Research Overview
The overarching theme of my research focuses on the areas of marketing communications and persuasion. More specifically, my research interests fall into three major streams: (1) the role of nonverbal communications in marketing and persuasion, (2) the frontline employee - customer interface, and (3) public policy communications.
My first line of research examines the impact of powerful, yet often overlooked, visual stimuli such as body language, facial cues, or emoji on the effectiveness of marketing communications. My second stream of research explores how various aspects of frontline employee interactions with customers, such as warmth and competence perceptions, service failures and recovery, and AI as the new frontline employee, affect short- and long-term customer outcomes. Finally, my third research stream looks into how marketing and persuasion knowledge can be harnessed and implemented to influence prosocial behaviour change.
My other research interests include digital marketing communication, human-technology interaction, and nonprofit marketing. Throughout my research, I utilize both experimental design and secondary datasets to answer managerially relevant research questions. Three major philosophies guide my research program: impact, methodological rigor, and collaboration.
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Publications
Laura Boman, Lam An, Ganga Hewage, and Jonathan Hasford (2024), “Steady Hand at the Wheel: How Consumers Respond to Dynamic Communications after Service Failures,” Journal of Service Research.
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Lam An, Zhihao Yu, Jae Hoon Lee, and Sheng Sun (2025), “To Blur or Not to Blur? Background Blurriness and Effectiveness of Virtual Communications,” Journal of Advertising Research.
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Zhihao Yu, Lam An, and Timothy Heath (2025), “The Effects of Footstep Sounds on Impression Formation and Persuasion,” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.
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Lam An, Sylvie Albert, Sheri-Lynn Skwarchuk, and Kenneth Reimer (2024), “The ToyBox Education Project: A Case in Social Enterprise Planning,” Ivey Publishing.
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Lam An and Frank Butler (2017), “An Analysis of Factors Influencing Membership Retention at a Children’s Museum,” Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 29 (3), 254-273.
Papers Under Review
Lam An, Ze Wang, Xia Wang, Jonathan Hasford, and Huifang Mao, “Smaller is Better: The Effects of Facial Prominence on Consumer Responses to Marketing Communications,” revise-and-resubmit at the Journal of Consumer Psychology (in preparation for 3rd-round review).​
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Can Trinh, Ping He, and Lam An, "The Influence of Recycled Packaging for Food Products on Consumer Behavior," revise-and-resubmit at the Journal of Consumer Behaviour (in preparation for 2nd-round review)
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Lam An and Fabrizio Di Muro, “How the Emotional Tone of Financial Disinformation Influences Investment Behavior,” under review at the Journal of Business Research.
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Lam An, and Fabrizio Di Muro, “The Role of Emotional Tone and Party Affiliation in Political Disinformation”, under review at the Journal of Political Marketing.
Research in Progress
Lam An and Ze Wang, “The Roles of Power Display and Transgression Relevance on Responses to Brand Failures,” manuscript in preparation for submission to the Journal of Applied Psychology.
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Juncai Jiang, Ze Wang, and Lam An, “Social Media Identity Verification and Brand Engagement,” targeting the Journal of Marketing Research.
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Lam An and Ze Wang, “Impact of Frontline Employees’ Warmth and Competence on Experience Evaluation and Customer Loyalty,” targeting the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
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Lam An and David Luna, “The Robot Won’t Judge Me: How AI Healthcare Benefits the Stigmatized.” (three studies completed, field experiment on going), targeting the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing.
Research Funding
Insight Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (Principal Investigator)
Project Title: The Face of Disinformation: How Facial Expressions Impact Persuasiveness of Fake News
Duration: 4 years (2024-2028)
Amount Awarded: $89,382
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Major Research Grant, University of Winnipeg (Principal Investigator)
Project Title: Diversity in Sustainability Communications
Duration: 1 year (2024-2025)
Amount Awarded: $7,376
Explore Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Principal Investigator)
Project Title: Marketing for Social Impact
Duration: 1 year (2024-2025)
Amount Awarded: $2,500
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Major Research Grant, University of Winnipeg (Principal Investigator)
Project Title: Social Media Identity Verification and Brand Engagement
Duration: 1 year (2023-2024)
Amount Awarded: $7,148
Research Start-up Grant, University of Winnipeg (Primary Holder)
Project Title: N/A
Duration: 4 years (2021-2025)
Amount Awarded: $10,000
Conference Presentations (Presenting author is underlined)
Zhihao Yu, Lam An, and Timothy Heath (September 2024), “Footstep Sound, Perceived Status, and Persuasion.” Association for Consumer Research Conference, Paris, France.
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Lam An, and Fabrizio Di Muro (July 2024), “The Effect of Emotional Tone in Disinformation Across News
Contexts.” American Marketing Association Consumer Behavior Special Interest Group (AMA CBSIG) Conference, Vienna, Austria.
Lam An, and Fabrizio Di Muro (May 2024), “The Creation of a Financial Vulnerability Dictionary.” Prairie Consumer Behavior Symposium, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Lam An, and Fabrizio Di Muro (April 2024), “Using Text Analysis to Identify Financially Vulnerable Consumers.” Financial Wellness Lab Research Summit, London, Ontario, Canada.
