The financial contribution of customer-oriented marketing capability

This article assesses the financial contribution of marketing capability. In contrast with previous research, which conceptualizes marketing capability as the deployment of marketing resources to achieve sales, this study conceives marketing capability as the deployment of marketing resources to achieve the ultimate objectives of customer satisfaction and brand equity (i.e., customer-oriented marketing capability [COMC]). Thus, this research disentangles the dynamic relationships among marketing resources, sales, customer satisfaction, and brand equity through the use of network Data Envelopment Analysis to capture COMC. According to what the value relevance perspective proposes, COMC positively influences the growth of Tobin’s q and improves the growth of analysts’ recommendations. These findings remain robust and consistent with the use of additional measures and methods common to the marketing and financial literatures. Our study provides tools and a framework for analysis for managers to maximize their ability to use marketing strategy to drive performance.     

Antecedents to customer expectations for service recovery

Selected antecedents of customers’ service recovery expectations are considered in this study. A conceptual model is proposed in which customer perceptions of service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer organizational commitment function as antecedents to service recovery expectations. The proposed model was tested with covariance structure analysis. The results support the hypothesized relationships, suggesting that service quality and customer organizational commitment have direct effects on customer service recovery expectations and that customer satisfaction has an indirect effect on service recovery expectations. He received his doctorate in marketing from the University of Kentucky. His research interests include services marketing and ethics. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, and theJournal of Business Research. He received his doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology from Virginia Tech University. His research interests include service quality with a focus on health care settings. His research has been published in theJournal of Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, andMedical Care Review.     

基于顾客满意度的情感营销探究

文化元素在产品设计上应用得越来越频繁,企业把文化元素应用到产品设计中,满足消费者的情感需求,成为企业营销发展的新趋势。本文以王老吉“百家姓”产品为例,基于情感营销的理论,以情感反应的三个维度——设计情感、产品情感和渠道情感为中介变量,构建产品设计与顾客满意度关系模型,运用实证分析方法探究情感反应的中介作用。研究结果表明,情感反应的三个维度在产品设计和顾客满意度的关系中存在显著的中介作用。据此,本文对企业如何有效地开展情感营销和提高顾客满意度提出了相应的建议。     

Do institutional investors pay attention to customer satisfaction and why?

Extant marketing, accounting, and finance research has neglected to examine the relevance of customer satisfaction information for institutional investors, despite their potential importance. This study develops and supports a framework suggesting that firms with positive changes in customer satisfaction are more attractive to transient institutional investors than to non-transient institutional investors. We also find that the impact of customer satisfaction on transient institutional investor holdings is contingent upon firm intangible asset intensity, product-market demand uncertainty, and financial market volatility. In addition, transient institutional investor holdings at least partially mediate the effects of changes in customer satisfaction on firm abnormal return and idiosyncratic risk. Thus, transient institutional investor investments represent a mechanism through which customer satisfaction affects firm value.     

关系营销对电子零件交易信任的影响

以关系质量作为中间变量,讨论顾客的信任、承诺、满意与关系营销之间的关联性,关系质量与顾客忠诚之闻的关联性和关系营销对电子渠道产业的顾客忠诚的影响,实证研究得出互动关系、专业知识和顾客知觉支持都显著影响关系质量。     

Customer satisfaction: A meta-analysis of the empirical evidence

The growing number of academic studies on customer satisfaction and the mixed findings they report complicate efforts among managers and academics to identify the antecedents to, and outcomes of, businesses having more-versus less-satisfied customers. These mixed findings and the growing emphasis by managers on having satisfied customers point to the value of empirically synthesizing the evidence on customer satisfaction to assess current knowledge. To this end, the authors conduct a meta-analysis of the reported findings on customer satisfaction. They document that equity and disconfirmation are most strongly related to customer satisfaction on average. They also find that measurement and method factors that characterize the research often moderate relationship strength between satisfaction and its antecedents and outcomes. The authors discuss the implications surrounding these effects and offer several directions for future research. David M. Szymanski (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the Al and Marion Withers Research Fellow and Director, Center for Retailing Studies in the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business, Texas A&M University. His research interests include applied meta-analysis, marketing strategy, personal selling and sales management, product innovation, and retail strategy. Representative research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. David H. Henard (Ph.D., Texas A&M University) is an assistant professor of marketing at North Carolina State University. His research interests include product innovation, new product development, and corporate reputation.     

