Atieh Poushneh and Arturo Z. Vasquez-Parraga
This study aims to answer the following question: How can customer readiness be instrumental in non-technology-based service delivery?
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to answer the following question: How can customer readiness be instrumental in non-technology-based service delivery?
Design/methodology/approach
Using a field study, this research examines the role of customer readiness in customer participation in non-technology-based service delivery and its indirect effects on such customer outcomes as perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and customer willingness to recommend.
Findings
The results show that customer readiness is a second-order construct. It has a significant impact on customer participation in service delivery, which in turn impacts three key service outcomes: customer perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and customer willingness to recommend. Four factors influencing customer readiness (consumer previous experience, consumer desire for control, consumer perceived risk and customer organizational socialization) are also empirically evaluated.
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations of the study are related to sample size and use of a type of services. The research tested 13 hypotheses with a limited sample size in one context. A better representation of the population and a more generalizable outcome require more representative samples and studies in various contexts such as banking, hotel services or health care services. This study demonstrated the importance of customer readiness for effective participation in non-technology-based service delivery; it does not address the impact of customer readiness on participation in the context of technology-based services. Future research may also shed light on when and why customers choose technology-based services versus non-technology-based services.
Practical implications
Effective customer participation in service delivery can, and should, benefit from boosting customer readiness.
Originality/value
This research shows the impact of customer readiness on non-technology-based service delivery, more specifically, the impact of customer readiness on customer participation in this type of service delivery. Customer readiness has been found to be beneficial in the provision of technology-based services; yet, its role in the provision of non-technology-based services has not been thoroughly evaluated.
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The widespread use of information and communication technologies enables consumers to obtain and share information whenever they feel the urge. With the advent of review websites…
Abstract
Purpose
The widespread use of information and communication technologies enables consumers to obtain and share information whenever they feel the urge. With the advent of review websites and forums, companies and business owners may find themselves victims of consumer cyber aggression, which can hurt a company badly. This study aims to explore why consumers would engage in cyber aggression against companies, and to that end, it examines consumers’ ethical orientation and other possible drivers of cyber aggression.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine how ethical orientation affects consumers’ intention to engage in cyber aggression, a scenario-based 2 × 2 (deontological: moral/immoral × teleological: good result/bad result) between-subject experimental design is used. Moreover, 26 possible drivers in related literature are identified and included in a questionnaire administered to 226 college students.
Findings
The results show that adult consumers’ deontological and teleological evaluations significantly affect their ethical judgment about engaging in cyber aggression, which further impacts their intention to perpetrate an act of cyber aggression. Moreover, the study identifies six factors contributing to cyber aggression engagement as follows: personal aggressiveness, ease of perpetration, internet negativity, personal gains, helping the company and recreation.
Originality/value
Cyber aggression is generally viewed as interpersonal violence among adolescents. This study views cyber aggression from a different perspective and it is one of the few studies to look at adult consumers’ motivations to engage in cyber aggression against companies. The findings of this study can help firms understand why their customers attack them online, and understanding that will enable businesses to formulate more effective responses to attacks.
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Eduardo Torres‐Moraga, Arturo Z. Vásquez‐Parraga and Jorge Zamora‐González
Studies on customer satisfaction and loyalty have focused on brand rather than product. It is not that brand is not important, but the process of loving a brand starts with a…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies on customer satisfaction and loyalty have focused on brand rather than product. It is not that brand is not important, but the process of loving a brand starts with a product. Customers appreciate products by themselves, independent of the brand, as shown in their pursuit of satisfaction and development of loyalty. Such appreciation seems to be prominent regarding innovative products when compared to traditional products. This paper aims to investigate this issue and provide a product‐brand typology.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of empirical research on a partial application of the typology.
