A comprehensive model of customer direct and indirect revenge: understanding the effects of perceived greed and customer power

This article develops and tests a comprehensive model of customer revenge that contributes to the literature in three manners. First, we identify the key role played by the customer’s perception of a firm’s greed—that is, an inferred negative motive about a firm’s opportunistic intent—that dangerously energizes customer revenge. Perceived greed is found as the most influential cognition that leads to a customer desire for revenge, even after accounting for well studied cognitions (i.e., fairness and blame) in the service literature. Second, we make a critical distinction between direct and indirect acts of revenge because these sets of behaviors have different repercussions—in “face-to-face” vs. “behind a firm’s back”—that call for different interventions. Third, our extended model specifies the role of customer perceived power in predicting these types of behaviors. We find that power is instrumental—both as main and moderation effects—only in the case of direct acts of revenge (i.e., aggression and vindictive complaining). Power does not influence indirect revenge, however. Our model is tested with two field studies: (1) a study examining online public complaining, and (2) a multi-stage study performed after a service failure.     

Achieving relationship marketing effectiveness in business-to-business exchanges

Relationship marketing research and practice operate according to the paradigm that firms should invest in relationship marketing to build better relationships, which will generate improved financial performance. However, findings that relationship marketing efforts vary in their effectiveness across customers and may even be detrimental to performance challenge this belief. This article, therefore, offers a theoretical model that addresses three key issues: 1) what factors determine a customer’s need for relational governance (relationship orientation); 2) what mediating mechanism captures the negative effects of relationship marketing on performance (exchange inefficiency); and 3) how does a customer’s relationship orientation determine the effectiveness of relationship marketing, thus allowing for effective segmentation. The authors demonstrate in an empirical study that the trust in the salesperson and exchange inefficiency both mediate the effect of relationship marketing on seller financial outcomes. In addition, customers’ relationship orientation moderates the impact of relationship marketing on both trust and exchange inefficiency.     

Toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services

The marketing discipline’s knowledge about the drivers of service customers’ repeat purchase behavior is highly fragmented. This research attempts to overcome that fragmented state of knowledge by making major advances toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services. Drawing on means–end theory, the authors develop a hierarchical classification scheme that organizes repeat purchase drivers into an integrative and comprehensive framework. They then identify drivers on the basis of 188 face-to-face laddering interviews in two countries (USA and Germany) and assess the drivers’ importance and interrelations through a national probability sample survey of 618 service customers. In addition to presenting an exhaustive and coherent set of hierarchical repeat-purchase drivers, the authors provide theoretical explanations for how and why drivers relate to one another and to repeat purchase behavior. This research also tests the boundary conditions of the proposed framework by accounting for different service types. In addition to its theoretical contribution, the framework provides companies with specific information about how to manage long-term customer relationships successfully.

Consumer and provider expectations and experiences in evaluating professional service quality

Providers of professional services have recently awakened to consumer challenges, competition and the realities of marketing. Looking at the expectations and experiences of providers and consumers can provide special insight into the services evaluation process and perceived service quality. By evaluating both professionals’ and consumers’ perspectives, differences in perceptions can be identified and characterized. Inconsistencies in perceptions between two parties to an exchange may result in dissatisfaction, while positive consistencies in these assessments aid in building on-going relationships.     

Developing a deeper understanding of post-purchase perceived risk and behavioral intentions in a service setting

Researchers and service providers have realized that a disproportionate share of a firm’s sales and profits come from a relatively small number of loyal customers that repeatedly purchase the firm’s services. In many service settings, such as health care, repeated interactions between the service provider and the client are necessary for service delivery. While service quality is certainly important, it is also important that customers’ perceptions of perceived risk are taken into account and that customers perceive a degree of control over the services provided. We develop a conceptual model of linkages between the physical environment of the service, perceived control over the service and service quality and, demonstrate through two empirical studies, how these factors affect perceived risk and post-purchase behavioral intentions. Both studies were conducted in health care settings. In the first study, we collected data using a mail survey of 192 patients after their treatment from a regional hospital. In the second study, survey data were collected from 101 patients of a specialized clinic providing alternative therapies within a major hospital. Our results provide confirmation that the favorable physical environment of the service setting enhances perceived control and perceptions of service quality. Moreover, perceived control and perceived quality of the service provider reduces post-purchase perceived risk. Finally, post-purchase perceived risk reduces behavioral intentions, while perceived quality of the service provider enhances behavioral intentions. Authors contributed equally to the research.     

