The relational benefits of personalized communications in an online environment

This research investigates how personalized communications enhance customer‐company relationships, which ultimately produce favourable marketing outcomes. Two factors were manipulated in an online experiment: the perceived effort made by customers to obtain a personalized newsletter (high vs. low) and the level of relevance of the message (high vs. low). The results indicate that perceived effort positively affects calculative commitment (even more so for highly involved customers), while the level of relevance of the message increases affective commitment. In addition, the interaction between perceived effort and message relevance has significant effects on calculative and affective commitment. Finally, affective commitment partially mediates the relationships between relevance and both loyalty and word‐of‐mouth intentions. Managerial implications regarding the best usage of personalized communications are discussed. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of commitment on the customer benefits–loyalty relationship in mobile service industry

The purpose of this study is to identify appropriate combinations between various types of commitment and benefit, to induce and enhance loyalty behaviours, such as customer retention, cross-selling, and customers' positive word-of-mouth, in a matured service market. The results show that functional and economic benefits have significant effects on customer retention through calculative commitment, while experiential and symbolic benefits significantly affect cross-selling and positive word-of-mouth via affective commitment. Normative commitment mediates the relationship between affective commitment and customer retention. The implications of these findings for loyalty management strategy related with service benefits and type of commitment are discussed. Limitations and recommendations for future research are also presented.     

The Role of Retailer Trust and Word of Mouth in Buying Organic Foods in an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

This study has twin objectives. Firstly, it explores the antecedents of retailer’s trust and its effect on organic food purchase intention. Secondly, it explores the relationship between word of mouth and retailers trust and the effect of word of mouth (WOM) in organic food purchase intention in the context of a developing economy. Cluster sampling method combined with judgement was used for survey in India. 541 usable questionnaires were analyzed. Findings indicated that Trust in retailer develops on the basis of perceived food quality, perceived service quality and perceived fairness in price. Perceived fairness in price is more important for building trust followed by perceived service quality. Both trust and WOM lead to purchase intention of organic foods. Among the two predictors of purchase intention, trust in retailer emerged as a bigger explanatory variable as compared to WOM. The current study adds word of mouth as a significant antecedent in developing purchase intention for organic foods along with the role of retailer trust. Implications for managers and researchers are emphasised.     

体验价值驱动下网购顾客公民行为形成机制研究

本文基于社会交换理论和“评价－情感－应对”模式理论,从顾客主体价值视角切入,通过构建体验价值、顾客承诺与顾客公民行为相互作用的理论模型,弥补了“S－O－R”旧有范式在解释顾客公民行为生成机制方面的不足。通过对727个有效样本数据的研究发现,效率价值对计算性承诺和情感性承诺均具有显著正向影响;服务卓越价值、审美价值和趣味性价值对情感性承诺具有显著正向影响;相比于计算性承诺对顾客公民行为的影响,情感性承诺对顾客公民行为三维度的影响更强;计算性承诺和情感性承诺在体验价值与顾客公民行为的关系中存在部分中介效应。研究结论为探讨顾客主体视角下顾客公民行为的生成机制提供了新的理论支持,也为我国网络零售商的网络营销实践提供了决策依据。     

Repurchase intent antecedents of a competitive brand in the smartphones segment

This research has analyzed the influence of perceived value, affective commitment, normative commitment and positive word of mouth as antecedents of repurchase intention of smartphones of a particular brand. The analysis of the results was made by means of multivariate statistics, applying Structural Equation Modeling technique. The sample consisted of 283 valid cases. The results showed that perceived value positively influences the affective commitment and normative commitment; perceived value by customers does not positively influences positive word of mouth; affective commitment positively influences positive word of mouth; affective commitment positively influences repurchase intention; normative commitment positively influences repurchase intention; and positive word of mouth positively influences repurchase intention of a product of the same brand.     

Determining the antecedents and consequences of donor‐perceived relationship quality—A dimensional qualitative research approach

It is generally accepted that an understanding of quality conceptualizations is instrumental in the design and development of customer care programs. This study applies the dimensional qualitative research approach to develop a conceptual model, which demonstrates the antecedents and consequences of donor‐perceived relationship quality. This model shows that relationship benefits, service quality, trust, commitment, and satisfaction are the key antecedents of donor‐perceived relationship quality. Relationship benefits, service quality, and trust are also modeled as cognitive in nature, whereas commitment and satisfaction are modeled as affective variables. The model also highlights donor loyalty and positive word‐of‐mouth communications as the central consequences of donor‐perceived quality. The model gives rise to a useful research agenda for fund‐raising professionals. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Customer experience and commitment in retailing: Does customer age matter?

While the customer experience (CX) concept has rapidly gained traction in recent years, its effect on customer brand commitment and loyalty remains tenuous. Moreover, while customer age has been identified as an influential driver of consumer behavior, little is known about its effect on the customer's brand experience. Addressing these gaps, we develop a model that examines the relationships between CX, commitment, and loyalty, while using customer age as a moderator in the proposed associations. A total of 423 valid responses was collected from branded retail customers. Structural equation modeling results reveal a positive effect of (a) CX on customers' affective/calculative commitment, and (b) customer commitment on brand loyalty. Moreover, multi-group analysis results reveal that while customer ages moderates the association between CX/affective commitment, it does not significantly moderate the relationship between CX/calculative commitment. We conclude with key implications that arise from this research.     