Implementing a customer relationship strategy: The asymmetric impact of poor versus excellent execution

The benefits of developing customer relationships are well established. However, a well-intentioned relationship marketing strategy may fail because of poor implementation. In this study, the authors look at the effects of implementing a customer relationship strategy. Specifically, they examine the implementation of a personal-banker strategy as a means to developing customer relationships in the retail banking industry. The authors show that an “excellent” personal banker can increase overall customer satisfaction and loyalty compared to customers who do not have a personal banker. However, a poorly performing personal banker can result in lower overall customer satisfaction and loyalty than if no personal banker had been available. Moreover, the effects seem to be asymmetric, with the negative effects of a poor relationship strategy exceeding the positive benefits ofan “excellent” strategy. Mark R. Colgate is a senior lecturer in services marketing at the School of Business and Economics, University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research focuses on customer inertia, relationship marketing, and the interface between information technology and marketing. His research has been published in theEuropean Journal of Marketing, theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, andThe Service Industries Journal and other services journals. Peter J. Danaher is a professor in the Department of Marketing Department at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has a Ph.D. in statistics from Florida State University and an M.S. in statistics from Purdue. His primary research interests are media exposure distributions, advertising effectiveness, customer satisfaction measurement, forecasting and sample surveys, resulting in many publications in journals such as theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of the American Statistical Association, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business and Economic Statistics, and theAmerican Statistician. He has consulted extensively with Telecom, Optus Communications, Unilever, ACNielsen, and other market research companies.     

How does product program innovativeness affect customer satisfaction? A comparison of goods and services

This article attempts to provide deeper insights into the link between the innovativeness of a company’s offered goods/services and customer satisfaction. This study proposes an inverted U-shaped relationship between the innovativeness of the offered goods and customer satisfaction. For the innovativeness of services, information economics and services marketing literature indicate an inverted S-shaped relationship. Two separate studies conducted for goods and services confirm the proposed nonmonotonic effects of the investigated relationships. Both studies use dyadic data from marketing managers to assess innovativeness and from customers to indicate customer satisfaction.     

The effect of customers' emotional responses to service failures on their recovery effort evaluations and satisfaction judgments

This study examines the role of customer emotions in the context of service failure and recovery encounters. It investigates how customers' emotional responses to service failures influence their satisfaction judgments after accounting for cognitive antecedents of satisfaction. The study also considers how customers' emotional responses to service failures influence how they evaluate an organization's recovery efforts. The research is conducted by surveying customers about their satisfaction judgments in two service settings, restaurants and hotels. The results suggest that customers' emotional responses to service failures will influence their recovery effort evaluations and satisfaction judgments in some circumstances and that the effects of emotion vary across industry settings. This study identifies the types of efforts that are most effective in helping customers “recover” from the negative emotions caused by service failures. Amy K. Smith (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is currently an assistant professor of marketing at George Washington University. Her research focuses on customer assessments of services, customer satisfaction and retention, customer service, serice failure and recovery, and customer-service provider relationships in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Her research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Service Research. Ruth N. Bolton is currently a Ruby K. Powell Professor of Marketing in the Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma. Her research focuses on how organizations can growth the value of their customer base through customer service and support. Her research has been published in the Journal of Retailing, the Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Marketing Letters, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of Service Research.     

Customer value,satisfaction, loyalty,and switching costs: An illustration from a business-to-business service context