The effects of filled waiting time and service provider control over the delay on evaluations of service

This article reports on an experiment that investigated the effects of a delay, perceived control over a delay, and the extent to which time was filled during the delay on various performance evaluations in a service encounter. It was determined that delays lower customers’ overall evaluations of service and of the tangible and reliability attributes of the service in particular. When delayed, performance evaluations were affected by whether the service provider was perceived to have control over the delay and whether the customer’s waiting time was filled. Overall performance evaluations and performance evaluations of tangibility, reliability, and responsiveness were highest when perceived service provider control was low and the waiting customer’s time was filled. These evaluations were lowest when perceived service provider control was high and waiting time was not filled. She received her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia.     

Reconfiguration of the conceptual landscape: a tribute to the service logic of Richard Normann

This article is a tribute to the late Richard Normann, whose call for a “service logic” (Normann, Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape, Wiley, Chichester, p. 99, 2001) both parallels and enriches service-dominant (S-D) logic (Vargo and Lusch, J. Mark, 68:1–17, 2004a). Like Vargo and Lusch, Normann shifted the focus of the offering from an output to a process of value creation and perceived the firm as an organizer of this process, with the customer as a co-producer, rather than a receiver of value. He also argued that offerings are “frozen knowledge,” similar to Vargo and Lusch’s contention that the basis of exchange is applied operant resources (service) and suggested that the ‘dematerialization’ of resources increases their ‘liquidity’, which allows increased “density” for value creation. Thus, he suggested that firms need to “reframe business”—rethink the logic of value creation—to reveal opportunities in reconfiguring the value constellations of which they are part. This tribute explores these and other similarities and differences between Normann’s work and the evolving S-D logic.     

Multiple emotional contagions in service encounters

This paper investigates the dynamic impact of multiple sequential emotional displays by employees on customers’ negative emotions. Using video-based stimuli to manipulate emotional displays by employees, this study shows the sequential occurrences of negative and positive emotional contagions in service failure and recovery encounters. The results suggest that higher levels of employees’ negative emotional displays lead to a greater increase in customers’ negative emotions through the process of negative emotional contagion during service failure. More importantly, we find that positive emotional displays by employees can decrease customers’ negative emotions through the process of positive emotional contagion during service recovery, i.e., higher levels of employee positive emotional displays lead to a greater decrease in customers’ negative emotions. In addition, no matter whether customers experience higher or lower levels of employee positive emotional displays during service recovery, their final negative emotions cannot fully return to their emotional levels prior to service failure. However, for customers experiencing higher levels of employee positive emotional displays, their final negative emotions can be greatly mitigated and are closer to their initial emotional levels, as compared to customers experiencing lower levels of employee positive emotional displays. The results further indicate that susceptibility to emotional contagion increases the effect of employees’ negative (positive) emotional displays on customers’ negative emotions during service failure (recovery). The findings of this study suggest that service firms should provide effective training to their frontline service employees so that they can display proper positive emotions during service encounters.     

Customer experience quality: an exploration in business and consumer contexts using repertory grid technique

This study proposes a conceptual model for customer experience quality and its impact on customer relationship outcomes. Customer experience is conceptualized as the customer’s subjective response to the holistic direct and indirect encounter with the firm, and customer experience quality as its perceived excellence or superiority. Using the repertory grid technique in 40 interviews in B2B and B2C contexts, the authors find that customer experience quality is judged with respect to its contribution to value-in-use, and hence propose that value-in-use mediates between experience quality and relationship outcomes. Experience quality includes evaluations not just of the firm’s products and services but also of peer-to-peer and complementary supplier encounters. In assessing experience quality in B2B contexts, customers place a greater emphasis on firm practices that focus on understanding and delivering value-in-use than is generally the case in B2C contexts. Implications for practitioners’ customer insight processes and future research directions are suggested.     

Voice,exit, and negative word-of-mouth behaviors: An investigation across three service categories

Drawing upon Hirschman’s (1970) framework for Exit, Voice and Loyalty, a model is proposed which predicts and explains variation in voice, exit, and negative work-of-mouth behaviors. The findings from extant consumer complaining behavior (CCB) literature are also incorporated into the hypothesized model. Using data from customer dissatisfaction with three different service categories, the proposed model is subjected to empirical investigation. Despite the parsimony of Hirschman’s framework, results show that the hypothesized model provides good model-fit indices in each of the three data sets. In addition, the explanatory power of the model is encouraging, ranging from 36 percent to 50 percent variance explained. However, the support for the hypothesized pattern of CCB rates across the service categories is mixed. Specifically, while voice responses conform to the hypothesized pattern, exit responses do not. Implications stemming from a comparative analysis of the results are discussed, and directions for future research outlined.     

