Daniel J. Petzer, Christine F. De Meyer-Heydenrych and Göran Svensson
The interactional and distributive dimensions of perceived justice as one of its objectives are to reveal the link between perceived justice and service satisfaction (SS). The…
Abstract
Purpose
The interactional and distributive dimensions of perceived justice as one of its objectives are to reveal the link between perceived justice and service satisfaction (SS). The purpose of this paper is to consider the influence of the perceived justice that South African retail bank customers experience based on the service recovery efforts of these banks in response to their complaints, the customers’ SS, and, consequently, the behavioral intention (BI) toward these banks.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focuses on the perceived justice construct where a service failure has occurred followed by a customer complaint and a resultant service provider response. In total, 281 respondents completed a structured self-administered questionnaire.
Findings
The study found that interactional and distributive justice (DJ) experienced in response to the service recovery efforts of a bank significantly and positively influence SS, and that SS in turn significantly and positively influences the BI of these customers. However, it was found that interactional and DJ had no direct effect on BI.
Research limitations/implications
The research model tested addresses the interfaces between service receivers’ perception of interactional justice, distributional justice and SS as well as the interface between SS and BI. The tested research model indicates that both are interrelated through SS.
Practical implications
It is evident from the findings that retail banks should utilize the service encounter that follows a customer complaint as a desirable prospect to implement strategies to recover from service failures in an effort to bring about perceived justice that will ultimately influence customers’ levels of SS and BI.
Originality/value
This study makes a complementary contribution to previous studies and existing theory building a nomological framework of constructs in service encounters consisting of service receivers’ perceived justice, SS and BI.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a background into the challenges and developments faced by marketers in South Africa as well as those wanting to enter the South African…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a background into the challenges and developments faced by marketers in South Africa as well as those wanting to enter the South African market.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents the viewpoints of the authors based on their knowledge of happenings within the marketing field in South Africa.
Findings
Marketers in South Africa face both challenges and developments from the macro and market environment. These challenges and developments include the diverse nature of the South African consumer, competition, infrastructure issues, government legislation and bureaucracy.
Practical implications
South African marketers need to adapt their marketing strategies to accommodate the developments in the market. Furthermore, marketing strategies need to be adapted to meet the new challenges in South Africa markets in terms of the diversity of consumers in order to be successful.
Originality/value
The originality and value of this paper lies in the fact that it highlights the challenges and developments that marketers in South Africa face. In many cases, marketers are marketing their products and services as they did two decades ago, without realising the need to change their marketing strategy in order to target consumers as highlighted in this paper.
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Kerry Chipp, Marcus Carter and Manoj Chiba
Many markets are conceptualized as a stratified low- and middle-income “pyramid” of consumers. Emerging markets are sites of rapid consumer mobility, and thus the middle class…
Abstract
Purpose
Many markets are conceptualized as a stratified low- and middle-income “pyramid” of consumers. Emerging markets are sites of rapid consumer mobility, and thus the middle class there is connected to, and often supports, low-income relatives and employees. Therefore, this paper aims to establish that African income groups are not insular, but rather interrelated and have strong social ties reinforced with longstanding communal values, such as ubuntu.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a between-subjects experimental vignette design, the propensity of the middle class to cover low-income individuals on an insurance product was assessed.
Findings
Income strata are interrelated and can inform value propositions, which is demonstrated in this paper with insurance, where the middle class are willing to include others, depending on their social proximity, on their insurance cover.
Research limitations/implications
The context for this study was personal home insurance; hence, the generalisability of the results is circumscribed. Other more tangible forms of cover, such as medical, funeral or educational insurance, may engender far stronger effects.
Practical implications
Marketers tend to view low- and middle-income consumers as independent. A view of their interrelation will change the design of many products and services, such as a service catered to the poor but targeted at their support networks. An example of such a service is insurance, which is traditionally hard to sell to the poor. A less atomistic approach to income strata could have implications for vicarious consumption, as well as a reconsideration of the disposable income of both groups.
