The relative importance of time and dollar values in new product introduction decisions

This study investigates managerial sensitivity to timing differences in new product introduction decisions. Using a case scenario as the research setting, the study finds that in managerial decisions involving a choice between two-attribute alternatives (dollar value and time), respondents shifted their emphasis between attributes when they were personally affected by the decision outcome. Specifically, it was found that an additive constant manipulation (adding a constant to the dollar amount of each alternative) caused respondents to place more emphasis on the time attribute, and a multiplicative constant manipulation (multiplying the dollar amount of each alternative by a constant) caused them to place more emphasis on the dollar-value attribute.The study asks 108 subjects to assume the role of product manager in a case scenario and choose from among three two-attribute alternatives proposed by the case. The personal relevance of the decision was manipulated by telling respondents that the CEO in the decision scenario had stated publicly that the career of the decision maker would be (would not be) affected. The results show that the additive constant and multiplicative constant effects were only found when the decision outcomes would affect the respondents' career.     

The effects of online shopping attributes on satisfaction–purchase intention link: a longitudinal study

Attributes of online satisfaction are dynamic. Specifically, it remains to be examined how online shopping attributes empirically affect changes in satisfaction that leads to repurchase behaviours over time and why. The present study develops a theoretical framework for conceptualizing satisfaction with temporal effects and empirically tests it using longitudinal data from 219 online customers. The results indicate that the relationship between attribute‐level evaluations and satisfaction, which has only been examined in terms of predictors of satisfaction in prior literature, is dynamic and changes over time. Changed attributes (particularly convenience and site design) might signal an opportunity to capture the dynamics of attribute‐level evaluations over time. Furthermore, the findings reveal significant temporal effects of satisfaction and purchase intention at time point T on satisfaction and purchase intention at time point T + 1. The results suggest that temporal effects occur as a diagnostic function of a previous attribute rating of a subsequent satisfaction evaluation and the consumer's level of subjective knowledge.     

Effects of cognitive age,dispositional time perceptions,and time view manipulations on product attribute evaluations

Researchers manipulate time perceptions in experiments, but the efficacy of such manipulations demands further scrutiny. Two studies test the effects of dispositional time views and time view manipulations on product attribute evaluations, as well as the interaction between cognitive age and manipulated time perceptions and that between dispositional and manipulated time perceptions. The results suggest that time manipulation drives and predicts consumer product evaluations. In addition, cognitive age interacts with time manipulation as a meaningful moderator/predictor, and dispositional time view interacts with time manipulation to influence consumer evaluations. An incongruency effect (i.e., a time manipulation condition that differs from consumers' time perceptions) occurs for hedonic attribute evaluations but not for utilitarian attribute evaluations. The research offers several managerial implications of these findings.     

Differences in Customers’ Online Service Satisfaction Across Cultures: The Role of Thinking Style

ABSTRACT

Online retailers constantly strive to improve customer satisfaction. However, satisfaction levels can vary significantly across cultures when customers experience mixed quality services, that is, services with a mixture of high and low quality service attributes. Based on two studies, we find that Westerners (e.g., European Americans) react more negatively than East Asians (e.g., Chinese) toward mixed quality online services. Our findings show that due to differences in thinking style, Westerners (analytic thinkers) are more likely to focus on negative service attributes than East Asians (holistic thinkers), who tend to consider the amalgam of high and low quality service attributes as an integrated whole when forming their overall perceptions and levels of satisfaction. Moreover, the results suggest that for online retailers marketing across cultures, providing superior quality on each individual service attribute may be more important to achieving satisfaction for customers from Western rather than Eastern cultures.     

