Satisfying customer expectations: The effect on conflict and repurchase intentions in industrial marketing channels

The article investigates how the marketer’s fulfillment of middleman expectations impacts upon conflict and repurchase intentions in industrial channels. The nature and key determinants of expectations in industrial buyer behavior are examined. Discrepancy theory is used to assess the (dis)confirmation of expectations process. A series of hypotheses are developed and tested in a large manufacturing and distribution network engaged in the marketing of fluid power products. Results suggest a direct causal effect of (dis) confirmed expectations on repurchase intentions and on conflict, and that the effect of expectations on repurchase intentions is not modified by the creation of conflict. Managerial implications are drawn.     

The impact of customer satisfaction on CEO bonuses

In this study, we build on prior research in marketing and executive compensation to show that customer satisfaction is a significant determinant of CEO bonuses. Findings demonstrate that the success of CEOs in managing customer satisfaction has a direct, personal, and economic impact in the form of their annual bonus awards. Our study contributes to research on the use of customer satisfaction information, marketing accountability, and marketing’s board level relevance. Our research also extends marketing theory by pointing to a previously unexamined role for marketing performance metrics.     

Measuring customer satisfaction: Fact and artifact

Self-reports of customer satisfaction invariably possess distributions that are negatively skewed and exhibit a positivity bias. Examination of the customer satisfaction literature and empirical investigations reveal that measurements of customer satisfaction exhibit tendencies of confounding and methodological contamination and appear to reflect numerous artifacts. Implications and suggestions for research and practice are discussed. Vyvx, Inc.     

Service failure and recovery: The impact of relationship factors on customer satisfaction

This research investigated how customers' relationships with a service organization affect their reactions to service failure and recovery. Our conceptual model proposed that customer-organizational relationships help to shape customers' attributions and expectations when service failures occur. The empirical results showed that customers with higher expectations of relationship continuity had lower service recovery expectations after a service failure and also attributed that failure to a less stable cause. Both the lower recovery expectations and the lower stability attributions were associated with greater satisfaction with the service performance after the recovery. These effects appeared to be key processes by which relationships buffer service organizations when service failures occur. Ronald L. Hess Jr. (ron. hess@business.wm.edu) (Ph.D., Virginia Tech) is currently an assistant professor of marketing at the College of William & Mary. His research interests include customer responses to service and product failures; organizational complaint handling; and customer assessments of satisfaction, loyalty, and service quality. He has published his research inMarketing Letters and several conference proceedings. Shankar Ganesan (sganesan @bpa.arizona.edu) (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an associate professor of marketing and Lisle and Rosslyn Payne Fellow in Marketing at the Eller College of Business and Public Administration, University of Arizona. His research interests focus on the areas of interorganizational relationships, buyer-seller negotiations, service failure and recovery, new product innovation, and E-marketing. He is the author of several articles that have appeared in leading academic journals, including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. He currently serves on the editorial review board of theJournal of Marketing Research and theJournal of Marketing. Noreen M. Klein (nklein@vt.edu) (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is currently an associate professor of marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research interests include consumer decision making and the behavioral aspects of pricing, and her research has been published in the theJournal of Consumer Research, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Making, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science.     

An investigation of the cross-national determinants of customer satisfaction

Many multinational corporations have implemented cross-national satisfaction measurement programs for tracking and benchmarking the satisfaction of their customers across their various markets. These companies measure satisfaction with the goal of maximizing customer loyalty and the financial benefits associated with loyalty. However, existing research comparing consumer satisfaction across nations is limited, with the few existing studies examining only a small number of countries or predictors of satisfaction, or a small group of consumers within a particular economic sector. To expand our knowledge of the determinants of cross-national variation in customer satisfaction, we study three sets of factors: cultural, socioeconomic and political-economic. We utilize a unique sample of cross-industry satisfaction data from 19 nations, including nearly 257,000 interviews of consumers. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that consumers in traditional societies have higher levels of satisfaction than those in secular-rational societies. Likewise, consumers in self-expressive societies have higher levels of customer satisfaction than those in societies with survival values. We also find that literacy rate, trade freedom, and business freedom have a positive effect on customer satisfaction while per capita gross domestic product has a negative effect on customer satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these findings for policymakers, multinational corporations, and researchers.     

On the value relevance of customer satisfaction. Multiple drivers and multiple markets

Existing research implicitly assumes that all factors known to influence customer satisfaction are likewise important for investor behavior. However, if investors do not equally value activities targeting different satisfaction drivers, managers focusing on short-term stock returns might over- or under-emphasize certain satisfaction drivers to the detriment of the long-term success of the firm. Therefore, we extend prior research on the value relevance of customer satisfaction by assessing the relationship between the dynamics of key satisfaction drivers and contemporaneous risk-adjusted stock returns. Moreover, we compare three major markets using a dataset covering nearly the entire set of car brands sold between 2004 and 2008. Our results show that investors react to information related to perceived product quality, whereas, surprisingly, the cost of ownership and dealer service quality are unimportant despite the importance attributed to them in consumer research. Furthermore, we observe that information concerning the U.S. market dominates that of the UK and German markets.     

