The effects of relationship quality on customer retaliation

This research examines the effects of relationship quality (RQ) on customers' desires to retaliate after service failures. We posit that the effects of RQ are contingent upon the attributions customers make about the firm’s controllability over a service failure. Two competing hypotheses are examined and reconciled. The “love is blind” hypothesis posits that when low controllability is inferred, high RQ customers experience a lesser desire for retaliation than low RQ customers. On the other hand, the “love becomes hate” hypothesis specifies that when high controllability is inferred, high RQ customers experience a greater desire for retaliation than low RQ customers. The hypotheses are tested with a survey-based design and a partial least squares (PLS) model that incorporates a multiplicative latent construct.     

Developing parsimonious retailer equity indexes using partial least squares analysis: a method and applications

The information that a retailer’s name communicates to consumers can be a source of competitive advantage for many retailers. Indeed, retailers develop a kind of brand equity, which we refer to as “retailer equity.” To aid both practitioners and researchers, we outline a method, using partial least squares (PLS) analysis for developing parsimonious measures for retailer equity. In addition, we provide four illustrations of possible ways that the index can be used by retailers: (1) as a benchmarking tool, (2) as an indicator of the success (failure) of marketing strategies and tactics, (3) as a means to evaluate the attractiveness of market segments, and (4) as an instrument to examine the relative importance of the various components of retailer equity for specific retailers. The index also provides a means for marketing researchers to examine potential antecedents and outcomes of retailer equity.     

Influences of Managerial Drivers on Export Sales Units’ Performance of Small and Medium-Size Enterprises

ABSTRACT

This report offers a contribution to the theories related to firms' export performance. Job satisfaction and behavioral and outcome performance of export managers have received attention in export literature. However, the relationships between export managers’ rewards system and the level of export managers’ morale with export managers’ job satisfaction, behavioral and outcome performance, and export sales units’ performance of small and medium-size enterprises have not thoroughly been examined, tested, or validated. A new model is developed based on export managerial psychology theory, which integrates two constructs, the export managers’ rewards and level of morale, as critical variables affecting export performance. The research findings suggest that four connected relationships in a PLS model are positive, significant, and substantial. Particularly, managers’ financial and nonfinancial rewards influence managers’ level of morale, which in turn affects managers’ behavioral performance, and managers' behavioral performance influences managers’ outcome performance, which, finally, affects firms’ export performance.     

A valued agent: How ECAs affect website customers' satisfaction and behaviors

Building on literature related to selling and embodied conversational agents (ECA), this research seeks to determine how the use of an ECA might improve users’ perceptions of shopping value (hedonic and utilitarian) and the consequences for their purchase intentions and satisfaction with the website. This analysis focuses specifically on three ECA usage consequences: playfulness, decision quality, and social presence. Hedonic value mediates the effects of playfulness and social presence on satisfaction and behavioral intentions; utilitarian shopping value mediates the effects of decision quality. The results highlight the importance of accounting for both utilitarian and hedonic features to understand ECA outputs in e-commerce sites.     

Analysis of the major drivers of the ecological footprint using the STIRPAT model and the PLS method—A case study in Henan Province, China

Taking Henan Province of China as an example, we computed and analyzed the ecological footprint (EF) in 1983–2006. The results showed that the EF in Henan Province quadrupled in the 23 years, but its ecological carrying capacity (EC) was rather low and was in a state of slow decline, indicating that Henan's ecological deficit (ED) had become a remarkable social problem. Therefore, the major drivers of the EF's change were analyzed. According to the simulations with STIRPAT model, the major drivers of Henan's EF were human population (P), GDP per capita (A₁), quadratic term of GDP per capita (A₂), percent of economy excluded in the service sector (Ta₁) and percent of urban population (Tb₁). However, these drivers themselves had strong collinearity, which might produce some uncertain impact to the final results. In order to avoid the impact of collinearity, the method of partial least squares (PLS) was used. The results showed that the major drivers of EF were P, A₁, A₂ and Tb₁. Ta₁ was excluded. Compared with the results by the STIRPAT model, which showed that P is the most dominant driver and the effect of the other drivers could almost be ignored, the results by PLS method were considered as more reasonable and acceptable because the impacts of the A (Affluence) and T (Technology) conditions to the regional EF were still too important to be ignored. In addition, the results acquired by both methods showed that the curvilinear relationship between economic development and ecological impact (EF) or the classical EKC hypothesis didn't exist in Henan Province.     

