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Article
Publication date: 30 November 2020

Thomas A. Burnham, Garret Ridinger, Anne Carpenter and Laee Choi

Consumers who share their suggestions with firms contribute valuable knowledge and both exhibit and reinforce positive customer engagement. Yet, the motivational antecedents of…

778

Abstract

Purpose

Consumers who share their suggestions with firms contribute valuable knowledge and both exhibit and reinforce positive customer engagement. Yet, the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm customer suggestion sharing remain understudied. This study aims to investigate how potential self, other customer and firm benefits motivate consumer suggestion sharing.

Design/methodology/approach

A critical incident pretest explores the domain and establishes ecological validity. Two scenario-based experimental studies test the proposed relationships in distinct service contexts.

Findings

Results support a prosocial (helpful) view of suggestion sharing – potential benefits to other customers motivate suggestion sharing. Potential benefits for the firm play two roles, namely, they indirectly motivate suggestion sharing by increasing consumers’ perceived outcome expectancy, illustrating a pragmatic mechanism, and they directly motivate suggestion sharing when service quality is high, illustrating a conditional, reciprocity-driven mechanism. When service quality is low, consumers are less likely to share firm-benefitting suggestions and more likely to share non-beneficial suggestions, highlighting a potential low service quality “trap” in which firms can become stuck.

Research limitations/implications

Future research is needed to study the antecedents of attitude toward suggestion sharing and the effect of relationship strength on suggestion sharing.

Practical implications

Managerially, multiple paths are identified by which firms can motivate suggestion sharing. The low-service quality “trap” indicates that low-service quality firms should not rely on, and should perhaps even ignore, customer suggestions as a tool for improving their offerings.

Originality/value

By experimentally investigating the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing, this paper fills a gap in extant research and provides a foundation upon which future suggestion sharing research can build.

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Article
Publication date: 18 February 2020

Thomas Burnham

Customer suggestions offer valuable insights to companies, and suggestion sharing is a form of engagement that strengthens customers’ relationships with firms. Yet research to…

739

Abstract

Purpose

Customer suggestions offer valuable insights to companies, and suggestion sharing is a form of engagement that strengthens customers’ relationships with firms. Yet research to date has neglected to explicitly study the antecedents of direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing or to adequately characterize the behavior. This paper aims to address this deficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

The research draws on two surveys using three different elicitation techniques – critical incident, direct reporting and scenario response. Inductive content analysis of consumer responses is used to derive exploratory insights regarding the range of factors that motivate and inhibit consumer suggestion sharing, with an emphasis on consumer service-related contexts.

Findings

Potential self, other and firm benefits motivate suggestion sharing, whereas a host of factors, including the effort involved, a lack of perceived firm efficacy and unpleasant sharing contexts inhibit it. The findings reveal a rich portrait of antecedents that illustrates how direct-to-firm suggestion-sharing behavior combines elements of customer citizenship behavior, customer complaint behavior and online community idea sharing.

Research limitations/implications

The research relies upon reporting by US students and consumers.

Practical implications

Service firms hoping to avail themselves of customers’ desire to contribute to their and their customers’ betterment must understand and manage the tripartite nature of consumer suggestion sharing evinced by the antecedents revealed.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research offers the first description of the range of factors that motivate and inhibit direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing. As such, it provides a theoretical foundation upon which future consumer suggestion-sharing research can build.

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Article
Publication date: 27 September 2021

R. Bret Leary, Thomas Burnham and William Montford

This paper aims to introduce the implicit firm theory, distinguishing between the belief that firms can (incremental firm theory) or cannot (entity firm theory) readily change in…

405

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to introduce the implicit firm theory, distinguishing between the belief that firms can (incremental firm theory) or cannot (entity firm theory) readily change in response to marketplace demands. It is proposed and shown, that firm theory beliefs influence customer-engagement attitudes and intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Study 1 tests the relationship between firm theory, self-theory and knowledge-sharing attitudes. Study 2a tests differences between incremental and entity firm theorists in response to firm failure. Study 2b examines the relationship between firm theory and blame attributions on post-failure loyalty. Study 3 explores the effect of firm theory on perceptions of control and blame attributions following repeated firm failures.

