Allen and Meyer’s (1990) three component model of organizational commitment is now well accepted in the study of consumer–service provider relationships (Keiningham et al., 2015)…
Abstract
Purpose
Allen and Meyer’s (1990) three component model of organizational commitment is now well accepted in the study of consumer–service provider relationships (Keiningham et al., 2015). Commitment profiling is a “person-centered approach” to commitment (Meyer et al., 2012) which examines groups of individuals who share similar commitment mindsets. The purpose of this paper is to apply commitment profile methodology to the analysis of customer–firm relationships in the context of financial services.
Design/methodology/approach
This method was applied with customer data collected as part of a nation-wide panel study of consumer financial service relationships in Canada. In total, 428 banking customers participated in this study.
Findings
This study identified five distinct bank customer commitment profiles (fully committed, affective commitment dominant, continuance commitment dominant, moderately committed and uncommitted) that varied in both size and behaviors and intentions.
Research limitations/implications
This is an exploration of commitment profiling as a technique to understand the ways in which consumers differ in terms of their commitment mindsets and behavior. It has application to a wide range of service relationships beyond financial services.
Practical implications
This has applications for market segmentation on the basis of customer commitment mindsets in many service sectors, but banking in particular. Since financial institutions have adopted various techniques to measure customer lifetime value (CLV), it would be appropriate to understand how various commitment profiles (segments) are linked to CLV.
Originality/value
While commitment profiling is a well-developed approach in understanding the nature of the firm–employee employment relationships, this is an early and exploratory attempt at applying this method in the context of a customer–financial service provider marketing relationship. This is a novel way of understanding bank customer segments in terms of their felt commitment to the financial institution with which they do business.
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The relationship marketing literature puts forward that customer commitment is central to the development of marketing relationships. The purpose of this paper is to investigate…
Abstract
Purpose
The relationship marketing literature puts forward that customer commitment is central to the development of marketing relationships. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which two components of customer commitment (affective commitment and continuance commitment) both enhance and undermine customer loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical model was developed to determine the extent to which the components of commitment both served as mediators of and interacted with one another in the relationship between service quality and switching and advocacy intentions. This model was examined in a survey of customers in three service settings; financial services, retail‐grocery services and telecommunications services.
Findings
Commitment serves as a partial mediator of the service quality‐loyalty relationship. It was also found that affective commitment made a negative impact on switching intentions and a positive impact on advocacy intentions in all three service settings. Continuance commitment had mixed effects on switching intentions and made a negative impact on advocacy intentions.. At the same time there was an interactive effect between the two components of commitment such that continuance commitment depressed the positive effects of affective commitment on both dependent variables.
Originality/value
While the positive impact of identification based affective commitment is well understood in the marketing literature, the role of continuance commitment is not so well appreciated. This study reinforces the weakness of a relationship based on continuance commitment. In addition, few studies prior to this one have demonstrated the interactive effects between the two components of commitment.
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Limited attention has been given to the effects of normative commitment (NC) in a marketing relationship. This paper investigates the effects of service quality and normative…
Abstract
Purpose
Limited attention has been given to the effects of normative commitment (NC) in a marketing relationship. This paper investigates the effects of service quality and normative commitment on customer retention in a consumer-retailer relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Two distinct studies; a longitudinal experiment and a SEM model were conducted to tease out the normative commitment-service quality interaction on customer switching intentions in services.
Findings
Both studies supported the existence of a significant normative commitment-service quality interaction on switching, in addition to the main effects of both variables.
Research limitations/implications
The longitudinal experiment has the limitation of being a simple test of theory in a controlled setting. Study II validates this theory in a real-world retail services setting, but there are questions about the extent to which the relationship may hold in other service sectors. The results indicate that the effect of service quality on customer loyalty is moderated by normative commitment. This may also allow us to think about customer commitment in a new way in that it could be a construct rooted in attitude confidence rather than attitude.
Practical implications
The findings allow practitioners to recognize that the development of obligation-based normative commitment can give them a basis for successful competition against other firms, even those that may outperform them on other salient attributes, including basic service quality.
Originality/value
This is one of a very small number of studies in the discipline that have examined the effects of normative commitment and the first that has demonstrated that normative commitment moderates the service quality-service customer retention relationship. This opens the door for the possibility that other forms of commitment may moderate the relationship between service quality and customer retention.
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Gordon Fullerton and Shirley Taylor
The purpose of this paper is to explore the theory that dissatisfaction and violation are distinct affective responses to a service wait. It was thought that dissatisfaction was a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the theory that dissatisfaction and violation are distinct affective responses to a service wait. It was thought that dissatisfaction was a consequence of a disconfirmation of expectations while violation was a consequence of a breach of a psychological contract.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used the critical incidents method to examine 144 consumption stories where an informant experienced a wait in a service situation.
