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This research paper aims to provide an understanding of how customers evaluate other customers’ misbehavior, considering the attribution of responsibility and how service employees should react in the respective situation.

Two sequential studies using written scenarios are conducted, including manipulations for responsibility (deviant customer vs employee) and employee effort (high vs medium).

The results show that observing customers perceive misbehavior caused by the deviant customer as more severe and feel more intense negative emotions than when an employee is attributed as being responsible. Employee responsibility, however, elicits higher recovery expectations, which in turn decide the level of employee effort required to ensure observing customers’ satisfaction.

Due to the exploratory research objective and the use of a restricted sample and written scenarios, the studies may be subject to restrictions. Further studies will ensure generalizability.

Because different customer expectations arise from the respective responsibility for customer misbehavior, service employees should be encouraged to differentiate their efforts when approaching misbehavior. In case of their own responsibility, employees need to exert higher efforts to restore a functional service encounter, whereas in cases of customer responsibility, medium efforts are sufficient to stop the misbehaving customer.

This research contributes to understanding of cognitive and emotional responses to customer misbehavior considering the attribution of responsibility and indicates how service employees may handle these situations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different types of source expertise and how they influence perceived message quality. Consumers face the challenge to identify valuable online reviews. Source expertise as a signal of message quality can be displayed differently, depending on website layout, operator and review author.

Two scenario-based experiments were conducted questioning 135 and 275 participants. They investigate the effect of different types of expert reviewers on perceived message quality and also examine the interplay of source expertise and source trustworthiness.

The findings reveal that the different types of expert reviewers differ in perceived expertise and their impact on perceived message quality. Claims of expertise induce the highest perceived expertise compared to the other expert types and non-experts, but are perceived as less trustworthy.

Future research should examine the influence of the expert types across different product and service categories and could also include moderating influences that reflect how consumers process expert cues differently.

Cues that signal high expertise and high trustworthiness are likely to deliver the most valuable online reviews. This should be incorporated in the website's layout to help consumers find valuable information.

The approach of this research is novel in that it undertakes comparisons between three types of expert cues and non-experts. It also addresses the interplay of source expertise and trustworthiness and examines the effect on message quality.

Discusses the model of industrial development, the S‐curve model and the model of technological life cycles. Shows that these three models are based on similar assumptions and are, therefore, closely related. The analysis shows, furthermore, that the models have significant implications for technology management. Finally, analyses the extent to which conventional methods of evaluating technological projects take these implications into account. Subjective evaluation techniques, risk/return analyses as well as portfolio methods are subject to critical appraisal. All in all, it becomes clear that these evaluative tools are, at best, of limited use.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the effect of similarity in a customer-to-customer-relationship and of perceived performance risk as a boundary condition in a service setting.

Following theoretical methodology, hypotheses were developed in order to analyze the effect of similarity as well as perceived performance risk. An experimental scenario-based design was used to manipulate similarity and performance risk and to test the hypotheses.

The analysis reveals that similarity is an important dimension in the customer-to-customer-relationship. Positive similarity effects are shown in relation to subjects' willingness to interact with present customers, joining and recommending a service provider, and subjects' evaluation of the service provider. A mediating effect of positive emotions (joy and interest) on the link between similarity and willingness to interact with customers present is shown. Performance risk is also discovered as a boundary condition under which the predicted relationships are weakened.

This study suggests that similarity in the customer-to-customer-relationship leads to positive effects. If managers take this into account, their business may benefit from these positive effects. The study offers suggestions on how to “manage” customers' similarity.

As this study is one of the first empirical studies to concentrate on the effect of similarity in a customer-to-customer-relationship, it is meaningful. Moreover significant effects are shown; further research ideas are developed and management implications are proposed.