Findings

Study 1 shows firm theory influences consumer knowledge-sharing attitudes beyond the effect of self-theory. Study 2a shows incremental firm theorists are more likely to remain loyal to a firm following failure and less likely to share negative word-of-mouth. Study 2b shows that blame attributions mediate the relationship between firm theory and loyalty intentions, with incremental theorists ascribing less blame. Study 3 shows incremental firm theorists significantly increase blame following multiple failures, while entity firm theorists do not.

Research limitations/implications

Results are based on scenario-based surveys and experimental methods; their applicability in more complex real-world customer-firm relationships warrants additional study.

Practical implications

Firms should account for a customer’s firm theory in their communications, emphasizing situational factors to reduce post-failure blame among incremental firm theorists.

Originality/value

Establishes that consumers hold beliefs regarding the malleability of firm traits, which influence their firm engagement intentions.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 38 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

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Article
Publication date: 10 June 2020

Laee Choi and Thomas Burnham

Prior research studying the mechanisms by which brand reputation influences consumer behaviors has largely relied on respondent measures of brand reputation, resulting in an…

2137

Abstract

Purpose

Prior research studying the mechanisms by which brand reputation influences consumer behaviors has largely relied on respondent measures of brand reputation, resulting in an inability to ascertain the causal direction of relationships. Using third party measures, this paper aims to study the effects of brand reputation, via self-expressive brand perceptions, on both firm-directed and other customer-directed customer voluntary sharing behaviors (CVSB). It then assesses the moderating effect of consumer status-seeking on the relationships studied.

Design/methodology/approach

To prevent common method bias and substantiate causality claims, a third-party brand reputation measure is combined with a consumer survey. Process is used to test the hypotheses using 359 consumer responses collected via Amazon MTurk.

Findings

The results indicate that higher inner-self and social-self expressive perceptions derived from strong brand reputations increase consumer knowledge sharing and social influence behaviors. The effect of social-self expressive brand perceptions on CVSB is positively moderated by consumer status-seeking.

Practical implications

Firms should leverage existing brand reputation investments to strengthen customer perceptions of their brands as self-expressive and facilitate greater social and knowledge-sharing engagement by status-seeking consumers.

Originality/value

This study identifies a new mechanism linking brand reputation and CVSB: consumer perceptions of the self-expressiveness of brands. Moreover, it distinguishes the effects of two dimensions of brand self-expressiveness and substantiates the customer engagement behavior value of investing in brand reputation as measured by third parties.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1935

The recent epidemic of food poisoning at Nelson, Lancashire, is an event which is unfortunately not unknown in this country, especially in summer time. It has been said that at…

