Erik Hermann, Martin Eisend and Tomás Bayón
The purpose of this paper is to apply cultivation theory to social network sites by investigating how Facebook uses cultivates users' ethnic diversity perceptions and attitudes.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply cultivation theory to social network sites by investigating how Facebook uses cultivates users' ethnic diversity perceptions and attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors’ investigations include an online and offline survey study with 476 Facebook users and a follow-up experiment with 75 individuals.
Findings
The authors provide empirical support that Facebook use cultivates ethnic diversity perceptions and ethnic diversity-related attitudes. They show that Facebook use relates to perceptions of ethnic minorities that resemble the world on Facebook that is characterized by high ethnic diversity. The authors further demonstrate that the cultivation of ethnic diversity-related attitudes is mediated by diversity perceptions related to users' close social environment.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should consider culturally and educationally diverse samples as well as longitudinal research designs to address external validity and causality issues.
Practical implications
Algorithms determining the content users are exposed should be thoughtfully curated to avoid attitudinal and ideological polarization.
Social implications
Facebook can play an important role in positively shaping intergroup relations, thereby countering negative outgroup attitudes, social anxieties and radical right-wing parties.
Originality/value
The authors’ studies extend the scope of cultivation research by identifying a new media vehicle as a source of cultivation influences and shed light on the cultivation-based process of attitude change on social network sites.
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Florian v. Wangenheim and Tomás Bayón
The effects of word of mouth (WOM) on the receiver's attitudes and intentions have been studied at length, but the question under which conditions WOM leads to a behavioural…
Abstract
The effects of word of mouth (WOM) on the receiver's attitudes and intentions have been studied at length, but the question under which conditions WOM leads to a behavioural outcome (such as a purchase or switching decision) has received less attention. This paper studies the effects of WOM in the context of service provider switching. An empirical study is presented which researches whether perceived influence of a switching referral is related to subsequent switching behaviour, and whether the variables that have an effect on perceived influence of the switching referral also predict switching. Results show that the strength of WOM influence is determined by perceived communicator characteristics. Perceived risk dimensions, in turn, moderate these effects.
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Mukta Srivastava, Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan and Neeraj Pandey
The increased digital interactions in the B2B industry have enhanced the importance of customer engagement as a measure of firm performance. This study aims to map and analyze…
Abstract
Purpose
The increased digital interactions in the B2B industry have enhanced the importance of customer engagement as a measure of firm performance. This study aims to map and analyze temporal and spatial journeys for customer engagement in B2B markets from a bibliometric perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The extant literature on customer engagement research in the B2B context was analyzed using bibliometric analysis. The citation analysis, keyword analysis, cluster analysis, three-field plot and bibliographic coupling were used to map the intellectual structure of customer engagement in B2B markets.
Findings
The research on customer engagement in the B2B context was studied more in western countries. The analysis suggests that customer engagement in B2B markets will take centre stage in the coming times as digital channels make it easier to track critical metrics besides other key factors. Issues like digital transformation, the use of artificial intelligence for virtual engagement, personalization, innovation and salesforce management by leveraging technology would be critical for improved B2B customer engagement.
Practical implications
The study provides a comprehensive reference to scholars working in this domain.
Originality/value
The study makes a pioneering effort to comprehensively analyze the vast corpus of literature on customer engagement in B2B markets for business insights.
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Tomás Vargas-Halabi and Rosa Maria Yagüe-Perales
This research aimed to conceptualize organizations as open and purposeful systems to study how organizational culture (OC) influences firms' Innovative Performance (IP). The…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aimed to conceptualize organizations as open and purposeful systems to study how organizational culture (OC) influences firms' Innovative Performance (IP). The authors proposed goal setting and internal integration/external adaptation paradox as central to explaining OC's mediating and suppressing effects on IP.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 372 Costa Rican organizations and analyzed them with structural equations. This research used the Denison Model instead of the usual typology-based approaches.
Findings
The mission had a direct and high impact on IP. The mediated effect via adaptability was also elevated, as well as the suppressor effect through consistency. There was no effect on IP of involvement. According to these results, the Open and Rational Systems Framework emerge as the main theoretical explanatory concepts.
Originality/value
Disaggregating the OC through a performance-oriented dimensional model makes it possible to study the dynamics between the elements that compound it and facilitate integrating these findings with other research streams.
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Dmitri Sokolov and Elena Zavyalova
Human resource management in professional service firms (PSF) is one of the most important instruments for promoting sustainable competitive advantage. Despite the major growth of…
Abstract
Purpose
Human resource management in professional service firms (PSF) is one of the most important instruments for promoting sustainable competitive advantage. Despite the major growth of scholars' interest in human resource management (HRM) issues in PSF, the body of knowledge in this field remains highly fragmented and diversified. The purpose of this paper is to systematize key evidence on the use of HRM practices in PSF.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a systematic literature review of 90 peer-reviewed journal papers.
