The study of service innovation for digiservice on loyalty

Advocates of management of service innovation see this area as a new and promising research field. As services are increasingly becoming driving forces of economies, the introduction of new services to satisfy customer needs is becoming a critical issue for managers. This research attempts to address the consumer issue of service innovation. The research entails a comprehensive study of the impacts of service innovation on consumer loyalty in the digiservice context. The study examines service innovation loyalty from the consumer perspective; namely, technology leadership, service leadership, switching cost, brand equity, and customization. Personal interview data from 475 consumers provides the data for empirical hypothesis testing of the relationships between variables. The conceptual model investigates the relevant relationships among the constructs by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings from the research sample support the argument that technology leadership, service leadership, brand equity, and customization are the key determinants of loyalty. The paper also includes a discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications of the research findings.     

Consumer Behaviour Convergence in the European Union

This paper examines and contrasts the attitude to food shopping in Denmark and Spain in both grocery products and white goods used to store and prepare foods. The focus is on the underlying dimensions used by consumers in Copenhagen and Madrid to select food and electrical stores to patronise. The attributes studied are drawn from prior research and are consistent across the two product categories. The research concludes that there is a relatively meaningful set of attributes, which is limited in size, that consumers may employ to make judgements. The salience of individual attributes was shown to vary with the sector under consideration. Contrasts are evident between the attribute ranking given by Danish and Spanish consumers. Particular attention is paid to the manner in which consumers distinguish between ‘service’ and ‘personnel’ in making their store selection. The work is set in the context of the retail internationalisation literature, where it is held that there is a convergence of consumer tastes in different international markers that facilitate operators developing stores overseas. Some evidence is produced to support this idea, though the need for additional cross-cultural and longitudinal studies to test this idea further is recognised.     

Running for pleasure or performance? How store attributes and hedonic product value influence consumer satisfaction

Previous retailing studies have linked consumer satisfaction to perceived hedonic or utilitarian product value. This research extends previous studies by examining how the context in which the product is purchased (store attributes) and product value influence consumer satisfaction. We conducted a field study with 213 consumers attending two major running events. The findings from structural equation modelling suggest that a specific combination of store attributes (tangible and intangible) and hedonic product value has a positive influence on satisfaction. Results also show that tangible store attributes have a stronger positive impact on utilitarian (vs. hedonic) product value, and that intangible store attributes have a positive impact on hedonic product value. However, we found that only hedonic product value has a positive impact on satisfaction. This research contributes to theory by showing that a match between store attributes (tangible and intangible) and hedonic product value can positively influence satisfaction. In managerial terms, the findings provide insights on how to improve consumer satisfaction in retail environments through store attributes and hedonic product value.     

Gulping the Poison: How Webcare Attributes Reduce Damages to Brands Caused by Negative Reviews

Negative reviews written by unsatisfied consumers can significantly erode the image of a brand. Therefore, marketers regularly respond to these reviews through written messages posted on online channels: a practice known as webcare. The present article seeks to explore whether selected webcare attributes, such as strength, sidedness, and ownership, have any effects on consumers’ forgiveness of the service failures caused by transgressing firms. Furthermore, the effects of consumer forgiveness on satisfaction with webcare, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions are also investigated. The article examines these relationships in the context of a fine dining restaurant (Study 1) and a hotel (Study 2). The results reveal that webcare attributes play a salient role in achieving consumer forgiveness. Furthermore, the studies also reveal that consumer forgiveness leads to satisfaction with webcare and improved brand attitudes and purchase intentions.     

Exploring customers’ store loyalty using the means-end chain approach

The study is aimed at revealing the relationships in terms of customer store loyalty by using means-end chains (MEC) analysis, in order to examine the linkages between department stores’ service attributes, involvement, satisfaction and loyalty each of which the customer regards as important. In the study, customer involvement, satisfaction and service quality are connotations that are strongly linked with the customer store loyalty, with service quality being the element to which the platinum tier customers attach the most importance. Data are gathered for a MEC analysis by interviewing 34 platinum tier customers of department stores individually. The results reveal that platinum tier customers are department store customers with a relatively high degree of involvement which is likely to have a positive impact on both core and peripheral service quality, satisfaction toward store loyalty. Although there are numerous studies in the literature that use the means-end chain model to examine customer value within the realm of consumer behavior, few studies discuss platinum tier customers’ store loyalty which is a phenomenon currently receiving a great deal of interest. In contrast to prior research, three connotations are integrated in the study to represent the content and structure of stores’ loyalty attributes for MEC analysis which can offer a different perspective and better understanding for developing highly targeted marketing strategies.     

