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This article explores differentiation in the responses of precarious workers to the instability and uncertainty imposed on their work by employing organizations. Our focus is on the ways in which different workers respond to precarious working conditions, with a particular interest on marginalised groups who have been especially overlooked by studies of workforce precarity.

Employs an approach akin to grounded theory in an exploratory research design and utilizes in-depth, semi-structured interviews of 56 precarious workers.

Finds that different precarious workers, with divergent characteristics and resources, facing differing working conditions, and diverse structural constraints vary in the ways in which their strategies of surviving precarious work are manifested. Uncovers three differing forms of precarious workers who each employ a different range of tactics and strategies in work.

Generates insights into differentiation of precarious workers in their responses to the ambiguous, challenging and, in many ways, subjugating conditions of their working conditions.

Our core aim was to explore the perceptions of precarious workers on the ways in which the pandemic impacted their relationships with their employing organizations and to explore the ways in which they viewed the pandemic as (re)shaping the dynamics of precarious work and the extent to which they saw the pandemic as contributing to substantive improvement in their working lives or whether the pandemic is exacerbating their marginalisation.

We adopted an approach akin to grounded theory in an exploratory research design and utilized in-depth, semi-structured interviews as the most apposite method of data collection. Our research design centred on a two-phase data collection approach, which were intended to gather data at two points. First, during the most difficult part of the pandemic, which we describe as the “Lockdown phase” and second, during the period wherein the pandemic rules were eased but elements of the risks remained; the “New Normal phase”.

This article reports the findings of a longitudinal study of the reflections and interpretations of precarious workers on the impacts of the pandemic on their relationships with their employing organizations. We supply findings across three periods – pre-the COVID-19 pandemic, during the pandemic lockdown phase and post-lockdowns in the “new normal phase”.

The first contribution of the study is the importance of “voice” and giving voice to workers in nontraditional, fragmented and marginalised employment. Our study builds on these contributions by exploring the journeys of precarious workers and is particularly valuable in that we explore the perceptions of these workers across the societal, organizational and employment/working turbulence of the pandemic. The second contribution arises from the insights developed through studying the working lives and experiences of precarious workers longitudinally rather than in a single, snapshot fashion. A third contribution centres on how precarious workers felt they were treated by others during both the two phases of the study. The insights here are complex and, in parts, contradictory – reflecting the interpretations and conflicted opinions/deeds of those connected with precarious workers.

It is particularly important for scholars to understand the ways in which the pandemic shaped (or reshaped) the dynamics of precarious work and to understand whether the evolving conceptions of the centrality of such workers as “essential” during the pandemic (Crane and Matten, 2021) contributed to substantive or merely illusory, improvements in their working lives. Thus, we analyse the reflections of precarious workers on changes to their working lives that are linked to the pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight important issues in the study of dysfunctional customer behavior and to provide a research agenda to inspire, guide, and enthuse. Through a critical evaluation of existing research, the aim is to highlight key issues and to present potentially worthy avenues for future study.

In reviewing recent and past advances in the study of customers behaving badly, an overview of existing research into customers behaving badly and addressing issues of terminology and definition is provided. Thereafter, three perspectives that provide the most opportunity and insight in studying the darker side of service dynamics are outlined. This leads to a review of some of the research design and methodological problems and issues that are faced when rigorously studying these issues. Subsequently, the paper devotes a section to the provocative idea that while dysfunctional customer behavior has many negative influences on customers, employees, and service firms, there are actually some positive functions of customers behaving badly.

A research agenda is provided that is believed to identify and discuss a range of projects that comprises not only insightful theoretical contributions but is also practically relevant.

The paper identifies a range of issues about which managers should be aware and proactively manage.

This paper aims to examine the associations between individual factors (personality and demographic variables) and contextual factors (servicescape and situation‐specific variables), and the motives that drive episodes of dysfunctional customer behavior.

Self‐report data were collected from a survey of bar, hotel, and restaurant customers (n=380). Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were utilized to analyze the data.

Analysis of the data revealed three clusters of motives labelled: financial egotists, money grabbers, and ego revengers. Statistically significant differences were revealed across the personality, servicescape, and situation specific variables for each motive. However, no differences were found concerning demographic variables.

This research emphasizes the primacy of three customer behavior motivations. Future research might investigate the motives for dysfunctional customer behavior across different organizational contexts and the dynamics between such motivations.

The findings of the study indicate that service managers can proactively control and manipulate servicescape and situation‐specific variables that relate to customer misbehavior motives.

No existing scholarly research has developed a data‐grounded understanding of the motivations of dysfunctional customer behaviors. Moreover, to date, no study has explored the associations between customer's motives to misbehave and personality, situation specific, servicescape, and demographic variables.

Falsified online reviews (FORs) are the published/viewable consumer-generated online content regarding a firm (or its representatives) or its services and goods that is, to some degree, untruthful or falsified. The purpose of this study is first to explore the nature of FORs, focusing on reviewers' interpretations and refections on falsity, intent, anonymity and the target of their FOR. Secondly, the authors examine the valence and veracity dimensions of FORs and introduce a typology to differentiate their variations.

using an exploratory research design, 48 interviews were conducted with participants who post online reviews on social media about their experiences with food and beverage serving outlets.

The results show four common forms of FORs on social media. These are reviews focused on equity equalizing, friendly flattery, opinionated opportunism and malicious profiteering.