An attribute-based model of quality satisfaction for Internet self-service technology

Many factors may contribute to consumers' satisfaction with Internet shopping, but the issue has rarely been addressed from the perspective of customer participation. Drawing on the attribute-based model, this article examines the attributes important for consumer satisfaction with Internet-based self-service technology (ISST). In addition, the current study argues that the importance of the attributes in determining consumers' satisfaction would vary as a function of their readiness to adopt technology. A survey was conducted to collect data from experienced users of online travel agencies or bookstores. The results based on 459 participants show that efficiency, ease of use, performance, perceived control and convenience are attributes having significant impacts on users' satisfaction with ISST. This study also identifies three consumer segments among ISST users based on their scores on technology-readiness drivers and inhibitors. As predicted, the importance of each attribute at determining user satisfaction varies across the three segments. Finally, implications for managers and researchers are discussed.     

Customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction in retail banking: Exploring the asymmetric impact of attribute performances

The paper presents the results of an extensive study on the determinants of customer satisfaction for a retail bank. In doing so, it uses a revised version of the traditional analyses based on derived measures of attribute importance. The need for a revised methodology is prompted by the insights of the two- and three-factor theories of customer satisfaction, such as Kano's framework. Indeed, the evidence from 5000 customers of a prominent Italian bank confirms a non-linear and asymmetric relationship between attribute performances and overall customer satisfaction. The results from both a traditional and our revised approach are compared. While this approach can be applied across different industries, it should not be assumed that the numerical results presented in the paper apply to contexts with substantially different underlying characteristics. General trends and implications for banking services are reported in the conclusions.     

Quality Dimensions in E-Commerce Software Tools: An Empirical Analysis of North American and Japanese Markets

Are customers in different countries alike in their preferences for similar software products? In this article, we examine the relative importance of 5 dimensions of product quality across customers from North America and Japan. Based on data collected from over 400 customers of a representative sample of electronic- (e-) commerce software products, we tested the relative importance of these quality dimensions for differences across samples from North America and Japan. We use Bayesian analysis for analyzing the average influence of each attribute on the overall customer satisfaction as well as the variability of each attribute across the two samples. Our findings indicate that the importance of quality attributes is significantly different in North American and Japanese samples. We find that although usability dominates other attributes in North American data, Japanese customers place emphasis on functionality and capability of software products. Our results provide managerial implications for the designers of global software applications, especially in the domain of e-commerce.     

The Impact of Consumer Confidence on Store Satisfaction and Share of Wallet Formation

For retailer managers, it is crucial to understand the relationships between customers’ store attribute evaluations, satisfaction, and share of wallet as well as how these relationships change over time depending on the business cycle. This study investigates this complex relationship using an extensive dataset for all grocery chains in the Netherlands over the period 2009–2012. Our findings indicate that retailers should not overemphasize the importance of a favorable price image in times of low consumer confidence. Instead, our study shows that the relationship between service attributes and customer satisfaction is stronger in periods with low consumer confidence.     

Relative importance and combined effects of attributes on customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction with a service experience is often determined by several critical attributes. Prior studies have suggested that food, physical environment, and employee service impose an important effect on diners' satisfaction with restaurant services. Although much research has looked at the direct effect of these attributes individually, little is known about them when they are considered together. This study investigates the relative importance and combined effects of the determinants of customer satisfaction in China's hospitality industry. The results show that food taste, employee service, and physical environment (in that order) all significantly contribute to diners' satisfaction, and that one attribute may substitute for another attribute in the satisfaction formation process. Generally, humanic attributes (employee service) can effectively substitute for less humanic attributes (physical environment).     

The evaluation of time-dependent attributes

This study investigated time-dependent attributes; that is, those not known during use but where the passage of time reveals information about the attribute. In a lab experiment, subjects were asked to try out a new home banking system. Two independent variables were manipulated: (a) the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of a bank transaction, and (b) whether the information about accuracy was revealed immediately or after a delay. An unknown time-dependent attribute (i.e., accuracy of fee charges) was evaluated more favorably when a highly correlated attribute, transaction accuracy, was also evaluated positively. When the attributes were not highly correlated, there was an interactive effect of information about transaction accuracy and the time when this information was revealed on evaluations of time-dependent attributes. Generally, information that was received with delay influenced the evaluation of time-dependent attributes, but information received immediately did not. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

When does an ethical attribute matter for product evaluation? The role of warm-glow feelings for low-rated products