Website attributes that increase consumer purchase intention: A conjoint analysis

Prior studies investigate factors that affect consumer preferences in online shopping websites. However, prior studies, due to their methodological limitations, do not thoroughly investigate consumer preference structures that reflect the relative importance of attributes and features of shopping websites. By synthesizing prior literature, this research proposes and investigates a comprehensive list of attributes and features of shopping websites that increase consumer purchase intention. This research used IT-based platforms for data collection, and collected data from university students. Data analysis enabled us to categorize consumers that use online shopping websites into three groups based on the attributes they prefer. Consumers with different levels of computer expertise also showed differing preference structures. This research has implications in both research and practice.     

An exploration of parental preferences for child care services in Canada

ABSTRACT

This article explores parental preferences for child care service providers according to parents' high/low-income status. While government child care assistance programs are intended to support low-income parents, parents are challenged to find desirable service options. Multisource pilot research suggested distinct attributes and levels of parents' preferences: staff, facilities, fees, programs, and convenience. Data were collected from 152 parents using 13 child care facilities in Canada, and were analyzed using conjoint analysis. Results suggest that consumer preferences can be explained by these attributes, and that the preferences of low-income parents differed from those of high-income parents, particularly regarding price and convenience.     

物流服务质量评价模型与方法研究综述

高质量的物流服务已经成为企业全球化的战略安排,如何通过评价进而改善企业的物流服务质量是实现此战略安排的重点。为更好地梳理物流服务质量评价模型与方法的研究现状,把握物流服务质量评价的未来研究方向,使用关键词“物流服务”“服务质量”和“物流服务质量”搜索Scopus and Web of Science(WoS),共获得发表于1992—2018年的76篇文献。在对相关文献的数量、时间、地区等进行简要统计性描述的基础上,运用文献分析法开展述评研究。其中,从服务提供商、客户、服务提供商和客户相结合三个维度评述物流服务质量评价模型及其指标体系,同时考虑供需双方的评价指标体系构建已成为学术界共识;物流服务质量评价方法重点评述了实证检验、确定指标权重以及将客户“声音”转化为质量属性的数理统计方法,发现将客户声音转化为质量属性的评价方法是重点关注领域。已有研究存在以下三方面的不足:一是在企业能力范围内考虑客户需求的物流服务质量评价模型及其指标的难题未解;二是集成各种评价方法对物流服务质量开展科学评价的难题还没有满意的答案;三是平衡评价模型及其指标的通用性与不同部门间的差异性的问题仍未得到有效解决。这三方面缺陷也是未来物流服务质量评价领域的重点研究方向。     

Does delaying service-failure resolution ever make sense?

Conventional wisdom suggests that service providers should respond to their failures as quickly as possible. Some research, however, points out that delaying resolutions may produce highly desirable results. The study here investigates these competing views by examining under which conditions an immediate or a delaying resolution produces more positive consumer responses in term of re-patronage and negative word-of-mouth intentions. Based on the concept of service separation, this research identifies an interaction effect between service separation (separated service, non-separated service) and response timing (immediate response, delaying response) on consumers' post-consumption intention. This research also finds that the relationship between service separation-response timing interaction and consumer response is mediated by consumers' negative emotions. This study contributes to refining our understanding of consumer psychology in service recovery. Practically, the studies also enable service providers to better allocate their resources to recover different types of services' failure.     