Although researchers and managers pay increasing attention to customer value, satisfaction, loyalty, and switching costs, not much is known about their interrelationships. Prior research has examined the relationships within subsets of these constructs, mainly in the business-to-consumer (B2C) environment. The authors extend prior research by developing a conceptual framework linking all of these constructs in a business-to-business (B2B) service setting. On the basis of the cognition-affect-behavior model, the authors hypothesize that customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between customer value and customer loyalty, and that customer satisfaction and loyalty have significant reciprocal effects on each other. Furthermore, the potential interaction effect of satisfaction and switching costs, and the quadratic effect of satisfaction, on loyalty are explored. The authors test the hypotheses on data obtained from a courier service provider in a B2B context. The results support most of the hypotheses and, in particular, confirm the mediating role of customer satisfaction. Shun Yin Lam (asylam@ntu.edu.sg; fax: 65-6791-3697) is an assistant professor of marketing and international business in the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Lam received his Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario and has research interests in a number of areas including retail marketing, customer loyalty, and customers’ adoption and usage of technology. His work has appeared inMarketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, andAdvances in Consumer Research. Venkatesh (Venky) Shankar (vshankar@rhsmith.umd.edu) is Ralph J. Tyser Fellow and an associate professor of marketing in the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. His areas of research are e-business, competitive strategy, international marketing, pricing, new product management, and supply chain management. His research has been published or is forthcoming in theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theStrategic Management Journal, theJournal of Retailing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, andMarketing Letters. he is co-editor of theJournal of Interactive Marketing; associate editor ofManagement Science; and serves on the editorial boards ofMarketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Academy of Marketing Science. He is a three-time winner of the Krowe Award for Outstanding Teaching and teaches Marketing Management, Digital Business Strategy, Competitive Marketing Strategy, and International Marketing (http://www.venkyshankar.com). M. Krishna Erramilli (amkerramilli@ntu.edu.sg) is an associate professor of marketing and international business in the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has undertaken many studies on marketing strategy issues in service firms, particularly in an international context, and has published his work in journals like theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of International Business Studies, theColumbia Journal of World Business, and theJournal of Business Research. He has presented numerous papers at international conferences. His current research interests center on the international expansion of Asia-based service firms. Bvsan Murthy (abmurthy@ntu.edu.sg) is an associate professor of marketing and international business in the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Prior to turning to the academe a decade ago, he had 20 years of international industry experience. He has published in journals likeThe Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly and theInternational Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and has also written industry white papers/monographs and chapters in books. His current research interests center on strategic services marketing/management and customer value management.     

Incentivizing CEOs to build customer- and employee-firm relations for higher customer satisfaction and firm value

This research reveals customer- and employee-firm relations to be two routes by which firms can leverage executive incentive structures to create customer and firm value. Analyses of a unique dataset with multiple archival sources show that (1) increases in the proportion of CEOs?? long-term equity-based compensation positively influence actions that build customer- and employee-firm relations as measured by the Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini & Co. (KLD) data source, (2) such effects are stronger in unstable markets, and (3) customer and employee relationship-building actions affect firm value both directly and indirectly via the mediator of customer satisfaction as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) data source. The findings have implications for the improvement of customer satisfaction, the role of marketing in the organization, and the design of CEO incentive packages leading to higher customer satisfaction and firm value.     

Customer relationship dynamics: Service quality and customer loyalty in the context of varying levels of customer expertise and switching costs

As customer-organization relationships deepen, consumers increase their expertise in the firm’s product line and industry and develop increased switching costs. This study investigates the effects of customer investment expertise and perceived switching costs on the relationships between technical and functional service quality and customer loyalty. Technical service quality is hypothesized to be a more important determinant of customer loyalty than functional service quality as expertise increases. Both technical and functional service quality are hypothesized to have a reduced relationship with customer loyalty as perceived switching costs increase. Three-way interactions between the main effects of service quality, customer expertise, and perceived switching costs yield additional insight into the change in relative importance of technical and functional service quality in customers’ decision to be loyal. Six of eight hypotheses receive support. Implications are discussed for customer relationship management over the relationship life cycle. Simon J. Bell (s.bell@jims.cam.ac.uk; Ph.D., University of Melbourne) is a university lecturer in marketing at the Judge Institute of Management, the business school of the University of Cambridge. His research has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, andMarketing Theory, among others. His.areas of research interest include organizational learning, sales force management and internal marketing, services and relationship marketing, and corporate social responsibility. Seigyoung Auh (sauh@brocku.ca; Ph.D., University of Michigan) is an assistant professor of marketing at Brock University, Ontario, Canada. His research has been published in theJournal of Economic Psychology, theJournal of Business to Business Marketing, theJournal of Services Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Management, Industrial Marketing Management, and others. His research interests are in application of a resource-based view to marketing strategy, top management team diversity and marketing strategy, customer orientation (customer satisfaction) and loyalty, interface between marketing and entrepreneurship, and services and relationship marketing. Karen Smalley (B.Comm. Hons, University of Melbourne) is an honors graduate in marketing at the University of Melbourne.     

