Altruistic eWOM marketing: More than an alternative to monetary incentives

As a form of word of mouth, online reviews are used to reduce uncertainty about service quality and direct consumer attitudes and behavior. As a consequence of the high persuasiveness and the broad accessibility of electronic word of mouth (eWOM), companies are very interested to proactively managing this form of customer-to-customer communication. Compared with traditional advertising provides, eWOM marketing is a more credible and low-cost alternative. So far marketers have commonly used monetary incentives to influence customer-to-customer communication. However, this form also includes potential negative consequences such as credibility loss through consumer skepticism and crowding-out effects. This study analyzed two new incentive programs for increasing recommendation likelihood that considered the activation of an altruistic form of motivation to overcome these drawbacks. Therefore, an experiment was designed with three experimental groups (incentive programs) vs. a control group (no incentive). Finally, the results are discussed while taking into account the advantages and drawbacks of the particular incentive program to deduce practical implications.     

Post-Partnership Strategies for Defining Corporate Responsibility: The Business Social Compliance Initiative

While cross-sectoral partnerships are frequently presented as a way to achieve sustainable development, some corporations that first tried using the strategy are now changing direction. Growing tired of what are, in their eyes, inefficient and unproductive cross-sectoral partnerships, firms are starting to form post-cross-sectoral partnerships (?post-partnerships’) open exclusively to corporations. This paper examines one such post-partnership project, the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), to analyse the possibility of post-partnerships establishing stable definitions of ?corporate responsibility’. We do this by creating a theoretical framework based on actor-network theory (ANT) and institutional theory. Using this framework, we show that post-partnerships suffer from the paradox of striving to marginalise those stakeholders whose support they need?for establishing stable definitions of ?corporate responsibility’. We conclude by discussing whether or not post-partnership strategies, despite this paradox, can be expected to establish stable definitions of ?corporate responsibility’.     

Nonverbal cues-based first impressions: Impression formation through exposure to static images

Consumers often make judgments about service providers based solely on their photograph (e.g., on a billboard, on the Internet) before interacting with them face-to-face. This first impression is important for marketers to understand because it influences service provider selection and evaluation. This research explores the nature and subsequent influence of initial judgments made from static images. The results of two studies indicate that (1) judgments based on nonverbal cues can be surprisingly accurate, particularly of personality traits relevant to the domain in which the target is being judged, and (2) initial nonverbal cues-based judgments influence subsequent judgments of a target’s actions.

Understanding product migration to the electronic marketplace: A conceptual framework

We present a conceptual framework that organizes current thinking regarding increased interactivity in the electronic marketplace and its implications for product migration. Product migration refers to the extent of reliance by buyers and sellers on the electronic marketplace for activities pertaining to information search, purchase, acquisition, use, and disposal of a product. We posit that value outcomes derived by buyers and sellers from increasing interactivity mediate the relationship between interactivity and product migration. The relationship between interactivity and value outcomes for buyers and sellers is moderated by three sets of product-related characteristics: the core characteristics of the product, its purchase and use-related characteristics, and market characteristics. Inertia and resistance exhibited by buyers and sellers negatively impact product migration to the electronic marketplace and also attenuate the impact of value outcomes on product migration. In addition to guiding theoretical and empirical work in this emerging area, the proposed framework can also be employed to structure a firm's strategic discussions related to the electronic marketplace.     

Students' Emotional Experience at the University: An Alternative Approach to Understanding Students as Consumers

This study offers an alternative perspective to understand students as consumers. This proposition is evaluated by analyzing the relationship between students’ emotional experience at a university and their perception of loyalty to this institution. Students from a Latin-American business school responded to a survey that included the Consumption Emotion Set and a loyalty assessment (n = 1,393). Data was analyzed using Rasch models. The findings show that positive emotions motivate student loyalty, whereas negative emotions harm student loyalty. The students’ experiences should be conceptualized at the institution as a brand and addressed through services and (nonacademic) activities in students’ lives.     

When push comes to shove: How coach versus student athlete misconduct affects event attendance intentions

Though onand off-the-field misconduct is common among U.S. college athletic programs, little is known regarding the ramifications that may result. Drawing on social learning theory, the current research suggests consumers intentions (e.g., likelihood of attending a game) differ depending on violator's team role. Across one qualitative and five experimental studies, we demonstrate that consumers' intentions are influenced by violator's team role, such that likelihood of attending a game is lower when a coach (vs. student athlete) misbehaves, an effect driven by evaluation of the academic institution. This effect is robust across both winning and losing records and moderated by perceived fairness of the university's actions toward the violator.     

Give your hunger a new option: Understanding consumers' continuous intention to use online food delivery apps using trust transfer theory

The recent growth of online food delivery apps (OFDAs) centralized the restaurant's business in electronic distribution platforms. Recently, a few researchers have attempted to understand consumer behaviour towards using OFDAs. However, various aspects related to the usage of OFDAs have not been explored. Drawing from trust transfer theory, the purpose of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the trust transfer from OFDAs to restaurants and to address the boundary condition of trust transfer by examining the moderating effect of perceived effectiveness of dispute resolution (PEDR) between trust in OFDAs and trust in a restaurant. The model was tested via structural equation modelling (SEM) using data obtained from 836 users of OFDAs through structured questionnaire. The results show that trust in OFDAs positively influence the trust in restaurant, which ultimately leads to the consumers' continuous purchase intention. Further, PEDR positively moderates the relationship between trust in OFDAs and trust in a restaurant. Additionally, disposition to trust and online reviews significantly develops consumer trust in OFDAs. The present research makes substantial theoretical and practical contributions as it develops a trust transfer mechanism by considering an emerging mobile-commerce field. The study provides a first theoretical outlook on consumers' continuous intention to use OFDAs, using trust transfer theory, which has not been considered so far. The findings provide information for food delivery platforms on how to manage conflict resolution to succeed in the market and help restaurants in selecting the most effective food delivery platforms with which to collaborate.