Role of Trust and Involvement in the Effectiveness of Digital Third-Party Organization Endorsement

In this research, an online experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of the mere presence of digital third-party organization (TPO) endorsement and the quality of information conveyed by a digital TPO, referred to as the endorsement information value effect. Involvement and institution-based trust were tested as moderators of the endorsement information value effect. The results confirm the intuitive belief of managers that the mere presence of a digital TPO endorsement benefits websites by reducing risk perceptions, improving attitudes and increasing choice likelihood. The findings from this research revealed that effectiveness of digital TPO endorsement information value was contingent upon the level of involvement with the effects being found only among high involvement consumers but not among low involvement consumers. Similarly, effectiveness of digital TPO endorsement information value is also contingent on institution-based trust, with the effect of endorsement information value emerging only for low institution-based trust consumers but not for high institution-based trust consumers. Thus, a higher information value digital TPO will increase choice over a low information value digital TPO only if the consumer is highly involved or has low institution-based trust

A Customer-Focused Approach to Improve Celebrity Endorser Effectiveness

The current study reveals that a customer-focused approach to choosing celebrity endorsers (based on consumer-endorser identification) is a more useful predictor of endorsement success than a product-focused approach (product-endorser fit) alone. Specifically, the findings suggest consumer-endorser identification offers a potentially more consistent criterion for predicting endorsement effectiveness than fit, which is contingent upon varying consumer perceptions of product-endorser match-up. Across two studies, one survey-based and one longitudinal experiment, increased identification with both male and female endorsers led to increases in endorsement success. Most importantly, the influence of identification is significant for both high and low fit pairings between an endorser and brand. Thus, consumers who identify strongly with an endorser are likely to respond favorably to the endorsement even when fit between the endorser and brand is poor. Moreover, identification with the endorser is found to be consistently linked to purchase intentions over multiple time points

When Students Complain

This article explores the factors that influence students’ intention to complain following a bad classroom experience using a customer service framework from the marketing literature. An online survey was conducted with 288 participants using the critical incident approach. Results indicate that predictors of intention to complain differ based on the target of complaint behavior (school, friends, or unknown others) and the mode of complaint (in person or using the web). Specifically, the more dissatisfied students are, the more likely they are to complain to the school and to friends either in person or using the web but not to unknown others. Students complain to the school only if the effort involved is minimal and they believe the school will respond. Students complain to friends and unknown others in person if they feel the school will respond to negative press. Personal characteristics also influence intentions to complain. Students with a propensity to complain broadcast their negative experience via the web, grade conscious students tell their friends but only in person, and heavy social media users inform their friends using the web. Implications for faculty and administrators are discussed. </jats:p