Paul G. Patterson, Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Jenny (Jiyeon) Lee and Michael K. Brady
The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the personal/situational and business factors that encourage or discourage pro bono service of professionals based on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the personal/situational and business factors that encourage or discourage pro bono service of professionals based on the theory of institutional logics framework and the extended purchase behavior model.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper collected the data using a mixed-method approach: 30 qualitative interviews and 443 cross-sectional surveys from professional service providers across industries. The constructs of interest were measured with the scales compiled from the literature, industry reports and the preliminary interviews.
Findings
The results highlight emotional value derived from personal/situational factors (intrinsic motivation, personal recognition, philanthropic disposition and lack of appreciation) drove professionals’ intentions to continue to undertake pro bono work. While employer encouragement motivated professionals to engage in pro bono service, the prospect of gaining business opportunities and time constraints discouraged this important practice.
Research limitations/implications
While there has been considerable empirical study undertaken on charitable behavior, little attention has been given to this form of giving (pro bono work by service professionals). Overall, the results show that personal satisfaction with and feeling good about the study undertaken are required for continuation. Professionals who are intrinsically motivated, philanthropic-natured and properly-acknowledged through positive feedback and recognition tend to experience positive feelings that engender their good intentions to help the underprivileged, those in need and society more generally. The findings thus complement and extend the academic and industry literature on charitable giving.
Practical implications
This research identifies the drivers of service professionals’ continuation of pro bono work that the third sector relies heavily on its sustainability. As the study findings suggesting the importance of personal recognition, nonprofit organizations should demonstrate genuine gratitude and recognition of these professionals so that they continue to give their services pro bono.
Originality/value
The research is the first empirical study to develop a conceptual model that delineates the drivers and/or barriers to professionals continuing pro bono service. Unlike the previous study lacking a theoretical basis, this paper proposed and tested the conceptual model derived from the institutional logics framework and the extended purchase behavior model.
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Cinthia Beccacece Satornino, Demetra Andrews, Rebeca Perren and Michael K. Brady
Previous research studies assume that influential consumers (“influentials”), who play a powerful role in the marketplace, are persuasive (or not) based on innate, static…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research studies assume that influential consumers (“influentials”), who play a powerful role in the marketplace, are persuasive (or not) based on innate, static personality traits. By contrast, this paper proposes an emergence-based view of influentials. Grounded in dynamic self-concept theory, this research establishes that individuals possess an “influential” self-concept that can be activated by firm-originated communications. Specifically, the authors examine the impact of firm feedback on the three dimensions of influentials (and the corresponding traits and behaviors): who they are (propensity to connect with others), who they know (WOM) and what they know (expert power).
Design/methodology/approach
The study tests whether an influential self can be evoked by marketers using a longitudinal experimental test with data collected in three periods. The data are analyzed using a multi-mediation model and partial least squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results reveal that even after controlling for the extroversion trait, firm-originated positive feedback increases perceived expert power of participants, which increases word-of-mouth behavior in a subsequent period, both directly and indirectly via an enhanced propensity to connect with others.
Research limitations/implications
Cultivating the influential self-concept requires time to ensure that the self-concept is sufficiently realized to become an enduring self-concept.
Practical implications
By cultivating influentials, practitioners are able to leverage diffusion mechanics and reduce costs and inefficiencies associated with traditional customer relationship management marketing strategies focused on finding them.
Social implications
These findings have implications across all domains that rely on the diffusion and adoption of ideas or products via influentials, including but not limited to public policy, politics, public health and sustainability, in that influentials can be evoked and leveraged to diffuse ideas in these important social domains.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence that firms can evoke influential consumer behavior challenging existing views of influence as a static personality trait. It casts a line to connect influential consumers to the nascent study of social emergence.
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Alexis M. Allen, Todd Green, Michael K. Brady and John Peloza
The purpose of this paper is to examine how and when a reputation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) can deter dysfunctional consumer behaviors (DCBs) such as shoplifting…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how and when a reputation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) can deter dysfunctional consumer behaviors (DCBs) such as shoplifting or negative word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to firm failures. The authors predict that congruency of the CSR activities and the basis for the firm failure (e.g. environmental protection, environmental harm) provides protection for firms while incongruency (e.g. environmental protection, social harm) does not. The authors base this prediction on the process of retroactive attribution and sense-making.
Design/methodology/approach
Across two studies the research finds support that a reputation for CSR can deter consumer dysfunctional behavior. Study 1 uses an experimental design with a Mturk sample, and a behavioral outcome using an overpayment situation, to examine when consumers will act honestly and recognize overpayment. Study 2 uses secondary data, across three novel data sources (Google trends data, an existing data set of consumer perceptions of CSR and Factiva to uncover press coverage of negative firm events). Study 2 examines how CSR reputation impacts consumers’ participation in negative WOM in response to firm failures.
