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To investigate the effect of service personalization on loyalty, and to measure some of the psychological dynamics of the process.

Structural equation modeling.

It is shown that the effect of service personalization on loyalty exists, but that the effect is not all direct. Personalization works through improving service satisfaction and trust. Personalization and improved communication act together in such a way that they account for the variance in loyalty that would be otherwise explained by corporate image.

Data, though comprising a very large probability sample, are from one economic sector in one European country.

Service personalization is a powerful way to retain customers in its own right. In addition, the other results show that personalized service can partially replace the effects of communication and corporate image on loyalty. This argues that personalized service can be a powerful addition to mass communications.

Growing conventional wisdom in marketing argues that customer loyalty is responsible for large fractions of the profits of many service businesses. Constructs such as satisfaction, trust, customer collaboration, customer interaction, firm image, personalization, learning relationships, and so forth, have all been proposed as intermediate objectives, or as tools to build loyalty. Yet, to date, only some of these constructs have been measured and shown to be related to loyalty. This paper fills a portion of the empirical gap by showing that service personalization, indeed, affects loyalty, above and beyond the other explanatory variables.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the follower’s engagement with YouTubers and his/her intention of using a brand they advertise or use. Self-connection, brand love and trust are mediating variables concerning the YouTuber–follower relationship and involvement is the antecedent variable of the engagement.

A survey was carried out and 272 YouTubers’ followers responded. The structural model was tested by covariance-based structural equation modeling using the software R, v3.6.0.

The present study reveals that the follower’s engagement with YouTubers presents itself within cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects; it rises from the involvement the followers have with their favourite YouTuber. Engagement, enhanced by self-connection, love and trust in the YouTuber, impacts the intention of use of a brand he/she indicates or uses.

YouTube is a relevant channel for advertising and promoting a brand. Hence, the company should bear in mind the fact that the YouTuber appointed to represent its image must be connected to the feelings and interests of their followers as well as those of the brands to be publicised.

The present research proposes a novel conceptual connection to engagement, established no longer by the brand of a product or service, but by YouTubers. It aims at rendering contribution to this subject as it investigates the correlation of use intention of a brand, subject to the engagement with a human brand, herein represented by YouTubers.

Despite the strong intuitive appeal of personalization (through employees or, increasingly, through the use of software applications), relatively little is known about its role in managing service relationships. This study aims to explore the burgeoning area of technology‐mediated personalization and its effects on customer commitment to service relationships.

A theoretical perspective based on integrated reviews of service research and relationship marketing is developed and used to guide the exploration of personalization effects with qualitative data.

Personalization is not always good enhancement to service: its effects have contingencies and vary across the categories. Continuity personalization seems to be a promising area for researchers and practitioners.

Personalization effects should be rigorously studied. Continuity personalization seems to offer a promising area for future research.

The intuitive belief about personalization is probably misleading. Whether or not personalization strategies help service relationships depends on their capacity to generate positive inferences on dimensions of performance, benevolence, and value provision. Out of the three types, continuity personalization offers a promising strategic option for managing ongoing customer relationships if well implemented.

The counter‐intuitive insights into personalization effects on relationship continuity address issues of theoretical and practical concerns.

Most existing product innovation‐decision models view decision making from a very cognitive perspective in that they presume that decision to adopt a new product is preceded by steps that parallel product information procurement and evaluation. Argues that such an approach is unnecessarily limiting given that a substantial proportion of individuals do not base their decisions on attribute processing, even for relatively complex products. Critically evaluates two of the most widely cited adoption models and based on this analysis proposes a more holistic model that incorporates real world decision factors, and presents its managerial implications.

Does participation in Fair Trade (FT) coffee marketing deliver added value to small-scale producers in developing countries? Is FT fair to producers as promised? The present study adopts a survey methodology designed to measure a combination of socioeconomic impact indicators as well as measures particular to the FT coffee-growing and marketing experience. We surveyed over 1,200 small-scale coffee producers in Nicaragua, Peru, and Guatemala, of which about two-thirds participate in coffee marketing schemes sponsored by TransFair USA. The study reports selected results related to production, marketing, material quality of life, education, health, and general well-being. Results show that producers participating in TransFair USA-supported FT cooperatives are indeed capturing more value than nonparticipants. This benefit transfer translates into modest but measurable improvements in quality of life, health, education, material comforts, social participation, technical and social assistance, and even sustainable agricultural practices. Consumers can have confidence that the FT scheme works. Retailers may be assured that by selling FT coffee they can defend the position that they are participating in a social change campaign.