Research on the effects of ethical attributes has recently gained traction. However, limited research has addressed consumer response to ethical attributes in the current context where product ratings have become of primary importance to make decisions. Specifically, this study examines the relative effect of ethical attributes on product evaluations across different product ratings. Building on cue consistency theory and the negativity bias, we suggest that ethical attributes gain weight when consumers evaluate a low-rated product. This process leads consumers to anticipate more warm-glow feelings, generating better evaluations for such low-rated products featuring an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute). Two experiments provide consistent empirical support for this prediction, and demonstrate that, compared to other attributes or no attribute, an ethical attribute increases product evaluations to a larger extent when the product received low (vs. higher) ratings. We show that this effect occurs because of warm-glow feelings: when product ratings are low, consumers anticipate more warm-glow feelings from purchasing a product with an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute), leading to better product evaluations. These findings have direct managerial and ethical implications for practitioners.     

The influence of thematic product displays on consumers: An elaboration‐based account

Marketers commonly adopt a theme to unify their design of an environment in which their products are displayed. A thematic display environment can be congruent with or unrelated to the concept of a product on display. The elaboration likelihood model and the knowledge activation literature suggest that conceptual congruence between the thematic display context and the product could affect product evaluation by a cue‐based mechanism and an elaboration‐based mechanism. First, the positive feeling associated with conceptual congruence serves as a peripheral cue, making product evaluation favorable. Second, the congruence provokes thoughts about the product's attributes, and these attribute‐related thoughts affect product evaluation. Whether the evaluation is dominated by the affective cue or attribute thoughts depends on the consumer's shopping motivation (planned purchase vs. browsing), because the motivation affects the consumer's elaboration likelihood. The results of three experiments support these propositions. The results indicated that under planned purchase motivation, the congruence effect on purchase intention through attribute‐related thoughts was observed. In contrast, under browsing, the congruence effect on purchase intention was dominated by a direct positive effect that reflected the influence of the affective cue. Implications of the findings for visual merchandising are discussed.     

Comparative Effects of Organization–Public Relationships and Product‐related Attributes on Brand Attitude

This study empirically investigates how the dimensions of organization–public relationships, i.e. trust, control mutuality, commitment, and satisfaction, are related to brand attitude formation. In order to establish a benchmark for analysis, it also compares the effects of organization–public relationships on brand attitude to those of product‐related attribute beliefs. The results of a survey conducted using a branded laptop computer product showed that, while both organization–public relationships and product‐related attributes were significantly related to attitude towards the brand, among the dimensions of organization–public relationships only ‘satisfaction’ was a significant predictor of brand attitude. In addition, the explanatory power of organization–public relationships was found to be weaker than that of product‐related attribute beliefs in predicting brand attitudes.     

Consumer (goal) satisfaction: A means‐ends chain approach

This study investigates the role that service attributes, customer subgoals, and goals play in forming the satisfaction judgment. Drawing on means‐ends chain theory, and on satisfaction research, satisfaction is conceptualized as the result of a process in which customers activate multiple comparative referents. In a pilot study, a paper‐and‐pencil laddering technique was used to collect attributes and goals connected to the satisfaction judgment. These elements were then used as items in a satisfaction survey of 200 customers. A mixture regression model revealed that both attribute‐related dimensions and goal‐related dimensions determine overall satisfaction, albeit not homogeneously among customers. Two customer segments were identified: Socializers, whose satisfaction is driven primarily by the goal of well‐being, and Achievers, whose satisfaction is generated mainly by the goal of efficiency. Two directed graphs describe the satisfaction path of the two groups of customers, illustrating how service attributes are connected to the satisfaction of lower‐order and higher‐order goals. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of information overload on consumer choice quality in an on‐line environment

