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When and why does good service recovery improve consumer affinity?: An empirical study on intercultural service encounters
Abstract
Despite the growing academic attention to consumer affinity, the study of its antecedents had been relatively ignored. The current study focuses on the effect of service recovery on consumer affinity in intercultural service encounters (ICSEs) involving customers and employees from different cultures. The current study has three purposes: (1) determine whether good service recovery improves consumer affinity and, in turn, revisit intention in ICSEs; (2) examine whether this effect is also confirmed in a relative high animosity country; and (3) examine the psychological process by which service recovery enhances consumer affinity. We conducted a series of scenario-based experiments to examine our hypotheses. The results revealed that good service recovery led to greater intention to revisit the country via consumer affinity as opposed to bad service recovery. However, the effect of service recovery disappeared or attenuated in a high animosity country. Further, two types of service recovery (i.e. process and outcome) influenced consumer affinity via both warmth and competence. We discussed theoretical implications, practical contributions, and future research directions based on the empirical results.
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Expanding cross-cultural social interaction regardless of whether it is real or virtual makes consumers become interested in different cultures, thereby increasing the number of consumers with positive attitudes toward foreign countries. This study examines the role of consumer affinity—a feeling of sympathy and attachment to a specific foreign country—in cross-cultural consumer decision-making. Specifically, it investigates the conditions that promote or inhibit consumer affinity for foreign product evaluation from the perspective of construal level theory and regulatory focus theory. A series of experiments clarified that when considering the purchase of a foreign product, consumer affinity caused a psychological proximity between the two countries, which could result in a change in consumers’ construal level and, therefore, a difference in the effective method of a product appeal (promotion-focused vs. prevention-focused). This psychological mechanism will expand the research on effective communication strategies when marketing products or services globally.
Despite increasing interest in warmth and competence as fundamental dimensions in consumers’ evaluation of service providers, prior research remains ambiguous about which dimension is more important. The current study develops a nomological framework that clarifies this ambiguity and explains whether, when, and why warmth or competence takes precedence for different outcomes in customer-service provider relationships. Combined evidence from field and laboratory studies support the notion of an asymmetric dominance, which suggests that warmth is dominant in driving outcomes that capture relational aspects (e.g., customer-company identification), whereas competence is dominant in driving outcomes that capture transactional aspects of the customer-service provider relationship (e.g., share of wallet). The findings provide first insights into the underlying mechanisms that drive this asymmetric dominance by demonstrating that relational and capability concerns mediate this process. Moreover, the current investigation identifies novel moderators that offer managers help in identifying service contexts (people vs. object care) and customer segments (differing in process and outcome service goals) for which investing in warmth or competence is more promising. Overall, displaying competence is particular effective in driving customer attraction and current operating performance, whereas displaying warmth is better suited to establish strong emotional bonds and drive customer retention.
Purpose – This paper aims to investigate if perceived cultural distance (PCD) negatively affects service quality and customer satisfaction through customers' social judgements of the service providers' warmth and competence in intercultural service encounters (ICSE), and if this negative effect can be mitigated through customer participation (CP).
Design/methodology/approach – A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design with an online consumer panel was conducted using a series of intercultural service encounter scenarios (in the weight loss service context) to manipulate CP (high vs low) and pictures of service providers to induce PCD (high vs low).
Findings – As hypothesized, in the context of ICSE, PCD negatively impacts customers' social judgements of the service providers' warmth and competence, which in turn influence service quality and customer satisfaction. However, the negative impact of PCD is alleviated when the level of CP is high.
Research limitations/implications – Using a single service context (weight loss services) may restrict the generalizability of findings. Future research may explore other service contexts.
Practical implications – To improve customers' experience, managers in service firms with multicultural customers may create more engagement opportunities by designing the service delivery process in ways in which more CP and involvement is allowed.
Originality/value – This research is among the first to highlight the importance of consumers' social judgements about culturally dissimilar service providers, which at baseline come with disadvantages but that can be altered through marketing actions (e.g. enhanced CP).
The influence of attachment theory on organizational scholarship is growing, with more articles published on the subject in the past 5 years than the preceding 25 years combined. Prior research and reviews have primarily focused on attachment styles and their relationship with organizational outcomes. However, in the past 5 years, organizational scholars have begun exploring new directions in attachment research such as situational influences on attachment states, attachment as a moderating variable, and attachment as a dynamic process in various forms of work relationships. These advances offer new directions for organizational behavior research, notably through the lens of the attachment behavioral system—an innate psychological system that accounts for why and how people seek support from others. In this paper, we provide an overarching framework for understanding attachment dynamics in organizations and review key findings from attachment theory research on dyadic relationships, group dynamics, and the employee–organization relationship. We further discuss promising areas for future organizational research on attachment, as well as methodological developments in the priming of attachment states.