The authors provide exploratory and in-depth information via interviews, but do not analyse the content of FORs.

Firms should be aware of varieties of FORs and that these may not be limited to malicious content. This is important in terms of showing that in dealing with FORs, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. FORs are not always entirely fabricated, and instead various levels of falseness are observed, ranging from slight alterations to complete fabrications.

Previous research explored how to identify and differentiate FORs from truthful ones, focusing on the reviews or how they are perceived by readers. However, comparatively little is known of the reviewers of FORs. Hence, this study focuses on reviewers and offers new insights into the nature of FORs by identifying and examining the main forms of FORs on social media.

Although there has been much academic discussion of employee behaviours as potential barriers to market orientation, comparatively little attention has been focused on organizational barriers to market orientation. No single study has undertaken a holistic review of structural, strategic and systems impediments. The aim of this paper is to extend and synthesize existing research into the obstacles to market orientation by performing a holistic analysis of the organizational characteristics which influence the extent of market orientation in an organization. This paper begins with a brief review of existing research into the barriers to developing market orientation. After a discussion of research design and methodology, the summary findings of three in‐depth case studies are presented and eight hypotheses are forwarded. Thereafter, the results of a survey of organizational barriers to market orientation are presented and the findings are discussed. The paper concludes with a number of implications for both strategic marketing and management theory and practice.

Proposes responding to earlier calls for further research into “fraudulent” or “feigned” customer complaints, and providing insights which explore and describe the motivations and forms of such deliberate “illegitimate” customer complaints.

Critical incident technique was utilized in analyzing 104 interviews with customers who had knowingly made an illegitimate complaint within the six months prior to the interview. Data collection stopped at the point of theoretical saturation and was subsequently analyzed according to the coding procedures advocated by Strauss and Corbin (open, axial and selective coding).

Two key insights emerged from data analysis. First, coding procedures revealed four distinct forms of customer complainants. These are labeled; “one‐off complainants”, “opportunistic complainants”, “conditioned complainants”, and “professional complainants”. Second, six main motives for articulating fraudulent complaints were uncovered during data analysis. These are termed; “freeloaders”, “fraudulent returners”, “fault transferors”, “solitary ego gains”, “peer‐induced esteem seekers”, and “disruptive gains”.

The study is constrained by its exploratory design and qualitative methods employed. Subsequently, future studies could employ survey methods to improve empirical generalizability. Future studies could adopt a more inclusive approach and incorporate insights from employees, managers, and other relevant actors within service encounters.

Practical implications highlighted by the study include a need for businesses to examine and, in many cases, reevaluate their personnel training, customer complaint and service recovery procedures. Furthermore, managers may wish to enforce mechanisms wherein customer complaints are monitored and tracked in a manner that assists in the identification and challenging of re‐offending fraudulent complainers.

The study constitutes the first systematic attempt to explore and describe illegitimate customer complaining behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss a conceptual model of purchase intentions, trust, and e‐servicescape that presents online physical environments as comprising three dimensions. It aims to develop and extend existing research into physical service environments through proposing, operationalizing, and testing a model of online servicescape.

The study utilizes a survey approach to gather data regarding consumers' perceptions of online servicescape. Surveys were administered to 257 respondents regarding a broad range of web sites.

A measure of e‐servicescape is evaluated that comprises three dimensions and 52 items while relationships between the dimensions of e‐servicescape, trust, and purchase intentions are described.

The first contribution of this study stems from the successful operationalization of a comprehensive multi‐item (in total 52 items), multi‐scale (nine scales), multi‐dimensional (three) measure of e‐servicescape. Second, a contribution is made through the finding that trust constitutes a key variable during online exchange. Third, we contribute insights into the antecedents of consumers' purchase intentions. Finally, the study reveals that consumers' interpretations of online environments exert a powerful influence over trust and purchase intentions.

The findings of this study also have numerous implications for both services managers and internet developers. The findings supply valuable insights into which factors practitioners should focus their attention to better tailor their approaches. This study strongly endorses the view that the loyalty intentions of online customers are linked to the extent to which they trust the service provider.

In this study the authors aim to explore the impact of customer misbehavior on frontline employees and managers and to elucidate the management tactics and strategies that managers employ in an attempt to minimize the impact of customer misbehavior on the workplace.

Following a discussion of the research design and methodology employed, the findings of 88 in-depth interviews are presented.

These data suggest that customer misbehavior impacts on frontline employees, managers, and managerial strategies. Three main effects of customer misbehavior on customer-contact employees are uncovered: physiological, cognitive, and attitudinal. These are connected with four main management challenges: conflicting pressures, recruitment and retention, counseling and motivation, and time expenditure. Finally, data analysis finds evidence of six main ways in which managers attempted to reduce or to alleviate harmful customer misbehavior: selective recruitment, changes to training and induction procedures, enhanced rewards, work-team design, increase counseling, and alterations to the servicescape.

The authors recommend that practitioners undertake a misbehavior audit that explores not only the extent of customer misbehavior but also the mechanisms, systems, and procedures the organization has for identifying, recording, and attempting to minimize the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior.

This study contributes insights into how customer-contact personnel and managers are both affected and cope with customer misbehavior. These insights are helpful for service managers faced with customer misbehavior and academicians interested in how employees respond to contemporary customers.