The nature and determinants of customer expectations of service

A conceptual model articulating the nature and determinants of customer expectations of service is proposed and discussed. The model specifies three different types of service expectations: desired service, adequate service, and predicted service. Seventeen propositions about service expectations and their antecedents are provided. Discussion centers on the research implications of the model and its propositions. Her research interests include services marketing and consumer perceptions of price and quality. Her articles have appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Retailing, andManagement Accounting. She is co-author (with Len Berry and Parsu Parasurman) ofDelivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations (The Free Press, 1990). Leonard L. Berry holds the J. C. Penney Chair of Retailing Studies, is Professor of Marketing, and is director of the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University. He is a former national president of the American Marketing Association. His research interests are services marketing, service quality, and retailing strategy. He is the author of numerous journal articles and books, includingMarketing Services: Competing Through Quality (The Free Press, 1991), which he wrote with A. Parasuraman. His research interests include services marketing, sales management, and marketing strategy. He has written numerous articles in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, Sloan Management Review, andBusiness Horizons. He is the author ofMarketing Research (Addison-Wesley, 1991) and coauthor (with Leonard L. Berry and Valarie A. Zeithaml) ofDelivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations (The Free Press, 1990).     

A provider-cost/patron-effort schema for classifying products

Since the commodity-oriented thinkers of marketing’s early history, marketers have sought a valid schema for classifying products. Currently, the marketing literature is dominated by two types of schemata for classifying products: product-based and consumer cost-based. Despite marketing tenets such asexchange is the focal notion of marketing andgood marketing theory integrates the perspectives of firms and consumers, no existing schema embodies either exchange or a dual firm/consumer perspective. After reviewing the existing classificational schemata, one such schema is proposed and evaluated. The two classifying dimensions of this schema are providers’ relative variable costs (PRVC) and patrons’ relative effort (PRE). Crossing high and low levels of PRVC and PRE yields four product categories: low cost/effort, patroneffort heavy, provider-cost heavy, and high cost/effort. His work has appeared inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Business Horizons, Business Ethics: A European Review, and other journals. His current research interests include marketing theory, advertising, and ethics. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Purdue University. will soon receive his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of North Texas. His work has appeared inAcademy of Management Journal, as well as the proceedings of the American Marketing Association, the Decision Science Association, and the Society of Franchising. His research interests include building and testing models in international marketing, consumer behavior, and marketing management. His current research interests include self-referent processing of advertisements and consumer satisfaction.     

Firm-level export performance assessment: Review, evaluation, and development

Export performance is one of the most widely researched but least understood and most contentious areas of international marketing. To some extent, this problem can be ascribed to difficulties in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and measuring the export performance construct, often leading to inconsistent and conflicting results. This study reviews and evaluates more than 100 articles of pertinent empirical studies to assess and critique export performance measurements. Based on gaps identified in this evluation, guidelines for export performance measure development are advanced, suggesting, however, a contingency approach in their application. Several conclusions and implications for export strategy and future research are derived from this analysis. Constantine S. Katsikeas holds the Sir Julian Hodge Chair in Marketing and International Business at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. His main research interests lie in the areas of international marketing and purchasing, global strategic alliances, and competitive strategy. He has published widely in these fields and his articles have appeared inJournal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Marketing, (formerly Columbia)Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, andManagement International Review, among others. Leonidas C. Leonidou is associate professor of marketing at the University of Cyprus. He obtained his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Bath, and has research interests in international marketing, relationship marketing, strategic marketing, and marketing in emerging economies. He has published extensively in these fields and his articles have appeared in various journals includingJournal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Marketing, andManagement International Review. Neil A. Morgan is assistant professor of marketing in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His research interests focus on strategic issues concerning marketing resources and capabilities, and marketing planning and implementation processes and their links with business performance. His work has appeared inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, British Journal of Management, European Journal of Marketing, and other journals.     