A typical behavioral research paper features multiple studies of a common phenomenon that are analyzed solely in isolation. Because the studies are of a common phenomenon, this practice is inefficient and foregoes important benefits that be obtained only by analyzing them jointly in a single paper meta-analysis (SPM). To facilitate SPM, we introduce metaanalytic methodology that is user-friendly, widely applicable, and specially tailored to the SPM of the set of studies that appear in a typical behavioral research paper. Our SPM methodology provides important benefits for study summary, theory-testing, and replicability that we illustrate via three case studies that include papers recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research. We advocate that authors of typical behavioral research papers use it to supplement the single-study analyses that independently discuss the multiple studies in the body of their papers as well as the "qualitative meta-analysis" that verbally synthesizes the studies in the general discussion of their papers. When used as such, this requires only a minor modification of current practice. We provide an easy-to-use website that implements our SPM methodology.
A central research topic in tourism management concerns tourists’ choice of specific destinations. The present article reviews and advances the extant literature on destination image. From this review, we suggest that individuals have a multitude of destination associations, the total imagery that relates to the destination, and label this concept destination imagery. Individuals also hold an overall image used as a heuristic or a mental shortcut, which is labeled destination image. The concepts of destination imagery and destination image are distinct, yet they have often been conflated within the literature. The article further provides an extensive review of the literature with regard to the definitions, dimensionality, antecedents, and outcomes of the focal concepts as well as geographical scope of destination imagery and image studies and methodologies. This review has led to a novel understanding and delimitation of the focal concepts within the imagery-image duality model.
Purpose
– This paper aims to explore the moderating effects of consumer ethnocentrism and intercultural competence on the impact of service outcome and perceived cultural distance, respectively, on interaction comfort and perceived service quality in intercultural service encounters.
Design/methodology/approach
– A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design with university students was used, using service encounter scenarios to manipulate service outcome (failure or success) and photos of service employees to manipulate perceived cultural distance (low vs high).
Findings
– As hypothesized, the impact of service outcome on interaction comfort and perceived service quality is moderated negatively by consumer ethnocentrism, whereas the impact of perceived cultural distance is moderated positively by intercultural competence.
Research limitations/implications
– An experimental design using imaginary service scenarios was used in a single service context (i.e. restaurant) with university students as participants, which may restrict the generalizability of our findings.
Practical implications
– Managers in service firms with multicultural customers should try to recruit service employees with high intercultural competence and low consumer ethnocentrism. They should also develop employee training programs that help minimize the adverse impact of these variables on interaction comfort and service quality in intercultural service encounters.
Originality/value
– This paper extends prior research by exploring the moderating effects of consumer ethnocentrism and intercultural competence on the direct and indirect effects of service outcome and perceived cultural distance on interaction comfort, service quality and satisfaction.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive framework incorporating service roles (customer vs employee) and outcomes (failure vs success) as moderators in the process by which perceived cultural distance (PCD) affects customers and employees in intercultural service encounters (ICSEs).
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors used a 2×2×3 between-subjects experimental design with Chinese undergraduate students, manipulating service role (customer and employee), outcome (failure and success) and PCD (low, medium and high).
Findings
– Compared to service employees, customers perceive higher cultural distance and lower interaction comfort (IC), service quality and satisfaction; and stronger negative moderating effect of PCD in ICSEs. Compared to service success, failure results in lower IC; perceived service quality and satisfaction, and these effects are stronger for customers (vs employees).
Research limitations/implications
– The authors used shorter versions of all the scales to minimize participant fatigue and to increase their involvement along with an experimental design with imaginary service scenario, both of which may restrict the generalizability of the findings.
Practical implications
– Service managers should focus on customer education and employee training to reduce the negative impact of PCD and prevent service failure rather than try to improve service quality and satisfaction beyond customers’ expectations.
Originality/value
– The authors extend prior research by exploring the moderating effects of service role (customer vs employee) and outcome (success vs failure) on the direct and indirect effects of PCD on IC, service quality and satisfaction.
