Using online opinion leaders to promote the hedonic and utilitarian value of products and services

Research and applied evidence suggest that online opinion leaders are important promoters of products and services. However, managers and firms need to choose which opinion leaders to work with and better understand how to collaborate with those leaders to promote different types of products and services. Online opinion leaders should be used to promote the experiential (hedonic) and functional (utilitarian) value of products and services over different online forums. In this article, we describe how online opinion leaders can serve appeal leadership functions, serve knowledge leadership functions, and take multiple roles (e.g., experts, celebrities, micro-celebrities, micro-influencers, early adopters, market mavens, enthusiasts). We then present a five-stage planning process designed to guide partnerships with online opinion leaders. Specific steps in the process include: planning (setting the objectives of the campaign and the role of online opinion leaders), recognition (identifying influential and relevant online opinion leaders), alignment (matching online opinion leaders and online forums with the products or services promoted), motivation (rewarding online opinion leaders in a way that aligns with their social role), and coordination (negotiating, monitoring, and supporting the influence of the online opinion leaders).     

The journey from customer participation in service failure to co-creation in service recovery

Customer participation is growing into a widespread phenomenon in the service context. Despite the inherent significance of customer expectations to service failures in the high-participation service context, scant research exists on studying the links among customer participation, customer expectation of service recovery, and service outcomes (e.g., word-of-mouth or WOM). Even more pressing is the lack of research on the type of service recovery that can countervail the inflated customer expectation of service recovery and restore service outcomes. This research demonstrates that high contribution of customers in the beginning of service provision procedure leads to high recovery expectations and low satisfaction. The results also support that co-created service recovery (CCS-R), as contrasted to firm and customer recoveries, has a greater positive effect on satisfaction. Further, the contrasting impacts of each service recovery type on positive and negative WOM are presented. An experiment was conducted using service failure and recovery scenarios. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The current research has some important implications for scholars and managers who wish to effectively recover failed high-participation service encounters.     

Satisfaction with service recovery: Perceived justice and emotional responses

This study examines the relationship between perceived justice, emotions, and satisfaction during service recovery (SR). The current research work proposes a model analyzing the direct effects of justice on satisfaction, along with its indirect effects, via emotions. A field study that captures consumer perceptions of actual SR situations in the cellular-telephone sector tests the model. The paper investigates the relative effects of the dimensions of perceived justice on satisfaction and the emotions triggered by SR. Results indicate that all three justice dimensions affect satisfaction, with procedural justice showing the strongest relative influence, as well as being the only dimension affecting the emotions. Results also show that negative emotions mediate the effects of justice on satisfaction with SR (SSR).     

Exploring the mediating role of utilitarian value and hedonic value in the formation of oppositional loyalty in online communities

Our research expands the scope of the research on oppositional loyalty from brands to online communities. Online communities allow members to freely express their opinions and promote the occurrence of oppositional loyalty behaviours towards the communities. Oppositional loyalty is defined in this article that, for the purpose of strengthening the market position of their preferred community, members of the online community may express negative views or even show oppositional behaviour towards adversarial communities. In view of social capital theory, the study examines the effect of hedonic value and utilitarian value on oppositional loyalty in online communities. The results show that only hedonic value significantly affects oppositional loyalty; hedonic value mediates the effect of the three dimensions of social capital (network ties, identification, and common language) on oppositional loyalty. The study identifies that community type moderates the impact of social capital (identification and common language) on hedonic value but does not moderate the effect of social capital on utilitarian value. Finally, we find that members' oppositional loyalty towards their community can promote their community participation. This research provides recommendations for online community managers to manage and benefit from members' oppositional loyalty.     

The impact of brand equity and the hedonic level of products on consumer stock-out reactions

We investigate the impact of brand equity and the hedonic level of the product on consumer stock-out responses. We also examine whether the hedonic level of the product moderates the effect of brand equity. Using a sample of Dutch consumers divided over eight product groups and eight retail chains, we tested our hypotheses and found that consumers were more loyal to high-equity brands than to low-equity brands in the case of a stock-out situation. In hedonic product groups, consumers were more likely to switch to another store. Purchasers of high-equity brands in hedonic product groups were, compared to purchasers of high-equity brands in utilitarian product groups, less inclined to postpone the purchase but were more likely to switch to another item by that brand. In addition to these two main variables, we also investigate the effect of variables from prior research and some new variables, such as stockpiling and impulse buying. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.     