Originality/value
The pyramid is an interconnected network of social and economic ties.
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Irma Magaña Carrillo, Göran Svensson and María del Carmen Otero Neira
The purpose of this paper is to test a research model based on the cause-and-effect relationships between perceived justice, service satisfaction and behavioral intention.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test a research model based on the cause-and-effect relationships between perceived justice, service satisfaction and behavioral intention.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a questionnaire survey with service receivers in the Mexican telecom industry.
Findings
There are significant relationships between international/distributive justice and service satisfaction, as well as between service satisfaction and behavioral intention.
Research limitations/implications
The research model tested appears not to be context- and time-specific, but valid across contexts and through time.
Practical implications
The cause-and-effect relationships between perceived justice, service satisfaction and behavioral intention provide useful insights into service recovery strategies.
Originality/value
This paper provides additional empirical substantiations to existing theory and previous studies.
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This paper aims to examine the influence of interactive social media marketing communications on teenagers’ cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude components in South…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the influence of interactive social media marketing communications on teenagers’ cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude components in South Africa. The study also considers the impact of a number of additional factors such as usage (access, length of usage, log-on frequency, log-on duration and profile update incidence) and demographic (gender, age and population group) variables on young consumers’ attitudes toward social media marketing communications.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was used via three self-administered questionnaires, which were distributed to over 13,000 learners in the age range of 13-18 years (Generation Z cohort) at colleges and high schools in South Africa. A generalized linear model was used for statistical data analysis.
Findings
The study ascertained that social media marketing communications had a positive on each attitude component among adolescents, but on a declining scale, which correlates to the purchase funnel. The results also revealed that teenagers who used social media for long time periods; updated their profiles frequently and were from the Colored and Black population groups, displayed the most favorable attitudinal responses to social media marketing communications.
Research limitations/implications
Social media was collectively analyzed and did not consider the number of different social media types, which could be examined individually. This investigation only considered the Generation Z cohort, but other cohorts to attitudes toward social media marketing communications could also be assessed.
Practical implications
Companies and their brands should consider using and/or adapting their strategies based on the declining impact of social media marketing communications on the hierarchical attitude stages among young consumers and the divergent influence on usage and demographic variables when targeting the lucrative and technologically advanced, but capricious, Generation Z consumers.
Originality/value
This research established that social media marketing communications had a favorable influence on cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude components among young consumers, but on a declining scale, which is in congruence with the purchase funnel model. This investigation also makes an important contribution to attitudinal research in developing countries, where there is a lack of research in social media marketing communications.
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Arun Aggarwal, Dinesh Jaisinghani and Kamrunnisha Nobi
The purpose of this study is to develop and test a model on antecedents and consequences of employee engagement in the context of information technology (IT) employees.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop and test a model on antecedents and consequences of employee engagement in the context of information technology (IT) employees.
Design/methodology/approach
In this descriptive research, the data were collected from 432 employees working in IT companies operating in India. The authors performed structural equation modeling to test the proposed relationships.
Findings
The results of this study indicate a positive effect of perceived procedural justice, perceived distributive justice and perceived organizational support on employee engagement. Further, the results of this study show a positive effect of employee engagement on employees’ organizational commitment (OC) and a negative effect on employees’ turnover intentions.
Research limitations/implications
As this study uses self-reported and cross-sectional research design to collect the data, therefore, it limits the generalizations of the results.
Practical implications
The findings of this study can be beneficial for the senior managers and human resources functionaries by examining the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few studies that have examined the mediating role of employee engagement on the relationship among organizational justice, organizational support, OC and employee turnover intentions.
