George Deitz, John D. Hansen, Tom DeCarlo and Emin Babakus
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of store managers’ employee climate perceptions on frontline employee (FLE), customer and store performance outcomes in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of store managers’ employee climate perceptions on frontline employee (FLE), customer and store performance outcomes in the small-store setting.
Design/methodology/approach
This study derives the findings from a multi-source data set acquired in partnership with a North American-based retailer that includes survey responses from 1,133 store managers, 5,591 FLEs and 16,488 customers. This paper matches survey responses to corporate records and store sales and operations data.
Findings
This study finds that store managers’ employee climate perceptions affect FLEs both directly and indirectly, through store manager social support behaviors. This paper tests the boundary conditions for these findings by examining the moderating effects of store-level FLE tenure heterogeneity and competitive intensity. Study results provide partial support for the hypothesized relationships with regard to FLE tenure heterogeneity, but not competitive intensity.
Research limitations/implications
This research is subject to many of the limitations common to a survey-based study. While the use of one retailer provided opportunities to examine store-level performance data, future research would benefit by using a more expansive data set spanning several companies and industries. Moreover, as the current study was set in the small-store setting, future research should explore how store managers’ influence fluctuates depending on store size and the mechanisms through which organizational priorities flow through other management levels (e.g. department managers) in large retailers.
Practical implications
Study results provide managerial guidance regarding the implementation of an employee climate for the delivery of an enhanced customer experience and superior financial performance.
Originality/value
Although researchers have paid considerable attention to employees’ psychological and organizational climate perceptions, this study makes a unique contribution by examining the effects of store managers’ employee climate perceptions on FLE, customer and store-level outcomes.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
Gregg Bennett, Mauricio Ferreira, Yosuke Tsuji, Ron Siders and Beth Cianfrone
This paper examines the effects of advertising type and antecedents of attitude towards advertising in general (AG) on individuals' responses to advertising in a sports broadcast…
Abstract
This paper examines the effects of advertising type and antecedents of attitude towards advertising in general (AG) on individuals' responses to advertising in a sports broadcast setting. Both AG antecedents and advertising type were assessed using Brackett and Carr's (2001) model. Our results indicate that individual responses to advertising vary according to the type of advertising (television commercials, virtual ads by location).
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Belén Bande Vilela, José Antonio Varela González, Pilar Fernández Ferrín and M Luisa del Río Araújo
Despite the recognition that the subordinate's influence is a particularly noteworthy feature of the social context with considerable potential to affect the performance…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the recognition that the subordinate's influence is a particularly noteworthy feature of the social context with considerable potential to affect the performance evaluation process, there are almost no studies that consider this influence in a selling context. Attempting to contribute to address these needs, the model presented here depicts a number of social and situational factors influencing supervisor's rating of salesperson's performance, primarily operating through affective processes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 122 salespeople and their immediate managers from 35 firms pertaining to nine different industries.
Findings
SEM results indicated that supervisor‐focused impression management was positively related to the supervisor's liking of the salesperson. Consistent as well with prior research is the positive influence of supervisor's affect towards salesperson on the supervisor's ratings of sales performance, both directly and indirectly, through the effect on salesperson's perceived interpersonal skills. Finally, a salesperson's physical attractiveness demonstrated significant positive effects on performance ratings, through the influence on supervisor's liking and salesperson's interpersonal skills.
Practical implications
These results have important managerial implications: sales managers should be aware that salespeople might be using impression management tactics and that the use of these behaviours might influence the way that they evaluate their employee's performance. Managers should also remain vigilant to the potential bias based on physical appearance in hiring and supervising salespeople.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the knowledge of the social and affective variables that influence the sales performance appraisal process, an area of research that is almost unexplored.
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John D Blair, Myron D Fottler and Albert C Zapanta
This paper presents an overview of the articles used in this edition of Advances in Health Care Management. The beginning of the article gives the reader a history of bioterrorist…
Abstract
This paper presents an overview of the articles used in this edition of Advances in Health Care Management. The beginning of the article gives the reader a history of bioterrorist activity within the United States, and how these events have led to current situations. It also provides a model for health care leaders to follow when looking at a bioterrorist attack. The model includes descriptions of how the articles within this book relate to an overall bioterrorist formula. Through this, the reader shall be able to deduce which individual article fits into the vastness of healthcare research pertaining to bioterrorism.
Latisha Reynolds, Samantha McClellan, Susan Finley, George Martinez and Rosalinda Hernandez Linares
This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015.
Findings
This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL.
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Yimiao Chen, Fangyi Liu, Cheng‐Hsi Fang and Tom M.Y. Lin
With the increasing usage of social networking sites, there has been considerable interest in Word‐of‐Mouth (WOM) research. The purpose of this paper is to propose that economic…
Abstract
Purpose
With the increasing usage of social networking sites, there has been considerable interest in Word‐of‐Mouth (WOM) research. The purpose of this paper is to propose that economic elasticity theory can be applied to evaluate WOM effects and serve as the basis for cross‐product comparison. The practicality of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through a case study. It is hoped that the result of this study solves the argument of WOM effects as shown in past research.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to remove restrictions of measuring WOM objectively, the research asked consumers to form their positive evaluation of WOM about a product or service. In the event that consumers can assess feelings accurately, the WOM consumption function can be constructed and the marginal effect of WOM estimated. The study uses a self‐reported questionnaire to estimate WOM elasticity for 13 products. In total, 465 valid questionnaires were collected.