Personality characteristics and salespeople’s choice of coping strategies

The issue of whether salespeople cope with sales stressors in ways consistent with their personality characteristics remains largely unaddressed in the empirical literature. Should certain personality characteristics make salespeople more stress resistant, implications for the selection of sales candidates already possessing such characteristics or for the cultivation of such characteristics within existing salespeople could be developed. A framework is developed suggesting why salespeople with certain personality characteristics—those high on challenge, self-determination, and involvement in self and surroundings—may employ different coping strategies. Support for hypotheses was developed in a study that used a stratified random sample of 322 sales organizations. Salespeople high on challenge, self-determination, and involvement were found to use more problem-focused coping strategies. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. Before entering academe, he was in sales with the Tenneco Corporation and was president of a retailing firm in North Carolina. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, andJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, among other scholarly journals. His current research interests include issues relating to sales and channels management. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi in 1992. His research has appeared in theJournal of International Consumer Marketing, Developments in Marketing Science, Advances in Marketing, andHealth Marketing Quarterly, among others. His current research interests include business ethics and channels management. Prior to entering academe, he was vice president of a marketing consulting firm in Lubbock, Texas. He has a B.S. in chemistry, an M.B.A. in management, and received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Arkansas. Before entering academe, he worked in marketing research for Phillips Petroleum Company. His primary research interests include retail patronage theory, market segmentation, and research methodology, with recent research focused on the elderly consumer. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, The Gerontologist, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and other scholarly journals.     

An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity

This study explores the relationships between selected marketing mix elements and the creation of brand equity. The authors propose a conceptual framework in which marketing elements are related to the dimensions of brand equity, that is, perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand associations combined with brand awareness. These dimensions are then related to brand equity. The empirical tests using a structural equation model support the research hypotheses. The results show that frequent price promotions, such as price deals, are related to low brand equity, whereas high advertising spending, high price, good store image, and high distribution intensity are related to high brand equity. Boonghee Yoo (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an assistant professor of marketing at St. Cloud State University. His research interests include brand equity, cross-cultural scale development, service quality, retail productivity, Internet marketing, and marketing methodology. He has published previously in theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing, theJournal of Service Research, and theJournal of Marketing Channels. Naveen Donthu (Ph. D., University of Texas, Austin) is a professor of marketing at Georgia State University. His research interests center on research methodology, site selection models, comparative and outdoor advertising, brand equity, Hispanic consumer research, cross-cultural issues, and customer satisfaction. His work has appeared in journals such asMarketing Science, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Business Research. Sungho Lee (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Seoul, South Korea. His research focuses on understanding consumers’ cognitive processing of brand and price information, brand extension and brand equity, and advertising-driven persuasion processes. He has published previously inAdvances in Consumer Research, Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research, Academy of Marketing Science-World Marketing Congress, Korean Marketing Review, andKorean Management Review.     

Buyer-seller relationships in the procurement of logistical services

This study presents a two-phase model of interfirm exchange in the logistical supply industry. The first phase uses transaction cost analysis to identify conditions leading to market-based transactions, unilateral agreements, and bilateral alliances. The second phase illustrates how formal controls and relational norms yield performance in market, unilateral, and bilateral governance systems. A test of the model with data from 189 logistical supply relationships suggests that bilateral alliances emerge through the interaction of user investments in the logistics supplier, supplier logistical services, and marketplace uncertainty. Bilateral alliances attain desired outcomes through participative management and flexibility. By contrast, market-based transactions yield desired outcomes through formalization and solidarity. Unilateral agreements gain performance through formalization, participation, information sharing, and solidarity. Implications for logistics management and theory are discussed. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include relationship marketing and marketing channels. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Retailing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Marketing Letters, Omega: The International Journal of Management Science, and elsewhere. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research has concentrated on business-to-business marketing relationships, with a focus on means to improve coordination, and on sales management, with an emphasis on ways to enhance diversity, improve performance, and reduce turnover. Her articles have appeared in theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Letters, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, and elsewhere. He is also the director of the Warehousing Research Center (WRC). He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Industrial marketing strategy, marketing and logistics interfaces, logistics and warehousing management are his primary areas of expertise and interest. He has published articles in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Logistics, Industrial Marketing Management, and elsewhere. He has also written a leading industrial marketing text and a variety of warehousing and logistics monographs.     