53

Abstract

The recent epidemic of food poisoning at Nelson, Lancashire, is an event which is unfortunately not unknown in this country, especially in summer time. It has been said that at least two hundred people have been affected more or less seriously, and that there have been four deaths from acute gastro enteritis. Cases of suspected food poisoning are now in many places compulsorily notifiable to the local authority by medical practitioners to whose notice such cases may have been brought in the course of their practice. As far as we know such notification was not made compulsory before the year 1924, when Wakefield obtained powers under a Corporation Act to do so. A large number of places since that time have followed the lead of Wakefield. Thus among watering places, Cleethorpes, Bridlington, Brighton and Bournemouth; among manufacturing centres, Sheffield, Stoke‐on‐Trent, Bradford, Blackburn, Oldbury, Smethwick, Cardiff and Rochdale have powers of compulsory notification.—Cheap, rapid, and frequent means of road and rail transport has in these days resulted in an enormously increased influx of holiday makers from the manufacturing centres into seaside towns during the summer. Here, then, is a floating population amounting to several thousands. They are at a place that has been freely and emphatically advertised as a health resort. The have come for a “change” in every sense of the word. It is high summer. The weather is hot. The holiday spirit in the air. A very natural result is for people to eat more fruit, ice cream, and fancy dishes than they would ordinarily do. Assume through some mischance there are one or two cases of food poisoning. These are now automatically reported to the local authority, which at once institutes investigations, tries to trace the evil to its source, and check it from spreading. A serious outbreak is a damning catastrophe for the place, and may adversely affect its future for years to come. In manufacturing centres the need for action on the part of the local authority is still more urgent. The danger is perennial. It may easily reach the dimensions of an epidemic in a poor and crowded district. The people are there from necessity not from choice, and there they would have to stay even if the place were swept by cholera. In the County of London notification is compulsory under the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1932, Pt. II., s.7, which says : “ Every registered medical practitioner, if he suspects that a person is suffering from food poisoning shall notify the Medical Officer of Health for the district.” This section it is pointed out, was drawn up on the lines of the Sheffield Corporation Act, 1928, s.190, one of the main Corporation Acts that insist on notification. There seems indeed to be a growing belief that compulsory notification of food poisoning is desirable in the interests of public health. Processed foods are particularly liable to become sources of infection. Thus the Act just quoted, Pt. II. s.5, states that premises used for the sale or manufacture of ice cream; or for the preparation or manufacture of sausages or potted, pressed, pickled, or preserved meat, fish or other food must be registered with the Sanitary Authority of the district. Under the same section registration may be refused or registration may be cancelled. Many towns have similar regulations. This section of the London County Act is founded on the Exeter Corporation Act, 1928, s.111. The fact that the London County Council have adopted these two regulations that had already been “ tried out ” in two important cities of such widely different interests as Sheffield and Exeter is a good illustration of how closely associated all municipal bodies are in matters connected with public health. Medical Officers of Health and Public Analysts are officers of the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry itself is a clearing house for general information, investigation, and the co‐ordination of statistics. The sanitary authority of, and the medical practitioners in, any given district discharge not only admittedly most important but, as it seems to us, complementary duties. Each has knowledge not possessed by the other. Diagnosis in cases of suspected food poisoning is by no means easy. Time is not on the doctor's side so that the sooner the sanitary authority is notified the better are the chances of being able to trace the trouble to its source and to deal with it— assuming, of course, that it did not originate in some piece of purely domestic carelessness or ignorance. The information acquired may be slight, or even negative in any given case, but in the aggregate a fund of knowledge must accumulate that cannot fail in the long run to be of value. In many cases of suspected food poisoning further investigation has shown that they are not due to food poisoning at all. For instance, in one borough nine cases reported were found to be due to “ dietetic indiscretion ”; in another twenty reported cases were only forms of more or less acute digestive disturbance of the ordinary kind; in another it was found that daffodil bulbs had been eaten in mistake for onions. Other instances could be given. Facts like these would seem to support the argument that compulsory notification is unnecessary, but it is surely better that twenty suppositious cases should be reported than that the circumstances of one real case should escape investigation. In other cases the cause may remain unknown, but as to the seriousness of the matter there can be no doubt. In a recent outbreak in a home for “unwanted” children out of thirty‐nine infants in one dormitory twenty‐seven were attacked, and twenty died in from two to four days from some obscure form of gastro enteritis. Bacteriological examination of excreta and vomit yielded negative results. The high rate of mortality was attributed to the poor physical condition of the children when they were admitted to the institution in which they died. The case is admittedly an extreme one. Another was reported of exactly the opposite character. Twelve cases of undoubted food poisoning were reported, but these were of so slight a character that no action was taken in regard to the circumstances. In general, however, there is no room for giving the benefit of the doubt. The error—even if it may be so called—of reporting what turns out to be a case of indigestion instead of one of food poisoning is an error on the right side. A question arose recently in the House of Commons as to whether it was necessary to retain an Act on the Statute Book when there had been no prosecutions under the Act. It will be remembered that the Solicitor‐General replied that the mere fact that the Act was on the Statute Book had a very salutary effect. As far as it may be possible to draw an analogy it seems that even better reasons exist not only for retaining, but for extending, compulsory notification of cases of suspected food poisoning. Registration and inspection of premises, plant, storage conditions, and the food itself in places where food is prepared and sold is now a general practice in all centres of population. How necessary this is a glance at the Law Reports of this journal will show. The state of the places mentioned in the records of the prosecution was often such as to ensure them being potential centres of food poisoning. Had it not been for the vigilance of the respective sanitary authorities they would have become actively and permanently so. Such prosecutions are comparatively rare having regard to the large number of food shops in existence, but it would certainly be a backward step to cease to register and to inspect.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 37 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 February 2025

Thabang Excellent Mofokeng

This study aims to assess how ethical sales behaviour affects switching costs typology, mediated by trust and moderated by brand affiliation, monthly contributions and the number…

30

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to assess how ethical sales behaviour affects switching costs typology, mediated by trust and moderated by brand affiliation, monthly contributions and the number of dependent beneficiaries in medical schemes in South Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative study targeted a non-probability judgement sample of 250 main members of medical schemes, elicited near health-care facilities in South Africa’s Gauteng province. Data was collected in a face-to-face survey and analysed using structural equation modelling on AMOS version 29 and PROCESS procedure for Statistical Package of Social Science release 2.041.