Findings
It was found that consumers generally felt disappointed or dissatisfied when they experienced a wait when they had expectations about waiting time. When they believed that service provider had made concrete representations (or promises) about the length of time it would take to deliver a service, they felt angry or outraged. These are elements of the overall affective state of violation.
Research limitations/implications
The critical incidents technique is well used in services marketing and rich theory building method of investigation. It has known limitations. In addition to explaining reaction to waits and delays, the application of psychological contract theory might apply to a host of marketing phenomena and the theory explains why some consumers get frustrated and angry while others are merely dissatisfied.
Originality/value
There are two significant contributions of this paper. First, the psychological contract exists in service marketing situations and that the psychological contract is different from consumer expectations about the service encounter. Second, dissatisfaction is distinct from violation as violation is a strong emotional response to breach of the psychological contract in the service encounter.
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Casey L. Donoho, Michael J. Polonsky, Scott Roberts and David A. Cohen
Confirms the empirical test of Hunt and Vitell’s general theory of marketing ethics by Mayo and Marks across four cultures. Uses path analysis to show the core relationships of…
Abstract
Confirms the empirical test of Hunt and Vitell’s general theory of marketing ethics by Mayo and Marks across four cultures. Uses path analysis to show the core relationships of the general theory of marketing ethics were successfully replicated using over 1,500 students from seven universities in the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia. States that tomorrow’s managers appeared to use a more deontological approach to making ethical judgements about personal selling. Extends its original research by confirming the positive relationship between the probability and the desirability of consequences. Concludes that, although the model was originally intended to explain management ethical decision making, the study shows that it may be possible to generalize as to how individuals make ethical life decisions.
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Umesh Ramchandra Raut, Prafulla Arjun Pawar, Pedro Quelhas Brito and Gyanendra Singh Sisodia
This paper aims to examine the mediating role of brand satisfaction and brand trust in brand equity antecedents and outcomes through an empirical investigation of brand equity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the mediating role of brand satisfaction and brand trust in brand equity antecedents and outcomes through an empirical investigation of brand equity elements.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted in Pune and Mumbai, two prominent cities of India. A structured questionnaire focussed on garnering responses on measuring brand equity antecedents and outcomes was circulated to the cell phone users. The questionnaire aimed to assess the role of two additional variables, namely, brand satisfaction and brand trust, in the existing and the conceptual model of brand equity (Keller, 2001). Based on the data analysis, a structural equations path and the mediating model were developed.
Findings
The findings of this study show that the new brand equity model is highly relevant in predicting brand equity as compared to the existing brand equity model (Keller, 2001). The brand equity mediation model clearly elucidates the role of brand trust and brand satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
With reference to a theoretical contribution, the study broadens the existing hypothetical model of brand equity. The findings of this research provide a strategic and analytical model for brand managers to build brand relationships among their consumers.
Originality/value
The present study challenges the existing model of brand equity (Keller, 2001) and further makes an effort to fill in the gaps in the existing theoretical model of brand equity.
Propósito
Este documento tiene como objetivo examinar el papel mediador de la satisfacción con la marca y la confianza con la marca en los antecedentes y resultados de la equidad de marca a través de una investigación empírica de los elementos de equidad de marca.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Se realizó una encuesta en Pune y Mumbai, dos ciudades prominentes de la India. Se distribuyó a los usuarios de teléfonos móviles un cuestionario estructurado centrado en obtener respuestas para medir los antecedentes y resultados del valor de marca. El objetivo del cuestionario era recoger información para evaluar el papel de dos variables adicionales, la satisfacción con la marca y la confianza en la marca en el modelo existente y conceptual del valor de marca (Keller, 2001). El análisis de datos se llevó a cabo a través de la metodología de ecuaciones estructurales y modelo de mediación.
Hallazgos
Los hallazgos de este estudio muestran que el nuevo modelo de equidad de marca es muy relevante para predecir el valor de marca en comparación con el modelo de marca existente (Keller, 2001). El modelo de mediación de la equidad de marca aclara el rol de la confianza y la satisfacción con la marca.
Limitaciones/implicaciones
En relación a la contribución teórica, el estudio amplía el modelo existente de valor de marca. Los resultados de esta investigación proporcionan un modelo estratégico y analítico para que los gerentes creen relaciones de marca entre sus consumidores.
Originalidad/valor
El presente estudio desafía el modelo existente de equidad de marca (Keller, 2001) y además hace un esfuerzo por llenar los vacíos en el modelo teórico existente de equidad de marca.
