Recover from a service failure : The differential effects of brand betrayal and brand disappointment on an exclusive brand offering

Brand managers inevitably have to face service failures and respond to them. Undertaking brand recovery is essential as customers might desire to take revenge or spread negative word-of-mouth if they feel betrayed or disappointed by the brand following the service failure. Thus, it is necessary to understand customer responses to brand recovery, which depend on whether they feel betrayed or disappointed (while related, this paper distinguishes these feelings). This research challenges the conventional wisdom by demonstrating that, after presenting customers with an exclusive brand offering during the brand recovery, brand betrayal predicts a positive brand attitude and brand disappointment predicts a negative brand attitude with the service failure. Further, the brand attitude mediates the positive relationship between brand betrayal, positive word-of-mouth, and the likelihood of recommending the brand to others. Thus, the quick recovery that follows an exclusive brand offering positively impacts on the brand relationship among betrayed customers.Peer reviewe

Yrittäjyyskasvatus – Tulevaisuuden siltojen rakentaja ja raja-aitojen murtaja? 11. Yrittäjyyskasvatuspäivät 2017 Oulussa, Artikkelikirja

The aim of this project was to create a preliminary theoretical framework of howto utilize humour strategically in organizations with the aim of creating newbusiness opportunities. The present multidisciplinary discussion paper will identifyresearch gaps and combine viewpoints of international business management,international business communication, marketing and education in a novel way. Itappears that in previous literature on humour in a business context, discussionshave taken place in different ‘silos’ and as a result, the connections betweendifferent research fields have been scarce. Consequently, a more comprehensiveunderstanding of the significance of humour in business innovations is necessary.Firstly, we are proposing a framework and a research agenda for exploring differentstrategic ways of using humour in companies. Secondly, in the Hurmos-project wehave already collected empirical evidence based on this framework, and somepreliminary results are also presented. Hence, the potential, as well as the limitsand risks of humour in business have been examined in terms of both internal andexternal corporate communication. We have focused on such research aspects ascorporate storytelling, corporate and employer branding, and work engagement.Peer group mentoring has been used as one tool for collecting relevant narrativesfrom companies. Additionally, we have explored innovation communication, inparticular how humour can be applied as a strategic tool in new businessdevelopment both in facilitating creative Research, Development and Innovation(R&D&I) work environments, and in incorporating humour into product andservice innovation in practice. Our empirical results will provide a much neededmore comprehensive view of the role of humour as a strategic tool in corporatecommunication and business innovation. The results also provide a point of departure for further research. Besides academia, results and generated know-how will be of interest to managers of large corporations as well as start-up companies.</p

B2B brands on Twitter: Engaging users with a varying combination of social media content objectives, strategies, and tactics

YesThe objective of this research is to increase understanding about B2B company-led user engagement on social media content. Building on hierarchy-of-effects (HoE) theory, we explore how the world’s leading B2B companies use content objectives (why), strategies (how), and tactics (what) on Twitter. We first integrate B2B advertising and social media research on companies’ content objectives, strategies, and tactics. Then, using qualitative analyses, we examine the existence of objectives, strategies, and tactics in the most engaging tweets (N=365) of the worlds’ ten leading B2B brands, covering five industries, in 2017. Finally, we quantitatively examine how the use of diverse objectives and strategies differs between the most engaging tweets (N=318) and least engaging tweets (N=229) of the companies in 2018. The companies use objectives, strategies and tactics that relate to creating awareness, knowledge and trust, interest, and liking in the majority of their most and least engaging tweets, and express preference, conviction and purchase aspects much less. Differences exist in general, industry-wise, and company-wise. The study is a rare attempt to integrate the extant B2B advertising and social media research, and compare the most and least engaging B2B social media content