Findings
Study 1 finds support for CSR congruency as a protection mechanism against dysfunctional behavior in response to negative events. The authors find that dysfunctional behaviors in conditions of congruency, while incongruent and a control condition do not provide such protections. Study 2 supports these findings using Google trends data in the form of online negative WOM. The authors find that when firms are known for their social performance, negative events in the social domain result in significantly lower levels of negative WOM.
Originality/value
The current paper makes the novel prediction that consumers will use a current negative event (corporate social irresponsibility) to re-evaluate previous CSR. Thus, in contrast with prior research, the authors argue that a negative event is not affected by previous CSR but that previous CSR is affected by a negative event. Furthermore, the authors posit that the congruency between the transgression and previous CSR moderates consumer perceptions, such that incongruent CSR and transgression contexts lead to increased DCBs through consumers’ retroactive sense-making process.
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Michael K. Brady, Clay M. Voorhees, J. Joseph Cronin and Brian L. Bourdeau
The purpose of this paper is to advance a new conceptualization of the service encounter that highlights the role of outcome valence as a key antecedent of customer satisfaction.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance a new conceptualization of the service encounter that highlights the role of outcome valence as a key antecedent of customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
This study develops and tests a conceptual model using structural equation modeling. Specifically, it adopts recent procedures for assessing direct, mediated, and moderated effects.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that valence has a stronger effect on satisfaction than both functional and service environment quality, that satisfaction fully mediates the effects of valence on behavioral intentions, and that consumer involvement moderates the valence‐satisfaction relationship.
Research limitations/implications
This research draws attention to the fact that valence is an important research topic and researchers should focus attention on how valence might influence customer evaluations of services. Specifically, it is important to replicate these findings across industries, develop models that consider additional moderating influences, and conduct experiments to investigate the relative effects of valence across different service environment and functional quality conditions.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that managers must be aware that valence directly influences customer satisfaction levels and that they can and should account for its effect. Specifically, in some service industries, rewarding employees based on customer satisfaction ratings without controlling for the effects of valence is misguided. Ultimately, failure to account for valence can lead to managerial decisions that may not be in the best interest of the firm.
Originality/value
This paper provides a new look at service encounters and suggests that valence is a critical antecedent of customer satisfaction and, in some instances, outcome valence is a more dominant predictor of satisfaction than service environment and functional quality.
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This study examines how various characteristics of the discount retail environment and the overall attitude towards a discount retail store, considered to be an abstract and…
Abstract
This study examines how various characteristics of the discount retail environment and the overall attitude towards a discount retail store, considered to be an abstract and global image component, influence consumers’ satisfaction and how consumers’ satisfaction, in turn, affects store loyalty. The data, collected from a sample of 517 discount retail customers in Daegu, Korea, indicate that: (1) forming the overall attitude is more closely related to in‐store services: atmosphere, employee service, after sales service and merchandising, (2) store satisfaction is formed through perceived store atmosphere and value, (3) the overall attitude has strong influence on satisfaction and loyalty and its impact is much stronger on loyalty than on satisfaction, (4) store loyalty is directly affected by most significantly location, merchandising and after sale service in order, (5) satisfaction is not related to customers’ committed store revisiting behavior. The applications in management and implications for future research are discussed.
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Kelly O. Cowart, Edward Ramirez and Michael K. Brady
– This research aims to examine the buffering effect of a firm's religious association on customer reactions to a service failure.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine the buffering effect of a firm's religious association on customer reactions to a service failure.
Design/methodology/approach
Two scenario-driven studies containing religious and non-religious reasons for a store closing were conducted.
Findings
The results from Study 1 suggest that a religious affiliation safeguards against negative reactions to failures related to store policies (see Hoffman et al., 2003). Customers are more likely to forgive transgressing firms when service failures are associated with religion, regardless of attitudes toward the religious group. A follow up study supports the first, even when no specific religion was identified in the scenario, the service failure involved a firm that closed weekly, and a non-student sample was used.
Research limitations/implications
While the results provide support for the buffering effects of a religious affiliation against a particular type of service failure – temporary service interruptions due to the observance of religious holidays and celebrations, future research should test the robustness of this effect on technology failures and rude treatment by employees.
Originality/value
This paper is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to test the effect of a firm's religious affiliation on customer perceptions of frontline service encounters in general and service failures in particular.
