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.     

The role of personality characteristics and service failure severity in consumer forgiveness and service outcomes

Abstract

This study investigates how consumer personality characteristics of religiosity, spirituality, and emotional intelligence and the severity of service failure affect emotional and decisional forgiveness as a response to service failure. Further, the study explores the relationships between these two forms of forgiveness and service outcomes, including the intention to switch the service provider and spread negative word of mouth. Findings reveal that consumer religiosity has a strong and positive effect on both types of forgiveness. However, contrary to expectations, consumer spirituality has a negative relationship with decisional and no relationship with emotional forgiveness. While consumers' perceived severity of service failure is negatively related to both types of forgiveness, the findings also suggest that emotional intelligence exerts a significant moderating influence on the relationship between service failure severity and emotional forgiveness, whereas its moderating effect on decisional forgiveness does not appear to be significant. Results demonstrate the asymmetric effects of perceived severity of service failure and the two types of forgiveness on negative service outcomes. These findings contribute to the understanding on the role of consumers' implicit personality characteristics in interpretation of service failure incidents.     

Investigating the Effect of Employee Empathy on Service Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Trust in and Satisfaction with a Service Employee

Abstract

This study examines the indirect effect of employee empathy on service loyalty through the intervening effect of trust in and satisfaction with service employees during service interactions. Data were obtained through a self-administered questionnaire from university students. A total of 410 useable responses were used to perform data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping for indirect effects were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results show a significant effect of employee empathy on trust in service employee and satisfaction with service employee during customer–employee interactions. Also, satisfaction with a service employee showed a significant effect on service loyalty during service interactions. The study enhances the understanding of empathy within banking services during interactions between service employees and customers. It also provides insights for service managers and frontline service employees on how empathy develops customer’s trust and satisfaction with service employee.     

The Moderating Role of Local vs. Foreign Shopping Context in Consumer Experience

The current study seeks to provide a better understanding of how consumers experience shopping and whether it is contingent on local vs. foreign contexts (i.e., local vs. foreign brand department store). Using data collected by an intercept method with shoppers at a local and foreign brand department store in China, the current study finds that different types of values (i.e., emotional and intellectual) are associated with a local vs. foreign shopping context, which, in turn, affects consumer trust and customer loyalty. Results contribute to consumer experience and branding literature, and suggest that domestic companies should not blindly replicate management and operational practices of foreign companies.     

The Service Industries Journal: Its Ethos and Emphases

This study investigates the dynamics of customer affection and customer trust on customer loyalty intention after cases of service failure and recovery. The results demonstrate that after customers experience service failure and recovery, customer affection has a greater influence on customer trust but less in loyalty intention, whereas customer trust becomes more influential in loyalty intention in comparison to the time prior to a service failure. The findings suggest that the rebuilding of loyalty after a service failure and recovery relies primarily on the recovery of trust and that the key determinant of trust recovery is customer affection. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.     

网络负面谣言与品牌崇拜：品牌口碑与沟通技巧的作用

文章对网络负面谣言与消费者品牌崇拜的关系,以及品牌口碑与沟通技巧在以上关系中所起的中介与调节作用进行了实证研究。研究以广州地区211家品牌服饰企业的品牌管理者为实证研究对象,通过对问卷调查数据进行层级回归分析发现：(1)网络负面谣言不但会直接负向影响消费者对企业的品牌崇拜,而且还会通过负向影响企业的品牌口碑,继而对消费者品牌崇拜产生负面影响,品牌口碑在网络负面谣言与消费者品牌崇拜关系中起部分中介作用;(2)沟通技巧程度强的企业品牌更能抵制网络负面谣言的影响,相对于低沟通技巧的企业,高沟通技巧企业的消费者较少因为网络负面谣言而降低其对原有消费品牌的崇拜。     

Differentiated consumer forgiveness for different corporate social irresponsibility domains: The moderating role of corporate reputation and patriotism

The extant literature has generally overlooked the differentiated consumer forgiveness regarding corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). Motivated by this, we introduce the construct of patriotism and propose a model (applicable to domestic enterprises in China) to investigate the moderating effect of patriotism and corporate reputation on the relationship between CSI domains (must-be and attractive) and consumer forgiveness; and such effect is mediated by moral judgment. An experiment that uses 483 actual consumers in China as participants was conducted. We find that the must-be CSI has a greater negative impact on consumers than the attractive CSI, and consumers are less likely to forgive the must-be CSI. Meanwhile, moral judgment plays a mediating role in the differential effects of different CSI domains on consumer forgiveness. In addition, high corporate reputation has a buffer effect on both CSI domains for consumers with high patriotism, and has a boomerang effect on the must-be CSI and a buffer effect on the attractive CSI for consumers with low patriotism.     

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.     

Managing Opportunism in China: The Roles of Guanxi,Environmental Uncertainty,and Management Culture

ABSTRACT

This cross-cultural comparison aims to understand whether the influence of consumer ethnocentrism (CE) on consumer preference for domestic versus foreign products is product category and country-of-origin dependent. Three countries with dissimilar cultural orientation and economic status—China, South Korea, and the United States—were examined. American consumers were found to be more ethnocentric than Chinese and South Korean consumers. CE was found to significantly and positively predict American and Korean consumers’ preference for domestic products across product categories, while Chinese consumers’ CE did not translate into their preference for Chinese products. In addition, the relationship between CE and purchase preference varied across product categories as well as countries of origin.     