The role of emotions in marketing

Emotions are mental states of readiness that arise from appraisals of events or one’s own thoughts. In this article, the authors discuss the differentiation of emotions from affect, moods, and attitudes, and outline an appraisal theory of emotions. Next, various measurement issues are considered. This is followed by an analysis of the role of arousal in emotions. Emotions as markers, mediators, and moderators of consumer responses are then analyzed. The authors turn next to the influence of emotions on cognitive processes, which is followed by a study of the implications of emotions for volitions, goal-directed behavior, and decisions to help. Emotions and customer satisfaction are briefly explored, too. The article closes with a number of questions for future research. Richard P. Bagozzi is the Dwight F. Benton Professor of Behavioral Science in Management at the University of Michigan Business School. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and has been a faculty member at the University of California-Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University. He is currently doing research in emotions, goal-directed behavior, and social identity theory. Mahesh Gopinath is an assistant professor of marketing in the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Business School and is doing research in emotions and customer satisfaction. Prashanth U. Nyer is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business and Economics at Chapman University. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Business School and is doing research in emotions and customer satisfaction.     

The effect of relational constructs on customer referrals and number of services purchased from a multiservice provider: Does age of relationship matter?

The authors examine the effect of relational constructs (e.g., satisfaction, trust, and affective and calculative commitment) on customer referrals and the number of services purchased, as well as the moderating effect of age of the relationship on these relationships. The research reported, based on data obtained from a large sample of customers of an insurance company, combines archival and survey data. The results provide evidence that supports the moderating effect of relationship age on the relationship between satisfaction, affective and calculative commitment, and the number of services purchased. Peter C. Verhoef is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the Department of Marketing and Organization in the School of Economics at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. He is also a member of the Erasmus Research Institute in Management (ERIM). In 2001, he received his Ph.D. in marketing from Erasmus University. In his dissertation, he investigated how companies can affect the lifetime value of customers. His research interests include customer relationship management, waiting times, and private labels. His work has been or will be published in theJournal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Retailing, Decision Support Systems, and various other journals. Philip Hans Franses is a professor of applied econometrics at the Econometric Institute and a professor of marketing research in the Department of Marketing and Organization, both at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. His research interests include applied econometrics, marketing, empirical finance, political science, and environmetrics. He publishes on these topics in various journals. Janny C. Hoekstra is a professor in direct marketing at the University of Groningen. Her research interests include the development of the marketing concept, market orientation, customer lifetime value, direct marketing, and e-commerce. She has published papers in theJournal of Retailing, Industrial Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Direct Marketing, andJournal of Market-Focused Management, among others.     

影响顾客满意因素的简析

取得高程度的顾客满意是营销的最高目标。然而，能够使一个顾客满意的东西，未必会使另一个顾客满意；能使顾客在一种情况下满意的东西，在另一种情况下未必能使其感到满意。因此，公司及其员工应该全面了解影响顾客满意度的因素。     

Modeling the determinants of customer satisfaction for business-to-business professional services

This research empirically examines for the first time the determinants of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction (CS/D) in the context of business professional services. The simultaneous effect of key CS/D constructs (expectations, performance, and disconfirmation) and several variables—fairness (equity), purchase situation (novelty, importance, and complexity)—and individual-level variables (decision uncertainty and stakeholding) are examined in a causal path framework. Data were obtained from a two-stage longitudinal survey of client organizations. The results indicated substantial support for the hypothesized model. The effect of purchase situation and individual-level variables (via their indirect affects) rivals that of disconfirmation and expectations in explaining CS/D. Performance was found to affect CS/D directly but not as powerfully as disconfirmation. His current research interests include modeling customer satisfaction and service quality, services marketing (especially in a business-to-business environment), and relationship marketing. His research has appeared in theInternational Journal for Research in Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Advances in Services Marketing and Management, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Asia-Pacific Journal of Management, R & D Management, Journal of International Marketing, and others. he has been on the faculty of a number of U.S. and Australian universities. His research interests focus on services marketing, marketing research methods, and modeling satisfaction processes. He has published in theJournal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business, Journal of Services Marketing, and others. He is currently the editor of theAustralasian Journal of Market Research. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University. His research interests include consumer satisfaction, service quality, and consumer information processing. His work has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and others.     