Choice deferral: The interaction effects of visual boundaries and consumer knowledge

Choice deferral is a common and lousy phenomenon for companies and consumers. This research examines how visual boundaries (by-alternatives vs. attributes) interact with consumer knowledge to influence choice deferral. Five studies (N = 1,245) and two single-paper meta-analyses demonstrate that by-alternative (vs. attribute) visual boundaries reduce choice deferral and that choice difficulty mediates this effect. The research also shows that these effects are stronger for less knowledgeable consumers. However, the interactive effect of visual boundaries and consumer knowledge on choice deferral depends on task and context characteristics. We discuss future research about choice deferral moderators and how to facilitate consumer choice.     

Preference for green packaging in consumer product choices – Do consumers care?

In this paper, consumer environmental choice is studied by analysing the relative importance of green packaging when compared with other relevant product attributes. The empirical study is based on a choice‐based conjoint analysis of preferences for functional drink products of a sample of 330 consumers using these products. Our choice‐based approach on environmental behaviour brings new insights to previous research, which predominantly relies on attitude models. Results indicate that consumers differ in their preferences for packaging, brand, price and convenience of use of daily products. In addition, various distinctive consumer segments can be identified on the market. Contrary to several previous studies, we found that the largest consumer segment, one‐third of consumers, favoured environmentally labelled packaging as the most important criteria in their choice. The findings emphasize the increasing importance of ethical and environmental dimension in product choices. We also propose that the attention in environmental consumer research should be shifted from general attitude studies towards the study of actual product choices.     

Measuring the hedonic and utilitarian sources of consumer attitudes

It has been suggested theoretically that consumer attitudes have distinct hedonic and utilitarian components, and that product categories differ in the extent to which their overall attitudes are derived from these two components. This paper reports three studies that validate measurement scales for these constructs and, using them, show that these two attitude dimensions do seem to exist; are based on different types of product attributes; and are differentially salient across different consumer products and behaviors, in theoretically-consistent ways.     

Academy of Marketing Conference "2001: A Marketing Odyssey"

This study examines the mediating influence of consumer expertise on the antecedents and consequences of Affect within a professional services market context. Whilst there is increasing evidence to suggest an empirical link between Affect evoked and satisfaction within such contexts, previous research has largely ignored the role of consumer expertise as a mediating influence. Using a scenario based approach, the objective of the study was to test for multigroup invariance among competing structural models based on the ability of the respondents to form expectation and performance assessments about the service they are receiving. The results indicate that it is important to examine different levels of consumer expertise in detail to better understand how certain characteristics such as experience and qualifications influence the priority and functionality attached to service attributes when making satisfaction judgments within a professional service context. This may in turn have broader implications for our contextual understanding of services.     

Consumer advocacy: Examining the feeling and doing following a failed service encounter

Dissatisfactory service experiences and consumer complaints following such experiences are everyday occurrences. Prior research has not only examined the emotions experienced because of failed service encounters but also has explored the resultant behaviours towards the service provider and the service. However, prior research does not distinguish between negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) motivated by marketplace-helping behaviour such as consumer advocacy and NWOM as venting triggered by emotions such as anger and frustration. The current study examines the direct relationship between regret and disappointment and consumer advocacy. Unlike past studies, the current study explores two types of customer dissatisfaction: agent based and outcome based. Study 1 uses a vignette methodology, and Study 2 uses experience sampling in which respondents provide personal episodes of failed service encounters. In contrast with a previous proposition, we find that regret has a significant negative relationship with consumer advocacy. Disappointment based on external events demonstrates a significant positive relationship, whereas disappointment caused by another person has a weaker relationship with consumer advocacy.     

An analysis of the Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics 1977–93

Any field of study worthy of academic consideration and development needs a research base to support it. Many research practitioners working within the consumer studies and home economics areas have expressed fears about not only the lack of development of a research base but also the communication network within the research community. This study analyses one of the main research journals that is used by this research community, the Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics, and examines its contribution. By analysing its development over the first 17 years of its existence, it has been shown that there is an international research community which is beginning to communicate with itself. However, these research practitioners still seem to rely more on research material from outside their own professional area rather than from work published in their own research journals. A lack of an indexing service covering the consumer studies and home economics areas continues to hamper dissemination of research material to a wider academic audience.     