The current study investigates how ethnicity influences consumer (dis)satisfaction regarding service encounters in multicultural domestic service markets. The study interviews 306 ethnic Malay and Chinese respondents in Malaysia using the critical incident technique. The respondents provide 612 critical incidents for content analysis. Based on content analysis and inter-judge reliability, seven sub-categories (grouped within three major categories) emerge as integral determinants of service encounters in multicultural domestic service markets. The findings suggest intra- versus inter-ethnic affiliation between consumer and service provider influences the evaluation of domestic intercultural service encounters. Specifically, consumers are found to be more satisfied (dissatisfied) when service encounters are with service providers with the same (different) ethnic affiliation as themselves. The present study extends current literature by examining the role of ethnicity in service encounters in multi-cultural service markets. The identified determinants and associated findings from the present study further provide practical insights for managers regarding how different ethnic consumers are likely to respond to service encounters in such markets. The study indicates that different service expectations exist between consumers from different ethnic affiliations.
Purpose
Our purpose is to extend affinity theory in construct domain, scale development, model testing and by discerning affinity and animosity.
Design/methodology/approach
We carry out exploratory and empirical research in USA and in Norway in order to explore the domain and to test the factor structure and the hypotheses through confirmatory analysis.
Findings
We find (1) four target country affinity dimensions, (2) consumer affinity impacts micro country image, buying intentions and actual product ownership, and (3) affinity and animosity are distinct constructs with partly shared and partly unique dimensions.
Originality/value
The study is the first to empirically test the four dimensions, the first to establish a positive relationship between affinity and actual product ownership and between affinity and micro country image. The study is also the the first to empirically contrast the role of the dimensions in affinity and animosity.
Building on the Stereotype Content Model, this paper introduces and tests the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework. A growing body of research suggests that consumers have relationships with brands that resemble relations between people. We propose that consumers perceive brands in the same way they perceive people. This approach allows us to explore how social perception theories and processes can predict brand purchase interest and loyalty. Brands as Intentional Agents Framework is based on a well-established social perception approach: the Stereotype Content Model. Two studies support the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework prediction that consumers assess a brand's perceived intentions and ability and that these perceptions elicit distinct emotions and drive differential brand behaviors. The research shows that human social interaction relationships translate to consumer–brand interactions in ways that are useful to inform brand positioning and brand communications.
Consumers do not look at attitudinal objects (products, nations) in terms of black and white. Because conflicting attitudes exist, it is important to understand how these translate into consumer buying behavior. Our objective is to build a parsimonious affinity scale (AFFINITY) by collecting data from Thai consumers concerning their affinity and animosity toward the U.S. and Singapore. We find that affinity and animosity form different constructs and relate to different stages in the purchase decision process.
In this article, we conceptualize the sense of attachment security as an inner resource and present theory and research on the broaden and build cycle of attachment security generated by the actual or symbolic encounter with external or internalized loving and caring relationship partners. We also propose that the body of research stimulated by attachment theory offers productive hints about interventions that might increase positive experiences and prosocial behavior by bolstering a person's sense of security. On this basis, we review recent experimental studies showing how interventions designed to increase attachment security have beneficial effects on mental health, prosocial behavior, and intergroup relations, and discuss unaddressed issues concerning the mechanism underlying the beneficial effects of these interventions, the temporal course of these effects, and their interaction with countervailing forces.
Relatively little research has addressed the nature and determinants of customer satisfaction following service failure and recovery. Two studies using scenario-based experiments reveal the impact of failure expectations, recovery expectations, recovery performance, and justice on customers’ postrecovery satisfaction. Customer satisfaction was found to be lower after service failure and recovery (even given high-recovery performance) than in the case of error-free service. The research shows that, in general, companies fare better in the eyes of consumers by avoiding service failure than by responding to failure with superior recovery.
The Service Recovery Paradox (SRP) has emerged as an important effect in the marketing literature. However, empirical research testing the SRP has produced mixed results, with only some studies supporting this paradox. Because of these inconsistencies, a meta-analysis was conducted to integrate the studies dealing with the SRP and to test whether studies' characteristics influence the results. The analyses show that the cumulative mean effect of the SRP is significant and positive on satisfaction, supporting the SRP, but nonsignificant on repurchase intentions, word-of-mouth, and corporate image, suggesting that there is no effect of the SRP on these variables. Additional analyses of moderator variables find that design (cross-sectional versus longitudinal), subject (student versus nonstudent), and service category (hotel, restaurant, and others) influence the effect of SRP on satisfaction. Finally, implications for managers and directions for future research are presented.
Customers and employees from different cultures are increasingly interacting with each other. However, there is little research in this area and it focuses mostly on the customers’ perspective. This article presents a conceptual framework for intercultural service encounters applicable to both customers and employees. Findings from an exploratory qualitative study show that perceived cultural distance and intercultural competence influence inter-role congruence, interaction comfort, adequate and perceived service levels, and satisfaction. These findings have important managerial implications for managing the expectations and perceptions of customers and employees involved in the intercultural service encounters and improving their satisfaction with the service experience.