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Sonia Mathew, Ajay Jose, Rejikumar G and Dony Peter Chacko
The study focuses on the core issue faced by bankers on how to retain existing customers who have encountered an e-service failure and who are skeptical about the justice received…
Abstract
Purpose
The study focuses on the core issue faced by bankers on how to retain existing customers who have encountered an e-service failure and who are skeptical about the justice received through the service recovery process. It further endeavors to create an internal bench-marking model for assessing e-service recovery satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
By the experimental study, the authors confirm a measurement model using structural equation modeling for examining the impact of perceived service recovery quality antecedents on e-service recovery satisfaction moderated by perceived justice. In total, responses from 399 e-banking customers, who had experienced a e-service failure, were recorded using a 5-point Likert scale with a structured questionnaire.
Findings
The perceived e-service recovery quality antecedents identified were perceived information quality, digital commitment, perceived employee performance and perceived service orientation of organization. The empirical results revealed that “perceived information quality” was the most significant predictor of e-service recovery satisfaction. Perceived justice moderates the relation between perceived service recovery quality and e-service recovery satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The research does not contemplate the e-service recovery satisfaction of customers who have undergone multiple service failures.
Practical implications
The conclusions of the investigation suggest that the four antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality model are suitable instruments for creating benchmarks for e-service recovery satisfaction for banks, and that perceived justice moderates the relationship between e-service recovery quality and e-service recovery satisfaction. Therefore, policymakers in banks can use this model to assess the e-service recovery quality, and they ought to enhance the perceived justice feel of the customers who have experienced a service failure.
Originality/value
There remains scarcity of empirical research focusing on perceived information quality and digital commitment as antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality and its effect on e-service recovery satisfaction in the banking context. Furthermore, similar studies within the banking sector have rarely considered perceived justice as a moderator variable. Hence, this paper attempts to accomplish the research gap by empirically testing the e-service recovery satisfaction level of a large sample of the population toward four antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality rendered by banks and create a benchmark model to ascertain e-service recovery satisfaction.
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Abosede Ijabadeniyi and Jeevarathnam Parthasarathy Govender
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underlying corporate social responsibility (CSR) factors which trigger consumers’ scrutiny of corporate behavior in the purchasing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underlying corporate social responsibility (CSR) factors which trigger consumers’ scrutiny of corporate behavior in the purchasing experience. There is more focus on how the direct effects of CSR can predict consumer behavior than the expression of value-based purchasing habits, especially in relation to how the multidimensionality of consumers’ expectations of CSR indirectly informs such behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Mall-intercept survey interviews were conducted with 411 shoppers across five shopping malls in South Africa. Data were based on the emotional, social and functional values consumers derive from the purchasing experience vis-à-vis economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations of CSR and analyzed using the path analysis technique of structural equation modeling.
Findings
It was found that the relationship between consumers’ sense of value and purchasing behavior is mediated by perceived fulfillment of legal expectations of CSR (a primary redressing tool). Conversely, the fulfillment of ethical and economic CSR expectations (secondary redressing tools) serves as moderators of the relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The benefit of approaching corporate communication from a value-based perspective is a proactive risk mitigation strategy. Consumers’ sense of value in the purchasing experience is triggered by companies’ adherence to institutionalized law on corporate behavior and reinforced by compliance to code of ethics and financial viability.
Practical implications
This study offers insights for understanding how consumers redress corporate misconduct during crisis through the buying experience and explains how such understanding can be used to better predict and manage crisis communication.
Social implications
The findings of this study suggest that CSR and corporate communication practices should be informed by the taken-for-granted assumptions which underpin espoused consumer values, where negligence of unspoken patterns of CSR-based consumer behavior could signal a crisis risk.
Originality/value
This study offers a model which demonstrates for the first time that consumers implicitly utilize CSR to redress corporate misconduct in the purchasing experience.