Assessing multifunctional innovation adoption via an integrative model

This study proposes and tests an integrative model that incorporates the mental resources framework (MOA: motivation, opportunity, and ability) alongside traditional innovation adoption predictors for assessing the adoption of dual-functionality innovations (DFI), a special case of multifunctional innovations (MFI). The multifunctional nature of an increasing number of new products demands the use of mental resources in evaluating new offers, as the comprehension of MFIs is more demanding (i.e., requires more mental resources) than single-functionality (SF) products. The proposed model also recognizes the role of MFI categorization as a critical link in the process, because an MFI, and within the context of our study a DFI, helps consumers achieve multiple goals if they realize its dual functionality. Our model demonstrates that mental resources play a significant role in consumers’ adoption decisions and should be included in studies of MFI adoption. Further, our integrative model offers a significant improvement over rival alternatives that use only traditional innovation adoption predictors. Thus, the model offers a new approach for estimating MFI adoption with a superior predictive power and facilitates the development of appropriate marketing strategies for such products.     

Situation variation in consumers’ media channel consideration

In this article, the authors investigate consumers’ consideration of media channels during different usage situations. They develop a model that explains consumers’ media channel consideration as a function of the media channel’s perceived benefits. In addition, they hypothesize that the usage situation affects consumers’ media channel consideration and that situation-based benefit requirements moderate the effect of the benefits on their channel consideration. The authors test the hypothesized relationships using survey data from 341 consumers regarding their consideration of 12 different media channels used by manufacturers to communicate product information across three product-related usage situations. The results of the analyses support the proposed model structure and confirm the expected relationships among perceived media channel benefits, usage situations, media channel requirements, and consumers’ media channel consideration. Sonja Wendel (s.wendel@mw.unimaas.nl) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Her research interests lie in the area of consumer behavior, services marketing, and communications. She is particularly interested in exploring manufacturer-consumer communications. Benedict G. C. Dellaert (b.dellaert@mw.unimaas.nl) is Meteor Research Chair and a professor in the Department of Marketing at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. His research interests are in consumer decision making, consumer-producer interaction, customization and personalization, retailing, and tourism. His work has appeared in journals such as theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Interactive Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, andMarketing Letters.     

The effects of supplier capabilities on industrial customers’ loyalty: the role of dependence

This research examines whether suppliers’ capabilities impact OEM customers’ dependence on the supplier and thereby generate customer loyalty. Using a sample of purchasing managers focusing on a single key component supplier, we examine three supplier capabilities, two dependence dimensions, and three aspects of customer loyalty. Core offering capability increases the customer firm’s benefit-based dependence. Operations capability has a more comprehensive effect, enhancing both benefit-based and cost-based dependence. Benefit-based dependence leads to relational loyalty and, through its effect on relational loyalty, to insensitivity to competitive offerings and future purchase expansion. Cost-based dependence motivates insensitivity to competitive offerings, but does not affect relational loyalty or purchase expansion. The supplier’s communication capability is associated with relational loyalty, but this effect does not flow through the customer firm’s dependence. The divergent pattern of antecedents and effects of benefit-based dependence and cost-based dependence may explain the inconsistent and insignificant research findings in previous research on dependence. Our results suggest that adopting a bi-dimensional model of dependence more fully captures the theoretical domain of dependence, thereby permitting researchers to better examine its role in supply chain, channel, and marketing relationships.     

Creating commitment and loyalty behavior among retailers: what are the roles of service quality and satisfaction?

As a result of weakening brand image/loyalty, little differentiation, and intense price competition, manufacturers are now increasingly pressed to ensure retailers’ shelf space and/or salesperson attention. This research contributes to the literature by empirically examining an underrepresented body of literature in the B2B context—retailer loyalty. Specifically, this study fills a gap by investigating retailer evaluations of the technical and relational dimensions of a manufacturer’s order fulfillment service quality as predictors of retailer satisfaction, affective versus calculative commitment, and ultimately loyalty behavior. Results suggest that both technical and relational order fulfillment service quality influence satisfaction, which in turn positively affects both affective and calculative commitment. By separating the affective and calculative dimensions, loyalty behavior is associated directly only with affective commitment. Further examination reveals that relational order fulfillment service quality has a direct impact on affective commitment. When the sample was split based on “share of wallet,” results suggest that satisfaction impacts both affective and calculative commitment, regardless of “share of wallet.” For “high share” retailers, the positive relationship of calculative to affective commitment creates an indirect route (through affective commitment) by which calculative commitment affects behavioral loyalty.     

