企业家的困惑:满意度,向前走vs向后退?

<正>老罗是一家生产手机、电脑等电子消费品的民营企业老总。在激烈的市场竞争中,他的企业也通过长达10年的发展,逐步实现了由区域品牌向全国品牌,由不足100人的小企业向当地颇有影响的中型企业的转变。企业在发展过程中也遇到一些问题,比如产品质量投     

消费者渠道选择的决策过程演变研究

消费者面临着多样化的渠道选择,企业要有效的管理销售渠道,必须了解消费者渠道选择的决策过程,然而,这是一项具有挑战性的任务,因为消费者的渠道选择随时都可能变化。文章首先基于学习理论解释了消费者渠道选择的决策过程是演变的,然后分析了消费者渠道选择决策过程演变的三个影响因素即:渠道偏好、个人习惯和营销策略,在此基础上构建了消费者渠道选择的决策过程演变理论模型,并进行修正,最后提出了在管理上的三点启示。     

Consumer Response to Telecommunications Deregulation: The Equal Access Decision

This paper examines consumer response to equal access-the choice of a primary long-distance carrier. A model is developed that suggests that those consumers who seek information to aid in decision making may acquire it either through search or experience. The paper reports results of a survey of consumers who recently made the equal access decision. Logit analysis identified search in other purchase decisions and age as two characteristics significantly related to the extent of prepurchase search.     

An Investigation of Factors Contributing to Consumer Brand Confusion

The courts regularly address the question of whether an imitating mark or product is likely to confuse consumers and thus harm the owner of the mark. Consumers, however, can also be harmed by brand confusion. The results of this study reveal whether individual characteristics might predispose consumers to confusion and why some consumers appear more likely to become confused than others. A better understanding of why they may become confused can help both firms and overseer bodies, like the FTC, formulate more focused policies to help prevent this harm.     

The Role of Moral Emotions and Consumer Values and Traits in the Decision to Support Nonprofits

We investigate the mediating role of moral emotions and their contingency on individual characteristics between perceptions of corporate ethical/unethical actions and consumer support for nonprofits. We conducted two between-subjects experiments to test our hypotheses on a sample of adult consumers. The results show that social justice values moderate elicitation of gratitude upon exposure to corporate ethical actions, which subsequently impacts consumer support for nonprofits. Furthermore, important individual characteristics (social justice values, moral identity) moderate the elicitation of negative moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) upon perception of corporate unethical actions, which then leads to consumer support for nonprofits. Our study adds to extant research on prosocial behavior by investigating how actions by for-profit companies impact individual helping and by examining a new psychological mechanism (i.e., moral emotional processes and their contingencies) underlying consumer support for nonprofits.     

Age,Perceived Risk and Satisfaction in Consumer Decision Making: A Review and Extension

This paper presents results from an empirical study (n=230) of age groups and risk, concluding that popular assumptions about differences between age groups need to be challenged. We draw on the literature noting the lack of consensus and relative paucity of empirical studies in high involvement purchases. Our analysis defines the issues associated with age and the impact of defining age groups on our understanding of risk and its reduction. The results show that age differences are associated with specific risk factors and that the relationship of age and behaviour is not always linear. Whilst most marketing practitioners tend to see the older groups as separate and different, we found little evidence to support this simplistic view, and we highlight the need for more sophisticated age-based segmentation.     

Linking Consumer Research and Marketing Communication:

Contributions of consumer research to the design and evaluation of marketing communication programs are discussed in the context of advertising research conducted for a large Northeast electric utility to develop a promotional campaign for a voluntary residential time-of-use electric rate. Utility customers were surveyed regarding the credibility of the utility as an information source, the effectiveness of different promotional themes and messages, and media usage habits. A media test measured the relative effectiveness of bill inserts and direct mail and the use of follow-up contacts in creating awareness and producing readership, understanding, positive intentions, and responses to promotions.     