Findings
The review revealed typical ability-, motivation- and opportunity-enhancing practices used by PSF and outlined how these HRM practices may differ among various PSF.
Originality/value
The paper provides scholars with an updated and comprehensive research landscape and development process in this important field, thereby contributing to greater research interest and enthusiasm for future research.
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The primary purpose of this paper is to determine the relative effects of perceived value and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty behaviors. The secondary aim focuses on…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this paper is to determine the relative effects of perceived value and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty behaviors. The secondary aim focuses on addressing whether such personal characteristics as gender, age and levels of income and education exert any moderating influence over perceived value/customer satisfaction such that loyalty behaviors, including repurchase intention (RPI), word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing and willingness to pay more (WPM), are ultimately affected.
Design/methodology/approach
The research technique used a face-to-face questionnaire for collecting data from passengers who use the State Railways of the Turkish Republic. A total of 780 questionnaires were collected and used in this study after excluding 80 incomplete forms. First, the main effects of perceived value/customer satisfaction on customer loyalty behaviors were tested using structural equation modeling. Next, customers' personal characteristics, considered as moderating variables, including age, gender and levels of income and education, were examined to determine if their impact on perceived value/customer satisfaction would, in turn, have any effect on loyalty behaviors. To do this, a multigroup moderation test was used.
Findings
The empirical findings of this study show that both customer satisfaction and perceived value directly influence the loyalty behaviors of Turkish railway passengers. However, customer satisfaction was found to be a more important predictor of RPI than perceived service value. However, the relationship between perceived service value and WPM was strong. The association between customer satisfaction and loyalty behaviors was stronger for females, youths and those customers at the lower range of income and education. On the other hand, the association between perceived value and loyalty behaviors was stronger for older passengers with more education and income, irrespective of gender.
Originality/value
The first goal was to assess the main effects of perceived value/customer satisfaction on customer loyalty behaviors. It was found that perceived value/customer satisfaction affected loyalty behaviors, including RPI, WOM and WPM, in different ways. For instance, while customer satisfaction was suggested to be an important predictor of RPI, perceived value was an important predictor of WPM. Importantly, this study also examines how customers' personal characteristics, i.e. moderating variables in this study, impact perceived value/customer satisfaction such that loyalty behaviors are demonstrably changed. Thus, with this additional knowledge of customers' personal characteristics in the context of loyalty behaviors, marketers can create new strategies to develop long-term brand loyalty.
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Graciela Bensusán and Maria Lorena Cook
The July 2, 2000, electoral victory of Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) as president of Mexico marked an historic turning point in that country’s…
Abstract
The July 2, 2000, electoral victory of Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) as president of Mexico marked an historic turning point in that country’s political development. The ouster from power of Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after seventy-one years promised to rupture the long-time alliance between organized labor, the state, and the PRI. A transition to a democratic political regime would create new opportunities for the struggling independent labor movement in Mexico. More importantly, a political transition would make possible for the first time a shift away from an authoritarian-corporatist system of industrial relations toward a democratic model of labor governance.
Daniel Maar, Ekaterina Besson and Hajer Kefi
This article draws on a reasoned action perspective and the two fundamental dimensions (i.e. warmth and competence) of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to analyze customers'…
Abstract
Purpose
This article draws on a reasoned action perspective and the two fundamental dimensions (i.e. warmth and competence) of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) to analyze customers' chatbot-related attitudes and usage intentions in service retailing. The authors investigate how chatbot, customer, and contextual characteristics, along with perceptions of chatbot warmth and competence, shape customers' chatbot-related attitudes. Furthermore, the authors analyze whether the customer generation or the service context moderates the relationship between chatbot-related attitudes and usage intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The results are based on two studies (N = 807). Study 1 relies on a 2 (chatbot communication style: high vs low social orientation) × 2 (customer generation: generation X [GenX] vs generation Z [GenZ]) × 2 (service context: restaurant vs medical) between-subjects design. Study 2 relies on a similar number of respondents from GenX and GenZ who answered questions on scheduling a service with either the dentist or the favorite restaurant of the respondents.
Findings
GenZ shows more positive attitudes toward chatbots than GenX, due to higher perceptions of warmth and competence. While GenZ has similar attitudes toward chatbots with a communication style that is high or low in social orientation, GenX perceives chatbots with a high social orientation as warmer and has more favorable attitudes toward chatbots. Furthermore, the positive effect of chatbot-related attitudes on usage intentions is stronger for GenX than GenZ. These effects do not significantly differ between the considered contexts.
Originality/value
This research formulates future directions to stimulate debate on factors that service retailers should consider when employing chatbots.