The link between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in a business-to-business context: A dyadic analysis

Although it has frequently been argued that the job satisfaction of a company’s employees is an important driver of customer satisfaction, systematic research exploring this link is scarce. The present study investigates this relationship for salespeople in a business-to-business context. The theoretical justification for a positive impact of salespeople’s job satisfaction on customer satisfaction is based on the concept of emotional contagion. The analysis is based on a dyadic data set that involves judgments provided by salespeople and their customers collected across multiple manufacturing and services industries. Results indicate the presence of a positive relationship between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the relationship between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction is found to be particularly strong in the case of high frequency of customer interaction, high intensity of customer integration into the value-creating process, and high product/service innovativeness.     

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.     

Re-examining salesperson goal orientations: Personality influencers, customer orientation, and work satisfaction

Several scholars have noted the importance of relationship marketing and the critical role that salesperson knowledge plays in the formation of buyer-seller relationships. However, research on salesperson learning motivations has been relatively scarce compared with research on firm-level learning orientations. One promising stream of research in this area is salesperson goal orientation. Drawing from previous work in control theory, the authors extend previous research in this area by proposing relationships between personality influencers, goal orientations, customer/selling orientation, and overall work satisfaction. Their hypotheses are tested using data obtained from a sample of 190 real estate agents. The results provide support for their hypothesized model. Specifically, learning orientation is shown to positively influence customer orientation, while performance orientation is shown to positively influence selling orientation. Eric G. Harris (eharris@lklnd.usf.edu Ph.D., Oklahoma State University) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of South Florida. His current research interests include goal orientation, customer orientation, and personality models applied to consumer and employee behavior. He has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Psychology & Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Marketing, theJournal of Business & Psychology, Services Marketing Quarterly, theJournal of Services Marketing, and theJournal of Marketing Management. John C. Mowen (jcmmkt@okstate.edu) Ph.D., Arizona State University) is Regents Professor and holds the Noble Chair of Marketing Strategy at Oklahoma State University. He has published articles in numerous leading journals, including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, Decisions Sciences, theJournal of Applied Psychology, theJournal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychology and Marketing, and theJournal of Consumer Psychology. He is a past president of the Society for Consumer Psychology. His teaching and consulting interests focus on consumer behavior and motivating the workforce. His research focuses on the factors that motivate and influence the decisions of consumers and employees. Tom J. Brown (tom.brown@okstate.edu; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is Ardmore Professor of Business Administration and an associate professor of marketing at Oklahoma State University. His articles have appeared in leading marketing journals, including theJournal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. His current research interests include causes and effects of corporate reputation and the customer orientation of service workers. He is cofounder of the Corporate Identity/Associations Research Group. Teaching interests include marketing research, services marketing, and corporate communications. He is coauthor (with Gilbert A. Churchill Jr.) ofBasic Marketing Research (5th ed.). Consulting interests include marketing research, corporate reputation, and the customer orientation of service workers.     

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.     

Customers’ reactions to price increases: Do customer satisfaction and perceived motive fairness matter?

Most of the previous research on price changes has focused on price decreases. This article investigates the effects of price increases at an individual level. The authors argue that customers’ reactions to price increases (i.e., repurchase intentions) are strongly driven by two factors: the magnitude of the price increase and the perceived fairness of the motive for the price increase. In this context, the authors examine the role of customer satisfaction in influencing the impact of these two variables on repurchase intentions after a price increase. Their findings reveal that as satisfaction increases, the negative impact of the magnitude of a price increase is weakened. Furthermore, the results suggest that satisfaction moderates the impact of perceived motive fairness. The authors also find that the level of satisfaction can influence the valence of the perceived motives in response to a price increase. Christian Homburg (homburg@bwl.uni-mannheim.de) is a professor of marketing and chair of the Marketing Department at the University of Mannheim, Germany. He also serves as director of this university’s Institute for Market-Oriented Management. He holds master’s degrees in business administration and mathematics and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. He also holds a habilitation degree from the University of Mainz, Germany. His research interests include market-oriented management, buyer-seller relationships, and business-to-business marketing. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, Strategic Management Journal, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing. He is also the founder of Professor Homburg & Partners, an internationally operating management consulting firm. Wayne D. Hoyer (wayne.hoyer@bus.utexas.edu) is the the James L. Bayless/William S. Farish Fund Chair for Free Enterprise, the chairman of the Department of Marketing, and the director of the Center for Customer Insight in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.A. from Purdue University in the area of consumer psychology. He has published more than 60 articles in various forums including theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, the Journal of Advertising Research, and theJournal of Retailing. His research interests include customer insight and relationship management, consumer information processing and decision making (especially low-involvement decision-making), and advertising effects (most particularly, miscomprehension and the impact of humor). Nicole Koschate (nicole.koschate@bwl.uni-mannheim.de) is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business Administration at the University of Mannheim, Germany. She holds a double master’s degree in business administration and psychology and a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Mannheim, Germany. Her current research areas include pricing, customer insight, dynamic issues in marketing phenomena, and buyerseller relationships. Her research appears in several outlets, including theJournal of Marketing.     

