Jochen Wirtz, Chris Tang and Dominik Georgi
Referral reward programs (RRPs) incentivize existing customers (inductors) to refer new customers (inductees). The effectiveness of RRPs is not well understood as previous studies…
Abstract
Purpose
Referral reward programs (RRPs) incentivize existing customers (inductors) to refer new customers (inductees). The effectiveness of RRPs is not well understood as previous studies either focused on referral intent and/or ignored inductee responses. However, an RRP is only effective if inductors recommend and inductees respond with buying the service. The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers of existing customers’ successful referral behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
This study combines a bank’s customer relationship management (CRM) data which were used to identify successful inductors and non-inductors. Then, observed behavioral and customer background data from the CRM database (including successful referrals, deposits in euros, number of products held, relationship duration, income, age, and gender) were combined with survey data capturing attitudinal variables (i.e. perceived relationship quality, reward attractiveness, referral metaperception, opportunism, and involvement). This approach allowed for the simultaneous testing of all hypothesized drivers of successful referral behavior.
Findings
Metaperception (i.e. the process by which individuals determine the impressions other might form of them and their behavior) was the strongest and most significant driver of successful RRP participation, followed by attractiveness of the reward. That is, inductors recommended successfully when they believed that their incentivized referral did not look bad (or even looked good) and incentives were perceived as attractive. This finding is important as metaperception so far has only been examined in theoretical and experimental studies with intent as dependent variables. Second, latent class analysis (LCA) revealed that there were two segments of inductors of which one was opportunistic. Opportunism as a driver of referral behavior has not been shown in past research using more traditional analyses, whereas LCA uncovered it as a driver for one-third of all respondents.
Practical implications
The findings offer managers a better understanding of the key determinants of successful referral behavior with important RRP design implications that counter frequent practice (e.g. designing RRPs with high face value but then reducing its usefulness through terms and conditions). Furthermore, managers may consider segment-specific reward structures to improve the effectiveness of their RRPs.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine inductor determinants of successful referral behavior and identify inductor segments.
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Ọláyínká Àkànle, Irenitemi G. Abolade, Olusegun Israel Olaniyan and Damilola Olayinka Ola-Lawson
Kashif Hussain, Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan, Thienming Tang, Low Chris Kam Loong and Richard Teare
The purpose of this paper is to profile the Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes theme issue “The way forward: how is Malaysian hospitality and tourism education working with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to profile the Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes theme issue “The way forward: how is Malaysian hospitality and tourism education working with industry?” with reference to the experiences of the theme editors and writing team.
Design/methodology/approach
Structured questions were used to enable the theme editors to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process.
Findings
Malaysia’s hospitality and tourism industry is facing an acute shortage of skilled employees, accentuated by the fact that jobs in the industry are not broadly appealing to Malaysians.
Practical implications
The hospitality and tourism industry in Malaysia wants to employ graduates with a professional attitude and mindset, and to secure this objective, a greater focus on work-based learning is needed.
Originality/value
The paper draws on discussion and applied research to explore the hospitality and tourism industry–education collaboration in Malaysia and the ways in which employability and retention can be enhanced by a greater emphasis on work-based learning.
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Kashif Hussain, Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan, Vincent Tang Thien Ming and Chris Low Kam Loong
The purpose of this paper is to summarise the main points arising from the articles contained in this theme issue and to provide some directions for the future development of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to summarise the main points arising from the articles contained in this theme issue and to provide some directions for the future development of hospitality and tourism education in Malaysia.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the contribution made by this theme issue in response to the strategic question: How is Malaysian hospitality and tourism education working with the industry?
Findings
The paper observes that authors with different academic and industry backgrounds are able to generate significant outcomes in terms of the contribution to knowledge and/or professional practice, the implications for management action, applied research and industry practice in Malaysia.
Originality/value
This paper considers the extent to which the strategic question discussed in this theme issue could be applied to other ASEAN countries.
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Thomas Li‐Ping Tang, Roberto Luna‐Arocas and Toto Sutarso
This study examined a mediating model of income and pay satisfaction with a direct path (income → pay satisfaction) and an indirect path with two mediators (income → the love of…
Abstract
This study examined a mediating model of income and pay satisfaction with a direct path (income → pay satisfaction) and an indirect path with two mediators (income → the love of money → pay equity comparison → pay satisfaction). Results of the whole sample showed that the indirect path was significant and the direct path was insignificant. When the indirect path was eliminated, income contributed positively to pay satisfaction. We then tested the model across two moderators: culture (the United States versus Spain) and gender. This study provides the following theoretical and empirical contributions: the direct relationship between income and pay satisfaction depends on the indirect path and the extent to which (1) income enhances the love of money and (2) the love of money is applied to evaluate pay equity comparison satisfaction. If both conditions exist, income leads to pay dissatisfaction. If the second condition does not exist, income does not lead to pay dissatisfaction. Pay satisfaction depends on (1) one’s love of money and (2) how one compares. The role of the love of money in pay satisfaction is “not”universal across cultures and gender.
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M. Anil Ramesh and Madhusudan Kumar Kota
COCO TANG India is an innovation-driven company. It takes inspiration from the humble coconut water that all of us are very familiar with and have drunk right from our childhood…
Abstract
COCO TANG India is an innovation-driven company. It takes inspiration from the humble coconut water that all of us are very familiar with and have drunk right from our childhood. The founders of the company, Dr Neelima, a dentist by profession and her husband Chaitanya who is a pharmacist have hit upon the idea of a coconut-based drink quite by accident.
