Better him than me: social comparison theory and service recovery

We conduct two studies to examine if, when, and why communication strategies using social comparisons can effectively restore emotional equilibrium after a service failure, and thus aid recovery efforts. In our first study, we find that after a service failure, like compensation, downward social comparisons reduce anger and improve post-purchase behavioral intentions (including exiting, complaining to management, engaging in negative word-of-mouth, and complaining to a third party). However, when two recovery tools, compensation and downward social comparisons are used together they do not have an additive effect. Additionally, we show that anger mediates the social comparison effect. In a second study, we further explore the social comparison effect and the financial compensation effect using complete and incomplete downward social comparisons and multiple levels of financial compensation. Our findings indicate that complete downward social comparisons are particularly effective at improving all four types of post-purchase behavioral intentions when financial compensation is non-existent or relatively low. Finally, we discuss implications for theory and practice. The authors would like to thank Irwin Levin, Jim Sinkula, the anonymous reviewers, and David Stewart for their insightful comments and invaluable guidance related to this article.     

A comprehensive model of customer direct and indirect revenge: understanding the effects of perceived greed and customer power

This article develops and tests a comprehensive model of customer revenge that contributes to the literature in three manners. First, we identify the key role played by the customer’s perception of a firm’s greed—that is, an inferred negative motive about a firm’s opportunistic intent—that dangerously energizes customer revenge. Perceived greed is found as the most influential cognition that leads to a customer desire for revenge, even after accounting for well studied cognitions (i.e., fairness and blame) in the service literature. Second, we make a critical distinction between direct and indirect acts of revenge because these sets of behaviors have different repercussions—in “face-to-face” vs. “behind a firm’s back”—that call for different interventions. Third, our extended model specifies the role of customer perceived power in predicting these types of behaviors. We find that power is instrumental—both as main and moderation effects—only in the case of direct acts of revenge (i.e., aggression and vindictive complaining). Power does not influence indirect revenge, however. Our model is tested with two field studies: (1) a study examining online public complaining, and (2) a multi-stage study performed after a service failure.     

A study of the relationships between cognitive appraisals and consumption emotions

While emotions have been shown to be significant determinants of various consumer behaviors, the antecedents of these emotions have not received much attention in the marketing literature. The current research examines a cognitive model of emotion and uses an experiment to show that the appraisals of goal relevance, goal congruence, and coping potential are determinants of consumption emotions such as anger, sadness, and joy/satisfaction. These emotions are also shown to be determinants of postconsumption behaviors such as word-of-mouth intentions. His research interests include consumption emotions, complaining behavior, cognitive models of emotion, and covariance structure modeling.     

The impact of market conditions on the organizational structure and effectiveness of firms operating in Italy

In the past decade, several organization theorists have begun to examine the organization—environmental interface in the functioning of complex organizations and have argued that an organization's internal structural arrangement is contingent upon the demands of the external environment. The purpose of this article is to further examine the validity of the findings of these theorists with reference to firms operating in Italy. The variables studied consisted of: a) Market conditions—which was divided into the two categories of high and low competition. b) Decentralization of decision-making, and c) Organization effectiveness. To investigate the impact of decentralization on the organization effectiveness of firms under differing market conditions the statistical techniques of a Mann-Whitney U Test and Kendall's Tau Measure of Correlation were used to compute the scores. The resulting computations provide some support for the contingency theory of organization, but also indicates areas of disagreement.     

Angry customers don't come back,they get back: The experience and behavioral implications of anger and dissatisfaction in services

This article investigates the specific experience of anger and dissatisfaction and their effects on customers' behavioral responses to failed service encounters across industries. Study 1 demonstrates that anger and dissatisfaction are qualitatively different emotions with respect to their idiosyncratic experiential content. Study 2 builds on these findings and shows how anger and service encounter dissatisfaction differentially affect customer behavior. It provides empirical support for the contention that anger mediates the relationship between service encounter dissatisfaction and customers' behavioral responses. The findings of Study 2 diverge from previous findings in marketing on the interrelationships between customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, related consumption emotions, and customers' behavioral responses to service failure. The implications of these findings for services marketing theory and practice are delineated. Roger Bougie (J.R.G.Bougie@uvt.nl) is an assistant professor of marketing at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research interests are emotions and their impact on consumer behavior, and consumer decision making. Rik Pieters is a professor of marketing at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research interests are emotions in consumer behavior, visual attention and memory, and social networks. His work has appeared in, among others, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Economic Literature, theJournal of Marketing Research, andMarketing Science. Marcel Zeelenberg is a professor of social psychology at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research interest is in anticipated emotions and acutal emotional experiences and their impact on behavioral decision making. His work has appeared in, among others, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.     

