How do personality interactions affect service quality? the perspective of processing efficiency theory

Conscientiousness and emotional stability are important independent predictors of service outcomes. However, previous studies have not investigated the effects of their interaction on service outcomes. Thus, this study adopted processing efficiency theory to investigate how the interaction between conscientiousness and emotional stability affects service quality. This study adopted a cross-sectional design, used questionnaires to collect data. The results indicate that the interaction of conscientiousness and emotional stability influences service quality. Additionally, the study found that the conscientiousness of emotionally stable service personnel was positively related to service quality.     

Service failure,time pressure,and conscientiousness of service providers: the dual processing model perspective

Service providers often work under serious time constraints that increase the likelihood of service failure. This study uses a dual processing model to investigate how time pressure and the conscientiousness of service providers interact to influence service failure. This study hypothesizes that time pressure is positively related to service failure for health service providers with low levels of conscientiousness, but not for those with high levels of conscientiousness. A cross-sectional design and paper-based questionnaires were used. The study hypotheses were then analyzed using regression analyses. The results of this study supported the hypotheses. Moreover, the empirical findings support the dual processing model.     

Managing Customer Relationships by Gender

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Although relational bonds (i.e., structural bonds, social bonds, and financial bonds) positively contribute to customer loyalty, no study has yet examined the relative effectiveness of such relationship strategies on female and male customers. Moreover, businesses must make a tradeoff between improving one and the other bonds, warranting research into allocating resources effectively to improve them. Therefore, this study investigates whether and how marketers should strive to improve such bonds differently according to customer gender.

Methodology/approach: A cross-sectional design was implemented. The data consist of questionnaires filled out by a representative sample of 425 directors of animal hospitals. The sample is representative with regard to gender composition. By using confirmatory factor analysis, study items exhibited adequate reliability and validity. Quadratic regressions were used for testing the study hypotheses.

Findings: For female customers, relational bonds have concave relations with their loyalty (i.e., initial increases in relational bonds boost loyalty effectively while subsequent increases of relational bonds only raise loyalty marginally). However, for male customers, relational bonds have convex relations with their loyalty (i.e., initial increases in relational bonds raise loyalty less effectively than subsequent increases in relational bonds).

Originality/value/contribution: Results of this study are among the first to suggest that when targeting female customers, marketers should allocate their resources to improving all relational bonds to moderate levels. Conversely, when targeting male customers, marketers should concentrate their resources on creating an extremely strong relational bond. Managing customer relational bonds by gender can effectively cultivate loyal customers of each gender. This study is one of the first studies examining how to manage customer relational bonds by gender.     

Effects of Personality on Service Quality in Business Transactions

This study describes the relationships among a salesperson's personality, similarity in terms of personality between salesperson and purchase representative (rep), and service quality perceived by purchase reps. The following findings were obtained: (1) agreeableness of a salesperson was negatively related to the responsiveness perceived by purchase reps; (2) salesperson neuroticism was negatively related to purchase rep perceptions of assurance, empathy, and overall service quality; and (3) the similarity in extraversion between salesperson and purchase reps was negatively correlated with purchase rep perceptions of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and overall service quality.     

Estimating demand for cellular phone service under nonlinear pricing

Cellular phone carriers typically offer complicated nonlinear tariffs. Consumers make a discrete choice among several rate plans. Each plan has a nonlinear price schedule, and price is usually lower for in-network calls. I present an empirical framework to estimate demand under such nonlinear pricing schemes by using parsimonious carrier-level data and apply the estimation method to analyze the market in Taiwan. I evaluate the impacts of termination-based pricing schemes on the market structure by counterfactual simulations. There is no evidence showing that the network effect resulting from termination-based pricing has significant effects on market structure.

Go green: how to influence the perceived effectiveness of a green product?

Across two studies, this research elucidates on which green messages in advertising are most effective in influencing the perceived effectiveness of green products by examining the moderating role of environmental consciousness. This study further considers a mechanism underlying the interaction between green messages and environmental consciousness on brand attitude with the perceived effectiveness of green products. The results show that when environmentally conscious individuals are exposed to abstract and distant temporal messages, they will report greater perceptions of a green product's effectiveness and brand attitude than for concrete and proximal temporal messages. In contrast, less environmentally conscious respondents will not have different responses to the abstract/concrete and distant/proximal temporal messages. Furthermore, the perceived effectiveness of a green product mediates the interaction between green messages and environmental consciousness for predicting brand attitudes. With an understanding of how environmentally conscious individuals evaluate green advertising, marketers can better understand how to promote their green products more effectively.     

Customer-capturing strategies: The way to replace existing technology characterized by network effects

Network effects are the basis of competitive advantage in digital economies. Although some researchers have indicated that technologies characterized by network effects are difficult to replace, real-world situations have not confirmed this argument. Challengers still defeat market leaders in markets with network effects. The analytical results presented here include the following: (1) a proposed new concept, resilience, can describe the resistive strength of a network to challenger customer-capturing strategies, (2) three types of networks can be identified based on their resilience values, and (3) high-resilience networks possessing technology are difficult to replace.