The interrelationships among service quality,customer satisfaction,and customer loyalty: Examination of the fast-food industry

The purpose of this study was to use customers’ perspectives to develop a conceptual model for improving service quality and enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. The 197 samples were selected from customers of leading fast food franchise enterprises in Taiwan. The research results indicate that service quality positively influences customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Service quality positively influences customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. The research findings indicate that managers need to ensure they have efficient service quality to enhance customer satisfaction and customer loyalty levels.     

Managing Channel Profits: The Role of Managerial Incentives

The existing literature has examined how manufacturers can enhance profits by employing specific channel structures and channel coordination mechanisms. In this paper, we examine the implications of strategically designed managerial incentives for channel performance in a duopoly. We first analyze how equilibrium outcomes (especially manufacturer profits) are altered when the manufacturers provide their channel managers with strategically designed incentives. Following that, we examine how optimal channel structure decisions are altered when manufacturers provide their managers with strategic incentives, i.e., we examine how strategic incentives moderate optimal channel structure decisions. In contrast with the existing literature, we find that an asymmetric channel structure with one manufacturer employing a profit-maximizing retailer and the other integrated manufacturer providing strategic incentives for the channel manager in charge of pricing, is an equilibrium outcome under certain conditions. We then compare how the implications of strategic incentives differ from those of channel structure decisions and channel coordination initiatives, and discuss when and why strategic incentives yield superior outcomes from the manufacturer’s perspective. Our results shed light on the sparsely researched role of managerial incentives in the channel context.     

Lessons from the COVID19 pandemic: The case of retail and consumer service firms

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted business operations in every industry and sector around the world. Scholars, practitioners and policymakers continue to engage in understanding the effects of lockdowns, social distancing measures and other restrictions on trade; the impact of government stimulus and support measures, and how businesses have adapted their operations. The dynamic nature of the virus, and the changing socio-political and economic landscape, provide the opportunity for empirical scholarly research examining how retail and service firms have responded to the challenges and potential opportunities presented by the pandemic, and how owner/managers have pivoted in an (often) uncertain trading environment. This paper presents the findings of an applied study involving business owners (N = 268) of SME retail and service firms in the island state of Tasmania, in Australia, during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. Findings show: (1) despite over 65 per cent of respondents reporting a downturn in revenue during 2020, almost 80 per cent indicated they had confidence in business survival heading into 2021; (2) whilst on average, businesses did not rate the level of environmental hostility as being particularly high, there was a significant correlation between perceived environmental hostility and assessment of business performance and with the level of confidence of business survival; (3) Australian federal government support and other stimulus measures were deemed crucial for business survival during 2020 with three quarters of businesses accessing the ‘JobKeeper’ scheme, and (4) businesses adapted their operations during the pandemic in terms of new products and services, increased marketing, pivoting their use of technology and promoting ‘localness’.     

品牌体验对品牌忠诚的影响:品牌社区的中介作用

文章以"动感地带"为测试品牌,在构建品牌体验、品牌社区和品牌忠诚三者之间概念模型的基础上,应用多元回归分析,实证研究了品牌体验、品牌社区对品牌忠诚的影响.研究发现:品牌体验对品牌社区具有显著的正向效应;品牌体验和品牌社区对品牌忠诚均具有明显的正向影响;品牌社区是品牌体验作用于品牌忠诚的中介变量,品牌体验更多的是通过品牌社影响品牌忠诚.这些研究结论为品牌忠诚影响因素的进一步研究提供了理论基础,对于企业创新品牌忠诚培育模式和策略也具有指导意义.     

The Effects of Guilt-Appeal Intensity on Persuasive and Emotional Outcomes: The Moderating Role of Sponsor Motive

Studies examining the persuasive effects of guilt appeals have yielded mixed results. The current study hypothesizes that source motive (profit versus not for profit) is a key moderating variable underlying these inconsistences. A controlled experiment tested the moderating role of sponsor motive on the relationship between guilt-appeal intensity and persuasiveness of the appeal and ad liking. Findings confirmed the notion that sponsor motive moderates the effects of guilt appeals: When guilt appeals are commercially oriented there is a relative failure of high-intensity guilt appeals compared to moderate-intensity guilt appeals. Moderate-intensity guilt appeals cause more-positive brand attitudes than high-intensity appeals. Yet, when guilt appeals are nonprofit, increases in intensity of guilt communicated lead to positive results. As the guilt-intensity increased, ad liking and persuasiveness increased. It appears that guilt-appeal intensity did not have an effect on brand attitudes when the message was nonprofit.     

