Barry J. Babin, Yong‐Ki Lee, Eun‐Ju Kim and Mitch Griffin
The research seeks to extend the notions of utilitarian and hedonic value to account for outcomes of consumer service encounters.
Abstract
Purpose
The research seeks to extend the notions of utilitarian and hedonic value to account for outcomes of consumer service encounters.
Design/methodology/approach
The research question is examined using a sample of Korean restaurant consumers who used a structured questionnaire to evaluate their dining experience. Structural equations analysis is used to test various research hypotheses and examine the extent to which consumer service value mediates the effect of the environment on customer satisfaction and future intentions.
Findings
Key findings include the ability of the consumer service value scale to account for utilitarian and hedonic value, the role of functional and affective service environment components in shaping consumer satisfaction and future patronage intentions and the relative diagnosticity of positive affect.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need to extend the results to a diverse range of cultures.
Practical implications
Restaurant managers should place increased emphasis on the physical environment as it clearly plays a role in creating positive consumer outcomes and building strong customer relationships.
Originality/value
The use of the consumer value scale (CSV) – particularly in a novel service context.
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Highlights IMT‐2000 and discusses communications satellites which have received a shot in the arm from new international standards protocols, but on the ground 3G rollout promises…
Abstract
Highlights IMT‐2000 and discusses communications satellites which have received a shot in the arm from new international standards protocols, but on the ground 3G rollout promises to be patchy as a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System standard remains elusive. Sums up that business cases may have to be redeveloped in order to achieve market forecasts – the survival of GMPCS systems depends on that scenario.
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Billy Sung, Nicholas J. Wilson, Jin Ho Yun and Eun Ju LEE
Neuroimaging technologies such as electroencephalogram and magnetic resonance imaging allow us to analyze consumers’ brains in real time as they experience emotions. These…
Abstract
Purpose
Neuroimaging technologies such as electroencephalogram and magnetic resonance imaging allow us to analyze consumers’ brains in real time as they experience emotions. These technologies collect and integrate data on consumers’ brains for big data analytics. The purpose of this paper is to identify new opportunities and challenges for neuromarketing as an applied neuroscience.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors discuss conceptual and methodological contributions of neuromarketing based on studies that have employed neural approaches in market-related investigations, explaining the various tools and designs of neuromarketing research. The authors identify marketing-related questions to which neuroscientific approaches can make meaningful contributions, evaluating several challenges that lie ahead for neuromarketing.
Findings
The authors summarize the contributions of neuromarketing and discuss synergistic findings that neuromarketing has the potential to yield.
Research limitations/implications
The authors ask: do consumers’ self-reported choices and their neural representations tell different stories?; what are the effects of subtle and peripheral marketing stimuli?; and can neuromarketing help to reveal the underlying causal mechanisms for perceptual and learning processes, such as motivation and emotions?
Practical implications
The authors identify marketing-related questions to which neuroscientific approaches can make meaningful contributions, evaluating several challenges that lie ahead for neuromarketing.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no current review has identified avenues for future research in neuromarketing and the emerging challenges that researchers may face. The current paper aims to update readers on what neuroscience and other psychophysiological measures have achieved, as well as what these tools have to offer in the field of marketing. The authors also aim to foster greater application of neuroscientific methods, beyond the more biased/post-test methods such as self-report studies, which currently exist in consumer research.
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Sungmin Ryu, Eun‐Ju Lee and Won Jun Lee
This study seeks to introduce the concept of collectivism, and to assess its impact on interfirm commitment in both high and low collectivist countries.
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to introduce the concept of collectivism, and to assess its impact on interfirm commitment in both high and low collectivist countries.
Design/methodology/approach
In evaluating the effects of bilateral power structures on commitment, the paper utilizes polynomial regression and the response surface approach.
Findings
Collectivism influenced a manufacturer's commitment to the relationship with its supplier only in Korea, but collectivism did not influence a manufacturer's commitment to the relationship with its supplier in the USA. On the other hand, for the USA sample, significant main effects of manufacturer power and supplier power, as well as a significant interaction between manufacturer power and supplier power on interfirm commitment were detected.
Research limitations/implications
The results demonstrate that the bilateral power magnitude between a manufacturer and its supplier was germane to the manufacturer's commitment. An increase in the supplier's power contributes to manufacturer's commitment, particularly under high bilateral power conditions. Under low bilateral power conditions, manufacturers were shown to become less committed to a relationship.
Practical implications
It is important for global companies to understand the prevailing national culture. US companies operating in Eastern countries, such as Korea, should consider these cultural differences and manage their interfirm relationships on the basis of their long‐term perspectives.