The authors develop a measurement scale tapping Pine and Gilmore's (1999) four realms of experience that is applicable to lodging and, potentially, tourism research across various destinations. Focusing on the bed-and-break- fast industry, the authors conducted preliminary qualitative studies and a subsequent field survey to collect data from bed-and-breakfast owners and guests to develop and test a proposed model of experience economy concepts. The pro- posed measurement model includes four realms of experi- ence and four theoretically justifiable nomological consequences. The data supported the dimensional structure of the four realms of experience, providing empirical evi- dence for both face and nomological validities of these realms and a starting point for measuring emerging experi- ence economy concepts and practices within lodging and tourism settings. The authors discuss ways the measurement scale can be further refined for adoption by destination marketers and directions for future research.
Robots are the next wave in service technology; however, this advanced technology is not perfect. This research examines how social perceptions regarding the warmth and competence of service robots influence consumer reactions to service failures and recovery efforts by robots. We argue that humanoid (vs. nonhumanoid) service robots are more strongly associated with warmth (whereas competence does not differ). This tendency to expect greater warmth from humanoid robots has important consequences for service firms: (i) consumers are more dissatisfied due to lack of warmth following a process failure caused by a humanoid (vs. nonhumanoid; Study 1); (ii) humanoids (but not nonhumanoids) can recover a service failure by themselves via sincere apology, restoring perceptions of warmth (Study 2A); (iii) humanoids (but not nonhumanoids) can also effectively provide explanations as a recovery tactic (Study 2B); and, importantly, (iv) human intervention can be used to mitigate dissatisfaction following inadequate recovery by a nonhumanoid robot (Study 3), supporting the notion of human-robot collaboration. Taken together, this research offers theoretical implications for robot anthropomorphism and practical implications for firms employing service robots.
This article aims to understand the relationship between destination image and tourist’s behavioural intention. In this study, we used a meta-analysis to synthesize the effects of destination image from 87 studies. The results reveal that destination image plays significant role in predicting tourist’s intentional behaviour, in different magnitudes. To be more precise, overall and affective images have the greatest impact on behavioural intention, followed by cognitive image. Of the different dimensions of behavioural intentions, destination image has the greatest impact on intention to recommend. Implications are provided for destination management and tourism researchers based on meta-analysis.
Does attentiveness matter in survey responses? Do more attentive survey participants give higher quality responses? Using data from a recent online survey that identified inattentive respondents using instructed-response items, we demonstrate that ignoring attentiveness provides a biased portrait of the distribution of critical political attitudes and behavior. We show that this bias occurs in the context of both typical closed-ended questions and in list experiments. Inattentive respondents are common and are more prevalent among the young and less educated. Those who do not pass the trap questions interact with the survey instrument in distinctive ways: they take less time to respond; are more likely to report nonattitudes; and display lower consistency in their reported choices. Inattentiveness does not occur completely at random and failing to properly account for it may lead to inaccurate estimates of the prevalence of key political attitudes and behaviors, of both sensitive and more prosaic nature.
In service settings, customer satisfaction is often influenced by the quality of the interpersonal interaction between the customer and the contact employee. Previous research has identified the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in service encounters from the customer's point of view; this study explores these sources in service encounters from the contact employee's point of view. Drawing on insights from role, script, and attribution theories, 774 critical service encounters reported by employees of the hotel, restaurant, and airline industries are analyzed and compared with previous research. Results generally support the theoretical predictions and also identify an additional source of customer dissatisfaction—the customer's own misbehavior. The findings have implications for business practice in managing service encounters, employee empowerment and training, and managing customers.
The service encounter frequently is the service from the customer's point of view. Using the critical incident method, the authors collected 700 incidents from customers of airlines, hotels, and restaurants. The incidents were categorized to isolate the particular events and related behaviors of contact employees that cause customers to distinguish very satisfactory service encounters from very dissatisfactory ones. Key implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.
Purpose
This study aims to clarify the relationship between two plausible conflicting attitudes in cross-cultural context-consumer affinity and consumer ethnocentrism (CET) and to explore their interactive effect on product trust and willingness-to-buy.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 392 usable responses were obtained. Previously validated scales of consumer affinity, CET, product trust and willingness-to-buy were used and showed good reliability. Hierarchical multiple regression and the bootstrapping method were conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study revealed that consumer affinity is positively associated with product trust, which in turn promotes consumers’ intention to buy products from the affinity country; CET moderates the relationship between consumer affinity and product trust; and CET also moderates the mediating effect of product trust on the relationship between consumer affinity and willingness-to-buy.