Findings
Results show that the relationship satisfaction‐loyalty is significantly present when evaluating products alone albeit a weaker presence than when evaluating brand alone. Such unequal presence is corroborated in both traditional (bottled wine) and innovative (electronic) products even though it is much stronger in innovative products. The relationship satisfaction‐loyalty is also present when evaluating product and brand combined, indicating that there is an intermediate position between product and brand. In contrast, the literature treats brand and product‐brand as being in the same category thereby diminishing the importance of a useful difference between brand and product‐brand.
Practical implications
There are practical consequences of applying the typology and examining the findings. The relationship satisfaction‐loyalty starts with the product, includes the product‐brand, and culminates with the brand. This process is significantly more important regarding innovative products, such as electronics, as compared to traditional products such as wine.
Originality/value
This study introduces a typology underscoring the pursuit of satisfaction and development of loyalty in three conditions of product presence versus brand presence, that is, product alone, brand alone, and product and brand combined.
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Percy Marquina Feldman and Arturo Z. Vasquez‐Parraga
Consumer responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives when compared to consumer responses to corporate abilities (CA) have been elusory. Relevant empirical…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumer responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives when compared to consumer responses to corporate abilities (CA) have been elusory. Relevant empirical research on the subject shows unclear results. The objective of this research is to examine key antecedents to consumer social responses (CnSR), in particular, the comparative effects of CSR initiatives and CA in the consumer purchasing behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A choice‐based conjoint model was applied to quota consumer samples from two disparate countries (USA and Peru) in the shoe industry.
Findings
The results demonstrate that some CSR initiatives, such as companies' environmental commitments, along with some CA, such as product quality, significantly explain the nature of consumer responses and a trade‐off effect on consumers' willingness to pay for a product. The differences between the two countries, and those expected for gender and age, strengthen the relationships tested.
Practical implications
Implications for CSR policies, limitations of the findings, and considerations for future research supplement the contribution.
Originality/value
Trade‐off measures between traditional product features, that depend on CA, and CSR product features, that depend on CSR initiatives, are used to show why consumers prefer CSR products to other products.
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Arturo Z. Vasquez‐Parraga, Reto Felix and Aberdeen Leila Borders
Foreign direct investment by Latin American companies in the USA is growing and significant. Yet, the characteristics of and trends in these investments, and the strategies used…
Abstract
Foreign direct investment by Latin American companies in the USA is growing and significant. Yet, the characteristics of and trends in these investments, and the strategies used by these companies to either enter or exit the USA as well as to maintain their presence are little understood. This paper explores and illustrates the entry, maintenance, and exit strategies exemplary companies from Latin America use when they become involved in US markets. A sample of Mexican companies that concentrate in manufacturing industrial goods and prefer partnerships as the entry mode to US markets is used. In addition, this paper describes the patterns of direct investment, asset ownership, gross product, and intra‐firm B‐to‐B trade of Latin American companies in the USA.
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Jason Flores and Arturo Z. Vasquez-Parraga
This study’s aim is to investigate whether offering a co-production opportunity as a choice or as the only means of service rendering influences customer value creation and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study’s aim is to investigate whether offering a co-production opportunity as a choice or as the only means of service rendering influences customer value creation and satisfaction. This research incorporates two empirically supported sources of co-created value, relational and economic, and it investigates a new dimension of co-created value, individual value. The study focus supports the need for more empirically based guidance for the management and design of co-creation processes.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design was utilized to test the choice/no-choice condition. Data were collected through a survey of 214 respondents who were selected on the basis of their familiarity with the context of the experimental scenarios.
Findings
The results show that co-production as an option for service rendering has a stronger positive impact on value creation than does the context when co-production is necessary. Choice was found to positively influence relational and economic value. Value creation was found to mediate the choice and satisfaction relationship. Individual value had the strongest relative impact on satisfaction but was not significantly related to choice.
Practical implications
Designers and managers of co-production-enabling processes can enhance customer and organizational outcomes simply by offering customers a choice when considering whether or not to engage in co-production.