Commitment,satisfaction, and customer loyalty: a theoretical explanation of the ‘satisfaction trap’

This paper examines the relationship between satisfaction and customer loyalty and the moderating effects of affective and calculative commitment. The results suggest that while customer loyalty increases monotonically with the enhancement of satisfaction, the marginal effect of satisfaction on customer loyalty actually decreases. Calculative commitment positively moderates the curvilinear relationship of satisfaction and customer loyalty, i.e. enhancing calculative commitment could intensify the relationship between satisfaction and customer loyalty. Affective commitment has no significant moderating effect on the relationship of satisfaction and customer loyalty, but it can directly enhance the customer loyalty. The research findings can help us to explain the phenomenon of the ‘satisfaction trap’.     

Commitment in Marketing Channels: Mitigator or Aggravator of the Effects of Destructive Acts?

This research examines how a firm's relationship commitment influences its extra-role behavior after an intentional destructive act by a partner. The results of two studies – one a national survey of dealers for a consumer durable product and the other a set of three experiments involving business-to-business managers – show that the outcome of a destructive act depends on the type of commitment: whether the commitment is affective, calculative, or normative. Under relational distress caused by a supplier's destructive act, high affective commitment induces more negative extra-role behaviors, high calculative commitment induces more positive extra-role behaviors, while high normative commitment induces little change in extra-role behavior. Process tests indicate that each of these effects on extra-role behavior is explained (mediated) by psychological responses that are distinct for the type of commitment involved.     

Forging relationships to coproduce: A Consumer Commitment Model in an extended service encounter

Consumer commitment is essential to ensure the service success in extended and complex services, wherein the service drop-out rates are often appalling. To build a more robust consumer commitment theory and provide solutions for the critical issue of high service drop-out rates in complex and extended services, this study develops a model of consumer commitment and tests it using survey data from consumer clients in a national debt management program in the U.S. The results reveal that calculative commitment only leads to consumers’ intention to remain, whereas affective commitment leads to a broader range of coproduction behaviors (i.e., individual initiative and civic virtue). Moreover, besides consumers’ relationship investment, perceived organizational support enhances both types of consumer commitment. It also increases consumer compliance. This study contributes to the consumer commitment theory by examining additional drivers and behavioral outcomes of commitment and by revealing the differential effects of different types of commitment on behavioral outcomes.     

Perceived justice and post-recovery satisfaction in banking service failures: Do commitment types matter?

Based on the notion that the types of customer commitment to a service provider may have diverse reasons and effects on the customer’s perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, this study aims to investigate the different buffering effects of calculative and affective commitments on the perceived justice and post-recovery satisfaction (PRS) relationship. Multiple and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted based on survey data collected from 284 households who experienced service failure in the banking sector. Results revealed that while affective commitment moderates the effects of procedural and interactional justice, calculative commitment increases the impact of distributive and procedural justice on PRS.     

Investigating the consequences of word of mouth from a WOM sender’s perspective in the services context

Abstract

Employing scenario-based experiments, this paper examines the effect of word of mouth (WOM) on the sender’s intention to give future WOM about the focal service provider and the self-enhancement derived from articulating WOM. Extant WOM literature considers self-enhancement as a key driver of positive WOM. This paper provides empirical evidence that a reverse effect exists and that self-enhancement is also an outcome of WOM behaviour. Results indicate that the impact of WOM on self-enhancement has substantive significance and holds for both positive and negative WOM. The effect of WOM on intentions is only partially supported. Finally, tie strength between the WOM participants partially moderates the relationship between the variables. Importantly, the impact of negative WOM is stronger than that of positive WOM.     

Will they pitch or will they switch? Comparing Chinese and American consumers

This study compares the conditions for consumer satisfaction and word of mouth (WOM) between Chinese and American consumers. The authors utilize a between‐subjects factorial design experiment to investigate the effect of service experience (positive or negative) and consumption context (hedonic vs. utilitarian) across these two cultures. Results indicate that consumers perceive higher levels of satisfaction and switching costs, and provide higher WOM intention for positive than for negative service experiences. The relationship between service experience and perceived switching costs is further moderated by consumption context and culture. Of importance is the critical mediating role of consumer satisfaction in driving perceived switching costs and WOM intention. The comparison of Chinese and American consumers also reveals the distinct switching behaviors between the two groups of consumers, which can be explained from a cultural perspective. The study findings provide insights into provider‐switching and WOM‐spreading behaviors by Chinese and American consumers, under hedonic versus utilitarian consumption contexts.     