Findings
Empirical results demonstrate that: first, for all 13 product categories, a significant percentage of respondents are very sensitive to the WOM of product they want to buy; and second, the WOM elasticity of the 13 product categories is between 0.24 and 1.31; the average elasticity was 0.84 for service product and 0.43 for physical goods.
Originality/value
This study may lead to a better understanding of the effectiveness of WOM. WOM elasticity provides an alternative view to examine WOM effects across different products; moreover, it offers an opportunity to re‐evaluate the results of past research.
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Magnus Hultman, Abena Animwaa Yeboah-Banin and Nathaniel Boso
Contemporary sales scholarship suggests that salespersons pursuing customer satisfaction should improvise (think and act on their feet) to find solutions to customers’ emergent…
Abstract
Purpose
Contemporary sales scholarship suggests that salespersons pursuing customer satisfaction should improvise (think and act on their feet) to find solutions to customers’ emergent problems. A missing link in this literature, however, is the relational context within which improvisation takes place and becomes effective. This study aims to examine how the tone of the salesperson–customer relationship (whether cordial or coercive) drives and conditions salesperson improvisation and its implications for customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The study tests the proposed model using dyadic salesperson–customer data from business-to-business (B2B) markets in Ghana. The relationships are tested using structural equation modeling technique.
Findings
The study finds that salesperson improvisation is associated with customer satisfaction. It also finds the extent of cordiality between salespersons and their customers predicts but does not enhance the value of improvisation for customer satisfaction. The reverse is true for customer exercised coercive power which is not a significant driver of improvisation but can substantially alter its benefits for the worse.
Practical implications
By implication, salespersons should improvise more to be able to satisfy customers. However, such improvisation must be tempered with a consciousness of the relationship shared with customers and the level of power they exercise in the relationship.
Originality/value
Because improvised behavior deviates from routines and may be unsettling for customers, improvising salespersons must first understand whether their customers would be willing to accommodate such deviations. Yet, the literature is silent on this relational context surrounding improvisation. This study, by exploring facilitating and inhibitory relational variables implicated in improvisation, addresses this gap.
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Dawn T Robinson, Christabel L Rogalin and Lynn Smith-Lovin
After a vigorous debate in the late 1970s, the sociology of emotion put aside most discussion of whether or not the physiological arousal associated with emotion labels is…
Abstract
After a vigorous debate in the late 1970s, the sociology of emotion put aside most discussion of whether or not the physiological arousal associated with emotion labels is differentiated. Since this early period, scholars have made great progress on two fronts. First, theories about the interrelationship of identity, action and emotion have specified a family of new concepts related to emotion. Second, a large corpus of research on the physiological correlates of emotional experience emerged. In this chapter, we review the well-developed control theories of identity and emotion, and focus on the key concepts that might relate to different physiological states. We then review the general classes of physiological measures, discussing their reliability, intrusiveness and other features that might determine their usefulness for tracking responses to social interaction. We then offer a highly provisional mapping of physiological measures onto the concepts that they might potentially measure, given past research about how these physiological processes relate to environmental stimuli. While any linkage between concepts and measures must be speculative at this point, we hope that this review will serve as a stimulus to theoretically guided research that begins to assess the validity of these new measures for sociological use.
Li Huang, Matthew Tingchi Liu, Xi Song and Jerome Yen
This study aims to introduce a compelling customer value score method (CVSM), which is applicable for different product categories, and elaborates customer values in three…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to introduce a compelling customer value score method (CVSM), which is applicable for different product categories, and elaborates customer values in three components (direct economic value, depth of direct economic value and breadth of the indirect economic value) throughout three stages of customer journey.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected data from the Internet-shopping platforms, namely Taobao and T-Mall from 2019 to 2020 with particular focus on three product categories: lipstick (fast-moving consumer goods), mobile phones (durable goods) and alcohol (a hybrid of the other two product types) from 37 selected firms. The CVSM employs an entropy-based multiple criteria analysis, of which the weight of each indictor is not fixed artificially, but computed by the entropy-based method that calculates informative differences among the indicators (profit, revenue, positive reviews, search index and likes and favorites).
Findings
The result shows that product categories and market status have a moderation effect on three components in customer values. The findings suggested marketing strategies for different consumer goods, where the fast-moving consumer goods like lipstick should focus on the pre-purchase stage while the durable goods should emphasize post-purchase stage when the market is rapidly changing.
Originality/value
The study brings new insights to Kumar’s customer value theory by integrating product categories and the market status, revealing that three components of customer values differ in their contributions to the whole customer values. This paper further contributed managerial suggestions for marketers with regards to three stages of customer journey.