Research Seminar: Professor Stefano Puntoni

Seminar Title: Offshoring, Automation, and the Legitimacy of Efficiency

Abstract: Offshoring is one of the most controversial and politicized aspects of globalization, evoking heated and often negative reactions from consumers and the public (e.g., workers, voters). However, the reasons and determinants for these reactions remain unclear, and it remains also unclear how these differ from reactions to other actions taken by firms in the pursuit of efficiency, such as automation. We theorize and demonstrate that consumers’ psychological reactions to offshoring can be understood within a social contract account. We propose that offshoring violates a key element of social contracts: the normative expectation that firms should support the local community. Data from ten experimental studies (N = 6,361), public consumer responses to layoffs in a large online community (N = 29,045), and layoff announcements in the European Union (N = 1,262) support our account and show that consumers react more negatively when collective layoffs are due to offshoring than when they are due to other reasons, including automation.

Bio: Stefano Puntoni is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School and the Co-Director of AI at Wharton. He holds a PhD in marketing from London Business School and a graduate degree in statistics from the University of Padova, Italy. His research has appeared in many leading academic journals and major managerial outlets. Most of his ongoing research investigates how new technology is changing consumption and society, including how humans are adopting and evolving with AI. He is currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Consumer Research and at the Journal of Marketing. Stefano teaches in the areas of AI and automation, marketing strategy, and decision making.

Photographs will be taken during this seminar and may be shared on social media. If you do not wish to appear, please notify tbs.research@tcd.ie.