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Christopher J. Robertson, Michael K. Brady and James J. Hoffman
There has been a genuine lack of emphasis in the management and public policy literature on cultural issues in Latin America. This is particularly evident in the ethics and…
Abstract
There has been a genuine lack of emphasis in the management and public policy literature on cultural issues in Latin America. This is particularly evident in the ethics and marketing literature. In this paper, the results from two studies are presented which address moral and marketing differences between the United States and Ecuador. In the first study, a comprehensive survey (which includes vignettes for ecological conservation, bribery, sex discrimination, and child labor dilemmas) is administered to 98 multinational managers from the U.S. and Ecuador. Results indicate that certain
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Paul Patterson, Michael K. Brady, Lilliemay Cheung and Doan Nguyen
The purpose of this paper is to explicate professionals’ giving backstory, identifying what motivates and hinders professionals’ undertaking of pro bono service activities…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explicate professionals’ giving backstory, identifying what motivates and hinders professionals’ undertaking of pro bono service activities. Examples are provided of different pro bono giving styles, as professionals struggle to resolve inter-institutional tensions, thus addressing this little understood yet vital form of giving, and meeting an important research priority.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a discovery-oriented grounded theory approach, this paper draws on narratives from interviews with 31 professionals to explicate, from the professional’s point of view, the backstory of pro bono service.
Findings
The authors provide an integrative institutional logics-based framework for understanding the backstory to professionals’ giving. Three distinct pro bono giving styles are revealed: first, an individual logic (self-centric), an “I” logic; second, an organizational logic (organization-centric), “We” logic; and third, a societal “All” logic (where the greater good to society in general is the dominant logic). The paper concludes with recommendations for how professionals and professional service firms (PSFs) can better align their pro bono giving styles with non-paying not-for-profit clients for multi-party benefit.
Originality/value
The originality of this research lies in addressing an important yet little understood form of giving through delving into the backstory to pro bono service. First, the paper theorizes the characteristics of a formerly unarticulated form of giving, distinguishing it from individual-to-individual close consumer gifting, individual to organizational charitable giving, sponsorship, and volunteering. Second, the different inter-institutional logics of pro bono giving are identified, with three main pro bono giving styles uncovered. Third, the authors link professional services theory, theoretical perspectives from giving, and institutional logics theory to develop an integrated framework to explain service professionals’ pro bono activities. Furthermore, a compelling agenda for future research is provided to guide future work.
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Anders Gustafsson, Lerzan Aksoy, Michael K. Brady, Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Nancy J. Sirianni, Lars Witell and Nancy V. Wuenderlich
The purpose of this paper is to encourage the reader to think differently about service-related issues and to strive to conduct service research that makes a transformational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to encourage the reader to think differently about service-related issues and to strive to conduct service research that makes a transformational impact on individuals, organizations and society. The authors suggest that service researchers are in an excellent position to develop research that matters by making stronger connections with theory and elevating purely applied research to research that is higher in both practical relevance and methodological rigor.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes a conceptual approach, connecting pertinent literature with new ideas highlighted in this special issue.
Findings
This paper proposes that service researchers look beyond traditional service applications, take a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving and make greater strides towards connecting theory and practice. The authors propose a Model of Rigorous and Relevant Research, and call for fresh thinking across a wide range of research areas, including enhancing the customer experience, crafting innovation, integrating technology and measuring service outcomes.
Originality/value
The originality of this essay lies in its focus on revitalizing the discussion on relevance and rigor as a path forward for service research. Additionally, this paper offers new insights on core management aspects of service provision that provide a solid platform for future work in service research.
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Michael K. Brady and Christopher J. Robertson
In recent years, the significance of offering value to service customers rivals the provision of satisfaction and service quality. The growing importance of the construct is…
Abstract
In recent years, the significance of offering value to service customers rivals the provision of satisfaction and service quality. The growing importance of the construct is especially apparent in the fast food industry as evidenced by the international popularity of value menus offered by many fast food franchises. The service value trend is particularly relevant in Latin America as more multinational service franchises compete for newfound market share. Zeithaml, in her comprehensive analysis of the service value construct, suggests that service value perceptions emerge when consumers weigh their perceptions of service quality against the necessary sacrifices made to acquire the service. In the current study, this conceptual model is tested using samples derived from fast food consumers in both Ecuador and the USA. The objective is to perform an empirical test of Zeithaml’s model and to compare the relative importance attached to the components of her model across the two samples. An additional consideration is an analysis of the effect of gender on the purchase behaviour of these consumers. The research and managerial implications of the study are considered, as are the research limitations.