Perspectives on humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet

Abstract This study explores the phenomenon of humor in advertising in the context of recruitment advertising and answers the research question: How can humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet be approached from communication perspectives? The study is positioned on humor in advertising literature, particularly incongruity theories of humor, and it approaches the context of recruitment advertising by utilizing employer brand message conceptualization. Motivation for the study was to understand poorly investigated phenomenon of humor in recruitment advertising; observations were collected in a small company’s Internet communication channel. Theoretical motivation was rooted in the lack of earlier studies on humor in recruitment advertising within the literature of humor in advertising. Earlier studies on humor in advertising have been dominated by experimental quantitative studies, and this study provides methodological novelty by using a mixed methods research approach. The study had different data collection methods: A between-subject experimental design with a quantitative approach and case studies with content analysis and qualitative analysis methods. The phenomenon were investigated on different empirical levels (both recruitment ads and recruitment campaign) and collecting evidence from a setting of a small company’s Internet communication channel. The dissertation is based on a compilation and published research papers, three journal articles and one book chapter, which are able to create new perspectives related to the phenomenon of humor in recruitment advertising. A framework on humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet will be developed by focusing on different communication perspectives: investigating the use of humor in the employer brand message, the job seekers’ response to humor, moderator (this study: congruence) effects of humor, and the managerial challenges and opportunities of humor. The potential of humor was identified as working as a device for a person-organization fit and offering the potential for social media marketing by increasing the sharing intentions of recruitment ads. The challenges of humor are related to negative intermediate advertising effects and negative word-of-mouth. This dissertation contributes to the advertising literature by developing new research approach on humor in recruitment advertising and extending the body of research on humor in advertising empirically in recruitment advertising on the Internet.Tiivistelmä Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee huumorimainonnan ilmiötä rekrytointimainonnan kontekstissa ja vastaa kysymykseen, miten huumoria rekrytointimainonnassa voidaan lähestyä viestinnän eri näkökulmien kautta Internetissä? Tutkimus on asemoitu huumorimainonnan kirjallisuuteen, erityisesti huumorin inkongruenssiteoriaan ja se tarkastelee rekrytointimainonnan kontekstia hyödyntäen työnantajan brändiviestin määritelmää. Tutkimuksen lähtökohtana ovat yksittäiset havainnot olemassa olevasta mutta vähän tutkitusta ilmiöstä, huumorista rekrytointimainonnassa pienen yrityksen Internet-viestintäkanavassa. Huumorimainonnan kirjallisuudesta puuttuvat toistaiseksi huumoria rekrytointimainonnassa käsittelevät tutkimukset. Aikaisempia huumorimainonnan tutkimuksia ovat hallinneet kokeelliset kvantitatiiviset tutkimukset. Tämä väitöskirja on menetelmällisesti uutuusarvoinen, koska tutkimuksessa lähestyttiin ilmiötä monimenetelmätutkimuksen kautta. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin erilaisia tiedonkeruumenetelmiä: kokeellisia tutkimusasetelmia kvantitatiivisella lähestymistavalla ja tapaustutkimuksia, jotka hyödyntävät sisällönanalyysia sekä kvalitatiivisia analyysimenetelmiä. Ilmiötä tutkittiin sekä rekrytointimainoksien että rekrytointikampanjan empiirisillä tasoilla ja aineistoa kerättiin pienen yrityksen Internetin viestintäkanavasta. Väitöskirja koostuu yhteenveto-osuudesta sekä julkaistuista tutkimuspapereista, kolmesta journal-artikkelista ja kirjan kappaleesta, jotka tuovat kukin eri näkökulmia huumoriin rekrytointimainonnassa. Tutkimuksen tuloksena rakennetaan viitekehys rekrytointimainonnan huumoriin Internetissä. Se keskittyy viestinnän eri näkökulmiin: määrittelee huumorin osaksi työnantajabrändiviestiä, tutkii työnhakijoiden vasteita huumoriin, huumorin moderaattori (tässä tutkimuksessa: kongruenssi)-vaikutuksia sekä huumorin käyttöön liittyviä liikkeenjohdon haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia. Huumorin potentiaali tunnistettiin siinä, että huumori testaa henkilön ja organisaation yhteensopivuutta ja tarjoaa mahdollisuuksia markkinointiin sosiaalisessa mediassa lisäämällä muun muassa aikomuksia rekrytointi-ilmoituksen jakamiseen. Keskeiset haasteet liittyvät mainonnan negatiivisiin vaikutuksiin ja negatiiviseen word-of-mouth-ilmiöön. Tämä väitöskirjatyö kontribuoi mainonnan kirjallisuuteen kehittämällä uuden tutkimusnäkökulman huumoriin rekrytointimainonnassa ja laajentamalla huumorimainonnan tutkimusta empiirisesti rekrytointimainontaan Internetissä

