analysis with two controlled experiments. More transporting (i.e., engaging) and persuasive reviews have better developed characters and events as well as more emotionally changing genres and dramatic event orders. This interdisciplinary, multimethod research should help future researchers (1) predict how narrativity affects consumers' narrative transportation and persuasion, (2) measure the narrativity of large digital corpora of textual data, and (3) understand how this important linguistic feature varies along a continuum.

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Purpose This paper presents a study using encephalography (EEG) to investigate consumer responses to narrative videos in energy efficiency social marketing. The purpose is to assess the role of attention, working memory, emotion, and imagination in narrative transportation, and how these stages of narrative transportation are ordered temporally. Permanent repository linkDesign/methodology/approach Consumers took part in an EEG experiment during which they were shown four different narrative videos to identify brain response during specific video segments. FindingsThe study found that during the opening segment of the videos, attention, working memory, and emotion were high before attenuating with some introspection at the end of this segment. During the story segment of the videos attention, working memory, and emotion were also high, with attention decreasing later on but working memory, emotion, and imagination being evident. Consumer responses to each of the four videos differed. Practical implicationsThe study suggests that narratives can be a useful approach in energy efficiency social marketing. Specifically, marketers should attempt to gain focused attention and invoke emotional responses, working memory, and imagination to help consumers become narratively transported. The fit between story object and story-receiver should also be considered when creating consumer narratives. Social implicationsPolicy makers, and organisations who wish to promote pro-social behaviours such as using energy efficiently, or eating healthily should consider using narratives.Originality/value This research contributes to theory by identifying brain response relating to attention, working memory, emotion, and imagination during specific stages of narrative transportation. The study considers the role of attention, emotion, working memory, and imagination during reception of stories with different objects, and how these may relate to consumers' narrative transportation.

Prior research has focused on analyzing the content and intent of celebrity social media communications. By observing that the linguistic style of such celebrity communications drives consumer word of mouth, the main goal of the current research is to broaden this limited perspective. An automated text analysis of narrative/analytical, internally/externally focused, and negative/positive emotional styles in tweets by celebrity chefs, personal trainers, and fashion bloggers was conducted to this effect. The findings are threefold. First, across celebrity categories externally focused, narrative styles are more effective in terms of word of mouth. Second, emotional styles are not effective. Third, angry outbursts are an exception; they are effective drivers of word of mouth for personal trainers. As such, this research furthers scholarly and practitioner understanding of the state-the-art of celebrity social media communication: the effect of tweets’ linguistic styles on consumer word of mouth.