Effects of dominance transitions on advice adherence in professional service conversations

For many professional services, advice adherence is a necessary condition for achieving service success for both customers and service providers. Despite their pivotal roles in value co-creation, typical conversational interactions often lead to low adherence. We propose that enabling a “dominance transition,” from provider dominance in the pre-advice stage to customer dominance in the post-advice stage, enhances advice adherence because it increases customers’ perceived common ground. Furthermore, providers’ consultation focus, customers’ prior knowledge, and customers’ perceived adherence effort moderate this process. Using mixed methods, including both empirical modeling and controlled and field experiments, we validate the proposed model in various contexts (healthcare, financial services, and fitness and wellness counseling). The findings establish several theoretical contributions and offer managerial implications for improving advice adherence by managing dominance transitions in conversational interactions more effectively through training service providers or even programming AI chatbots.

     

Book reviews

Innovation and Industrial Strength in the UK, West Germany, United States and Japan Joan Cox &; Herbert Kriegbaum London, Policy Studies Institute, 1989, 168pp. Industrial Societies After the Stagnation of the 1970s. Taking Stock from an Interdisciplinary Perspective Burkhard Strumpel (ed.) Berlin, de Gruyter, 1989, 313pp.

The Social Basis of the Microelectronics Revolution Alfonso Hernan Molina Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1989, xxi + 260pp., £25.00 h/b (also avail-able in p/b)

Innovation and Technology Transfer in Japan and Europe: Industry-Academic Relations Glynn 0. Philips (assisted by Michael Hughes) London, Routledge, 1990, 282pp.) £45.00

Banking 1992-A Eurostudy Special Report Ian Gillespie (ed.) I,ondon, Eurostudy Publishing, 1990, 162pp., $£60 ($99)     

Exploring brand identity and entrepreneurship as drivers of small specialist retailer internationalisation: a German case study

While the comparatively sparse literature on small specialist retailing typically supports a proactive interpretation of the drivers of retail internationalisation, a more differentiated picture exists with regard to understanding the role of the brand construct in this process. The wider marketing literature recognises that brand identity, as well as brand image, can inform the process of internationalisation; yet, research focusing on small specialist retail internationalisation remains underdeveloped in this regard. Neither the notion of a multi-faceted brand concept nor its function as a strategic device in the internationalisation process has been analysed with sufficient depth. Furthermore, a better understanding of how and to what extent brand identity is interdependent upon the characteristics and activities of the entrepreneur is yet to emerge. This paper explores the construct of brand identity and its role within small specialist retail internationalisation, and the related influence of the entrepreneur on the internationalisation process. A case study approach is adopted, examining one German small specialist retailer. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with owner-managers and other senior management, an assessment of company documentation as well as participant observation, providing in-depth insights into distinctive internationalisation patterns. The study finds that a simple ‘either-or’ approach, in terms of characterising the retailer’s motivation to internationalisation as being either reactive or proactive, is inadequate in understanding this particular case. Whilst initial motivation was characterised as being reactive, the motivations underpinning further planned internationalisation are determined to be more proactive. More particularly, analysis reveals how brand identity is considered to play an important role in the internationalisation of the case study retailer, and highlights the numerous ways in which the characteristics and activities of the entrepreneurial owner-managers impact the firm’s internationalisation. This research contributes to retail and management research concerning SME internationalisation as well as to the retail branding literature.