Research limitations/implications
First, this study helps to explain how consumer affinity boosts willingness-to-buy, and it reveals the type of consumers whose product trust is most notably influenced by their level of ethnocentrism. Second, this study examines the moderating effects of CET on the relationship between consumer affinity and product trust, which can help to identify the situations in which consumer affinity influences product trust most strongly. Third, this study examined the interactive effect of consumer affinity and CET on product trust and its subsequent effect on willingness-to-buy. The findings help to explain the CET’s critical role in the effect of consumer affinity by relating it to the literature of product trust and willingness-to-buy.
Practical implications
Given the crucial role that consumer affinity plays in improving consumers’ trust in and buying intention for a country’s products, governments, multinational enterprises and international marketers should strategically construct, maintain and magnify a positive national image to the world. This study’s results also clarify that consumer affinity does not conflict with CET; not only can they coexist but also they are positively related. The crucial implication is that CET is not always a barrier to purchasing foreign products.
Originality/value
Although research interest in consumer attitudinal conflict issues is increasing, the real relationship and interactive effects of plausible conflicting attitudes between consumer affinity and CET remain to be understood. This study bridges a gap between CET and willingness-to-buy by considering the boundary conditions of consumer attitudes toward a specific country (inherent in consumer affinity). Furthermore, this study is, to the best of the author’s knowledge, the first to link consumer affinity with willingness-to-buy through the mediating effect of product trust. These findings are helpful for understanding how consumer affinity positively effects willingness-to-buy.
Many companies consider investments in complaint handling as means of increasing customer commitment and building customer loyalty. Firms are not well informed, however, on how to deal successfully with service failures or the impact of complaint handling strategies. In this study, the authors find that a majority of complaining customers were dissatisfied with recent complaint handling experiences. Using justice theory, the authors also demonstrate that customers evaluate complaint incidents in terms of the outcomes they receive, the procedures used to arrive at the outcomes, and the nature of the interpersonal treatment during the process. In turn, the authors develop and test competing hypotheses regarding the interplay between satisfaction with complaint handling and prior experience in shaping customer trust and commitment. The results support a quasi “brand equity” perspective—whereas satisfaction with complaint handling has a direct impact on trust and commitment, prior positive experiences mitigate, to a limited extent, the effects of poor complaint handling. Implications for managers and scholars are discussed.
The authors provide an initial test of the animosity model of foreign product purchase in the People's Republic of China. In contrast to Shimp and Sharma's (1987) CETSCALE, the model predicts that animosity toward a foreign nation will affect negatively the purchase of products produced by that country independently of judgments of product quality. The model was tested using mainland Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward Japan and Japanese products. Structural equation modeling supports the model and shows that animosity has a significant impact on buying decisions above and beyond the effect of consumer ethnocentrism. Furthermore, these results were not cohort-specific. The measurement of cross-national hostility enables managers to understand better the purchase behavior of consumers in the international marketplace.
Stereotype research emphasizes systematic processes over seemingly arbitrary contents, but content also may prove systematic. On the basis of stereotypes' intergroup functions, the stereotype content model hypothesizes that (a) 2 primary dimensions are competence and warmth, (b) frequent mixed clusters combine high warmth with low competence (paternalistic) or high competence with low warmth (envious), and (c) distinct emotions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt) differentiate the 4 competence-warmth combinations. Stereotypically, (d) status predicts high competence, and competition predicts low warmth. Nine varied samples rated gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, and disability out-groups. Contrary to antipathy models, 2 dimensions mattered, and many stereotypes were mixed, either pitying (low competence, high warmth subordinates) or envying (high competence, low warmth competitors). Stereotypically, status predicted competence, and competition predicted low warmth.
Service employees frequently must enforce rules upon their customers to mitigate dysfunctional customer behavior and ensure proper service delivery (e.g., enforce "fasten seatbelt" signs on flights). However, the consequences of enforcing service rules (ESR) are not well understood. To elucidate the effect of ESR, the authors present seven studies involving >. 6800 customers and consisting of cross-sectional and longitudinal data from customer surveys and company records as well as experiments. The results indicate that ESR exerts ambivalent effects: customers who experience ESR directed at other customers perceive service employees as more competent, which increases customer loyalty. However, if ESR is directed at customers themselves, they perceive a self-concept threat, leading them to devalue service employees' warmth and competence and to become less loyal. The effects of ESR hinge on a number of factors, including the harm that dysfunctional behavior potentially causes, the way ESR is communicated, and customers' experience with the service situation. Furthermore, the authors show that service employees can alleviate the negative effects of ESR by communicating service rules in advance and justifying ESR appropriately.
