Ahmed Shaalan

Cranfield University · Cranfield Centre for Strategic Marketing and Sales (CSMS)

AI agents are increasingly used in customer relationship management strategies to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Amid rapid advances in technology, the programs are becoming more human-like and versatile. However, AI agents with inadequate emotional responses can create an empathy gap, resulting in negative outcomes. If users' experiences fai...

Purpose This study aims to explore how and when negative workplace gossip damages hospitality employees’ career growth, based on social information processing (SIP) and social cognitive career theories. Design/methodology/approach The authors gathered data from 379 individuals working in Guangzhou’s hospitality industry with a multi-wave survey....

This rejoinder responds to a commentary on our paper “De-Linking from Western Epistemologies: Using Guanxi-Type Relationships to Attract and Retain Hotel Guests in the Middle East”. We highlight the distinction we drew between guanxi itself and guanxi-type relationships to dispute the assertion that we imposed a Chinese concept onto a Middle Easter...

The study examines seven key dimensions of online customer engagement behaviour and uses these to build ideal and baseline profiles. This ensures verbal and statistical correspondence. This approach allows identification of critical customer engagement behaviour to invest in and which one to invest in for maintenance. The study finds that deviating...

This study explores whether leader humor can encourage staff to exceed job expectations in their positive behavior toward customers, even in the notoriously stressful context of the hospitality industry. Based on our findings, leaders who use humor are more likely to prompt employees to engage in customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavio...

This paper examines the impact of social customer relationship management (SCRM) and customer engagement on profitability in the hospitality industry amidst the COVID-19 crisis. It highlights the need for hoteliers to retain employees and maintain service assurance. The study identifies hedonic value as predominant in hospitality services but notes...

Chatbots are seen as something of a magic wand for both companies and consumers. They may enable companies to improve customer service and gather vast amounts of accurate data, while giving consumers a better experience as they engage with brands in a customised way. Chatbots can understand everyday language and respond by imitating human-to-human...

Consumers have always had a propensity to share their personal experiences of products/services/brands with others. Marketers have long appreciated the importance of such user-generated content and Ernest Dichter coined the term ‘word of mouth’ (WOM) advertising in 1966. In online environments, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has become important t...

The relationship between customer mindset metrics (CMMs) and consumer spending has been extensively investigated at the consumer and firm level, but little is known about it at the national level, nor about how it differs between countries. Drawing on five publicly available datasets gathered in 10 European countries over 20 years, our study traces...

Negative gossip is an everyday part of life and work whose outcomes have been the focus of a growing number of studies. However, the impact of negative workplace gossip on employees’ subjective well-being (SWB) appears to have received no attention in the literature. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we use time-lagged data from 243 empl...

This research explores the harmful effects of negative workplace gossip (NWG) on targets and organizations, including its impacts on helping behavior and knowledge hiding. The mediating role of guanxi closeness and the moderating role of need for affiliation are also examined. The study, based on conservation of resources theory, collected data fro...

Relationships are widely recognized as key to business success in the form of both informal interpersonal networks and formal organizational relationships. While Chinese personal networks (guanxi) have attracted scholars’ interest, the concept has not been fully investigated or understood in other contexts, especially the Middle East, where persona...

Through-out human history, people have a tendancy to rely on trustworthy sources in their interactions and when exchanging information such as scholars, government representatives or organisation icons. However, this is no longer the case as the digital era has emerged. Currently, individuals tend to virtually trust other people at the other end of...

Purpose This study aims to examine the Arab practice of wasta (personal networks) and its potential interface with relationship marketing to enable firms to optimize their recruitment and retention of customers in societies where personal ties drive business relationships. It explores whether relationship marketing influences customer retention whe...

Relationships are widely recognized as key to business success in the form of both informal interpersonal networks and formal organizational relationships. While Chinese personal networks ( guanxi ) have attracted scholars’ interest, the concept has not been fully investigated or understood in other contexts, especially the Middle East, where perso...

The ongoing transformation of branding in developing countries remains under-researched despite its central importance to competitive advantage. The Egyptian banking sector is a prime example: it depends largely on brand equity, but current strategies may not have equal effects in national and international banks. This research therefore quantitive...

Purpose Using equity theory, this study aims to examine the role of customer incivility in effecting service sabotage among hotel employees by recognizing the mediating role of revenge motivation and the moderating effect of emotion regulation. Design/methodology/approach A multi-wave, multi-source questionnaire survey was conducted with 291 emplo...

In the complex context of green consumption, researchers have examined the impact of many variables on pro-environmental behaviours, but have paid little attention to the effects of specific combinations of factors. This study fills this gap, using innovative methods to show how a combination of demographic variables, values, normative influence, p...

This study extends the conceptualization of corporate identity (CI), and develops a valid and reliable scale for the concept via multistage research design. After detailed literature review, key elements of CI in practice are clarified using 20 semi-structured interviews with senior managers in leading UK companies, followed by an online survey amo...

This paper investigates the relationship between Corporate Identity (CI) and CSR and describes how CI can underpin the development and implementation of CSR initiatives; thus helping to clarify how best to implement CSR in business practice. Empirical findings derived from interviews with senior executives in leading UK-based companies reveal the...

Purpose – The study revisits the meaning of Corporate Identity (CI) in practice to identify its key dimensions and the interrelationships between them, and to provide insights on how to operationalize the construct. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on a comprehensive literature review and qualitative research consisting of 22 semi...

This paper undertakes a detailed review of the components of corporate identity (CI). This is necessitated by the recent emergence and focus upon CI and its frequent confusion with related issues such as corporate branding and reputation. We begin by defining the boundaries of CI, exploring its nature and meaning, and outlining theoretical perspect...

This conceptual study critically examines the separate concepts of guanxi and relationship marketing, explores the differences between the two approaches, and proposes innovative linkages between them. Chinese guanxi develops relationships at the inter-personal level, whereas relationship marketing develops relationships at the inter-organizational...