Relative importance and combined effects of attributes on customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction with a service experience is often determined by several critical attributes. Prior studies have suggested that food, physical environment, and employee service impose an important effect on diners' satisfaction with restaurant services. Although much research has looked at the direct effect of these attributes individually, little is known about them when they are considered together. This study investigates the relative importance and combined effects of the determinants of customer satisfaction in China's hospitality industry. The results show that food taste, employee service, and physical environment (in that order) all significantly contribute to diners' satisfaction, and that one attribute may substitute for another attribute in the satisfaction formation process. Generally, humanic attributes (employee service) can effectively substitute for less humanic attributes (physical environment).     

Validating the Effects of Brand Quality on Attitude and Purchase Intention in Service–Product Alliances

The purpose of this article is to replicate the findings of previous research studying the effects of brand quality on consumer attitude and purchase intentions in service–product encounters. The main contribution of the current research is to improve the generalizability of the previous findings by basing the experimental inquiry on real-world brands. Drawing on information integration and categorization theories, a set of hypotheses are presented that predict both mediating and moderating relationships between the independent and dependent variables. Results from an experimental study confirm previous findings, demonstrating that the quality of a product brand in a service–product alliance has significant effects on the attitude toward the service brand. Such effects are moderated by the quality of the service brand. Alternatively, service brand attributes do not have the same effect on component product brands included in the performance of that service. Service and product quality exhibit the same effects on purchase intentions as mediated by attitude.     

Conceptualising consumers’ word-of-mouth behaviour intention: evidence from a university education services in Malaysia

The aim of this study is to propose a theoretical model to examine consumer word-of-mouth (WOM) behavioural intention in Malaysian education services. The results from a survey of 247 respondents indicate that servicescape, service recovery, service quality and satisfaction significantly affect consumers’ intention to engage in WOM behaviour. The results support majority of the hypothesized relationships, suggesting that servicescape and service recovery function as antecedents, directly affecting consumer perceptions of education service quality. The analytical results also demonstrate that perceived service quality positively affects satisfaction, which subsequently induces consumers’ behavioural intentions. Consistent with previous empirical studies, our findings suggest that satisfaction is a super-ordinate construct with a positive relation to behavioural intention, and significantly mediates the effect of service quality on the intention to engage in WOM behaviour. The insignificant direct effect from service quality to WOM further suggests the role of satisfaction as a complete mediator in the university education service setting. Implications for future research are discussed and limitations noted.     

Multinational enterprise strategy,foreign direct investment and economic development: the case of the Hungarian banking industry

This paper examines foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Hungarian economy in the period of post-Communist transition since 1989. Hungary took a quite aggressive approach in welcoming foreign investment during this period and as a result had the highest per capita FDI in the region as of 2001. We discuss the impact of FDI in terms of strategic intent, i.e., market serving and resource seeking FDI. The effect of these two kinds of FDI is contrasted by examining the impact of resource seeking FDI in manufacturing sectors and market serving FDI in service industries. In the case of transition economies, we argue that due to the strategic intent, resource seeking FDI can imply a short-term impact on economic development whereas market serving FDI strategically implies a long-term presence with increased benefits for the economic development of a transition economy. Our focus is that of market serving FDI in the Hungarian banking sector, which has brought improved service and products to multinational and Hungarian firms. This has been accompanied by the introduction of innovative financial products to the Hungarian consumer, in particular consumer credit including mortgage financing. However, the latter remains an underserved segment with much growth potential. For public policy in Hungary and other transition economies, we conclude that policymakers should consider the strategic intent of FDI in order to maximize its benefits in their economies.     

Signaling Quality in an E-Commerce Environment

Abstract

“Quality” is a unique concern in food marketing with powerful strategic connotations and consumer emotion. Consequently, retailers, with the help of food processors, have built their industry around communications with consumers which compare the value of one product over another using key quality attributes as carriers of that value. This involves both simple and complex signaling techniques that consumers have grown accustom to. With the onset of online food sales, many of these signaling techniques are less effective. This research evaluates food quality communication signals, presenting findings from three related E-Grocery studies, linked through a meta analysis.