This research examines how to recompense customers, from a social resource theory perspective, which portrays financial compensation as the act of offering the resource “money” to customers during a service recovery attempt. This resource can differ in its particularism (is the money offered in a more or less personal way?) and concreteness (is the money offered in a more or less tangible way?), which are shown in two experiments to affect recovery outcomes. Specifically, personal compensation accompanied by a handwritten note from the service person (vs. impersonal: a typewritten note from the firm) fosters recovery satisfaction, mediated by justice perceptions, and reciprocal customer behavior (tipping, cross-buying), mediated by an obligation to reciprocate. Tangible compensation in the form of a banknote or banknote-like coupon (vs. intangible: a credit entry) also fosters reciprocal customer behavior via the obligation to reciprocate. In both studies, relationship strength amplifies the indirect effect of compensation’s particularism on recovery satisfaction. As a theoretical contribution, we show that the way the monetary resource is presented matters for service recovery. As a major managerial takeaway, this research presents personal (vs. impersonal) compensation as an impactful property of compensation: It increases recovery outcomes without additional monetary costs. Further, managers learn that handing over the money in a personal and tangible way can be a way to increase monetary returns to the firm in the form of tipping and cross-buying.
The concept of consumer ethnocentrism is introduced and a corresponding measure, the CETSCALE, is formulated and validated. Four separate studies provide support for the CETSCALE's reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. A series of nomological validity tests show consumer ethnocentrism to be moderately predictive of theoretically related constructs.
Researchers interested in testing mediation often use designs where participants are measured on a dependent variable Y and a mediator M in both of 2 different circumstances. The dominant approach to assessing mediation in such a design, proposed by Judd, Kenny, and McClelland (2001), relies on a series of hypothesis tests about components of the mediation model and is not based on an estimate of or formal inference about the indirect effect. In this article we recast Judd et al.'s approach in the path-analytic framework that is now commonly used in between-participant mediation analysis. By so doing, it is apparent how to estimate the indirect effect of a within-participant manipulation on some outcome through a mediator as the product of paths of influence. This path-analytic approach eliminates the need for discrete hypothesis tests about components of the model to support a claim of mediation, as Judd et al.'s method requires, because it relies only on an inference about the product of paths-the indirect effect. We generalize methods of inference for the indirect effect widely used in between-participant designs to this within-participant version of mediation analysis, including bootstrap confidence intervals and Monte Carlo confidence intervals. Using this path-analytic approach, we extend the method to models with multiple mediators operating in parallel and serially and discuss the comparison of indirect effects in these more complex models. We offer macros and code for SPSS, SAS, and Mplus that conduct these analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record
In a tense economic environment where consumers are encouraged to favor local rather than imported products, multinational companies (MNEs) need leverage to enhance their offer regarding local products. This research suggests a consideration of consumer affinity towards a foreign country as a means to reinforce both willingness to buy (WTB) and willingness to pay (WTP). An experiment was conducted with 170 French consumers (non-students). Respondents were asked about their WTB and their WTP for products for which the country of origin varied in a within-subject design based on 1) the level of the respondent's sense of affinity towards the product’s country of origin and 2) the image of the country of origin for the product category in question. In addition, the sources of affinity feeling to a foreign country were explored. Results indicate that consumer affinity towards a foreign country has a positive effect on consumer WTB and WTP. This effect is complementary to the well- known country of origin effect. Three main factors influence consumer affinity toward a foreign country in a positive manner: a consumer’s 1) personal experience with the country (to have visited it, to have friends there, etc.), 2) positive evaluation of its natural landscapes 3) appreciation of its culture (history, values, etc.) Implications for MNEs are detailed to inspire their marketing strategy.
The current study explores the central elements comprising memorable tourism experiences. It does so by adopting a sequential data collection process along three main successive travel stages: (a) pre-, (b) during, and (c) posttravel. Findings suggest that while participants vividly recalled the process of collecting and negotiating information for travel planning as well as interactions with others, what they most recalled posttravel (i.e., once their travels were over) were unique and unexpected personal experiences that differentiated their experiences from others’ experiences. The implications of such findings for the understanding of memorable tourism experiences are discussed.