Boundary conditions of the effect of customer coproduction: the case of service failure

Research on the relationship between customer coproduction and satisfaction has produced mixed results even after accounting for the role of attribution. This paper extends prior research on boundary conditions and examines the role of customer participation readiness (PR) during encounters that end with service failure. Based on congruence and zone-of-tolerance theories, the two empirical studies suggest that (a) increasing levels of coproduction combined with increasing levels of PR escalates dissatisfaction and weakens attitudinal loyalty; (b) psychological reactance and expectancy disconfirmation mediate these relationships; (c) increasing levels of coproduction combined with increasing levels of external attribution reduce dissatisfaction and mitigate the adverse effect on attitudinal loyalty; and (d) PR interacts with customer coproduction to influence how customers make attributions. Future research should consider the role of PR in service failures. Where feasible, managers should gather and utilise individual-level PR data in order to predict customer attributions and dissatisfaction.     

The Role of Customer Factors in Multiple Store Patronage: A Cost-Benefit Approach

This paper is concerned with the use of multiple stores by supermarket customers. It relates the number of stores patronized to a set of customer factors under a unifying theoretical framework emphasizing cost-benefit analysis. Respective hypotheses are tested in a large random sample. This study is a first attempt to empirically address the structure of multiple store patronage. It is demonstrated that multiple store patronage is affected by variables such as customer income, satisfaction, and expenditure that are suggestive of heterogeneous cost-benefit tradeoffs and opportunity costs of time. It is shown that customers are intrinsically different in the predisposition to being loyal. In this respect, store patronage is a continuum between single store loyalty and use of several different stores, on which customers vary depending on individual preferences. The empirical analysis also suggests that exclusive patronage of the favorite store arises from two observationally equivalent latent segments that differ in their inclination to remain loyal. The results yield valuable insights into the structure of store patronage and lead to important implications for retail managers. Several extensions are considered. A broad set of research questions surrounding store patronage can be considered from a cost-benefit viewpoint in the sense that consumer decisions in this area involve trading off economic resources against assortment, spatial and temporal benefits.     

导游服务质量对旅游者满意、忠诚的影响研究——以华东线为例

以华东线游客市场为例,通过问卷调查,用SPSS16.0分析了导游服务质量对游客满意度和忠诚度的影响,结果表明,导游服务质量与游客的满意感、忠诚度之间都存在显著的正相关关系;在讲解水平、服务态度、应变能力、服务规范四个评价因子中,导游的讲解水平、应变能力分别是影响游客满意度和忠诚度的最主要因子。旅行社要认识到导游的重要性,采取相关措施,提高导游服务水平,树立良好的品牌形象,提高游客的满意度和忠诚度。     

Urban Legends: The Word-of-Mouth Communication of Morality Through Negative Story Content

This study investigates factors influencing the diffusion of negative information via word-of-mouth communication of urban legends in the consumer environment. An experiment was conducted in which three aspects of a recent urban legend were manipulated: the intent of the central character (altruistic vs negative), the outcome of the story (positive vs negative), and the presence or absence of a brand name. Results indicate that intent to communicate an urban legend is lowest when the central character is altruistic and the outcome of the story is positive. These results are consistent with previous suggestions that consumers circulate urban legends in order to communicate negative information involving moralistic stories possessing an ironic twist.     

The Recent versus The Out-Dated: An Experimental Examination of the Time-Variant Effects of Online Consumer Reviews

Conventional wisdom suggests that the most recent online reviews may have a greater impact than out-dated online reviews on consumers’ purchase decisions because of their up-to-date nature. However, building on the theory of temporal distance and construal fit, this study proposes a new perspective, suggesting that the influence of online reviews posted at different times is a function of the timeframe for the consumers’ intended purchase. Four experiments demonstrate that although recent online reviews are more influential in shifting consumer preferences towards near-future consumption decisions, the relative influence of out-dated online reviews in shifting consumer preferences increases when consumers are making distant-future consumption decisions. This effect occurs because of a construal fit between the construal level of the online reviews posted at different times and that of the timeframe of consumers’ purchase decisions. The recent reviews are represented at a relatively lower construal level, with the low-level construal matching the timeframe of the near-future consumption decision. Out-dated reviews, however, are represented at a relatively higher construal level and match the timeframe of the distant-future consumption decision. This construal fit, in turn, enhances consumer engagement and consequently exerts a greater influence on consumer preferences.     

集体主义人力资源管理与员工积极、消极互惠：组织认同与关系认同的中介差异

积极互惠与消极互惠是互惠行为中概念相对的重要组成,文章从集体主义人力资源管理出发,比较其对两种互惠行为的影响,并以组织认同、关系认同作为中介变量研究其中介差异。研究结果显示,集体主义人力资源管理可以提升员工的积极互惠,降低员工的消极互惠,而积极互惠与消极互惠也并非负相关。此外,尽管组织认同、关系认同分别发挥了中介作用,但当整体考虑时,在集体主义人力资源管理与积极互惠间,由组织认同发挥中介作用,为部分中介;而在集体主义人力资源管理与消极互惠间,由关系认同发挥中介作用,为完全中介。说明同属互惠行为,积极互惠、消极互惠存在不同的前因机制;同属认同,组织认同、关系认同存在不同的影响机制。本研究对于集体主义下的管理实践,尤其是对组织内互惠行为、认同现象的整体性思考有重要意义。