As more and more consumers become part of the net population, retailers and manufacturers as well as dot‐com storefronts are touting consumers by providing an ever‐increasing amount of product information. Their long‐term survival and profitability may be determined by how much and how well their product information is presented to and processed by the consumers. By combining both the traditional and structural approaches to the information‐overload phenomenon, this study investigates the impact of Web site information on consumer choice and psychological states in an on‐line environment. Varying the number of alternatives and attributes (traditional measure) and attribute level distribution across alternatives (structural measure), this study asks subjects to choose the best (dominant) CD player in a given set. Their subjective states such as satisfaction, confidence, and confusion are also measured. Results show that the number of attributes and attribute level distribution are good predictors of the effect of information overload on consumer choice. In addition, the study finds that on‐line information overload results in less satisfied, less confident, and more confused consumers. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of expertise on consumers' satisfaction with the use of interactive recommendation agents

Based on cost‐benefit theory and the value‐percept diversity model, this study investigates the underlying mechanism that makes consumers feel satisfied with the use of interactive recommendation agents (IRAs). The format of IRAs was manipulated experimentally (attribute‐based format/benefit‐based format/no agent) and participants were classified as either expert or novice consumers. The dependent measures were the perceived costs and benefits of the information search process, the perceived costs and benefits of the decision‐making process, and the degree of satisfaction with the outcome. The results explain the mechanisms underlying consumers' satisfaction when using an IRA. The findings also suggest the presence of an interaction between the expertise of consumers and the preferred type of IRA on various dependent variables. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Modeling Simultaneity in Survey Data

Responses to questions in a survey can reflect a behavior process that influences multiple response items. Respondent ratings of brand attributes, for example, can be affected by past purchases by making a brand more salient, or by respondents attributing higher performance to justify their purchases. When multiple response items are influenced by a common underlying process, there is simultaneity in the data. This paper proposes an approach to model the simultaneity in different survey responses by using common parameters and structural relationships motivated by behavioral theories on how consumers respond to surveys. Specifically, the proposed models show how brand usage and attribute perception responses are jointly determined by justification, order, and brand halo effects in two brand positioning studies. We detect a significant tendency for respondents to inflate their reported beliefs for particular brands as well as the selected brand across five countries in an international survey as well as in a domestic study. JEL Classification: C35, C53, D12, M31     

The effects of traffic light labels and involvement on consumer choices for food and financial products

Traffic light (TL) labels that inform consumers regarding product safety have received increasing attention in different fields. Behind the background of behavioural economics, this paper presents the results of a split‐sample choice experiment conducted in Germany to evaluate the impact of TL labelling on purchases of food and financial products. We hypothesize that consumers experience different levels of involvement with these two types of products, leading to different recommendations regarding the use of TLs. The results show that TLs affect consumer purchases of both product groups by focusing their attention on specific product attributes. For food, whereas the low‐fat attribute has no significant impact on food choices that do not include TLs, this attribute has a positive impact on choices once it is signalled with a TL label. The positive evaluation of the organic production attribute of a food product without a TL decreases when the same product is labelled with a TL. In the case of financial products, TLs significantly reinforce the impact of all characteristics on choice probability. TLs also generate a halo effect with regard to return variance. Although consumers demonstrate different levels of involvement for the two types of products, involvement does not always impact the evaluation of attributes. Compared with less involved consumers, more involved consumers exhibit more heterogeneous evaluations of the return variability attribute in the case of the financial product and the organic attribute in the case of the food product.     

Linking Sources of Consumer Confusion to Decision Satisfaction: The Role of Choice Goals

Previous empirical research on the relationship between consumer confusion and customer satisfaction has largely neglected the role of choice goals. In a context of technologically complex products, the authors analyze the effect of selected choice goals on the consumer confusion‐decision satisfaction link. The empirical findings, which are based on a field study of smart phone users, show that different sources of confusion have distinctive effects on choice goals, which in turn influence decision satisfaction. For example, while confusion caused by ambiguous information and choice overload is found to reduce choice confidence, perceived attribute similarity between products or brands increases choice confidence. Among the choice goals, evaluation costs and negative affect are found to increase decision satisfaction. The findings have important implications for marketers and consumer policymakers in terms of marketing communication and customer satisfaction.