Originality/value
This originality of this study lies in the supporting evidence found for the influence of choice on value creation and the empirical corroboration for individual value creation as a source of co-created value. The on-line context of this study in this context is also novel.
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Juan Alejandro Gallegos and Arturo Vasquez
The purpose of this paper is to explain student loyalty beyond its customary relationship with student satisfaction by including two relational variables, trust and commitment…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain student loyalty beyond its customary relationship with student satisfaction by including two relational variables, trust and commitment, two cognitive traits (service familiarity and communication) and one affective trait (opportunism) as moderators of the impact of trust and commitment on loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
Two relational constructs (trust and commitment) are employed to improve the loyalty model and key comparisons are performed to know if career, cohort and sourcing school generate differences in the explanation of student loyalty.
Findings
Results show that the explanation chain that starts with student satisfaction but continues with the development of student trust and the reaching of student commitment culminates with student loyalty. The moderators (student opportunism, service familiarity, communication, age and available income for education) significantly contribute to the explanatory power of the model. Career is a meaningful differentiator in reaching student loyalty as are student cohort and the type of high school from which the student came.
Research limitations/implications
This is one of first empirical studies on university student loyalty. Future research could test the same or new hypotheses using different samples and contexts.
Practical implications
University policies may benefit from the inclusion of norms regarding relational processes and outcomes such as the value of trust in the interactions and systematic recognition and awards assigned to student commitment achievements.
Originality/value
The explanation chain of customer loyalty was successfully applied to student loyalty, and strengthened with the addition of meaningful moderating variables.
Propósito
Esta investigación tiene como objetivo explicar la lealtad del estudiante más allá de su relación habitual con la satisfacción del estudiante al incluir dos variables relacionales, confianza y compromiso, dos rasgos cognitivos (familiaridad con el servicio y comunicación) y un rasgo afectivo (oportunismo) como moderadores del impacto de la confianza y Compromiso de lealtad.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Se emplean dos construcciones relacionales (confianza y compromiso) para mejorar el modelo de lealtad y se realizan comparaciones clave para saber si la carrera, la cohorte y la escuela de recursos generan diferencias en la explicación de la lealtad de los estudiantes.
Hallazgos
los resultados muestran que la cadena de explicación que comienza con la satisfacción del estudiante, pero continúa con el desarrollo de la confianza del estudiante y el logro del compromiso del estudiante culmina con la lealtad del estudiante. Los moderadores (el oportunismo de los estudiantes, la familiaridad con el servicio, la comunicación, la edad y los ingresos disponibles para la educación) contribuyen significativamente al poder explicativo del modelo. La carrera es un diferenciador significativo para alcanzar la lealtad de los estudiantes, al igual que la cohorte del estudiante y el tipo de escuela secundaria de la cual provino el estudiante.
Limitaciones/implicaciones de la investigación
Este es uno de los primeros estudios empíricos sobre la lealtad de los estudiantes universitarios. Las investigaciones futuras podrían probar las mismas o nuevas hipótesis utilizando diferentes ejemplos y contextos.
Implicaciones prácticas
Las políticas de la universidad pueden beneficiarse de la inclusión de normas con respecto a los procesos y resultados relacionales, como el valor de la confianza en las interacciones y el reconocimiento sistemático y los premios asignados a los logros de compromiso de los estudiantes.
Originalidad/valor
La cadena de explicación de la lealtad del cliente se aplicó con éxito a la lealtad del estudiante y se fortaleció con la adición de variables moderadoras significativas.