In the 1970s, when management hoped to secure growth and success through classical diversification strategies, a new gleam of hope in the form of “high‐tech” seemed to appear on the horizon. Encouraged by the remarkable success of young enterprises like Compaq or Lotus, and unnerved by constant talk of the erosion of the technological potential of Europe and the USA, more and more enterprises tried to catch the high‐tech wave. Many former European and American market leaders who had lost their competitive advantages to Japanese rivals saw technology itself as the panacea. However, over time, it has become ever clearer that the success of high‐tech products did not rest exclusively or even predominantly with technological know‐how and thus research and development, but derived more from industrial conditions and, above all, effective marketing.

The study first seeks to determine the underlying configurations of service quality perceptions between Turkish and German bank customers and then tries to ascertain the extent of cross‐cultural congruence.

Samples of Turkish and German bank customers serve as the study setting. Usable responses were obtained from 156 Turkish and 226 German customers.

Results show that the underlying configurations of service quality items decompose into three factors for both groups. The extent of congruence between the two groups is strong.

Replications among other samples are needed to validate the current findings.

The overall consistencies between the Turkish and German consumers suggest that a standardized approach is feasible for multinational banks operating in the two countries.

The factor congruency technique was employed to determine the extent of similarities and disparities between the two groups. Emergence of cross‐cultural similarities carries implications for bank managers.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of congruence between service providers’ perceptions of customer satisfaction and customer‐reported satisfaction in the context of optometric services.

Data were collected via mail surveys from a sample of German optometrists and their customers. Usable responses were obtained from 388 optometrists and 2,237 customers.

Results show that the underlying configurations of satisfaction attributes decompose into eight factors in the case of optometrists and five factors in the case of customers. The extent of congruence between the two groups is weak.

Replications among other optometrist and customer samples are needed to validate the current findings. Also to gain more pointed insights into the similarities and disparities between service providers’ perceptions of their customers’ satisfaction and customer‐reported satisfaction, extension of research to other service sectors would be fruitful.

The overall inconsistencies between the optometrists and customers underscore the need for accurate assessment of customer perceptions for business success. For stronger business performance, service providers should be trained to look at satisfaction from the perspective of customers by using customers’ definitions.

The study used a dyadic approach in collecting the data. The factor congruency technique was employed to determine the extent of similarities and disparities between the two groups. A general lack of customer knowledge has implications for service providers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how affective commitment to fellow customers influences a customer's affective commitment to the service provider and customer citizenship behavior (CCB). In addition, the paper seeks to examine the moderating role of a customer's calculative commitment to the service organization.

The study used a large-scale survey among customers of a health club and a scenario-based experiment to test the hypotheses.

Both empirical studies provide evidence that affective commitment to fellow customers has positive consequences for the customer-firm-relationship. The findings suggest that commitment to fellow customers and commitment to the service organization influence very specific facets of customer citizenship behavior. In addition, the study found preliminary support for the moderating role of calculative commitment. Affective commitment to fellow customers showed the strongest effect on affective commitment to the provider in customer-firm relationships characterized by high (versus low) calculative commitment.

The results of this research have a number of managerial implications. This study suggests measures to strengthen customer-firm-relationships, e.g. generating intensive exchange among customers or attraction of consumer pairs. Providing customers with platforms of valuable relationships to multiplex ties can be a competitive advantage for service providers.

This article is the first that highlights the role of other customers as a target of customer commitment and how this commitment affects both the customer's relationship to the service provider and his or her customer citizenship behavior. The present study therefore broadens our knowledge of how bonding among customers influences consumer behavior in service settings.

This study examines the nature of relationships between service quality, background characteristics, and satisfaction and selected behavioral outcomes by using retail banking in Germany as its setting. Study results show that service quality is at the root of customer satisfaction and is linked to such behavioral outcomes as word of mouth, complaint, recommending and switching. However, different aspects of service quality and different consumer characteristics seem to be associated with different outcomes. For instance, the results suggest that tangible elements of service quality and being a female are more closely associated with positive word of mouth and commitment. On the other hand, “timeliness” aspects of service delivery are more closely related to customer satisfaction, and complaint and switching behaviors. Implications of these results to induce greater customer satisfaction, to attain higher levels of favorable outcomes and/or to alleviate negative outcomes are discussed.