Loyalty has, over the past decade, become a crucial construct in marketing, and particularly in the burgeoning field of customer relationship management. This paper shows that customer loyalty can be explained to a substantial degree by customer satisfaction, trust, and communication, and shows the direct and indirect effects among those constructs and other constructs in an extension of the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) model. Both ECSI model and the extended model are estimated with data from a survey carried out among customers of the banking sector. Within the limitations of the study, the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to place grudge‐holding as a theoretical construct, measure it, and empirically place it in a nomological net and, additionally to discuss the consequences of grudge‐holding in this research.

A 2 × 2 scenario‐based experiment was performed using 320 subjects, approximately 80 people per condition. The size of the exit barrier (high/low) and the effectiveness of the service recovery (good/poor) were varied between each scenario to determine changes in grudge‐holding.

Some consequences of grudge‐holding are retaliation desire and communication avoidance. Although trust was tested in this research, and is still an important relationship variable, the results show that loss of trust cannot explain these outcomes in the presence of grudge‐holding.

The results are limited by the fact that they are based on scenarios rather than real events. As such, they should be interpreted with some caution, and confirmed by later studies using cross‐sectional or natural experimental data.

A grudge‐holding item should be included in routine customer satisfaction surveys, especially since grudge‐holders are less likely to initiate communication. If grudge‐holding is suspected, this paper suggests steps that managers can take to defuse grudges.

The results of this research confirm that grudge‐holding is an important construct of service relationships. Understanding grudge‐holding is important because it predicts the desire for retaliation and the desire to avoid communication, both of which can increase expenses for the firm, and eventually lead to a mass exit of customers.

Advances in technology have given rise to an increased demand by small businesses for personalised e-government services. Given the importance of small businesses to the Australian economy, it is vital to deliver small business-centric services that offer potential to generate value. To do that effectively, government departments need to understand factors that affect small business. The purpose of this study is to explore how preferences for personalised services and the use of intermediaries affect small business participation behaviour and, in turn, stimulate positive outcomes that are of interest to the government.

This study draws on secondary data from a survey of 800 Australian small businesses about the digital services offered by a large government department. Structural equation modelling was used to empirically test the model.

The findings demonstrate that whilst preference for personalisation has a positive relationship with participation behaviour, reliance on an intermediary does not. While such behaviour fosters emotional connection and perceptions of partner quality, the results of this study show no significant impact on satisfaction.

This study advances knowledge about how small businesses can gain value from personalised support services. Importantly, it focuses on participation behaviour and small business – both of which are largely absent from existing studies. The findings can assist government departments to design personalised services that are valued by small businesses.

This study aims to examine the relationship between emotional attachment (EA) and intelligent personal assistant (IPA) continuance intention. While existing theories emphasize purely rational and goal-oriented factors in terms of information technology (IT) continuance intention, this research examines how users' EA toward technology impacts their continuance intention in the absence of cognitive and habitual factors.

This study contextualizes attachment theory from the social psychology/consumer psychology literature to an IT application and formulates and tests a new model that is proposed in the context of IPA continuance. Five research hypotheses developed from contextualization and application of the theory were posited in a structural model and empirically validated using survey results from IPA users.

The results show that users' EA to IPA use significantly influences their IPA continuance intention, along with emotional trust and interaction quality with the IPA.

This study contextualizes attachment theory developed in the social psychology/consumer psychology literature to formulate and test a new model in the context of IPA continuance. This work contributes to the theoretical understanding by investigating IPA continuance intention in the absence of cognitive or habitual factors and fills a critical research gap in IT post-adoption literature. IPA is just one example of technologies to which individuals can form attachments and this research provides an important foundation for future research by positing and testing the value of EA in IT post-adoption behavior. This research also contributes to practical knowledge by inferring that IPA manufacturers, managers and vendors could extend their revenue streams by integrating product features that capture emotion.