Unfairness in consumer services: Outcomes of differential treatment of new and existing clients

In a consumption context, there is a growing interest in understanding unfair behaviour of firms towards customers. Our research focuses on unfairness perceptions driven by differential treatment, particularly through price discrimination, i.e. the practice of charging differential prices to different customers. Our purpose is to investigate the consequences of these practices for unfairness perceptions, satisfaction, trust and patronage, showing a dual perspective: the perceptions of new vs existing clients when they face the advantaged or disadvantaged conditions. A survey-based experimental design approach was used. We conclude that unfairness perception is stronger for existing than for new clients, prompting negative attitudinal and behavioural consequences when the former are exposed to disadvantaged conditions in relation to the latter. Our study aims to provide marketers with a perspective on the pitfalls related to differential treatment between present and prospective clients, with implications in terms of design and implementation of customer management strategies.     

Third-party remanufacturing mode selection: Outsourcing or authorization?

Many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) allow third-party remanufacturers (3PRs) to perform remanufacturing operations of branded or patented products – through either outsourcing or authorization. This study compares these two modes by modeling the game between the OEM and the 3PR on equilibrium quantities, prices, and profits. The results suggest that when consumers perceive the remanufactured products with a low value, the 3PR prefers the authorization approach; otherwise the 3PR prefers the outsourcing approach. However, in both scenarios, the OEM obtains higher profit through outsourcing than through authorization. Our further analysis compares two modes’ impacts on consumer surplus, social welfare, and environment.     

Responding to negative online reviews: The effects of hotel responses on customer inferences of trust and concern

Our research examines the perceptions and evaluations of prospective customers toward an online negative review and any accompanying hotel response. The study explores two main issues: whether the presence (versus absence) of an organizational response to negative customer reviews affects the inferences potential consumers draw about the target business, and which aspects of responses affect their impressions. We test the effects of four variables associated with a response: source of response, voice of responder, speed of response, and action frame on two outcomes variables (i.e., customer concern and trust inferences). The provision of an online response (versus no response) enhanced inferences that potential consumers draw regarding the business's trustworthiness and the extent to which it cares about its customers. Using a human voice and a timely response yielded favorable customer inferences. Inferences did not vary with response source or action frame. Implications are drawn for effective management of negative online reviews.     

Nothing Tastes as Local: Jordanians’ Perceptions of Buying Domestic Olive Oil

To date, little is known about how consumers perceive local and foreign olive oil. This study was conducted with the intention of exploring key trends in Jordanian consumers’ perceptions toward local olive oil and to examine whether they are ethnocentric toward purchasing their local olive oil in the era of the Arab Spring. The research design is a combination of quantitative with a qualitative technique to support and expand on the research findings. Data were collected from a total number of 196 Jordanians who live in Amman city. The results revealed that Jordanians are loyal to their country’s olive oil; they expressed strong ethnocentric tendencies toward purchasing it, and their purchasing tendencies are influenced by nationalism. Jordanians ranked their local olive oil as the best worldwide. This article provides original insights into the development and marketing strategies for local and global olive oil producers in the Jordan market and other Arab country markets.     

The effect of motivational orientation over arousal-shopping response relationship

This paper enlarges extant theory on environmental retail by providing evidence that motivational orientation moderates the relationship between arousal and response. Our conceptual model focuses on the phenomenon of motivational orientation as moderator on the relationship between arousal and shopping intention. We extend Kaltcheva and Weitz model, since their focus was on the association between arousal and pleasure. We measured shopping behavior, as consequence variable in the framework, in six different formats (e.g. satisfaction, loyalty, money $, minutes, products). We did four studies in a 2×3 design with motivational orientation (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and arousal (high vs. moderate vs. low levels). After the procedures, the questionnaire listed the scales. The four studies did provide enough evidence that motivational orientation moderates the relationships proposed by Mehrabian and Russell's theoretical framework and those ones proposed by our model.     