When Dr Neelima was pregnant with her first child, the doctor advised her to take fresh coconut water. It was then that Dr Neelima discovered that fresh coconut water was a paradox, the water from a tender coconut is supposed to be fresh but in many cases is not as fresh as it should be. Coconuts are harvested from remote farms in Andhra Pradesh and sent to Hyderabad. And to top it all, the nutrition value of the coconut past its ideal window of consumption leaves a lot to desire. The price factor too is a dampener. It costs Rs. 25 to have tender coconut water in a metropolis like Hyderabad.
Dr Neelima and her husband developed the product idea from their search for a nutritious, healthy drink. Fresh, tender coconut pulp-based shakes, packed with nutrition, taste, health and at the same time make an aspirational product for the young, bubbly and restless youth of India.
This case deals with the problems, the trials and tribulations that these young first-time entrepreneurs faced and details the marketing efforts the young company is putting into survive in the dog eat dog world of fruit drink industry.
The case details the specific marketing-related problems the company faces and examines what the promoters are doing to overcome these problems, specifically related to the four Ps, that is, product, price, place and promotion. It looks in depth at the innovative marketing practices that COCO TANG India is deploying, including the use of the social media that enabled the COCO TANG India’s founder to win Junior Chamber International – Business Excellence Award for the year 2017–2018.
COCO TANG India is also the recipient of the Telugu book of records ‘certificate of national record’ as being the first brand to introduce Tender Coconut-based Mocktails and Milkshakes (A1).
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Yuxiang Chris Zhao, Yan Zhang, Jian Tang and Shijie Song
In the domain of information science, affordance is a relatively new concept that deserves further exploration. It may serve as a bridge to narrow the research-practice gap that…
Abstract
Purpose
In the domain of information science, affordance is a relatively new concept that deserves further exploration. It may serve as a bridge to narrow the research-practice gap that has persisted in information studies. Building upon previous research, we call for a broader concept of affordance that would help researchers understand information practices from an ecological perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The study focuses on conceptualizing affordances for information practices in order to theorize engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments. We develop a hierarchical model and a component model to illustrate how key tenets of affordances can be linked with the decomposition of activities and its mechanism. Following this, we describe an illustrative case of a popular Chinese cloud-based music platform to demonstrate the utility of our conceptual frameworks in guiding studies of information practices.
Findings
The study proposes to shift the focus of technology affordances, which highlights the features and functions of particular technologies, to the affordances for practices that are enacted through technology and social construction within a sociocultural environment. The illustrative case of the cloud-based music platform shows that the proposed models can provide a structured view of operations, actions and motives for music information practices. The processes of internalization and externalization offer insight into the decomposition of information practice as a chain of activity-action-operation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on theorizing engagement among people, technology and sociocultural environments through the theoretical lens of affordances and sheds new light on the challenges of information practice.
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Shufang Yang, Lin Huang, Yanli Zhang, Pengzhu Zhang and Yuxiang Chris Zhao
The literature reports inconsistent findings about the effects of social media usage (SMU). Researchers distinguish between active and passive social media usage (ASMU and PSMU)…
Abstract
Purpose
The literature reports inconsistent findings about the effects of social media usage (SMU). Researchers distinguish between active and passive social media usage (ASMU and PSMU), which can generate different effects on users by social support and social comparison mechanisms, respectively. Drawing on social presence theory (SPT), this study integrates an implicit social presence mechanism with the above two mechanisms to explicate the links between SMU and seniors' loneliness.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a field study by interviewing seniors living in eight aging care communities in China. Loneliness, social media activities and experiences with social media in terms of online social support (OSS), upward social comparison (USC) and social presence (SP) were assessed. Factor-based structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Findings
OSS can mediate the relationship between ASMU and seniors' loneliness. Moreover, SP mediates between ASMU, PSMU, and seniors' loneliness, and between OSS, USC and seniors' loneliness. OSS mediates the relationship between ASMU and SP, and USC mediates the relationship between PSMU and SP.
Practical implications
This study shows that social media can alleviate seniors' loneliness, which could help relieve the pressures faced by health and social care systems. Social presence features are suggested to help older users interact with social health technologies in socially meaningful ways.
Originality/value
This study not only demonstrates that SP can play a crucial role in the relationship between both ASMU and PSMU and loneliness, but also unravels the links between SP and OSS, as well as USC.
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Elina Tang and Christopher Blocker
This research aims to examine pathways for providers to facilitate social resilience in service communities to promote collective well-being and engagement.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine pathways for providers to facilitate social resilience in service communities to promote collective well-being and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Using abductive and metaphorical analysis, this study develops insights leveraging: the transdisciplinary field of molecular biology where 150 years of research demonstrates how cells build resilience through clustering together in a hostile environment; and case data collected with nonprofit service communities to help ground and elaborate upon the metaphorical analogues of cellular concepts.
Findings
This analysis uncovers the emergent processes of communal protection, communal adaptation and communal training within customer-to-customer service interactions. Findings identify novel drivers, such as the sharing of vulnerability markers and pre-training for community stressors, as well as pathways through which social resilience within service communities promotes habitual and transformative value, as well as collective well-being.
Practical implications
Service leaders can build upon the ideas in this research to understand the nature of social resilience and to intentionally design communal experiences and interactions that promote greater well-being and brand engagement.
Originality/value
The recent COVID-19 pandemic, along with the UN Development Goal for building a more resilient society, highlights the acute needs for a deeper understanding of social resilience. However, resilience-related research in marketing primarily focuses on individual-level coping. This research provides a deeper understanding of the drivers and outcomes of social resilience in service communities and offers a catalyst for future research on the topic.