Consumer Confusion Over the Significance of Meat Attributes: The Case of Veal

Animal scientists today can produce pale colored grain-fed veal, thus achieving a high quality grade, while averting concerns over unethical treatment of milk-fed calves and excessive antibiotic use in milk-fed veal production. It is feared, however, that consumers may reject pale cuts of veal labeled as Grain-fed. Random parameter logit analyses of data from repeated choice experiments conducted in six suburban supermarkets in Quebec (n = 1027) revealed that intrinsic color of veal meat and extrinsic labeling of production method may significantly influence product choice; however, the direction of effects were inconsistent across ethnic and non-ethnic consumers and between experienced and non-experienced consumers of veal meat. Price effects were significant, but with a positive mean and a large standard deviation, indicating that, for many consumers, price may act as an surrogate indicator of veal meat quality. Older freshness dates were significantly discounted. It thus appears that most consumers will not categorically reject pale veal meat with a grain-fed label.     

Consumer Ethics: The Role of Religiosity

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the role that religiosity plays in determining consumer attitudes/beliefs regarding various questionable consumer practices. Additionally, other personal factors were examined including idealism, relativism, consumer alienation and selected demographics such as income and age. All of these constructs were examined as antecedents of consumer ethical beliefs. The results of a post hoc analysis indicated that religiosity was a significant determinate of both idealism and relativism, and since idealism and relativism determine consumer ethical beliefs, religiosity is a significant indirect determinate of consumer ethical beliefs.     

Understanding the Role of Consumer Heterogeneity in the Formation of Satisfaction Uncertainty

Prior empirical research has focused on the antecedents and consequences of attitude uncertainty. Drawing on regulatory focus theory and need for closure theory, this research examines the role of individual difference variables in shaping satisfaction uncertainty. This empirical work seeks to explore the interplay of individual difference variables, cognition and affect, in shaping satisfaction uncertainty. The proposed model maintains that need for closure and regulatory focus shape satisfaction uncertainty through their influence on cognitive and affective processes. The model was tested on 192 participants in an experiment using a restaurant scenario. Satisfaction uncertainty is estimated, rather than measured, using the Judgment Uncertainty and Magnitude Parameters (JUMP) model. The results show that prior expectation, pleasure, and arousal have positive effects on satisfaction uncertainty, while perceived performance has a negative impact. Furthermore, regulatory focus is found to moderate the effects of cognition and affect on satisfaction uncertainty, while need for closure moderates the impact of affect on satisfaction uncertainty.     

Reaching Goals and Doing Good: Exploring Consumer Responses to Meaningful Advertisements

The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers respond to meaningful advertisements, which promote products or brands by portraying moral virtues and life meaning. The authors present findings of an online survey in which participants reported their responses to two meaningful advertisements. A conceptual model was proposed and tested based on the survey data. Results demonstrated that when viewing meaningful advertisements participants' perceptions of meaningfulness positively influenced their feelings of elevation, which leaded to favorable attitudes towards the advertisement and brand. Empathy served as a moderator in the conceptual model. Participants who felt low empathy actually experienced stronger feelings of elevation. This study presents how consumers respond to portrayals of moral virtues and life meaning in advertisements. It contributes to the literature of advertising by demonstrating that the emotion of elevation benefits advertising effectiveness. It has significant implications to advertising professionals as well.     

Service Satisfaction: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Satisfaction in Financial Services

Does the widely accepted espectancy-disconfirmation model apply to situations within a financial services context? Or could it be, due to specific characteristics of services, that a different model applies? This paper addresses these questions and tests the relationships between consumer expectations, performance, disconfirmation, .satisfaction and repeat purchase in a lisrel model. The results would suggest that the relevancy of disconfirmation is fairly apparent and that expectations have only an indirect influence on satisfaction where financial services are concerned. The performance level of financial services however has a strong positive direct effect on satisfaction.     

A Regret Theory Approach to Assessing Consumer Satisfaction

Because consumer satisfaction is an important determinant of brandloyalty and word-of-mouth communications, it has been widely studied inthe marketing literature. Much of this literature follows theexpectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, which posits satisfaction to be afunction of the positive or negative disconfirmation of one'sexpectations about the chosen brand. This article proposes a richermodel of consumer satisfaction that incorporates effects ofexpectations about the options not ultimately chosen from theconsideration set. Specifically, we posit that the expectations aboutthe unchosen alternatives affect satisfaction with one's choice whenthat choice does not meet the expectations but will have little effectwhen the choice meets expectations. A series of experimental studiesprovide support for this approach.     