Findings

The results show that ethical sales behaviour negatively affects trust and positively affects evaluation, monetary and personal relational loss costs. Trust positively affects personal relational loss costs, economic risk, evaluation, monetary and benefit loss costs. Moreover, trust mediates the effect of ethical sales behaviour on evaluation, monetary and personal relational loss costs. Finally, the number of dependent beneficiaries, monthly contributions and brand affiliation significantly moderate these interactions.

Originality/value

The paper validates the application of commitment-to-trust theory in mediating how the effects of the general theory of marketing ethics on switching costs typology differ according to the number of dependent beneficiaries, monthly contributions and brand affiliation with medical schemes.

Details

International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6123

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Article
Publication date: 12 March 2018

Alexander Salter and Glenn Furton

The purpose of this paper is to integrate classical elite theory into theories of constitutional bargains.

152

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate classical elite theory into theories of constitutional bargains.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative methods/surveys/case studies.

Findings

Open-ended constitutional entrepreneurship cannot be forestalled. Constitutional entrepreneurs will almost always be social elites.

Research limitations/implications

The research yields a toolkit for analysing constitutional bargains. It needs to be used in historical settings to acquire greater empirical content. Need to be applied to concrete historical cases to do economic history. Right now it is still only institutionally contingent theory.

Practical implications

Formal constitutions do not, and cannot, bind. Informal constitutions can, but they are continually evolving due to elite pressure group behaviors.

Social implications

Liberalism needs another method to institutionalize itself!

Originality/value

Open-ended nature of constitutional bargaining overlooked in orthodox institutional entrepreneurship/constitutional economics literature.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2045-2101

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Article
Publication date: 16 March 2015

Kurt Matzler, Andreas Strobl, Norbert Thurner and Johann Füller

Stabilizing business in highly competitive and volatile business-to-business (B2B) markets is a strategic imperative for many companies. In such a context, customer retention…

5598

Abstract

Purpose

Stabilizing business in highly competitive and volatile business-to-business (B2B) markets is a strategic imperative for many companies. In such a context, customer retention through the creation of switching barriers (i.e. by increasing switching costs) is a common strategy. The purpose of this paper is to develop a network of relationships among customer switching experience, customer satisfaction, perceived switching costs, and behavioral loyalty intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data were collected from 327 business customers (very small enterprises with fewer than nine employees; customers included physicians, lawyers, tax advisors, consultants, civil engineers, etc.) of an information and communications technology (ICT) company. The research model was tested using partial least square structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results show that switching experience negatively influences customer satisfaction and behavioral loyalty intention. Furthermore, the influence of customer satisfaction on behavioral loyalty intentions is partially mediated by financial and relational switching costs.

Practical implications

In saturated markets, companies often try to grow by acquiring customers from competitors. This study reveals that this strategy can backfire. The customers that can be most easily acquired may be those that are the most difficult to retain because customers experienced in switching are difficult to satisfy – and low satisfaction means lower perceived financial and relational switching costs and, in turn, lower loyalty.

Originality/value

This research contributes to theory and practice by shedding further light on the satisfaction-loyalty link by investigating the often widely neglected role of switching experience. Furthermore, the study seeks to add to the discussion of how to specify the role of switching costs: as a mediator or as a moderator.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1931

The report of the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which records the proceedings taken under the Diseases of Animals Act for the year 1929 has…