Originality/value
This study facilitates a greater understanding of the influence of national culture on inter‐organizational commitment. Specifically, it evaluates the relative influences of collectivism and interfirm power structures on interfirm commitment in both high and low collectivistic cultures.
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Robert Davis, Bodo Lang and Neil Gautam
It is assumed that consumers consume games to experience hedonic and utilitarian value. However, there is no conceptual model or empirical evidence that supports this hypothesis…
Abstract
Purpose
It is assumed that consumers consume games to experience hedonic and utilitarian value. However, there is no conceptual model or empirical evidence that supports this hypothesis in the game context or clarifies whether these consumption values have dual mediated or individual effects. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to model the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian consumption and game purchase and usage.
Design/methodology/approach
This research question is answered through two studies. In Study One, qualitative interviews with 18 gamers were implemented to explore the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian consumption and, game purchase and usage behaviour. In Study Two, we surveyed 493 consumers and conducted confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling across four game types to model this relationship.
Findings
The paper concludes that hedonic rather than utilitarian consumption positively impacts purchase and usage. Support was also found for the utilitarian‐hedonic dual mediation model (UHDM). Therefore, utilitarian consumption has an indirect causal effect on game purchase or usage through hedonic consumption.
Practical implications
Game development for consumers online, on wireless devices and on consoles should place greater emphasis on the practical implications of hedonic consumption. Attention could be focused on perceived enjoyment, self‐concept, self‐congruity and self‐efficacy as the primary drivers of use and purchase. Practical solutions should also be developed to develop the UHDM effect.
Originality/value
This is the first paper in the game context to explore and model the relationship between hedonic, utilitarian consumption and the UHDM effect on game purchase and usage. This paper is also unique because it provides results across four game groups: all games (ALL), Sports/Simulation/Driving (SSD), Role Playing Game/Massively Multiplayer Online Role‐Playing Game Strategy (RPG), and Action/Adventure/Fighting (AAF).
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Paul Sergius Koku and Selen Savas
This paper aims to examine the connection between restaurant tipping propensity and customers’ susceptibility to emotional contagion (EC) in an effort to shed more light on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the connection between restaurant tipping propensity and customers’ susceptibility to emotional contagion (EC) in an effort to shed more light on consumers’ inclination to pay more for a service than they are legally obligated to (that is to pay more than the price by tipping).
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, two different instruments (Tipping Motivations Scale and Emotional Contagion Scale) were simultaneously administered online to restaurant patrons. The simultaneous administration of the instruments allows the researchers to capture not only tipping propensity but also the linkage between tipping propensity and customers’ susceptibility to EC.
Findings
The results show that customers’ susceptibility to EC, social compliance and server actions has the most effect on intention to tip in restaurants in Turkey. These findings support the notion that universal human characteristics such as the tendency to reciprocate (Hatfield et al., 1993) influence consumers’ propensity to tip regardless of the culture.
Research limitations/implications
While the results of this study offer some insight into why restaurant patrons tip, the fact that the study was carried out only in Turkey which has a collectivist culture limits the generalizability of the results to other societies that may be individualistic in orientation.
Practical implications
The findings of this study can be used by restaurant managers in training their employees and improving their customer patronage, particularly patronage from repeat customers. Similarly, the results could be used by restaurant servers to improve their income.
Social implications
The results of the study have potential to enhance the mutually beneficial relationship that should exist between restaurants and restaurant patrons. Indirectly, the results of the study could improve collective societal good.
Originality/value
This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the first to use the Tipping Motivations Scale (Whaley et al., 2014) in a different culture (Eurasia) and explain consumers’ tipping propensity explicitly using the concept of EC.
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Maria Helena Vinagre and José Neves
The purpose of this research is to develop and empirically test a model to examine the major factors affecting patients' satisfaction that depict and estimate the relationships…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to develop and empirically test a model to examine the major factors affecting patients' satisfaction that depict and estimate the relationships between service quality, patient's emotions, expectations and involvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach was tested using structural equation modeling, with a sample of 317 patients from six Portuguese public healthcare centres, using a revised SERVQUAL scale for service quality evaluation and an adapted DESII scale for assessing patient emotions.
Findings
The scales used to evaluate service quality and emotional experience appears valid. The results support process complexity that leads to health service satisfaction, which involves diverse phenomena within the cognitive and emotional domain, revealing that all the predictors have a significant effect on satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The emotions inventory, although showing good internal consistency, might be enlarged to other typologies in further research – needed to confirm these findings.
Practical implications
Patient's satisfaction mechanisms are important for improving service quality.
Originality/value
The research shows empirical evidence about the effect of both patient's emotions and service quality on satisfaction with healthcare services. Findings also provide a model that includes valid and reliable measures.