Factors influencing the likelihood of customer defection: The role of consumer knowledge

Customer satisfaction is the predominant metric firms use for detecting and managing customers' likelihood to defect. But while satisfaction and defection are related, satisfaction is only a weak predictor of whether a customer will defect. This article suggests that for repurchase decisions that involve an information-based evaluation of alternatives to the incumbent, likelihood of defection will be influenced by “how much” customers know about those alternatives. The relationship between level of knowledge about alternatives and defection is examined in the context of actual health insurance choices. Results suggest that the level of objective and subjective knowledge about alternatives has a direct effect on likelihood of defection—above and beyond satisfaction level. The view of defection forwarded in this article suggests that managers may be able to gain additional control over customer defection through actions aimed at influencing how much customers know (or come to know) about alternative vendors. Anthony J. Capraro (tcapraro@unca.edu), an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, earned his Ph.D. in marketing in 1999 from the University of Texas after having spent 20 years in industry in marketing and marketing management positions. His current research interest focuses on developing and enhancing the value of a firm's customer base. Susan Broniarczyk (Susan.Broniarczyk@bus.utexas.edu), an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, earned her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Florida. She serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Consumer Research and theJournal of Marketing Research and the advisory board for the Association for Consumer Research. Her research, which examines consumer decision making and how consumers' knowledge structures affect their reaction to missing or conflicting product information, appears in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, andOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Rajendra K. Srivastava (Rajendra.Srivastava@bus.utexas.edu) is the Jack R. Crosby Regent's Chair in Business and a professor of marketing and management science and information systems (MSIS) in the McCombs School of Business at the University Texas at Austin. He is also the Daniel J. Jordan Research Scholar at Emory University. He earned his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. His research, which spans marketing and finance, has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and theJournal of Banking and Finance. His current research interests focus on the impact of marketing strategy and market-based assets on corporate financial performance, particularly in the context of technology-intensive products and services.     

Furthering the integration of marketing and logistics through customer service in the channel

Recent emphasis on customer service in both the academic and trade literature reveals a growing but confusing body of knowledge. Both the marketing and logistics disciplines have offered varying definitions of customer service, but have failed to offer a comprehensive framework which represents customer service and its related marketing and logistics issues. This article offers the viewpoint that customer service is a conceptual unifying factor for integrating marketing and logistics. The channel system is introduced as the vehicle by which buyer/seller relationships must be analyzed to understand formation of buyer expectations, interaction of marketing and logistics activities, and subsequent customer service performance. The institutional, behavioral, and physical dimensions of channel activity influence many of the marketing and logistics decisions made by management. The framework offered in this article differs from previous efforts in that customer service is the output of the unified activities of marketing and logistics. It considers marketing and logistics decisions jointly, re-evaluates and expands the production function in logistics, and ties customer service to customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction.     

我国国际展会专业观众满意度影响因素分析

基于国外顾客满意度研究理论和模型,结合会展行业特征,构建我国国际展会专业观众满意度影响因素模型.运用结构方程模型(SEM),利用SPSS和AMOS软件,定量分析其主要影响因素.研究表明:组展商营销服务水平对专业观众满意度影响最大,其次是展会现场管理水平和展会硬件设施条件;展会品牌、组展商品牌及接待服务水平影响较小.不过它们均通过影响专业观众的感知价值间接作用于满意度.最后,提出三点启示和建议.     

Exploring CRM effectiveness: an institutional theory perspective

This study identifies the potential contribution that institutional theory can make to understanding the success of marketing practices. Based on institutional theory, we argue that the effectiveness of marketing practices decreases when firms are motivated to adopt such practices under the influence of institutional pressures originating in firms’ environments. However, alignment between a practice and a firm’s marketing strategy may buffer against these negative effects. We apply these insights to the case of customer relationship management (CRM). CRM is considered an important way to enhance customer loyalty and firm performance, but it has also been criticized for being expensive and for not living up to expectations. Empirical data from 107 organizations confirm that, in general, adopting CRM for mimetic motives is likely to result in fewer customer insights as a result of using this practice. Our study suggests that institutional theory has much to offer to the investigation of the effectiveness of marketing practices.