31

Abstract

The report of the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which records the proceedings taken under the Diseases of Animals Act for the year 1929 has just been issued. It indicates clearly the enormous amount and complexity of the work which devolves on the officers of the Ministry. They may very well say with John Wesley, “ All the world is my parish.” For instance in seven outbreaks of anthrax “ which …. occurred a few years ago,” the cause was found to be infected bone meal used as a manure and imported from an Eastern country (p. 43); another outbreak was traced to beans that had been imported from China (p. 44); again, special measures have been taken, at the instance of His Majesty's Government, by the Governments of Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentine to prevent the introduction of foot‐and‐mouth disease into this country by chilled or frozen meat (p. 46); an outbreak of foot‐and‐mouth disease at Los Angeles, California, led to an embargo being placed on the importation of hay and straw from that State (p. 52); while an outbreak in Southern Sweden led to similar steps being taken (p. 52). It is unnecessary to give further instances, but it is evident that the complexities of modern commerce and the development of rapid means of transport imposes world‐wide duties on the Ministry of a nature that were by no means contemplated when in 1865 the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council—of which the present Ministry is a lineal descendant—was instituted as a result of the outbreak of cattle plague which had ravaged the country. Table I. (p. 94) gives the total number of cattle in Great Britain for the five years 1925–1929 inclusive, each year ending in June. The percentage variation in the number of cattle during that time appears to be four per cent., so that the Ministry is responsible under the Act for about 7¼ millions of cattle, the 1929 return gives 7,190,539. The census and the subsequent co‐ordination of the returns made is in itself a task of no inconsiderable magnitude. In addition to this, however, veterinary skill of a high order is demanded, not only in the interests of a trade whose dimensions are indicated by the figures just given, but in the interests of public health in relation to notifiable cases, under the Act, of bovine tuberculosis. The number of cows and heifers in milk or in calf is given as 3,166,292 or 44 per cent. of the total number of bovine animals. It is of course from these that we derive our supplies of fresh milk, so that on their health our own health to a certain extent depends, and to a greater extent the health of invalids and children to whom milk is a prime necessity. It is therefore scarcely possible to over‐rate the weight of responsibility resting on the Ministry when the relation of its duties to the incidence of bovine tuberculosis is considered. Two important facts, however, demand attention. The first is that the Tuberculosis Order of 1925 was, as the Report points out, neither designed nor expected to eradicate bovine tuberculosis. The disease is widespread, and it is to be feared somewhat firmly established in our herds—an evil legacy from the past. The most that can be done at present is by means of the Order to remove as far as possible the danger to human health from the ingestion of the milk of infected animals and to reduce the number of these animals. Any attempt which might be made to completely eradicate the disease would in our present state of knowledge lead to a serious depletion of our herds throughout the country, and large expenditure in compensation (p. 23). In the second place while the Order of 1925 requires certain forms of the disease to be reported, no steps are at present taken or can be taken to search out the disease. An organisation designed so to do would be costly, as it would in the first place involve “ a considerable extension of periodical veterinary inspection of all dairy cows, coupled with the application of the biological test ” (p. 23). Hence leaving out of consideration our deficient knowledge of the disease, though its effects are horribly evident in our national life, the old conflict of public health versus public pocket is presented to us in an acute form.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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Publication date: 31 October 2014

Annette Thomas-Gregory and Justine Mercer

This chapter explores how different aspects of middle manager identity relate to knowledge, research and practice. It argues that effective leadership depends more upon the person…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter explores how different aspects of middle manager identity relate to knowledge, research and practice. It argues that effective leadership depends more upon the person than the role.

Methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 middle managers at a single school of healthcare in a research-intensive, chartered UK university.

Findings

The middle managers revealed both core and situated identities. Their core selves included various personality traits such as curiosity, a competitive streak, optimism, sociability and a sense of humour. Their situated selves were shaped by socialization, life history, critical people, and incidents and chance. In a symbiotic relationship with these core and situated components was a complex, tri-partite professional identity, as a healthcare professional, a higher education (HE) academic, and an education manager. All the participants greatly valued professional development and ongoing academic study.

Social implications

This chapter illustrates how the best postgraduate courses develop exemplary education managers/leaders. They do this not by giving students role-specific skills but by developing their analytical and critical thinking skills. Through a process of deep learning and experience, individuals undertaking a doctorate are able to develop into reflexive and reflective practitioners who can act with personal integrity.

Originality/value

Little has been published about the relationships between the career background, the identity and the role of a university middle manager, and virtually nothing from the field of healthcare. The figure presented in this chapter offers a new framework for understanding the relationship between self, professional identity and role.

Details

Investing in our Education: Leading, Learning, Researching and the Doctorate
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-131-2

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