The Role of Attitude Strength in Marketing Intelligence Use Concerning Customer Satisfaction

attitude, marketing, customer satisfaction

Customer evaluations of after-sales service contact modes: An empirical analysis of national culture�s consequences

customer, service, culture, evaluation

Diagnosing member-customer ostracism in co-operatives and counterpoising its relationship-poisoning effects

Purpose: This paper aims to examine a core member-customer threat in co-operatives (co-ops) by drawing from ostracism research, assessing co-op ostracism’s impact on critical membership and relational exchange outcomes and discussing why relationship marketing research needs to pay more attention to the overlooked role of implicit mistreatment forms in customer harm-doing. Design/methodology/approach: Three studies were conducted. In Study 1, ostracism in co-ops was explored, and a measurement scale for co-op ostracism was developed. In Study 2, the core conceptual model was empirically tested with data from members of three different co-ops. In Study 3, a coping strategy was integrated into an extended model and empirically tested with a new sample of co-op members. Findings: Ostracism is present in co-ops and “poisons” crucial relational (and membership) outcomes, despite the presence of other relationship-building or relationship-destroying accounts. Coupling entitativity with cognitive capital attenuates ostracism’s impact. Research limitations/implications: Inspired by co-ops’ membership model and inherent relational advantage, this research is the first to adopt a co-op member-customer perspective and shed light on an implicit relationship-destroying factor. Practical implications: Co-op decision makers might use the diagnostic tool developed in the paper to detect ostracism and fight it. Moreover, a novel coping strategy for how co-ops (or other firms) might fend off ostracism threats is offered in the article. Originality/value: The present study illuminates a dark side of a relationally profuse customer context, painting a more complete picture of relationship marketing determinants. Little attention has been given to ostracism as a distinct and important social behaviour in marketing research and to co-ops as a research context

Me, Myself, and Future Generations: The Role of Affinity and Effectiveness in the Creation of Consumer Environmental Stewardship (CENS)

Policymakers, consumer advocate groups, and researchers agree that consumers need to increase their proenvironmental behaviors if a decent standard of living is to be ensured for future generations. Despite high levels of environmental concern, consumers still refrain from large-scale adoption of proenvironmental behaviors. Social marketers agree that a change in attitudes is not enough to stimulate the necessary behavioral change and are looking for ways to help consumers overcome the costs (e.g., price premiums, inconvenience) that are often associated with proenvironmental behaviors. Currently, consumers often see proenvironmental behavior as a trade-off between short-term personal benefits and longer term collective benefits. The authors contribute to the social marketing literature on proenvironmental behavior by introducing the concept of Consumer Environmental Stewardship (CENS), which centers on the use of intrinsic motivation to stimulate a personal sense of responsibility for the environment. The findings, based on a survey and three experiments, show that the stimulation of consumers’ affinity with future generations (AFGs) and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) can help to promote CENS, which in turn raises proenvironmental behaviors. However, this research also shows that increasing levels of AFGs can backfire and result in lower levels of CENS, if consumers experience low levels of PCE

Assessing the effect of narrative transportation, portrayed action, and photographic style on the likelihood to comment on posted selfies

Purpose: This research assesses the effect of narrative transportation, portrayed action, and photographic style on the likelihood to comment on posted consumer photos. Design/methodology/approach: Integrating visual semiotics and experiments, this research empirically examines the influence of consumer photos on viewers’ likelihood to comment on the visualised narrative. One pilot, three experimental, and a content analysis involve photos varying in their narrative perspective (selfie vs. elsie) and portrayed content (no product, no action, or directed action). We also test for the boundary condition of the role of the photographic style (snapshot, professional, and “parody” selfie) on the likelihood to comment on consumer photos. Findings: Viewers are more likely to comment on photos displaying action. When these photos are selfies, the effect is exacerbated. The experience of narrative transportation — a feeling of entering a world evoked by the narrative — underlies this effect. However, if a snapshot style is used (primed or manipulated) — namely, the photographic style appears genuine, unposed, unconstructed, and natural — the superior effect of selfies disappears because of greater perceived silliness of the visualised narrative. Practical implications: Managers should try to motivate consumers to take selfies portraying action if their aim is to encourage eWOM. Social implications: Organisations can effectively use consumer photos portraying consumption for educational purpose (e.g. eating healthfully, reducing alcohol use). Originality/value: This research links consumer photos and eWOM and extends the marketing literature on visual narratives, which is mainly focused on company — rather than user-generated content

Intra-articular synovial lipoma of the knee joint

We present a rare case of an intra-articular synovial lipoma, which was diagnosed in a patient after a knee trauma. MRI is the imaging modality of choice to suggest the diagnosis preoperatively, by demonstrating a well-delineated fatcontaining lesion. The differential diagnosis of an intra-articular lipomatous lesion consists of lipoma arborescens and synovial lipoma

Return on interactivity: The impact of online agents on newcomer adjustment

As service offerings grow in both range and complexity, how service providers and their customers interact is becoming increasingly important. In response to the challenge of optimizing these interactions, companies have introduced sophisticated online "socialization agents," whose purpose is to help new customers more effectively adjust to and function within the service environment. The objective of these online agents, or virtual employees, is to help customers evaluate new or unfamiliar service offerings, as well as help companies achieve greater levels of service delivery and financial performance. To investigate this, the authors analyze the process by which online agents help both new and current customers adjust to and function within new, unfamiliar, or complex service contexts. They examine the impact of an online agent on account performance in the banking industry. They find that both interaction style and content of the online agent significantly influence the newcomer adjustment process over time, which in turn influences firm-level performance

A Hierarchical Model of Virtual Experience and Its Influences on the Perceived Value and Loyalty of Customers

Many businesses use virtual experience (VE) to enhance the overall customer experience, though extant research offers little guidance for how to improve consumers’ VE. This study, anchored in activity theory, examines key drivers of VE and its influences on value perceptions and customer loyalty. A hierarchical model indicates that VE comprises second-order variables (i.e., social presence, social capital, flow experience, and situational involvement) and third-order variables (i.e., communal and individual experience). The results obtained from a substantive model further reveal that VE positively influences perceptions of both economic and social value and thus influences loyalty in both the real world and virtual environments

The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers’ Narrative Transportation

Stories, and their ability to transport their audience, constitute a central part of human life and consumption experience. Integrating previous literature derived from fields as diverse as anthropology, marketing, psychology, communication, consumer, and literary studies, this article offers a review of two decades’ worth of research on narrative transportation, the phenomenon in which consumers mentally enter a world that a story evokes. Despite the relevance of narrative transportation for storytelling and narrative persuasion, extant contributions seem to lack systematization. The authors conceive the extended transportation-imagery model (ETIM), which provides not only a comprehensive model that includes the antecedents and consequences of narrative transportation but also a multidisciplinary framework in which cognitive psychology and consumer culture theory cross-fertilize this field of inquiry. The authors test the model using a quantitative meta-analysis of 132 effect sizes of narrative transportation from 76 published and unpublished articles and identify fruitful directions for further research