The role of brand communications on front line service employee beliefs,behaviors, and performance

Frontline service employees often vary in their delivery of the brand promise, leaving service firms with less direct control on other stakeholders’ brand perceptions. Internal branding efforts have been suggested as a way to improve employee performance. With this in mind, we develop a two-process model based on identification and internalization theories to explain how internally disseminating brand-relevant information to frontline employees enhances performance. Using multi-source data from the employees, managers, and customers of a business-to-business firm in the hospitality industry, we find that providing brand-specific information directly to frontline employees increases their identification with the brand (as evidenced in perceptions of firm authenticity) and enhances their internalization of brand values. Additional results suggest that firms should make an extra effort to communicate brand-specific information to frontline employees if they desire brand-consistent performance that is observable to managers and customers alike.     

A voice from the silent masses: An exploratory and comparative analysis of noncomplainers

This study used a critical incident survey with both qualitative and quantitative sections to investigate noncomplainers. Noncomplainers are customers who experience service failures but do not voice complaints. The qualitative study (n=149) explored reasons why customers do not complain after experiencing service failures. In the quantitative study (n=530), two kinds of noncomplainers who either (a) received organization-initiated recoveries or(b) exited the encounters without recoveries were compared with three kinds of complaining customers who received (a) satisfactory recoveries, (b) dissatisfactory recoveries, or (c) no recoveries. The five customer groups were compared across repurchase intentions, negative affect, perceived regret, and intentions to engage in negative word of mouth. The results of the comparative analyses challenge existing views of noncomplainers’ repurchase intentions and negative outcome levels. Clay M. Voorhees (voorhees@bus.msu.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at Michigan State University. His research interests are in the areas of service decision making, consumer complaining behavior, customer equity, and the development and application of innovative research methods to service decision making models. Clay’s research has been published inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, andJournal of Services Marketing. Michael (“Mike”) K. Brady (mbrady@cob.fsu.edu) is an associate professor of marketing and director of the doctoral program at Florida State University. His research interests are in the areas of managing the service decision-making process, managing service failure, and the strategic ramifications of branding for service firms. Mike’s research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Retailing, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Services Marketing, International Journal of Service Industry Management, and other outlets. Mike has won both the M. Wayne Delozier Award for Best Conference Paper at the Academy of Marketing Science Conference and the Steven J. Shaw Award for Best Conference Paper at the Society for Marketing Advances Conference. Mike serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, andJournal of Retailing and was named an Outstanding Reviewer by theJournal of Retailing in 2004. David M. Horowitz (dmh03@fsu.edu) is a marketing doctoral candidate at Florida State University whose interests include services marketing, cognitive anthropology research methods, and marketing and public policy issues. He completed his MBA at San Diego State University and holds a BS in industrial engineering from Stanford University. David’s research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and the proceedings of national and regional conferences.     

The impact of the centralized structuring of logistics activities on span of control,formalization and performance

The centralized structuring (or consolidation) of logistics activities within the firm is shown to have a major impact on (1) the total number of activities that are the direct responsibility of logistics, (2) formalization, and (3) the capability of the logistics system to accommodate certain channel activities. In particular, centralized structuring enhances the accommodation of product introduction, phaseout and recall in functional firms, and the customization of service levels to specific segments or customers in divisional firms.     

Point-of-purchase displays, product organization, and brand purchase likelihoods

Can point-of-purchase (POP) displays cause a decrease in sales of the featured brand? In an actual test-market promotion, the use of special POP displays led to a decrease in sales of featured wines from a specific U.S. region. Moreover, sales of regularly shelved wines from competitive regions actually increased. The results of a laboratory experiment supported the explanation that the POP displays essentially reorganized the wines into region categories within the stores, making it easier for consumers to compare alternatives by region. As a result, sales of wines from preferred regions increased and sales of wines from disliked regions decreased relative to when the wines were displayed by variety categories on regular shelf space. Further evidence indicated that reorganizing products by levels of a given attribute influences purchase likelihoods mainly when the attribute is otherwise low rather than high in salience and when brands have normally high rather than low purchase likelihoods.     