How much do online consumers really value free product returns? Evidence from eBay

Consumer return rates have been steadily rising in recent years, resulting in growing costs for retailers who must manage the returns process and the disposition of returned products. This cost pressure is driven in part by extremely generous return policies, such as giving consumers a full refund upon return. Interestingly, this common retail practice of full refunds is inconsistent with the recommendations of many analytical models of returns, which nearly always show that a partial refund is optimal. Such inconsistencies between theory and practice might arise when the decision drivers included in the analytical models do not match the decision drivers in practice. It might also be the case that retailers are overly optimistic about the value that consumers assign to a full refund, and thus assume that the value of such a policy outweighs its costs. In this paper, we use data collected from eBay, where identical products are sold with different return policies, to investigate these open questions in the literature. We analyze both the return policy drivers from the retailer's perspective and the return policy value from the consumer's perspective. Our results suggest that the value of a full refund policy to consumers may not be as large as one might expect, and it also exhibits a large heterogeneity across buyers with different levels of online purchase experience. In addition, we provide empirical evidence for what has long been suspected by online retailers – that a non-refundable forward shipping charge quickly erodes any value that consumers assign to return policies. The generality of our results is limited by the fact that eBay differs from traditional retail contexts in many respects, including the fact that eBay buyers may not be representative of the general buyer population. However, our study of how eBay consumers value free returns provides new insights into an understudied area, and it can serve as a starting point for future studies of the value of return policies in other retail contexts.     

Consumer showrooming: Value co-destruction

PurposeThis research employs value co-destruction as a theoretical lens to investigate the antecedents of consumer showrooming behavior. Drawing on relevant literature, a research model specifying showrooming dynamics from the consumer's perspective is conceptualized and empirically tested.MethodologyUtilizing survey data from 275 consumers, structural equation modelling is employed to assess a research model including thirteen hypotheses.FindingsThe study findings reveal that showrooming behavior is complex and comprises differing degrees of accumulative value co-destruction and value co-creation behavior across online and offline channels. Specifically, consumer characteristics, channel characteristics and product characteristics are shown to be associated with in-store value taking and online value co-destruction and co-creation.Originality and valueScholarly insights into the antecedents of consumer showrooming are rare. In responding to calls for research, this paper represents the first empirical investigation of consumer showrooming behavior utilizing the lens of value co-destruction. The study adds to academic understanding of the showrooming phenomena and demonstrates that co-destructive and co-creative behaviors can occur in a simultaneous, concurrent and iterative fashion. Focusing on practice, the findings reveal opportunities for experience-led shopping environments.     

The Significance of CSF Among Enterprises in Latvia： An In-depth Analysis

The present research paper is dedicated to the in-depth analysis of the significance of critical-to-success factors （CSF） among enterprises in Latvia. The goal is to distinguish and find key success factors of Latvian companies who survived the economic crisis, which started in 2008, and executed the enabling objectives of the paper. Research methodology involves the analysis of the existing theoretical literature, in-depth interviews with the top management representatives of large Latvian business entities were interviewed by GFK （Custom Research Baltic agency） on behalf of the authors of the paper. It is found out that 10 largest industries for the big companies are： fuel retail and wholesale, energetics, food retail and wholesale, chemical products, logistics, metal processing, financial services, information technologies service and production, passenger transportation, and telecommunication services. For medium companies such industries are： food retail and wholesale, logistics, fuel retail and wholesale, wood processing, automotive industry, construction, financial services, pharmaceutical products, metal processing, and beverage wholesale and production. The authors also scrutinised 72 articles of 38 Forbes magazine archiving from the years 2010-2014. Thirty CSF were defmed. The most significant CSF according to the Forbes interviews are specific market niche, export, technological innovations, and high quality of products and services. The in-depth interviews with the top management representatives prove the importance of the above mentioned factors. Relevant recommendations are provided in the end of the paper.