Measuring experienced emotions during service recovery encounters: construction and assessment of the ESRE scale

The role of emotions is increasingly gaining attention as a central element in understanding customer evaluations of service failure and recovery experiences. Despite the importance of emotions for service organizations, however, empirical investigations of customers’ emotional response to service recovery encounters remain scarce. A reason for this has been the absence of a valid and reliable measurement instrument for analyzing and comparing the emotions associated with different recovery experiences. Addressing this issue, the current paper presents the development and validation of a new scale specifically designed to measure experienced emotions during service recovery encounters (ESRE). The results show that the ESRE scale is a valid and reliable instrument, which should be helpful for empirically studying the role of emotional responses to service failure and recovery encounters.

Group service recovery strategies effectiveness: The moderating effects of group size and relational distance

The extant service recovery literature focuses on consumers' responses to individual failures. However, group service failures are in fact common, but they have received insufficient research attention. This study contributes to theory and practice by applying social impact theory to explain the social nature of group failures. Findings from two studies show that group size and relational distance substantially affect consumers' response to group service recovery strategies. Specifically, private economic recovery creates less consumer satisfaction as group size increases, whereas consumers with a distant social relationship are more satisfied with public recovery for both economic recovery and social recovery. However, consumers with close relationships are more satisfied with public economic recovery and private social recovery. Apart from offering practical insights, this study expands the theoretical understanding of service failures, suggesting that they occur in a complex social ecology instead of relatively simple dyadic interactions between service providers and consumers.     

Reconceptualizing value creation: Exploring the role of goal congruence in the Co-creation process

As companies gradually shift from the exchange view to the resource integration view, the creation of value also shifts from the customer sphere to the joint sphere. As a result, the customer and service provider are responsible for co-creating value through resource integration. However, it raises the question of whether customers are capable of contributing to the co-creation of value. Our study proposes a framework of how goal congruence plays a pivotal role in the resource integration process between all actors in the joint sphere. When the level of goal congruence between customer and service provider actors is high, it stimulates the exchange of valuable resources from all actors, which leads to the actual experience of co-creation resulting in value-in-use and improves service outcomes, i.e., customer satisfaction and loyalty. Data were collected through a field survey from salon-and-spa customers (n = 530) and PLS-SEM was employed to test the hypotheses and further analysis. The results show that goal congruence impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty through value-in-use. Therefore, suggesting service providers to properly socialize their goals will be a good strategy to increase customer capability to co-create value and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.     

Building Mobile Brand Equity: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Values

This research tests the mediational roles of hedonic and utilitarian values consumers receive from using mobile data services (MDS) on the relationship between mobile commerce experience and mobile provider brand equity. A theoretical model was developed based on a review of the existing literature, and a survey was developed to test the model using a sample of 371 students in major universities in Jordan. The structural findings showed that MDS experience positively influence MDS provider image, which positively influenced both utilitarian and hedonic values, the effect being stronger for the utilitarian value. Moreover, both types of perceived values from using the MDS fully mediate the effect of MDS provider image on mobile equity.     

Examining the effect of flow experience on online purchase: A novel approach to the flow theory based on hedonic and utilitarian value

The literature indicate that when flow is approached as unidimensional, its effects on online purchase intention are always positively significant, however the results of the studies where the flow is approached as a multidimensional level, is far from indicating a general tendency. The inconsistent results appeared in the literature are regarded as a result of overlooking both the utilitarian and hedonic significance of research context and the hedonic and utilitarian characteristics of the flow's sub-dimensions. In this direction, the effects of flow on online purchase intention are examined upon consideration of those two factors. Research's data were gathered via e-mail survey from an online shopping website's database. A total of 490 samples obtained in this study were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results indicates that the flow's most valuable antecedent is feedback in the context of online purchase. The dimensions of “enjoyment”, “perceived control” and “merging of action and awareness” has positive and time distortion has negative significant effects on online purchase intention. However, no significant effects of the concentration and curiosity on online purchase intention were determined.     

