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The purpose of this paper is to determine hidden drivers of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by modeling attributes of self-relevant and quality-relevant values. This is a meaningful extension of previous consumer behavior research regarding the association of eWOM and self-constructs.

An on-site survey was conducted to collect data. Statistical analyses, including structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis, were used to empirically examine which factors significantly influence café customers to engage in eWOM.

The study found significant drivers of eWOM intentions by examining self-relevant values connected with the café, such as conveying reflected appraisal of self, conspicuous presentation and self-image congruity beyond the simple evaluation of service quality. The moderating effect of consumer opinion leadership on the relationships between those drivers and eWOM intentions was also investigated.

The results demonstrated that consumers’ self-construal value was a salient diver of eWOM intentions rather than service quality value itself. However, the findings showed that these service qualities positively influenced opinion leaders’ eWOM intentions to generate information. This makes an important contribution by providing practical messages for foodservice operators to develop more effective marketing strategies.

The present research extends our understanding of the drivers of eWOM beyond the idea that eWOM simply reflects perceived quality evaluations. The authors found that consumers can construct a self-identity and present themselves to others in the virtual world by showing “what they eat or experience”.

In the realm of increased competition among coffee café, the need for customer citizenship behavior (CCB) has increased. But the question of how a café can win CCB through firm-level and individual dispositional factors have not been gained due attention. Against this backdrop, this study aims to investigate a moderated-mediation model to predict CCB through CSR, affective commitment and service quality.

The data were collected from 797 coffee café visitors between April–June 2019. The respondents were approached through a convenience sampling technique.

Using both Structural Equation Modeling and Hayes Macros, data analysis proved that CSR significantly predicts affective commitment and CCB. Moreover, it is also witnessed that the presence of high service quality strengthens the mediation mechanism; thus, a moderated-mediation model is supported.

The study is cross-sectional, although the design did not cause a common method variance. The model tested in the study offers a novel mechanism explaining the linking between CSR and CCB through affective commitment and service quality. The findings are useful for the management of café as the large sample size may offer generalizable results.

The study offers a novel way of predicting CCB, the desired customer behavior in the present competitive environment in the coffee market. The usefulness of the findings for management is yet another contribution offered by this study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of disabled service providers on customers’ evaluations of service quality and behavioural intentions.

The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of online reviews from samples collected in a “dining-in-the-dark” restaurant, which employs blind waiters, and from a restaurant that employs deaf servers. The authors also put forth three quantitative analyses that use survey methodology.

Based on word clouds generated by online data, the findings show that customers treat the hiring of disabled service providers as the most prominent clue in their perceptions of organizational service quality. The quantitative results further illustrate that customers who hold more favourable attitudes towards disabled employees are more likely than other customers to spread positive word-of-mouth (WOM). Another analysis reveals that attitudes towards disabled employees are a separate construct from human compassion.

Customers’ attitudes towards disabled frontline service employees represent a service quality driver. The authors offer researchers an exploratory scale on consumer attitudes towards the hiring of disabled employees to further refine and develop for future validation.

Retail organizations may be able to obtain a competitive advantage by employing frontline disabled people through customer WOM communications. These communications are linked to positive organizational outcomes.

Retail and service researchers know considerably little about customers’ perceptions of interacting with disabled employees. This paper represents original research that encourages retail and service organization to employ disabled frontline employees.

The presence of fair trade coffee in cafés may help in strategic positioning and market differentiation. This paper aims to explore the extent to which this is evident for café customers.

Customers were surveyed on their perceptions of café and coffee attributes including taste, price and store atmosphere. Respondents were analysed by knowledge of the concept of fair trade, and by frequency and place of purchase.

The study finds that nearly half of respondents claimed moderate self‐assessed knowledge, although objective knowledge was lower. More knowledgeable customers cared more for fair trade products and for café atmosphere, of which fair trade promotional material plays a part. Customers stated they expected to pay more for fair trade coffee, although on average not as much as current margins require. When exposed to more information about fair trade, stated price premium support increased, but coffee taste expectations worsened.

Promoting fair trade coffee can help distinguish and position cafés, but not as much as was expected. Customer beliefs about the provision of fair trade products appear to have a stronger influence on their choices than actuality.

The paper contributes to understanding customer motives for purchasing fair trade coffee, particularly in the context of cafés/coffee houses, and for their patronage.

This study explores how chatbot gender and symbolic service recovery may improve the satisfaction of angry customers in the context of service failures. It provides a strategy for companies to deploy chatbots effectively in customer anger.

This research relies upon a systematic literature review to propose three hypotheses, and we recruit 826 participants to examine the effect of chatbot gender on angry customers through one lab study and one field study.

This research shows that female chatbots are more likely to increase the satisfaction of angry customers than male chatbots in service failure scenarios. In addition, symbolic recovery (apology vs. appreciation) moderates the effect of chatbot gender on angry customers. Specifically, male (vs. female) chatbots are more effective in increasing the satisfaction of angry customers when using the apology method, whereas female (vs. male) chatbots are more effective when using the appreciation method.