Role stressors and customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors in service organizations

The authors investigate three types of customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors (COBSBs) a frontline service employee may perform that are associated with linking a service organization to its potential or actual customers: external representation, internal influence, and service delivery. The authors propose and test a withdrawal model to explain the negative effects of role conflict and role ambiguity on COBSBs across a sample of 220 lower-level, nonprofessional service providers of a major retail bank and a sample of 90 higher-level, professional service providers from the business credit division of an international financial services corporation. The results demonstrate that (1) indirect paths through job satisfaction and organizational commitment entirely account for the negative effects of the role stressors on COBSBs, (2) the indirect negative effects of the role stressors are stronger on external representation and internal influence behaviors, and (3) role conflict also has a significant positive direct relationship with internal influence behaviors. Lance A. Bettencourt (lbettenc@indiana.edu) (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His research has appeared in a variety of journals, including theJournal of Applied Psychology, theJournal of Retailing, California Management Review, theJournal of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters, andPsychology & Marketing. His areas of research interest include service quality implementation, organizational citizenship behaviors, and customer contributions to service delivery effectiveness. Stephen W. Brown (stephen.brown@asu.edu) (Ph.D., Arizona State University) holds the Edward M. Carson Chair in Services Marketing, is professor of marketing, and director of the Center for Services Leadership, W. P. Carey School of Business, at Arizona State University. His research has appeared in a variety of journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Applied Psychology, Sloan Management Review, andCalifornia Management Review. His areas of research interest include service delivery and recovery, strategic service relationship management, service quality and loyalty, and growing services revenue in product-based businesses. He is the former president of the American Marketing Association and coauthor or coeditor of 20 books on marketing and related topics.     

The accuracy of brand and attribute judgments: The role of information relevancy, product experience, and attribute-relationship schemata

A multidimensional approach for accuracy of ratings is introduced that examines consumers’ abilities to assess various brands across a set of attributes and attribute performances across a set of brands. A model is presented that addresses the roles of the relevancy of information, attribute-relationship schemata, and consumers’ product category experience on the accuracy of their brand attribute ratings. Study participants were provided either with relevant or irrelevant attribute information for various automobile brands and later asked to rate the attribute performances of brands. The results indicate that the provision of relevant information in the judgment environment increases brand and attribute rating accuracy but does not favorably affect consumers’ brand attribute-relationship schemata. Rather, consumers’ product experience was directly related to their attribute-relationship schemata, which in turn were related to improved accuracy of brand and attribute ratings. Kevin Mason is an associate professor of marketing at Arkansas Tech University. His research interests include consumer information processing and choice strategies. He has published in theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Central Business Review, Journal for the Association of Marketing Educators, andInternational Advances in Economics Research. Thomas Jensen is professor and Wal-Mart lecturer in retailing in the Department of Marketing and Transportation at the University of Arkansas. His research interests include consumer information processing, advertising and price perceptions, and retail image and patronage. His work has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Psychology and Marketing, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, and other journals. Scot Burton is professor and Wal-Mart chairholder in marketing, Department of Marketing and Transportation, University of Arkansas. His research interests include public policy and consumer welfare concerns, survey research measurement issues, and consumer price and promotion perceptions. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Retailing, and other journals. Dave Roach is a professor of management at Arkansas Tech University. His research interests include information processing, judgmental accuracy, and organization change. He has published inHuman Relations, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Journal of Information Technology Management, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Central Business Review, andJournal for the Association of Marketing Educators.     

A measure of service quality for retail stores: Scale development and validation

Current measures of service quality do not adequately capture customers’ perceptions of service quality for retail stores (i.e., stores that offer a mix of goods and services). A hierarchical factor structure is proposed to capture dimensions important to retail customers based on the retail and service quality literatures as well as three separate qualitative studies. Confirmatory factor analysis based on the partial disaggregation technique and cross-validation using a second sample support the validity of the scale as a measure of retail service quality. The implications of this Retail Service Quality Scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed. She received her Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Her research interests include attitude and choice models, service quality and customer satisfaction issues, technology in service delivery, and business-to-business relationships. She has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, Journal of Health Care Management, International Journal of Research in Marketing, andPsychology and Marketing, as well as in various conference proceedings. She also holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Florida State University and an M.B.A. from Mercer University. Her research interests include services marketing, service quality, retailing, and manager-employee relationships. Her publications include articles in theJournal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, The Service Industries Journal, and in various conference proceedings. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. His research interests include cohort analysis, measurement issues, generalizability studies, and customer satisfaction. He has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, as well as in several conference proceedings.     