Managing service recovery experience: Effects of the forgiveness for older consumers

The research studies empirically the role that fairness plays in shaping emotional and behavioral forgiveness among older U.S. consumers (55 years of age and older). A theoretical model is proposed and tested that proposes, consistent with theory on emotions, that perceptions of justice affect behavioral forgiveness through emotional forgiveness. An alternative theory questions whether the effects of justice are totally mediated by emotion. Comparative results support the latter model. The cognitive perceptions of justice display a stronger effect compared to the mediated effect through emotional forgiveness. Additionally, an examination of moderation by psychological age suggests that relatively old and young (psychologically) consumers react in the same manner. While clearly, service managers need to be sensitive to the emotions of senior customers, the results here suggest a stronger role for cognitive perceptions of justice. Thus, service providers need to provide senior consumers with clearly understandable explanations for any service failure and explain how the recovery efforts will compensate for the failure.     

Pursuit of loyalty in service recovery: The roles of brand equity and cognitive reappraisal as moderators

This research investigates the roles of brand equity and cognitive reappraisal in the association between the perception of justice and loyalty via customer affection in a service failure and recovery context. Survey data were subjected to the conditional process analysis using the regression-based method. Results reveal that customer affection plays a mediating role in the link between the perception of justice and loyalty. In addition, brand equity and cognitive reappraisal contribute as moderators in influencing the behavioral outcomes. Implications for researchers and managers are also provided.     

Satisfaction,loyalty and repatronage intentions: Role of hedonic shopping values

Today the Indian traditional retail shopper visiting various hypermarkets formats for purchasing and enjoying their valuable time with their family members and friends, as these formats offer hedonic shopping values. Therefore, this research paper focused on hypermarket shoppers of central India and the main objective of this study is to identify the role of hedonic shopping values on creation of satisfaction, loyalty and repatronage intentions with the help of proposed research framework based on 329 responses. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) is use to analyze and validate the proposed research framework. The result supports the relationship between hedonic shopping values with customer satisfaction, loyalty and repatronage intentions. The study also demonstrate the moderating role of gender on these relationship, which shows that both male and female consumer have different level of shopping behavior when it comes to see the influence of hedonic shopping values. Therefore, this research paper would help hypermarket retailers to design their retail store environment more attractively to maintain the optimum customer satisfaction level that enhance the loyalty and repatronage intentions in the customer in this current competitive retail scenario.     

Managing social media recovery: The important role of service recovery transparency in retaining customers

This research examines the influence of service recovery transparency on customer forgiveness to retain customers in the context of service recovery via social media. We propose that customer forgiveness mediates the effect of service recovery transparency on switchover intentions. We further posit that the effect of service recovery transparency on customer forgiveness is moderated by two additional recovery strategies, i.e., apology and explanation. The results of two studies, i.e., a survey and a scenario-based experiment, show that service recovery transparency acts to elicit customer forgiveness, which subsequently negatively affects switchover intentions. Furthermore, both apology and explanation moderate the effect of service recovery transparency on customer forgiveness. The positive effect of service recovery transparency on customer forgiveness is attenuated when an apology/explanation is absent.     

The impact of culture on consumers’ perceptions of service recovery efforts

The increasing globalization of business provides a compelling reason for understanding the cultural context of consumer behavior. The research reported here examines the impact of culture on consumers’ perceptions of service recovery efforts. In particular, we studied in an experimental setting, across East-West cultures, the combined effects of explanation and compensation in shaping customers’ attributions and post-recovery perceptions in a medium contact service—a restaurant setting. Our findings show that the differential sensitivity of East Asian and American consumers to situational constraints influence their attributions for service failures, and thus moderate their satisfaction with service recovery process. More specifically, the results suggest that a causal explanation for service failure decreases the likelihood of US consumers falling prey to the fundamental attribution error. Conversely, among East Asians, an explanation had minimal influence in attributional processes. Finally, our results indicate that attributional processes influence customer perceptions of employee effort, which in turn is linked to post-recovery satisfaction.     