Voice,exit, and negative word-of-mouth behaviors: An investigation across three service categories

Drawing upon Hirschman’s (1970) framework for Exit, Voice and Loyalty, a model is proposed which predicts and explains variation in voice, exit, and negative work-of-mouth behaviors. The findings from extant consumer complaining behavior (CCB) literature are also incorporated into the hypothesized model. Using data from customer dissatisfaction with three different service categories, the proposed model is subjected to empirical investigation. Despite the parsimony of Hirschman’s framework, results show that the hypothesized model provides good model-fit indices in each of the three data sets. In addition, the explanatory power of the model is encouraging, ranging from 36 percent to 50 percent variance explained. However, the support for the hypothesized pattern of CCB rates across the service categories is mixed. Specifically, while voice responses conform to the hypothesized pattern, exit responses do not. Implications stemming from a comparative analysis of the results are discussed, and directions for future research outlined.     

Customer engagement: the construct,antecedents, and consequences

In this study, we highlight the need and develop a framework for customer engagement (CE) by reviewing the marketing literature and analyzing popular press articles. By understanding the evolution of customer management, we develop the theory of engagement, arguing that when a relationship is satisfying and has emotional connectedness, the partners become engaged in their concern for each other. As a result, the components of customer engagement include both the direct and the indirect contributions of CE. Based on the theoretical support, our proposed framework elaborates on the components of CE as well as the antecedents (satisfaction and emotion) and consequences (tangible and intangible outcomes) of CE. We also discuss how convenience, nature of the firm (B2B vs. B2C), type of industry (service vs. product), value of the brand (high vs. low), and level of involvement (high vs. low) moderate the link between satisfaction and direct contribution, and between emotions and indirect contribution of CE, respectively. Further, we show how customer engagement can be gained and how firm performance can be maximized by discussing relevant strategies.     

Institutions and opportunism in buyer–supplier exchanges: the moderated mediating effects of contractual and relational governance

The marketing channel literature has paid limited attention to institutional environments that constrain buyer–supplier exchanges, though such institutions are fundamental determinants of transaction costs, and thus of the occurrence of opportunism in the buyer–supplier dyads. Drawing on transaction cost economics and institutional theory, this study uncovers the critical influence of formal and informal institutions (i.e., legal effectiveness and networking expenditure) on the use of governance in deterring opportunism, as well as the moderating role of government support on the efficacy of governance mechanism. The findings from a buyer–supplier dyadic survey and 2 secondary datasets reveal that legal effectiveness mitigates opportunism through increased use of both contractual and relational governance; in contrast, networking expenditure reduces opportunism through relational governance, yet increases opportunism via lowering contractual governance. In addition, contractual governance is more efficient in constraining opportunism when government support is high, whereas relational governance deters opportunism more when government support is low. These findings offer important implications for academic research and managerial practice.     

Frontiers of the marketing paradigm in the third millennium

The domain and theories of marketing have been expanding since the origins of the discipline. Since the 1970s marketing science has been organized around the exchange paradigm. Marketing concepts apply to all forms of exchange, whether it is goods, services, personages, places or ideas, and whether it is between individuals, for-profit and nonprofit firms, governments and NGOs. Marketing theories evolved from a firm oriented view to encompass the exchanging dyad. More recently the paradigm expanded to a network level of explanation, and relational theories have come to the fore. But even as the field struggles to grasp its new fields of explanation, there is a Kuhnian shift happening at its boundaries. The shift significantly bends the marketing worldview as well as the theoretical tools and methodologies we use to study it. In this paper we develop a three-tiered explanation of the emerging field of marketing—its subphenomena (consumer experiences and sensory systems), its phenomena (marketing networks), and its superphenomena (sustainability and development).     

小费问题研究：视角、方法与展望

小费是一个相对复杂的社会经济现象,其起源、影响要素与作用是国内外学者的重要研究方向。从“历史性解释”、“过程性解释”和“功能性解释”3个视角综述了小费问题的相关研究,梳理了“小费从何而来”、“小费受何影响”以及“小费有何作用”等基本问题,对统计分析、数理分析、实验研究、元分析研究等小费问题研究方法进行阐释,在此基础上结合饭店业高服务接触的特性提出研究展望。     

汉英语码转换的成因及语用功能分析

语码转换长期以来一直是社会语言学的重要研究课题,从语用学的角度进行研究可以更有效、更令人信服地解释语码转换现象。随着汉英语码转换或混合现象频繁出现,汉英语码转换能体现言语交际中的顺应原则、面子原则、语用修辞效果等语用功能。     