Ethical sensitivity to stakeholder interests: A cross-cultural comparison

This study applied Hofstede’s typology to examine the effect of culture on ethical sensitivity toward various stakeholders. It was found that uncertainty avoidance had a positive effect and that power distance and individualism/masculinity had negative effects on ethical sensitivity. The results also indicated that ethical sensitivity to stakeholder interests is dependent on which stakeholder is affected. Although Americans and Taiwanese sales agents were equally sensitive to customer interests, the Taiwanese were more sensitive to the interests of their company and a competitor but were less sensitive to the interests of a colleague. This study should prove valuable to international marketers because the cultural typology allows managers to identify differences in work-related values of employees across different nationalities and thus provides a theoretical base for designing more effective sales management practices. Jeffrey G. Blodgett (Ph.D., Indiana University) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. His research interests include consumer complaint behavior and cross-cultural issues. His work has been published in theJournal of Retailing, Journal of Services Research, Journal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, and in other marketing journals. Long-Chuan Lu is an assistant professor of marketing at the National Chung-Cheng University of Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. His work has previously appeared in theJournal of Business Ethics, in addition to other journals and conference proceedings. Gregory M. Rose (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. His research interests include consumer socialization and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing, and other journals and proceedings. Scott J. Vitell is the Phil B. Hardin Professor of Marketing at the University of Mississippi, receiving his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His previous work has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, andResearch in Marketing and the Journal of Business Ethics, in addition to numerous other journals and conference proceedings.     

Multisource effects on the satisfaction formation process

Customer satisfaction research is integrated with research on higher education in developing a model of alumni satisfaction with college education. The model proposes that alumni satisfaction with higher education is a function of two performance and disconfirmation attributes: intellectual environment and employment preparation. The model was tested among 475 alumni of a major Eastern undergraduate business school and demonstrates the advantage of modeling the disconfirmation paradigm with multiple sources of satisfaction. She holds a Ph.D. in marketing from Michigan State University. Her work has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, and proceedings of the American Marketing Association and the Association for Consumer Research. She was formerly an account executive at Needham Harper Worldwide and Director of Marketing at Maxwell Advertising. Her research interests include consumer satisfaction, complaining behavior, and advertising management. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Michigan State University. His work has appeared in theJournal of Advertising, Journal of Retail Banking, Journal of Services Marketing, and theHaring Symposium Proceedings. He has held several positions in the banking industry, most recently as Group Vice President at Michigan National Bank in Grand Rapids. His research interests include services marketing, consumer satisfaction, and direct marketing. She received her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Cincinnati. Her work has appeared in theJournal of Retailing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Education, and other marketing-related publications. Her research interests include not-for-profit organizations, consumer satisfaction, and services marketing.     

A proposed model of external consumer information search

An enduring interest in consumer behavior is the investigation of external prepurchase information search. Past research has identified a large number of factors that have been found to influence the extent of information search. The purposes of this article are to summarize the external information search literature and then develop a more parsimonious model of information search. Specifically, we propose that the effects of these antecedents of information search are mediated by four variables: ability, motivation, costs, and benefits. This model integrates the psychological search literature by incorporating ability and motivation to search for information and the economic paradigm that centers on the perceived costs and benefits of information search. Propositions are developed based on this comprehensive model for future testing. Jeffrey B. Schmidt recently became an assistant professor of marketing at Kansas State University after completing his Ph.D. at Michigan State University. His research interests include new product development and international product strategy. His work has appeared in theJournal of Product Innovation Management andJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing as well as in various conference proceedings. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University. His research interests include consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction and issues involving consumer knowledge. His work has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, andJournal of Product Innovation as well as in various conference proceedings.     

An exploratory study of exclusive dealing in channel relationships

The channel literature has paid little attention to issues related to exclusive dealing governance arrangements. Consequently, there is only limited knowledge about how exclusive dealing impacts various channel processes and outcomes. This gap is especially regrettable since exclusive dealing, in addition to being one of the most commonplace governance formats within the distribution channels, is also one of the best exemplars of viable unilateral governance formats. In this initial investigation, the authors explore the linkages among the constructs of exclusive dealing, relationalism, communication, and performance. Empirical data for the study were drawn from the photocopier industry. He obtained his M.B.A. and D.B.A. degrees from Boston University. His primary research interest includes channels of distribution, franchisor-franchisee relationships, and consumer purchase behavior in international contexts. He has published articles inJournal of Marketing Channels and the proceedings of several marketing conferences. This article was crafted when Rajiv Dant was at Boston University. He received his M.B.A. from Bombay University and his Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His research focuses on channels of distribution, with primary emphasis on franchise structure, franchisee-franchisor relationships, and public policy aspects of franchising growth and ownership topics. His research has been published inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Research in Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of the Operations Research Society, Marketing Letters, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Economic Psychology, Southern Business & Economics Journal, Philosophical and Radical Thought in Marketing, Journal of Healthcare Marketing, Journal of Marketing Channels, andInternational Small Business Journal.     