The effects of social justice and stigma-consciousness on gay customers' service recovery evaluation

This study examines how social justice and the stigma-consciousness level of gay customers influence their service recovery perceptions. The results, based on an experiment involving 379 gay respondents, indicate that distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice significantly affect gay customers' service recovery evaluations (satisfaction) and post-complaint behavioral intentions (negative word-of-mouth and repatronage). Also, higher stigma-consciousness gay customers show more negative service recovery evaluations and behavioral intentions than those with lower stigma-consciousness. Service providers who are interested in attracting and maintaining gay customers should create awareness among their employees about stigma-consciousness.     

The distinctive agenda of service failure recovery in e-tailing: Criticality of logistical / non-logistical service failure typologies and e-tailing ethics

What is so different about executing service failure recovery in an online environment as in e-tailing?Answering this, the present research points out to the need of considering e-tailing's natural propensity to foster multiple avenues of service failures which are either logistical or non-logistical in nature. Furthermore, given the distant location of the product, e-tailer, and the buyer, e-tailing is posed with risks of ethical transgressions. Therefore, by contextualizing on an Indian e-tailing scenario, we explore how service failure recovery in this challenging setting could be shaped. Justice building failure mitigation strategies such as response speed and compensation emerge to improve recovery efforts, however, apology seems to not work well in establishing justice to drive service failure recovery. Interestingly, an e-tailer's watchfulness toward the strengthening of its online ethics synergistically redeems recovery satisfaction, customer forgiveness, and positive word-of-mouth for the grieving consumer. This synergy can further mitigate the adverse impacts of service failure severity on recovery outcomes. Yet, a consumer having faced a severe service failure instance can have reservations in spreading positive word-of-mouth despite forgiving. Lastly, when considering logistical vs. non-logistical service failure typologies, the synergistic influence of e-tailing ethics and justice over recovery satisfaction becomes very strong in the case of non-logistical service failures.     

Satisfaction of mall shoppers: A study on perceived utilitarian and hedonic shopping values

Declining consumer footfall and diminishing sales in Indian metro cities have guided the expansion of malls in cities of central India. Shoppers of these cities are unfamiliar with the mall concept and have limited exposure of shopping values in the past. The present research focused on the influence of utilitarian and hedonic shopping values on satisfaction of mall shoppers of central India Bhopal by establishing a proposed research framework based on 288 responses from two shopping malls, using utilitarian and hedonic dimensions of shopping values. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) are used to analyze and validate the proposed research framework. The result supports the relationship between shopping values and customer satisfaction, where both the shopping values show positive significant influences on customer satisfaction. Therefore this research paper would help mall owners to focus on these shopping values effectively and efficiently while planning malls in central India for gaining competitive advantage, attracting new customer and hold their profitable customers by enhancing customer satisfaction with shopping values in the current retail scenario.     

The effects of harm directions and service recovery strategies on customer forgiveness and negative word-of-mouth intentions

This study aims to investigate the direction of harm and the role of service recovery strategies on customer positive (i.e., forgiveness) and negative (i.e., word-of-mouth) intentions. We found that customer intentions are stronger among those who are directly affected by the service failure than indirectly affected customers. Further, we assess the role of service recovery in customer intentions after the service failure. The study findings contribute to the development of theory on the “other customers” effect by comparing the consequences of service failure directed at the focal customer and other customers and provide solutions to practitioners to reduce this damaging effect.     

Social anxiety as a moderator in consumer willingness to accept AI assistants based on utilitarian and hedonic values

This study develops a comprehensive research model to explain user willingness to accept AI assistants, and the acceptance path pertaining to this process. User data was used to test how the advantages of AI assistant (accuracy, responsiveness, compatibility, anthropomorphism, & affinity) influence consumer utilitarian and hedonic value, and explore how their willingness to accept AI assistants is affected by their value perceptions. This research also examines whether social anxiety moderates the relationship between AI assistant advantages and utilitarian/hedonic value. The study reveals that AI assistant advantages are important factors affecting the utilitarian/hedonic value perceived by users, which further influence user willingness to accept AI assistants. The relationships between AI assistant advantages and utilitarian and hedonic value are affected differently by social anxiety. Marketers and managers in the AI context can refer to the study methods to help improve AI assistants and develop more effective marketing strategies for product promotion.