基于链式中介效应的真实型领导对员工创新行为影响研究

基于社会认知理论和价值观理论,考察了真实型领导对员工创新行为的复杂影响机制。以374份企业员工数据为样本,通过层级回归分析和Bootstrap方法进行假设检验,研究结果表明：真实型领导对员工创新行为具有显著正向影响;不确定性规避和创新自我效能感在真实型领导与员工创新行为之间分别发挥部分中介作用,而且发挥了链式中介作用,即真实型领导通过降低不确定性规避程度影响员工的创新自我效能感,进而鼓励了员工的创新。     

Selling financial services: the effect of consumer product knowledge and salesperson commission on consumer suspicion and intentions

This research examines how consumers’ subjective product knowledge affects the way they interpret salesperson compensation within the financial services industry. Data from a nationwide panel of consumers show that higher product knowledge consumers become highly suspicious and lower purchase intentions when salesperson commission rates fall outside of the latitude of acceptance (Study 1). Study 2 results, however, demonstrate a reversal of these effects by showing that compensation–recommendation consistency is an important moderator in financial salesperson interactions. In addition, the study describes boundaries of the suspicious mindset that underlies consumer responses to sales information. Theoretical and practical implications of the finding are discussed, as are future research directions.     

基于员工满意度的激励方式选择

员工对公司满意度对企业的人力资本管理以及公司治理具有重要意义，而员工满意度与员工所处的激励状态有关。影响员工满意度的因素除企业特征外，还有员工的个体特征。提高员工满意度的两种激励方式是：建立以EVA为主要内容的人力资本组合激励方案；完善的教育与培训制度。     

Relational communication traits and their effect on adaptiveness and sales performance

Two relational communication traits, communication apprehension and interaction involvement, are investigated within an adaptive selling framework to assess their impact on salesperson adaptiveness and sales performance. Using a sample of 239 insurance salespeople, results demonstrate that salespeople exhibiting lower levels of communication apprehension are more highly involved in communication interactions, and higher involvement facilitates increased adaptiveness and sales performance. This research highlights the importance of effective communication within sales interactions and offers suggestions to improve salesperson communication skill. Michael L. Boorom is an associate professor of marketing and associate dean of the school of business and public administration at California State University, San Bernardino. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. His research interests are salesperson and sales manager communication skills. His work has been published in theJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and several conferences. Jerry R. Goolsby is an associate professor of marketing at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His research interests include sales interactions and salesperson burnout and coping strategies. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and other marketing journals. Rosemary P. Ramsey is a professor and chair of the management and marketing department at Eastern Kentucky University. She earned her Ph.D. from University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include sales interactions and measurement issues. Her work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. andJournal of Marketing Education.     

论顾客价值的创造

随着经济技术的不断发展和新产品的不断涌现,顾客对于产品和服务的期望也越来越高,这就要求企业只有在设计、生产和提供产品时以顾客为导向,为顾客提供超越竞争对手的价值,才能在激烈的市场竞争中获取可持续发展的竞争优势。创造顾客价值是企业生存和持续发展必须建立的关键优势。     

基于就业稳定视角下的员工工资福利优化

基于广州市花都区15家民营企业372位员工的调查数据,通过线性回归模型对员工工资福利与就业稳定性之间的关系进行实证分析。结果表明工资收入越高,员工工作稳定性越好;员工更倾向于按月甚至更短期限的工资结算周期;社会保障投保情况对员工就业稳定性有显著的正向影响。可见,企业员工工资福利状况对其就业稳定性有较为显著的影响,改善员工工资福利状况,优化员工工资福利制度将有利于缓解企业员工流动性高的问题,增强劳动力就业稳定性,进一步提升企业的核心竞争力。     

组织支持与员工满意度相关分析研究

当前企业面临的一个重要问题是如何通过企业组织支持的加强，来增加企业的凝聚力、提高员工满意度。从回顾组织支持和员工满意度研究的理论入手，把整个组织支持模块分为数个小模块分别探讨其与员工满意度的关系，得出结论证明组织支持与员工满意度两者之间存在正相关关系．