Determinants of online channel use and overall satisfaction with a relational,multichannel service provider

This study examines what drives customers' use of an online channel in a relational, multichannel environment. The authors propose a conceptual model of the determinants of online channel use and overall satisfaction with the service provider. They then conduct two large-scale studies in different service contexts to test the model. The results show that Web site design characteristics affect customer evaluations of online channel service quality and risk, which in turn drive online channel use. Customers' overall satisfaction with the service provider is determined by the service quality provided through both the online channel and the traditional channel. The results offer insights into the trade-offs that multichannel service providers face as they attempt to influence online channel use while maintaining or enhancing overall customer satisfaction. Mitzi M. Montoya-Weiss (m_mw@ncsu.edu) (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is a professor of marketing in the Department of Business Management at North Carolina State University. Her research interests include new product development and adoption, virtual teams, and knowledge management. Her research has appeared inMarketing Science, Management Science, Decision Sciences, theAcademy of Management Journal, theJournal of Product Innovation Management, and other scholarly journals. She has taught courses in marketing management, product and brand management, and management of technology. Glenn B. Voss (gvoss@ncsu.edu) (Ph.D., Texas A&M University) is an associate professor of marketing in the Department of Business Management at North Carolina State University. His research interests include relationship and services marketing, creativity and entrepreneurship, and retail pricing strategies. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Organization Science, theJournal of Retailing, Marketing Letters, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and other scholarly journal. He currently serves on the editorial review board of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and has served as an ad hoc reviewer for theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Business Research. He has taught courses in marketing strategy, electronic marketing, and nonprofit management in MBA programs in the United States and Europe. Dhruv Grewal (dgrewal@babson.edu) (Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute) is the Toyota Chair in E-Commerce and Electronic Business in Babson College. His research and teaching interests focus on e-business, global marketing, value-based marketing strategies, and understanding the voice of the customer (market research). He is also co-editor of theJournal of Retailing. He has published more than 50 articles in outlets such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Retailing. He currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, and theJournal of Product and Brand Management.     

Perception of marital roles in purchase decision processes: A cross-cultural study

Following the approach of the classic 1974 marital-role influence study of Davis and Rigaux, the present study focuses on differences in decision making (i.e., joint, husband dominated, wife dominated) across 24 product categories as a function of two key factors. These factors are stage of the decision process (i.e., problem recognition, information search, and the final decision) and culture (People’s Republic of China and the United States). The Jacobson Marital-Role Egalitarianism Scale is included to further assess individual differences in husband and wife traditionality-modernism. The major findings are that emphasis on joint, husband-dominated, and wife-dominated decisions vary by stage and by stage-culture interaction. Practical implications are presented with suggestions for future research. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1985 with a Ph.D. in marketing. His research interests include global strategic market planning and cross-cultural research issues and methodologies. He has published in such journals asJournal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Columbia Journal of World Business, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Strategy, andJournal of Consumer Marketing. He graduated with honors in 1986 from the University of Mississippi with a Ph.D. in marketing. His research interests include cross-cultural consumer behavior and emotional responses to advertising stimuli. He has published in such journals asJournal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Health Care Marketing, andInternational Marketing Review. He graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1986 with a Ph.D. in marketing. His research interests focus on cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published in such journals asJournal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, and theInternational Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management.     

An attitudinal model of technology-based self-service: Moderating effects of consumer traits and situational factors

The accelerating growth in technology-based self-service today is giving rise to questions about the acceptance of such forms of service delivery by all kinds of consumers and under different situational contexts. This study investigates the moderating effects of consumer traits and situational factors on the relationships within a core attitudinal model for technology-based self-service. An experimental design is used with perceived waiting time and social anxiety (through perceived crowding) as the situational treatments. Relevant consumer traits for technology-based self-service are examined and include inherent novelty seeking, self-efficacy with respect to technology self-consciousness, and the need for interaction with an employee. The results lend support to the hypothesized moderating effects. Implications for service practitioners as well as directions for future research are discussed. Pratibha A. Dabholkar (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Tennessee. Her research interests include technology in service delivery; attitude, choice, and means-end models; service quality and customer satisfaction; and business-to-business relationships. Her work has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research; Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science; Journal of Retailing; International Journal of Research in Marketing; International Journal of Service Industry Management; Psychology and Marketing; Journal of Business Research; Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, andJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing. Richard P. Bagozzi (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Management and professor of psychology at Rice University. Prior to this, he was at the University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and University of Michigan. His current research interests include the theory of action, emotion, self-regulation, means-end models, and technology adoption. His work has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, Marketing Science, andJournal of Consumer Psychology.     