Delays and the dynamics of service evaluations

In this study, we examine the stability of evaluations and relative importance weights in linear compensatory service performance evaluations when customers are delayed. We postulate that even within one specific service, a consumer’s evaluation model may differ depending on the service experience. In an empirical study comparing delayed and nondelayed airline passengers, we found that evaluations of punctuality and overall service quality differed between those experiencing a delay and those who did not. More significantly, the delay also affected other service attribute evaluations and the relative importance of the various service attributes in the prediction of overall service evaluation. Preliminary explanations for these results, based on attribute salience and mood research, are discussed. She received her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario.     

The trade-off of servicing empowerment on employees’ service performance: examining the underlying motivation and workload mechanisms

Literature on empowerment as an internal marketing practice primarily documents positive effects on employees’ job performance, though increasing evidence suggests conflicting viewpoints. This study adopts an agency theoretical perspective to propose a workload mechanism, according to which the delegation of power from supervisors (principals) to service employees (agents) (i.e., servicing empowerment) is costly to employees and increases their perceived workload, which hampers their performance to serve customers. Using a laboratory experiment and a survey, this research reveals that the perceived workload and extant motivational mechanisms have conflicting effects on employees’ service performance. The former exerts a significant negative impact on tasks that involve conflicting principal-agent interests (e.g., handling customer complaints) but not on tasks with aligned principal-agent interests (e.g., organizational citizenship behaviors). Two control systems, performance appraisal (accurate and infrequent feedback) and principal-agent service goal congruence, mitigate the dysfunctional effect of perceived workload on employees’ service performance.     

Consumer response to physicians’ advertisements

Although the Federal Trade Commission has initiated a number of rulings to reduce professional societies’ prohibitions against advertising in order to stimulate competition, there is little research regarding the subject. Certainly, this is true of the potential effects of doctors’ advertising. In this study, subjects received illustrative physicians’ advertisements with varying levels of price, service, and competency. In analysis with various attitudinal and intentional measures as dependent variables, these factors were shown to have statistical significance.     

Bribery as an organizational response to conflicting environmental expectations

This article develops a conceptualization of bribery activity in organizational relationships at the international level. Utilizing a coalitional viewpoint of organizational interaction across markets, this paper proposes that international exchange environments are dimensioned by two critical factors: environmental constraints formed by cultural expectations and management capability to resolve incongruent exchange demands on the international marketing organization. These factors are proposed as determinants of a model of bribery behavior comprising four international exchange environments. Bribery activity in each environment is examined as a form of “side payment substitution” for unresolvable demands, representing a rational response to conflicting payment requirements and expectations.     

Protecting relational assets: a pre and post field study of a horizontal business combination

A variety of theoretical frameworks including social exchange theory, relational exchange theory, and contracting theory are used to investigate how to protect relational assets in a marketing channel when an upstream horizontal business combination between key suppliers arises. In this study, we ascertain downstream channel members’ perceptions of a supplier’s horizontal business combination both prior to and after such a combination. Our findings indicate that a normative contract breach resulting from a horizontal business combination influences downstream channel members by reducing their performance, decreasing their satisfaction, and increasing their likelihood of exiting the channel. Consequently, both the relational assets of the upstream supplier and their downstream customers are harmed. Importantly, these influences can be partially offset through the moderating effect of channel identification.     

Antecedents and consequences of adaptive selling confidence and behavior: a dyadic analysis of salespeople and their customers

Personal selling is thought to be a very effective marketing vehicle. The notion of adaptive selling suggests that it should work better than any other means of communication because salespeople are able to develop a unique message for each customer. This research proposes a model of key antecedents and consequences of adaptive selling. In particular, we distinguish, measure, and model the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of adaptive selling, something that is encouraged but not thoroughly examined in the literature. Hypotheses are tested using data from 210 salesperson-customer dyads. The results indicate that a salesperson’s perception of the firm’s customer orientation has an effect on adaptive selling behavior through the salesperson’s adaptive selling confidence, role ambiguity, intrinsic motivation and customer-qualification skills. Adaptive selling behavior increases salesperson’s outcome performance, customers’ evaluations of satisfaction with the product and with the salesperson, which enhance customers’ anticipation of future interactions with the salesperson. The implications for management and theory are discussed.