Relational selling strategy and key account managers' relational behaviors: An exploratory study

Many companies see key account management as a potentially successful way to implement a relational strategy. Nevertheless, the literature suggests that strategy implementation at the sales force level is difficult to achieve, mainly because salespeople may not understand - nor accept - what they are requested to do. Despite their relevance, behaviors of key account managers have poorly been investigated. This article defines and tests a model of relational selling behaviors from the part of key account managers. Results show that the perception of the adoption of a relational selling strategy is associated with some specific key account managers' behaviors (customer-oriented selling, adaptive selling and team selling), but not with others (organizational citizenship behaviors). These findings suggest that potential discrepancies can exist between a relational selling strategy and its implementation at the key account manager level. Based on these results, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

A Measure for Companies' Customer Portfolio Management

Purpose/Contribution: Customer portfolio management (CPM) is one of the key areas of customer-relationship and network management in business markets. However, there is scant research about the implementation of this concept in business. This article contributes to this conceptually rich but empirically nascent field of CPM research by (1) conceptualizing customer portfolio management, (2) forming a measure for it, (3) validating the suggested measure, and (4) suggesting implications for future research and management.

Methodology: A CPM construct is proposed based on the synthesizing of the theory and the findings from a qualitative field study of companies' management practices. The suggested construct is formative and consists of the following four dimensions: analysis efforts, analysis design, responsiveness efforts, and responsiveness design. Hence, this conceptualization takes into account both the strength and style of companies' CPM practices. The measure is validated following Diamantopoulos and Winklhofer's (2001) Diamantopoulos, A. and Winklhofer, H. 2001. Index construction with formative indicators: An alternative to scale development. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2): 269–277. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] guidelines for developing formative measures. Together with the content validity established in the conceptual phase of the research, the results from a cross-industry survey of 212 companies give support to the construct validity of the suggested CPM measure. Partial least squares modeling is applied in validating the measure.

Implications: This study gives an extensive, up-to-date review of customer portfolio management and provides measures for future research on companies' CPM practices and performance. Further, the theory and the field study highlighted several central topics that should be addressed in future CPM studies. The resulting managerial implications derive from the discussion on the key aspects of developing CPM practices in business.     

An Exploratory Study of Brand Success: Evidence From the Food Industry

The goal of this research is to identify drivers that influence the brand success, in order to develop a more effective business strategy. An abductive theory approach is adopted and food managers from Italy and Sweden were questioned. The authors modeled the eight correlated first-order factors, using seven independent variables and the dependent variable brand success. The variance-based structural equation modeling approach (partial least square [PLS] algorithm) have been applied. This study provides insight and empirical evidence on brand success. The findings can be employed as more effective brand strategies in a sector that has been under-investigated in academic literature and practice.     

Country of Origin Effect for Food Products from Developing and Transition Countries: A PLS Analysis of German Consumers’ Perception

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the importance of the country of origin (COO) effect in German consumers’ perception of chocolate quality using the example of chocolate made from Ecuadorian raw cocoa. From earlier COO and consumer perception research, a complex research framework grounded in schema and attribution theory has been developed acknowledging the multifactorial character of consumers’ food quality perception. Based on this framework, a PLS analysis of primary data from an online survey of 205 German chocolate consumers is conducted. The results demonstrate the overall applicability of the research framework and give evidence on the underlying complex consumer perception process of COO-labeled food products. For the case of chocolate made from Ecuadorian cocoa, PLS estimations show a strong COO effect in German consumers’ quality perceptions and identify characteristics of the target consumer group. Protecting geographical indications may offer a potential for products from developing and transition countries to differentiate in the German market, a prime example for European markets, and should be promoted more strongly by government offices and NGOs.     

The relationship of customer complaints,satisfaction and loyalty： Evidence from China＇s mobile phone industry

Customer satisfaction and loyalty is subject to the influence of different types of customer complaints and will be with different results. In this paper, according to the hypotheses about the relationship of complaint, satisfaction and loyalty, a Structural Equation Model based on PLS （Partial Least 2 Squares） is built. By using the PLS Graph, these hypotheses are empirically tested by the data from China＇s mobile phone consumers. The study suggests that direct complaint should have a positive effect on satisfaction. However the degree of effect depends on the result of dealing with complaints. So the number of direct complaints should be controlled within the enterprise＇s ability of dealing with complaints. Meanwhile, comparing with directly complaining customers, indirectly complaining customers are more likely to repeat the purchasing and become loyal customers.