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Atieh Poushneh and Arturo Vasquez-Parraga
Advances in autonomous technology have transformed customer experience. Most prior research has investigated the effect of augmented reality (AR) on purchase intention, yet few…
Abstract
Purpose
Advances in autonomous technology have transformed customer experience. Most prior research has investigated the effect of augmented reality (AR) on purchase intention, yet few research has discussed the effect of semiautonomous AR in the context of service use. Semiautonomous AR recognizes content in the present reality, inserts and adjusts virtual content, supervises the users and enables them to feel in control of the virtual content overlaid in observed reality resulting in enriched user experience and thereby augmentation experience. This research demonstrates how perceived control of virtual content leads to higher perceived augmentation experiences among semiautonomous AR users than among non-AR users. In addition, this research examines the mediation effects of enriched user experience and perceived augmentation experience on user satisfaction and users’ willingness to continue using AR. Results also indicate that AR users perceive a higher augmentation experience than non-AR users. However, users’ willingness to continue using AR is not significantly different between AR and non-AR users.
Design/methodology/approach
This study derives six hypotheses and uses a preliminary study, a field study and a lab study to evaluate the hypotheses. A field study was conducted in a car dealership to test the hypotheses, and a lab experiment was conducted in a controlled setting to corroborate the results obtained in the field study and test the underlying causal effects.
Findings
Semiautonomous AR can constantly sense, plan and not necessarily always act over the virtual content to sustain the interaction with its users. Perceived control of virtual content enhances perceived augmentation experience, and its effect of perceived control of virtual content on perceived augmentation experience is higher among semiautonomous AR users than among non-AR users. Perceived control of virtual content is a key to enriched user experience, augmentation experience and thereby users’ attitude and behavior. In addition, results showed that enriched user experience mediates the effect of perceived control of virtual content on perceived augmentation. User satisfaction mediates the effect of perceived augmentation experience on users’ willingness to continue using AR. The theoretical and practical contributions are comprehensively discussed.
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations of the studies are ascertained. First, a larger sample size might be required to achieve generalizability and a strong test of the applied theory. Second, new field studies can reflect customers’ real attitudes and behaviors so as to reveal realistic interactions between the device properties and the human will in solving actual problems. The user is interested in participating in the solution within the sensing-planning-acting process as depicted by this research. Third, new research to test AR’s capabilities in bounded and symbiotic conditions can illustrate the level of autonomy each type requires, providing additional insights into why supervised AR autonomy best reflects semiautonomous AR. The pioneering structural model offered in this study (perceived control of virtual content-perceived augmentation experience-users’ satisfaction-users’ willingness to continue using AR) should be tested with new samples in other industries, aside from including other variables that may enrich the model and increase its explanatory power. In addition, future research might use other AR devices such as smart glasses to explore the effects of AR on perceived control of virtual content, enriched user experience and perceived augmentation experience. Future studies can investigate the effect of auditory and visual augmentation on enriched user experience and perceived augmentation experience, and involve features of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist users in decision-making. Regarding context, this research showed that age and gender differences did not affect the results. Nonetheless, age and gender, and perhaps additional demographic characteristics, may concern future studies.
Practical implications
Some recommendations for technology developers are derived from this research. AR is revolutionizing service experience. As technologies are becoming autonomous, developers seek ways to design experiences to enhance consumers’ sense of control over their interaction with such systems. Companies cannot create customer experience (Becker and Jaakkola, 2020), yet they can leverage the level of autonomy in AR to sustain ongoing interaction with customers. It is vital to design an autonomous AR that focuses on users’ needs, desires and well-being (de Bellis and Johar, 2020) that drive novel experiences (Novak and Hoffman, 2019). This study recommends AR developers design autonomous features in AR that enable customers to interact with the virtual contents generated by AR and extend their own capabilities to perform a task and feel expanded. While designing a fully autonomous system may hinder users to feel in control of their choice (Schmitt, 2019), service companies can develop an AR system that sustains an interaction, involves the user in value co-creation and guides the user (Alimamy and Gnoth, 2022). AR can sustain an interaction with the users by continuously scanning the objects in the reality and providing sensory feedback such as product size recommendations (e.g. eyeglasses) that facilitate customers’ information processing (Poushneh, 2021b; Heller et al., 2019). To achieve this, developers may focus on technology qualities such as “image recognition,” a subset of AI. With image recognition, AR can effectively provide instruction as if the customer is in a real setting. The proper incorporation of image recognition in the design of AR while enabling users to interact with 3D virtual images sustains their interaction with AR and makes them feel in control of their interaction with AR. Service companies need to ensure users feel in control of their interaction and expand their capacities to engage in the service experience with AR to accomplish their desired tasks. AR’s capacities enable users to expand their abilities to fix their basic service problems without referring to or speaking to a service provider agent in a service context. Therefore, instead of taking their car back to the dealership, customers can use AR mobile applications or glasses provided by car manufacturers to learn and fix basic vehicle problems.