International marketing research has shown vivid interest in consumers’ positive dispositions toward foreign countries and globalization. Motivated by the aim to segment international consumer markets, the literature has introduced and adopted a plethora of constructs and measurement instruments to capture such dispositions. However, the current state of literature is problematic because of an unsorted range of constructs with overlapping conceptualizations, diverse operationalizations, and fragmented empirical findings regarding the impact of these constructs on consumer responses. Consequently, making an informed choice on which construct(s) to employ in substantive research (and why) is extremely difficult. This article aims to advance the international marketing literature by (1) developing a conceptual taxonomy of constructs of positive consumer dispositions that highlights their similarities and unique features; (2) undertaking a comprehensive review of the relevant conceptualizations and operationalizations; and (3) providing guidance for further research on positive dispositions, including antecedents, response variables, and potential mediating and moderating influences. To move substantive research in this field further, this article also proposes a research framework that comprises antecedents, causal sequences of dispositions, effects on consumer response variables, and potential boundary conditions.
This article explores direct and indirect antecedents that contribute to corporate image formation in a service recovery context. Two studies were carried out in Egypt. Study 1 comprises 29 semistructured interviews with complainants of mobile phone network service providers in Egypt. Study 2 encompasses a mail survey of another 437 complainants. Findings reveal the importance of perceived justice, namely, interactional justice, in corporate image formation, as well as the mediating role of satisfaction with service recovery in the perceived justice-corporate image relationship. Results also reveal two empirical relationships: problem solving as a determinant of distributive justice and follow-up as a driver of procedural justice. Accordingly, this study contributes to the service field by providing the first empirical evaluation of new direct and indirect antecedents of corporate image formation in a service recovery context. Managerial recommendations are provided that encourage service practitioners to emphasize perceived justice and satisfaction with a service recovery process to enhance the company’s image. Additionally, companies should invest in implementing problem solving and follow-up as service recovery strategies since both significantly enhance perceived justice.
This research examines the nonlinear effects of compensation on customer satisfaction in order to determine the optimal compensation after a flawed service. As our core contribution, we argue that the nature of this nonlinear effect depends on the way customers handle a flawed service. Building on the Service-Dominant (S-D) logic, this research introduces two specific failure handling tactics—when customers reject versus accept a flawed value proposition—that affect the shape of the nonlinear function of compensation on satisfaction. Our key hypotheses are tested with two experiments that manipulate 11 compensation levels (0–200%) and the two failure handling tactics (rejection vs. acceptance). Consistent with our logic, both studies reveal an S-shaped curve progression for service rejection and a concave shape for service acceptance. For service rejection, the highest incremental effect of compensation on satisfaction lies in between 60% and 120%. For service acceptance, the highest return in satisfaction is obtained with the first dollars invested in partial compensation. As a major managerial takeaway, firms can use these findings to determine the compensation level that provides the best satisfaction return.
Over the last 15 years, a number of methodological developments have enabled researchers to draw more accurate inferences concerning the relative contribution (i.e., relative importance) among multiple (often correlated) predictor variables in a regression analysis. One such development has been relative weight analysis (RWA). Researchers can use a RWA to decompose the total variance predicted in a regression model (R
2) into weights that accurately reflect the proportional contribution of the various predictor variables. Prior to RWA, researchers were forced to rely on traditional statistics (e.g., correlations; standardized regression weights), which are known to yield faulty or misleading information concerning variable importance (especially when predictor variables are correlated with one another, which is often the case in organizational research). Although there has been a surge of interest in RWA over the last 10 years, integration of this statistical tool into organizational research has been hampered by the lack of a user-friendly statistical package for implementing RWA. Indeed, most popular statistical packages (e.g., SPSS, SAS) have yet to include RWA protocols into their regression modules. The purpose of this paper is to present a new, free, comprehensive, web-based, user-friendly resource, RWA-Web, which may be used by anyone having simple access to the internet. Our paper is structured as a tutorial on using RWA-Web to examine relative importance in the classic multiple regression model, the multivariate multiple regression model, and the logistic regression model. We also illustrate how RWA-Web may be used to conduct null hypothesis significance tests using advanced bootstrapping procedures.
In this study, the authors aim to understand whether, to what extent, and under what circumstances, organizational responses to customer complaints improve customer profitability. To do so, they build upon the congruence approach and propose a contingency framework in which the effectiveness of three organizational responses to customer complaints (timeliness, compensation and communications) in improving customer profitability is contingent upon the strength of the relationship and the type of failure. The framework is tested empirically in the financial services industry applying latent class techniques to longitudinal data for a sample of complaining customers. The results reveal that: (1) different complaint-handling initiatives affect customer profitability differently for each of the four segments of complaining customers that are obtained; (2) these heterogeneous responses to complaint handling are explained by differences in the orientation of the relationship and in the failure context; and (3) complaint-handling initiatives are more (less) effective at improving customer profitability when the benefits they offer strongly (poorly) match the benefits sought by customers in each segment to recover from the failure. These results contribute to a better theoretical understanding of customers’ heterogeneous responses to complaint handling and offer managerial recommendations to allocate marketing resources across alternative complaint-handling strategies to improve profitability.