The boundaries of a small company’s human voice:insights into dark humour in internet recruitment advertising

Abstract This study develops a framework on how a small company’s human tone of voice involving dark humour can be communicated in Internet recruitment advertising. A case study approach with an abductive logic provided a synthesis of the different recruitment communication perspectives [sender, message, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)] and a dark humour tone of voice used in a small company’s Internet recruitment advertising in a holistic framework. The developed framework was able to demonstrate the dynamics related to a tone of voice based on dark humour from different communication perspectives in Internet recruitment advertising, and the process of how the limits for an acceptable human tone of voice are formed. Further, the study proposed a new definition for eWOM in recruitment advertising which included a human tone of voice as a relevant aspect of eWOM. For managers, the boundaries of the human tone of voice, in this case dark humour, should be handled as it might become an irritating employer brand message element and might negatively affect the construction of a positive and consistent employer image

Exploring Humour as a Strategic Tool for Creating Innovative Business

he video discusses the key results of the TEKES-funded project ‘Humour as a Strategic Tool for Creating Innovative Business’ (HURMOS). The project was carried out in co-operation with the University of Oulu and the Oulu University of Applied Sciences in 2015-2017. The aim was to explore how humour can be incorporated into business. Among employees inside an organisation, humour offers business potential: affiliative, coping and reframing types of humour as well as telling stories enhance innovativeness at the individual level. In contrast, aggressive humour is negatively connected with innovativeness also when communicating with interest groups outside an organisation. Moreover, a playful attitude and atmosphere in general have a positive influence on work engagement. The results of the potential and the limits of humour in business concern both internal and external corporate communication; they were explored in such contexts as recruitment advertising, service encounters, business development workshops as well as different forms of branding in social media. According to the studies where humour was used in peer-group mentoring and service design workshops, positive humour seems applicable in such activities

Joking with customers in the service encounter has a negative impact on customer satisfaction:replication and extension

Abstract Previous research has indicated that employee joke-telling in the service encounter can have a negative impact on customer satisfaction, particularly with respect to perceived overall message relevance as a mediating variable. The present study is an attempt to examine if these results would be replicated in service encounter settings with other characteristics. Two experiments were conducted, and the previous pattern was reproduced: customer satisfaction was reduced when employees told jokes compared to when jokes were not told. The results also indicate that employee joke-telling reduced both perceived relevance and positive affect, and that these two variables mediated the association between employee joke-telling and customer satisfaction. The results should be seen in contrast to several humor studies in an advertising context showing that humor-comprising ads can have positive effects on the receiver. One main reason for the differences is that a service encounter typically includes also other elements than humor in the employee’s communication with a customer, and that employee humor usage attenuates the customer’s attention to and comprehension of those other elements

Service encounters with virtual agents:an examination of perceived humanness as a source of customer satisfaction

Abstract Purpose: Firms have begun to introduce virtual agents (VAs) in service encounters, both in online and offline environments. Such VAs typically resemble human frontline employees in several ways (e.g. the VAs may have a gender and a name), which indicates the presence of an assumption by VA designers – and by firms that employ them – that VA humanness is a positively charged characteristic. This study aims to address this assumption by examining antecedents to perceived humanness in terms of attribution of agency, emotionality and morality, and the impact of perceived humanness on customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was distributed online to participants who had been interacting with existing VAs, and they were asked to focus on one of them for this study. The questionnaire comprised measures of antecedents to perceived humanness of VAs, perceived humanness per se and customer satisfaction. A structural equation modeling approach was used to assess associations between the variables. Findings: Attributions of agency, emotionality and morality to VAs contributed positively to the perceived humanness of the VAs, and perceived humanness was positively associated with customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implications: Additional humanness capabilities should be explored in further research. Practical implications: Firms using VAs in service encounters should make attempts to maximize perceived VA humanness, and this study shows that it may be beneficial if such attempts comprise signals that VAs have agency, emotionality and morality. Originality/value: By examining VAs in terms of a set of fundamental human capabilities, the present study contributes to existing research on human–VA service encounters, which to date has focused on more superficial VA characteristics (such as if the VA has a face and gender)