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Rodney Graeme Duffett and Crystal Foster
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in the development of shopping lists and use of advertisements as pre-store food-buying practices in terms…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in the development of shopping lists and use of advertisements as pre-store food-buying practices in terms of planned shopping by South African consumers who dwell in different socio-economic status (SES) areas. The paper also considers the influence of shopper and socio-demographic characteristics on pre-store food-buying practices in a developing country.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 1 200 consumers in retail stores in low, middle and high SES areas in South Africa. A generalised linear model was employed for the statistical analysis of pre-store food-buying practices within the SES area groups in a developing country.
Findings
South African consumers that reside in high SES area displayed the largest of shopping list development, while consumers who dwell in low SES areas showed the highest incidence of advertisement usage. Several shopper and socio-demographic characteristics were also found to have an influence on pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in South Africa.
Research limitations/implications
A qualitative approach would offer a deeper understanding of consumers’ pre-store food shopping predispositions as opposed to the quantitative approach, which was adopted for this study. A longitudinal design would also provide a more extensive representation of pre-store food shopping practices over a longer time frame than cross-sectional research. The survey was conducted on Saturdays, whereas consumers who shop during the week may have different shopping and socio-demographic characteristics.
Practical implications
Astute food brands, marketers and grocery stores could use the findings of this study to assist with their marketing efforts that they direct at consumers in different SES areas in South Africa and other developing countries.
Social implications
The findings of this study may assist consumers in developing countries, especially those who reside in low SES areas, with food-buying strategies to reduce food costs, make wiser purchase decisions and reduce shopping.
Originality/value
No study (to the best of the researchers’ knowledge) has considered shopping list development and use of advertisements’ pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in a developing country. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research analysing shopper and socio-demographic characteristics in relation to pre-store food-buying practices among different SES areas in developing and developed countries.
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Elvira Ismagilova, Nripendra P. Rana, Emma L. Slade and Yogesh K. Dwivedi
Numerous studies have examined factors influencing electronic word of mouth (eWOM) providing behaviour. The volume of extant research and inconsistency in some of the findings…
Abstract
Purpose
Numerous studies have examined factors influencing electronic word of mouth (eWOM) providing behaviour. The volume of extant research and inconsistency in some of the findings makes it useful to develop an all-encompassing model synthesising results. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to synthesise findings from existing studies on eWOM by using meta-analysis, which will help to reconcile conflicting findings of factors affecting consumers’ intention to engage in eWOM communications.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings from 51 studies were used for meta-analysis, which was undertaken using comprehensive meta-analysis software.
Findings
Factors affecting eWOM providing behaviour were divided into four groups: personal conditions, social conditions, perceptual conditions and consumption-based conditions. The results of the meta-analysis showed that out of 20 identified relationships, 16 were found to be significant (opinion seeking, information usefulness, trust in web eWOM services, economic incentive, customer satisfaction, loyalty, brand attitude, altruism, affective commitment, normative commitment, opinion leadership, self-enhancement, information influence, tie strength, homophily and community identity).
Research limitations/implications
One of the limitations of this study is that the studies for this research were collected the only form from Web of Science, Scopus and Business Source such as databases, which result in a limited number of studies available for weight and meta-analysis. A wider range of databases should be used by future research. Also, this study only considered quantitative studies and excluded qualitative studies. Thus, future studies could include both types of studies in the meta-analysis.
Practical implications
By focussing on the best predictors of intention to provide eWOM communications (e.g. self-enhancement and trust in web eWOM services) managers can improve reader engagement and information assimilation. Knowing motivations to engage in eWOM helps platform operators design their service in a more customer-oriented way. By better understanding motivations to engage in eWOM communications marketers and researchers can influence individuals’ online information assimilation which can affect consumer purchase decisions, customer loyalty and consumer commitment to the community.
Originality/value
Applying meta-analysis helped the reconciliation of conflicting findings, enabled investigation of the strengths of the relationships between motivations and eWOM providing behaviour and offered a consolidated view. The results of this study facilitate the advancement of current knowledge of information dissemination on the internet, which can influence consumer purchase intention and loyalty.