The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence technology have significantly enhanced the effectiveness of chatbots as virtual agents in the field of interactive marketing. Previous research has concluded that chatbots can reduce negative customer feedback following a service failure. However, these studies have primarily focused on the level of chatbot anthropomorphism and the design of conversational texts, rather than the gender of chatbots. Therefore, this study aims to bridge that gap by examining the effect of chatbot gender on customer feedback, specifically focusing on angry customers following service failures.

This study aims to investigate the effects of servicescape on customer satisfaction and loyalty – centered on social interaction and service experience in the café setting.

Data for this study were collected from approximately 1,800 customers at 185 coffee stores located in the three largest cities in Vietnam through the self-administered questionnaires.

The research findings pointed out the significant impacts of café servicescape on social interaction quality, including customer-to-employee interaction (CEI) and customer-to-customer interaction (CCI). Social interactions and servicescape were shown to remarkably influence customer experience quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, the study confirmed the interrelation between service experience, satisfaction and loyalty in the café setting.

This study provides marketers and service managers a deeper understanding of improving customer satisfaction and loyalty through the control of servicescape attributes and social interactions in café contexts.

This research explores the significant impacts of café servicescape on social interaction quality (CEI and CCI). Additionally, it provides insights within the role of social interactions to customer’s affective and behavioral responses in service settings, especially the CCI quality.

To test the effect of experience quality on customer perceived value and customer satisfaction and its impact on customer loyalty to the visitors of natural nuanced outdoor cafés in the hilly areas of Joyo Agung, Malang.

This study uses four variables, namely experience quality, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. The population used in this research was all customers or visitors who buy and enjoy the products and services provided by the natural outdoor cafés in Malang. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) as inferential statistical technique.

1) Quality experience has a significant effect on customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty; 2) customer perceived value has a significant effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty; and 3) customer satisfaction has a significant effect on customer loyalty.

Based on the results of previous research and the phenomenon that has been described previously, the research gaps found in this study are: (1) the relationship between experience quality and customers’ perceived values. (2) There are differences in the relationship between experience quality and customer satisfaction found in the research, which examines the effect of experience quality on customer loyalty. (3) Experience quality and customer loyalty variables still differ in the research concerning the effect of experience quality on customer loyalty. (4) The influence of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is still different in the research results regarding the effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty.

Via an experimental approach, this study therefore seeks to examine the effects of outcome valence upon service perception in the higher education setting where academic services form the core service element. To further extend this inquiry, the purpose of this paper is to explore the carryover effect of these emotional states to a subsequent unrelated service encounter which is classified as a peripheral service element which is hedonic in nature.

By using a simulated laboratory experimental procedure involving 300 participants, the authors examined the extent to which a student’s feeling toward an online test result has a bearing upon the teaching evaluation and a subsequent service experience in a branded retail context.

The results gathered from this study highlight the variability of the carryover effect of outcome valence from a work-related service context that serves as incidental emotions to a subsequent unrelated service encounter which is hedonic in nature. From the results gathered, variations were observed in relation to the dynamics of outcome valence in affecting core service evaluation where teaching quality was assessed, and in the peripheral service context in the form of retail experience at a branded cafè. From the basis of these findings, the psychological role of retail stores operating in a valence-oriented industry such as the higher education is discussed in this study.

Essentially, this study contributes to the academic literature and managerial practices by extending the knowledge in the dynamics of valence and its impact upon service perceptions.

This study adopts a simulated experimental design to assess the transference effect of valence in specific service encounters. This methodological approach offers greater reliability compared to existing studies which undertake a retrospective approach via questionnaire survey to examine outcome valence in service experiences. The results from this study provide important managerial implications by assessing the impact of valence upon customer satisfaction ratings which are commonly used for performance appraisal of service staff members. Additionally, the outcome of this study potentially assist managers to account for incidental emotions which may have an impact upon customer’s service experience.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships of capacity/layout (CL), design (D), location, (L), hygiene (H), human resource management (HRM), food quality (FQ) and ambiance (A) in operations management strategies (OMS) and the direct and indirect effects of OMS on customer satisfaction (CS) and customer behavioral intentions (CBIs) that might affect income and, therefore, be influential regarding café-restaurants in Sulaimania in Iraq.

Data are collected through a survey questionnaire using a simple random sampling methodology from 254 customers of 46 casual café-restaurants. Methodology includes demographic analysis, factor analysis, structural equation modeling and mediation analysis.

Concerning relationships between structural and infrastructural elements of OMS, only CL and H influence HRM, D and H affect A, and H influences FQ. Regarding relationships between OMS and CS and CBIs, only L, HRM, FQ and A affect CS. Concerning the relationship between CS and CBIs, CS influences CBIs. Finally, given indirect effects of OMS on CS and CBIs, HRM mediates relationships between CL-CS and H-CS; FQ and A mediate relationships between H-CS; and CS mediates relationships between L-CBIs, FQ-CBIs and HRM-CBIs.

The study that treats seven variables in OMS is limited to Sulaimania in Iraq. Thus, the findings cannot be generalized. The study might guide future studies about the way OMS elements forge CS and CBIs in café-restaurants where owners/managers develop credible strategic plans.

The study provides a unique insight into the hospitality industry in Iraq where studies among elements of OMS are few and far between.