Originality/value
This research advances the marketing literature on how users feel in control of virtual content when they interact with a semiautonomous AR that subsequently influences enriched user experience, perceived augmentation experience, attitudes and behavior.
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Katia Ciampa and Dana Reisboard
The single-site case study described herein is part of a two-year professional development (PD) initiative aimed at helping teachers from an urban elementary (K-8) school learn…
Abstract
Purpose
The single-site case study described herein is part of a two-year professional development (PD) initiative aimed at helping teachers from an urban elementary (K-8) school learn how to implement explicit, transactional comprehension strategy instruction across grades using culturally relevant books. This paper aims to describe the urban elementary teachers’ successes and challenges in their first-year implementation of providing culturally relevant literacy instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
Three types of qualitative data were collected: researchers’ anecdotal notes during the professional learning sessions; teacher focus groups; and teachers’ blog reflection entries.
Findings
The findings revealed that the PD for culturally relevant literacy instruction resulted in teachers’ heightened awareness of how identities and social subjectivities are negotiated in and through culturally relevant discourse, the implicit and explicit bias in the school curriculum. Finally, PD served as a catalyst for facilitating students’ and teachers’ racial and cultural identity development.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study suggest that culturally relevant books which incorporate the students’ background may aid in student engagement because students are able to draw upon their culturally acquired background knowledge to better comprehend texts. Thus, to engage, motivate, affirm and promote students’ literacy success, teachers need to possess knowledge of their students’ race and culture, as well as their background, language and life experiences.
Practical implications
The findings of this study suggest that culturally relevant books which incorporate the students’ background may aid in student engagement because students are able to draw upon their culturally acquired background knowledge to better comprehend texts. Thus, to engage, motivate, affirm and promote students’ literacy success, teachers need to possess knowledge of their students’ race and culture, as well as their background, language and life experiences.
Social implications
Teachers and teacher educators must reflect on, question and critique their own work in preparing teachers to enter today’s schools as critical, reflective educators. The types of children’s literature that are selected and introduced to students play an important role in dismantling technocratic approaches to literacy instruction and strengthen one’s understanding of one another. Teachers must select books that challenge assumptions and speak of possibilities for change.
Originality/value
Culturally relevant pedagogy that includes culturally relevant children’s literature holds promise for improving literacy instructional and assessment practices and school experiences for culturally and linguistically diverse students, especially in environments where high-stakes testing is emphasized. It is one way to imagine a better schooling experience for students that affirms identities and honors and sustains diversity. For culturally relevant pedagogy to be a reality in education, stakeholders must be on board, including students, parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers.
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The growing displacement of theory and other forms of wide-ranging knowledge of social phenomena by empirical research methods in economics is widely noted by economists and…
Abstract
The growing displacement of theory and other forms of wide-ranging knowledge of social phenomena by empirical research methods in economics is widely noted by economists and historians of economic knowledge. Less attention has been devoted, however, to understand the materialization of such changes in the scientific practices. This article studies the recent transformations in the epistemological practices at CEDE, a research center in Colombia. I use a machine learning technique called Topic Modeling, interviews to CEDE researchers, and exegesis of papers to characterize a shift in the production of knowledge in microeconometrics at CEDE during the years 2000 and 2018. I explain this shift by characterizing two sets of epistemological practices that implies a recent tendency to disdain research that cannot make a “strong” causal inference.