The influence of store environment on quality inferences and store image

The study reported here examines how combinations of specific elements in the retail store environment influence consumers’ inferences about merchandise and service quality and discusses the extent to which these inferences mediate the influence of the store environment on store image. Results show that ambient and social elements in the store environment provide cues that consumers use for their quality inferences. In addition, store environment, merchandise quality, and service quality were posited to be antecedents of store image—with the latter two serving as mediators—rather than components of store image (as they are typically treated in the store image literature). Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed, and future research directions are proposed. She received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Her areas of interest include store environment, consumer behavior, and product/service quality. She has published articles in theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing and theJournal of Retailing. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His areas of interest include pricing, consumer behavior, product/service quality, and customer satisfaction. He has published articles in a number of journals, including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, andJournal of Retailing. He received his D.B.A. from Indiana University in 1975. His research interests focus on the measurement and improvement of service quality and on services marketing strategy. He is the recipient of several teaching and research awards. In 1988, he was selected as one of the ten most influential figures in quality by the editorial board ofThe Quality Review. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Services Marketing, andBusiness Horizons, among other publications. He is the author ofMarketing Research, a college textbook, as well as coauthor ofMarketing Services: Competing through Quality andDelivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations. He is also an active consultant to a number of major corporations.     

Relational communication traits and their effect on adaptiveness and sales performance

Two relational communication traits, communication apprehension and interaction involvement, are investigated within an adaptive selling framework to assess their impact on salesperson adaptiveness and sales performance. Using a sample of 239 insurance salespeople, results demonstrate that salespeople exhibiting lower levels of communication apprehension are more highly involved in communication interactions, and higher involvement facilitates increased adaptiveness and sales performance. This research highlights the importance of effective communication within sales interactions and offers suggestions to improve salesperson communication skill. Michael L. Boorom is an associate professor of marketing and associate dean of the school of business and public administration at California State University, San Bernardino. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. His research interests are salesperson and sales manager communication skills. His work has been published in theJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and several conferences. Jerry R. Goolsby is an associate professor of marketing at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His research interests include sales interactions and salesperson burnout and coping strategies. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and other marketing journals. Rosemary P. Ramsey is a professor and chair of the management and marketing department at Eastern Kentucky University. She earned her Ph.D. from University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include sales interactions and measurement issues. Her work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. andJournal of Marketing Education.     

An assessment of country of origin effects under alternative presentation formats

Empirical research concerning the effects of country of origin (COO) on consumers’ evaluative reactions to products has produced mixed and sometimes inconsistent results. Potential explanations for this situation include differences in the countries considered, populations sampled, products investigated, availability of product cues other than COO, the format in which the product cues were presented to the subjects, and the types of evaluative reactions considered. The authors present the results of three experiments designed to investigate the impact of three presentation formats (i.e., single cue, explicit multiple cues, and implicit multiple cues) on COO effects for four evaluative reactions (i.e., perceived quality, product evaluations other than quality, affect, and purchase intentions). COO effects were strongest for the single-cue format and weakest for the implicit multiple-cues condition. Perception of product quality was most strongly affected by COO, followed by product evaluations other than quality; COO had its smallest effect on purchase intention. Implications of these results and future research directions are discussed. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Indiana University. His work has appeared in many journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, International Marketing Review, Management International Review, Psychology and Marketing, andJournal of Health Care Marketing, as well as conference proceedings. His research interests include consumer inference and decision-making processes, research methods, export marketing, and competitive strategy. He received his MBA from Notre Dame and his Ph.D. from Indiana University. His research interests include consumer choice processes, consumer response to advertising, and marketing communications. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Psychology and Marketing, and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University. His research interests include buyer-seller negotiations, channel relationships, and marketing strategy. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, andJournal of Consumer Research.