城市行政级别、数字经济与要素市场扭曲

市场失灵和行政性因素都会导致要素市场扭曲,数字经济可以通过弥补市场失灵改善要素市场扭曲,但要素在高行政级别城市的过度集聚会破坏数字经济改善要素市场扭曲的机制。采用2011—2019年274个城市面板数据的实证分析发现：在高行政级别城市中,数字经济发展对要素市场扭曲具有显著的正向影响,该影响主要源自对劳动要素市场扭曲的加剧,且劳动力集聚程度越高加剧效应越强;在低行政级别城市中,数字经济发展对要素市场扭曲具有显著的负向影响,该影响主要源自对资本要素市场扭曲的改善。对于流动性较强和数字经济渗透度较高的资本要素,数字经济的市场扭曲改善效应较大（在低行政级别城市中）,而要素过度集聚对数字经济改善市场扭曲机制的破坏较弱（在高行政级别城市中）。因此,应以建设全国统一大市场破除要素流动壁垒,以完善城市行政级别体系促进要素（尤其是劳动力）从高级别城市向低级别城市的自由流动,以推进劳动数字化智能化增强数字经济对劳动要素的渗透度,进而有效改善要素市场扭曲,提高资源配置效率。     

Comparative evaluation and the relationship between quality,satisfaction, and repurchase loyalty

This study evaluates alternative measurement approaches to examining the relationship between perceived quality performance, customer satisfaction, and repurchase loyalty. The authors define and measure the constructs within a relative attitudinal framework and compare these results to a noncomparative or individual evaluation of products. In addition, loyalty is measured and defined as self-reported repurchase behavior instead of purchase intention. The proposed model, with satisfaction as a mediator between quality and repurchase loyalty, was found to be an acceptable representation of the data across four products and for both comparative and noncomparative evaluations. The use of relative attitudes, however, indicated a much stronger relationship between quality, satisfaction, and loyalty than the attitudes toward a product when they are performed as an individual evaluation. With respect to predictive ability, the study findings suggest that quality, satisfaction, and loyalty should be defined and measured within a relative attitudinal framework.     

An empirical investigation of bogus recall

A mall-intercept study involving 200 respondents was conducted to examine bogus recall of advertising slogans. The findings suggest that bogus recall is: (1) negatively related to (a) education, (b) age, (c) income, and (d) being told that slogan recall will be verified by being asked to name the product/company associated with the slogan; (2) positively related to (a) the belief that advertising provides useful product information, (b) a “yea-saying” orientation, (c) radio, newspaper, magazine and TV use, and (d) the attitude toward the slogan; and (3) not related to (a) prior notification of the fact that some slogans are bogus, (b) sex, and (c) race.     

过度宏观调控、区域竞争与经济结构失衡

无论是纵向历史跟踪还是横向与其他同等发展阶段的国家进行比较,我国的经济结构都存在着长期的失衡现象,文章从信息经济学和政治经济学的角度对这一现象提出了解释。中国式的财政分权引发了不同层面上同一级别间的地方竞争,这就使得地方政府在制定经济发展战略时需要考虑到很强的决策外部性,相互比拼的激励使得地方政府对于上级政府的宏观调控显得过于敏感,并最终导致不同地区在发展战略的选择上渐趋一致。本文通过一个数学模型阐述了上述想法,并以此为基础做了福利比较分析,最后还对该模型框架进行了扩展并得出了进一步的结论。     

单位劳动力成本、汇率变动与出口的互动关联研究——基于面板向量自回归(PVAR)模型的分析

基于我国34个工业行业的面板数据,采用面板向量自回归模型（PVAR）对单位劳动力成本、汇率风险与我国出口之间的互动关系进行研究。结果显示,单位劳动力成本与出口存在双向抑制作用,即工资上涨不利于出口规模的扩张,出口也无法促进工资增长率的上升,但出口显著地提升了劳动生产率;汇率变动对出口脉冲响应函数值正负交替,呈现出不确定性,出口对汇率变动产生了超调现象;我国存在"进口引致出口"机制,且出口也能通过收入效应和汇率两条路径影响进口;产出对出口的影响关系呈现不确定性,但出口可以带动产出。在方差分解中,单位劳动力成本变量对出口具有较强的解释能力,是导致我国出口变动的主要因素,汇率变动对出口的短期解释能力较强,进口在长期解释能力较强,产出在三个不同时期解释能力基本一致,但出口对其他变量的解释能力普遍较低。