Palabras clave
Equidad de marca, Satisfacción con la marca, Confianza en la marca, Análisis de ecuaciones estructurales, Análisis de mediación
Tipo de artículo
Artículo de investigación
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David M. Gordon advanced labour economics with his theory of labour market segmentation, in which jobs rather than the marginal productivity of individual workers were the unit of…
Abstract
David M. Gordon advanced labour economics with his theory of labour market segmentation, in which jobs rather than the marginal productivity of individual workers were the unit of analysis. He advanced economic historiography and macroeconomics by conceptualising social structures of accumulation – a framework built on the foundation of his institutionalist training and enriched by his study of Marxist economics. By appropriating methods from other social science disciplines into econometrics, he augmented empirical analysis in economics. He was a founding member of the Union of Radical Political Economics and its journal, the Review of Radical Political Economics – that advanced and promoted heterodox, radical, and Marxist economists in the United States. His contributions to economics, to organised labour, and to the New School for Social Research, where I studied with him, were stunning.
Part 1 lays out some context about the New School Graduate Faculty where Gordon taught. Part 2 explores what historical forces, including his family, led to his expansive creativity. Part 3 summarises how he expanded labour economics to include the relations as well as the technology of production, linked his understanding of the production process to a historical materialist view of labour in the United States, then extended that to econometric analyses of the US macroeconomy. Part 4 presents a bibliometric analysis to provide some idea of the impact of his work. I end with some concluding remarks.
Details
Keywords
- David M. Gordon
- labor market segmentation
- social structures of accumulation
- New School for Social Research
- United States
- B. History of economic thought
- methodology and heterodox approaches
- C. mathematical and quantitative methods
- J. labor and demographic economics
- N. economic history
- economic development
- innovation
- technological change and growth
Gordon F. Woodbine, Tungshan F. Chou and James Fisher
When developing and justifying courses of study in business ethics the designer will be interested in setting benchmarks reflecting his/her understanding or appreciation of the…
Abstract
When developing and justifying courses of study in business ethics the designer will be interested in setting benchmarks reflecting his/her understanding or appreciation of the moral views of participating members. Such considerations are often complicated by the fact, relevant in many Australian institutions of higher learning, that most of the cohorts contain overseas students from a variety of Asian countries. If insights into the ethical perceptions of students with differing ethnic origins could be measured in some objective fashion, then curriculum planners might take such matters into account when developing strategies for courses involving business ethics. This paper reports the findings of a questionnaire survey that examined the ethical perceptions of 407 second and third year students completing business courses at two Western Australian universities. Two country groupings, Australian and Malaysian students, were identified and their responses examined to ascertain whether relevant demographic factors relating to age and gender could be used to explain the strong differences in perceptions which were noted with respect to issues involving questionable practices involving consumers. Demographic factors failed to explain observed differences and a subsequent examination of the underlying constructs, using factor and cluster analyses, resulted in the realisation that the two groups demonstrated significantly variant patterns of ethical predisposition.
Glenda M. Flores and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
This chapter explains why college-educated Latinas, the daughters of working-class Latino immigrant parents, are disproportionately entering the teaching profession in the United…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter explains why college-educated Latinas, the daughters of working-class Latino immigrant parents, are disproportionately entering the teaching profession in the United States.
Methodology/approach
This qualitative study relies on secondary statistical data, an analysis of regional trends and 40 in-depth face-to-face interviews with Latina teachers that work in Southern California elementary schools.
Findings
Teaching has traditionally been a white woman’s occupation, but it is now the number one career drawing college-educated Latina women, who are entering the teaching profession at greater rates than African Americans or Asian Americans. Current scholarship posits that teaching is a career that resonates with Latina women’s racial-ethnic solidarity and feminine sense of duty to help others. In this chapter, we show how class background is also a key in understanding why the teaching profession has emerged as the top occupational niche for college-educated Latina women. While racial uplift, gender ideals, and family socialization help explain why college-educated Latinas are going into teaching, we add an emphasis on socio-economic class, demographic and structural context, and collectively informed agency.
Research limitations/implications
This study sheds light on the factors that shape upward mobility and career outcomes in white-collar jobs for minority students and second generation Latinas, the children of immigrants.
Originality/value
This chapter offers a sociological analysis that suggests Latina teachers navigate their educational and career choices with collective-informed agency and strong obligations to family members. To best understand why Latina/Chicana college graduates are increasingly concentrated in the teaching profession, we advocate an intersectionalities approach that takes class seriously.
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– The purpose of this paper is an examination of the role of brand personification in the development of the concepts of brand personality and brand relationships.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is an examination of the role of brand personification in the development of the concepts of brand personality and brand relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a critical evaluation of literature from the 1950s and onwards, examining the evolution and development of brand personality and brand relationship theory and the role of brand personification.
Findings
The major finding is that brand personification was developed as a research “gimmick” and that this “gimmick” provided the foundations for the development of the brand personality and brand relationship concepts. Further, the paper traces the evolution of the brand personality concept and identifies the ways in which it has been adapted from its original meaning.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the branding literature by providing a critical evaluation of the history of marketing concepts and by providing insights into the role that motivation research played in the development of modern brand theory.