This article examines how compensation type and failure type explain the recovery effect of compensation, using a meta-analysis (Study 1) and an experiment (Study 2). Drawing on resource exchange theory, we propose new classifications for both compensation and failure type and find three major results. First, consistent with our matching hypothesis, the strongest recovery effect is generally observed when compensation represents a resource similar to the failure it is supposed to offset, that is, immediate monetary compensation for a monetary failure, exchange for a flawed product, reperformance for a failed service, and psychological compensation for lack of attention. Surprisingly, lack of attention may also be rectified by the other compensation types. Second, consistent with our intertemporal choice hypothesis, immediate monetary compensation is generally more effective than delayed monetary compensation. Yet, this effect also varies with failure type. Third, resource-based classifications explain the recovery effect of compensation better than current classifications of compensation and failure type. As a theoretical contribution, the resource-based classifications help to explain the fluctuating effect sizes of compensation reported in prior research. From a managerial point of view, practitioners can choose the appropriate compensation type for a failure, one that repays in kind what customers have lost. As a result, companies achieve stronger recovery effects without additional costs.
Service recovery is a crucial success factor for organizations. Thus, many studies have addressed the issue of post-complaint behavior. Conducting a meta-analysis, the authors test the following path model: ‘‘organizational responses (compensation, favorable employee behavior, and organizational procedures) → justice perceptions (distributive, interactional, and procedural justice) → post-complaint satisfaction (transaction-specific and cumulative satisfaction) → customer behavioral intentions (loyalty and positive word of mouth [WOM]).’’ The results confirm this model as well as the mediating role of justice perceptions and post-complaint satisfaction. Surprisingly, the results also show that the common contention of distributive justice as the salient driver of service recovery is only true for transaction-specific satisfaction, which in turn reinforces positive WOM. Cumulative satisfaction, however, which is the primary antecedent of customer loyalty, even slightly more depends on interactional justice than on distributive justice. Further, the results show that the relationships between justice perceptions and satisfaction constructs depend on several moderators such as target group, industry, and complaint type. A major managerial implication is the fact that organizations should pay particular attention to distributive justice when complainants are students and to interactional justice when failure is nonmonetary or occurs in service industries. The authors discuss theoretical implications and provide suggestions for future research.
This study examines how attachment styles affect business negotiations, particularly, the impasses that negotiation research has rarely investigated. Extending attachment theory to the managerial principal–agent literature, this paper explains when and why agents effectively negotiate on behalf of their principals. We experimentally primed distinct principal-agent attachments (i.e., secure, anxious, or avoidant). In the simulation, negotiators' underlying interests were incompatible—the negotiation had no actual bargaining zone. However, agents were motivated to reach a deal, which would not be in the best interest of their principals. Agents securely attached to their principals avoided ill-fated deals (at their own expense); whereas agents avoidantly attached were most likely to agree to an ill-fated deal, thereby jeopardizing their principals' interests. An analysis of participants' own descriptions of why they reached such decisions reveals that secure agents negotiated for the best interest of their principals; whereas anxious and avoidant counterparts were oblivious to the principals' underlying interests.
Two experimental studies (a lab experiment and a study involving a real usage experience over time) reveal the existence of a strong, positive impact of customer satisfaction on willingness to pay, and they provide support for a nonlinear, functional structure based on disappointment theory (i.e., an inverse S-shaped form). In addition, the second study examines dynamic aspects of the relationship and provides evidence for the stronger impact of cumulative satisfaction rather than of transaction-specific satisfaction on willingness to pay.
Service customers perceive quality in the moment of interaction with the service provider. In times of globalization, it is important for a growing number of service companies to ask if the perceived service encounter quality differs among customers from different cultures. Particularly needed is information about whether problematic “culture shocks” occur in service encounters due to culture-bound expectations and perceptions. To answer this question, a model of inter-cultural service encounter quality is presented. In order to test the assumption of “culture shocks” in inter-cultural service encounters, an empirical study applying the critical incident technique (CIT) was conducted. The unexpected results of this study lead to a further development of the model presented. This gives insights into why, and under which circumstances, inter-cultural encounters are perceived as less problematic than intra-cultural encounters. Finally, managerial implications and open research questions are discussed.