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Zhihao Yu, Lam An, and Timothy Heath (July 2023), “Footstep Sound, Perceived Status, and Persuasion,” paper presented at European Association for Consumer Research Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Lam An, and Fabrizio Di Muro (May 2023), “The Emotional Tone and Context of Disinformation,” paper presented at Prairie Consumer Behavior Symposium, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Zhihao Yu, and Lam An (March 2023), “The Influence of Visual Blurriness on Marketing Communications,” paper presented at Society for Consumer Psychology Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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Lam An, and Sylvie Albert (October 2022), “The ToyBox Education Project: A Case in Social Enterprise Planning.” North American Case Research Association Conference, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
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Zhihao Yu, and Lam An (August 2022), “To Blur or Not to Blur? Background Blurriness and Effectiveness of Virtual Communications,” paper presented at AMA Summer Academic Conference, Chicago, Illinois.
Laura Boman, Lam An, Ganga Hewage, and Jonathan Hasford (October 2021), “'The Role of Perceived Movement in Digital Brand Recovery Efforts,” paper presented at Association of Consumer Research Virtual Conference.
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Laura Boman, Lam An, Ganga Hewage, and Jonathan Hasford (August 2021), “The Influence of Perceived Movement on Consumer Responses to Brand Recovery Efforts,” paper presented at AMA Summer Academic Virtual Conference.
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Lam An, and Laura Boman (June 2021), “The Robot Won’t Judge Me: How AI Healthcare Benefits the Stigmatized,” paper presented at the Academy of Marketing Science Virtual Conference.
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Lam An, Ze Wang, Xia Wang, and Jonathan Hasford (December 2020), “How Facial Prominence Impacts Perception of Interaction Space and Consumer Response,” paper presented at the Academy of Marketing Science Virtual Conference.
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Lam An, and Ze Wang (October 2019), “The Roles of Power Display and Transgression Relevance on Responses to Brand Failures,” paper presented at the Association of Consumer Research Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
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Lam An, Ze Wang, Xia Wang, and Jonathan Hasford (February 2019), “Keep Your Distance: The Impact of Facial Prominence on Consumer Response to Marketing Communications,” paper presented at the Society for Consumer Psychology Conference, Savannah, Georgia.
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Lam An, Ze Wang, and Jonathan Hasford (November 2018), “The Insidious Effect of Nonverbal Power Display in Crisis Management,” paper presented at the Society for Marketing Advances Conference, West Palm Beach, Florida.
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Lam An, Ze Wang, and Jonathan Hasford (July 2018), “The Insidious Effect of Nonverbal Power Display in Crisis Management,” poster presented at the China Marketing International Conference, Shanghai, China.
Invited Research Presentations & Workshop Instructions
Research Presentations:
​National Economics University, Vietnam, May 2024
Montpellier Business School, France, March 2022
Appalachian State University, United States, April 2021
Old Dominion University, United States, March 2021
Portland State University, United States, March 2021
University of Winnipeg, Canada, March 2021
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Workshop Instructions:
Mediation and Moderation Doctoral Workshop (University of Central Florida), November 2021
Selected Abstracts
Smaller is Better: The Effects of Facial Prominence on Consumer Responses to Marketing Communications
Lam An, Ze Wang, Xia Wang, Jonathan Hasford, and Huifang Mao
Marketing communications frequently feature human faces to enhance persuasive outcomes. However, researchers and practitioners have largely overlooked the influence of facial prominence, defined as the ratio between the area of the spokesperson’s face and the total area of the marketing display, on consumer responses to communication messages. Across one study analyzing large-scale data from a major online retailer and two laboratory experiments, the current research demonstrates that consumers respond more positively to marketing communications featuring relatively low (vs. high) facial prominence of the spokesperson. The negative effect of facial prominence on message outcomes is driven by decreased consumer desire to affiliate with the spokesperson, and is reversed when the spokesperson is a positively regarded celebrity.
Steady Hand at the Wheel: How Consumers Respond to Dynamic Communications after Service Failures
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Laura Boman, Lam An, Ganga Hewage, and Jonathan Hasford
Paratextual communication methods, such as the use of emojis and other visual messaging cues, offer firms a unique opportunity to repair relationships with customers after brand failures. The current research demonstrates that visual messaging cues associated with low perceived movement lead to greater brand loyalty relative to more dynamic cues in response to brand failure. Across five studies, we show that low perceived movement in visual messaging cues leads to more favorable consumer outcomes (e.g., subsequent real choice behavior and brand loyalty intentions). This effect is mediated by brand trust. Furthermore, we examine three theoretically and practically relevant boundary conditions which impact brand trust. The findings offer theoretical contributions to the limited literature on consumers’ reactions to visual messaging cues in brand failure contexts. Additionally, the current research provides managerially relevant insights for communication strategies during recovery.
l.an@uwinnipeg.ca | 971-237-5247