The role of personality characteristics and service failure severity in consumer forgiveness and service outcomes

Abstract

This study investigates how consumer personality characteristics of religiosity, spirituality, and emotional intelligence and the severity of service failure affect emotional and decisional forgiveness as a response to service failure. Further, the study explores the relationships between these two forms of forgiveness and service outcomes, including the intention to switch the service provider and spread negative word of mouth. Findings reveal that consumer religiosity has a strong and positive effect on both types of forgiveness. However, contrary to expectations, consumer spirituality has a negative relationship with decisional and no relationship with emotional forgiveness. While consumers' perceived severity of service failure is negatively related to both types of forgiveness, the findings also suggest that emotional intelligence exerts a significant moderating influence on the relationship between service failure severity and emotional forgiveness, whereas its moderating effect on decisional forgiveness does not appear to be significant. Results demonstrate the asymmetric effects of perceived severity of service failure and the two types of forgiveness on negative service outcomes. These findings contribute to the understanding on the role of consumers' implicit personality characteristics in interpretation of service failure incidents.     

Effects of quality and corporate social responsibility on loyalty

The purpose is to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility perceptions on three aspects of customer loyalty for a new bank service (Travel Card) relative to a recognised major predictor in service quality. Surveys were completed by 204 bank consumers in Australia. Using a series of regression equations, two sets of socially responsible perceptions had significant effects on purchase intention and positive word of mouth. In both cases, new socially responsible information was twice as strong a predictor as service quality. However, for affective commitment, service quality was the dominant predictor. Furthermore, existing perceptions of socially responsible performance had a negative effect on purchase intentions. The study presents the first evidence that new socially responsible perceptions for a service firm can be a more powerful predictor than corporate abilities. The findings further illustrate the differential impacts of socially responsible information on different loyalty conceptualisations.     

The service quality–loyalty relationship in retail services: does commitment matter?

The marketing literature has produced two schools of thought on the cause of customer loyalty in services industries. The service quality perspective puts forward that service quality evaluations substantially drive customer loyalty in services industries. The relationship marketing perspective puts forward that customer commitment to the service provider substantially drives customer loyalty in services industries. In addition, commitment is a complex construct with at least two forms, one based in liking and identification (affective commitment) and one based in dependence and switching costs (continuance commitment). These positions were examined in an integrated model of retail–service relationships. It was found that affective commitment and continuance commitment were mainly partial mediators of the service quality–loyalty relationship. It was also found that affective commitment to the retailer had a positive impact on customer loyalty while continuance commitment in marketing relationship had a deleterious effect on customer loyalty.     

The examination of the relationship between experiential value and price fairness in consumers’ dining experience

Consumers enjoy sharing meaningful consumption experiences with others. The purpose of this study is to better understand this behavior by identifying the specific aspects of experiential value that motivate word of mouth behavior. To these ends, this study tests a model that proposes relationships among four types of experiential value (aesthetics, escapism, service excellence, and efficiency), satisfaction, price fairness, and word of mouth. The results indicate that, among the four types of experiential value, service excellence and efficiency are the most important determinants of post-consumption word of mouth. Accordingly, this research contributes a better understanding of experiential value and its effects on motivating favorable post consumption word of mouth promotion. Managerial implications providing a holistic perspective of consumer cognition, emotion, and motivation are provided.     

The Impact of Internal Corporate Social Responsibility on Organizational Commitment: Evidence from Vietnamese Service Firms

This study examines the relationship between internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational commitment in the service sector in Vietnam. Results from a survey of 256 employees indicate that internal CSR has a positive and significant correlation with organizational commitment. More specifically, labor relations, health and safety, and training and education had a significant effect on organizational commitment whereas work–life balance and social dialogue have no significant association with organizational commitment. The authors also provide implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research.     

The Effect of Requests for Positive Evaluations on Customer Satisfaction Ratings

In order to focus service employees’ attention on delivering high levels of customer satisfaction, many companies directly reward (or punish) employees who deliver high (low) levels of satisfaction as reported in companies’ formalized satisfaction measurement processes. As a result, many frontline service employees attempt to influence their customers’ satisfaction evaluation by specifically asking them for positive ratings on surveys completed after the service encounter. Using psychological reactance theory, this research considers the impact of requests for positive evaluations on customers’ satisfaction and future intentions. The results indicate that customers who were asked to provide a positive evaluation actually report lower levels of satisfaction compared to customers who were not asked. The results also indicate that the request for positive evaluation has a negative influence on customers’ repurchase intentions and positive word‐of‐mouth intentions, but only for customers who had a more internal locus of control compared to those with a more external locus of control.     

Antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviours among part-time employees of service organizations in Korea

This study investigates the antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviours by using data consisting of 196 part-time instructors drawn from six sport centres in the Republic of Korea. The results of a structural equation analysis suggest that job satisfaction has a positive effect on organizational and occupational commitment, occupational satisfaction has a positive effect on organizational and occupational commitment, organizational commitment has a positive effect on organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) and a negative effect on turnover intentions, and turnover intentions has a negative effect on OCBs. The effect of occupational commitment on both turnover intentions and OCBs was not significant. This research addresses a number of important issues in the management of human resources (i.e. part-time workers) in service organizations; that is, this study examines how part-time employees' satisfaction and commitment with respect to their jobs, occupations or organizations are related to their OCBs; this relationship is arguably one the most important issues facing service organizations today.