美国消费者满意指数:原理、方法与启示

本文介绍了美国消费者满意指数的编制背景、依据的模型和具体的编制方法,重点分析了消费者满意指数在经济与经营绩效衡量方面的运用。文章认为,消费者满意指数可以从企业、行业和国家三个层次反映经济活动的绩效,不仅是传统的绩效衡量指标的有益补充,而且直接与企业未来盈利性相联系,具有传统指标不具有的独特价值;消费者满意指数有两个显著特点,一是测量消费者对某种产品的整体满意感,二是承认消费者满意水平不能直接衡量,应通过建立模型进行估计。文章还指出了消费者满意指数的局限性如抽象掉了不同行业和产品的差异性,也没有建立产品和服务的性能与消费者满意之间的联系等。     

Demographic and Pschographic Dimensions as Predictors of Information Sources Used in Making a Consumer Decision

The roles of demographic characteristics and psycho- graphic factors are investigated to assess their ability to predict the relative importance of two general sources of information-mar- keter dominated and nonmarketer dominated-.used in makin a f consumer decision. Multiple discriminant analys~s was employe to determine if the groups differ with respect to the two dimensions. Each discriminant analysis produced significant discriminant func- tions. Consumers who found a marketer dominated source and those who found a nonmarketer source most important have unique pro- files.     

Influencing Consumer Responses to Highly Aesthetic Products: The Role of Mindsets

Companies often use aesthetics or salient visual attributes to differentiate their products from those of their competitors and to appeal to customers. However, consumers may make unfavorable inferences about highly aesthetic products due to concerns about the products’ functionality. To address the issue of how retailers can most effectively engage in the deployment and promotion of product aesthetics, the present research proposes that consumers will respond more favorably (i.e., enhanced choice of product, enhanced product and advertisement evaluations, and a heightened willingness to pay) to a highly aesthetic product when they are in an abstract, rather than a concrete, mindset. Five studies using multiple product categories and applying various mindset manipulations provide convergent evidence to support the proposed hypothesis. The findings hold true for utilitarian, but not hedonic, products, and the focus of attention on product functionality accounts for the results. With the insight that the mindset consumers are in is critical in determining their response to highly aesthetics products, retailers can capitalize on selected situations in which to promote product aesthetics.     

A Meta-Analysis of Relationships Linking Employee Satisfaction to Customer Responses

The authors report a meta-analysis of relationships linking employee job satisfaction to customer satisfaction and perceived service quality in studies that correlate employee data with customer data. Overall, both relationships are positive and statistically and substantively significant. Moderator analyses show that service industry characteristics (relationship versus encounter, personal versus non-personal) and methodological characteristics (aggregated versus individual level of analysis, concurrent versus predictive survey) moderate these relationships. Estimation of a path analytic model using the aggregated data shows that customer-perceived service quality completely mediates the relationship between employee job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

A Sustainable Pathway to Consumer Wellbeing. The Role of Anticonsumption and Consumer Empowerment

This study investigates the effect of different anticonsumption constructs on consumer wellbeing. The study assumes that people will only lower their level of consumption if doing so does not also lower personal wellbeing. More precisely, this research investigates how specific subtypes of sustainable anticonsumption (e.g., voluntary simplicity, collaborative consumption, and debt-free living) relate to different states of consumer's wellbeing (e.g., financial, psychosocial, and subjective wellbeing). This work also examines whether consumer empowerment can improve personal wellbeing and strengthen the anticonsumption wellbeing relationship. The results show that voluntarily foregoing consumption does not reduce wellbeing and consumer empowerment plays a significant role in supporting sustainable pathways to consumer wellbeing. This study reasons that empowerment improves consumer sovereignty, but may be detrimental for consumers heavily concerned about debt-free living. The present investigation concludes by proposing implications for public and consumer policymakers wishing to promote appropriate sustainable (anticonsumption) pathways to consumer wellbeing.