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Drawing on the stereotype content model (SCM), the authors investigate the stereotype content transfer (in terms of warmth and competence) from country to brand and the simultaneous impact of these two stereotypes on consumer responses toward brands.

The authors test a structural equation model conceptualizing brand stereotypes as full mediators between country stereotypes and consumer outcomes. In addition, in a moderated mediation analysis, the authors investigate the role of brand typicality and utilitarianism/hedonism in potentially moderating the country to brand stereotype content transfer.

Country warmth and competence, respectively, impact brand warmth and competence, thus confirming the hypothesized stereotype content transfer. This transfer is found to be robust and not contingent on brands' perceived typicality of their country of origin. However, brands' utilitarian nature amplifies the positive impact of country competence on brand competence. Finally, brand stereotypes fully mediate the impact of country stereotypes on consumers' brand attitudes and behavioral intentions.

The authors provide the first empirical attempt that (1) explicitly differentiates between consumers' stereotypical perceptions of countries and stereotypical perceptions of brands from these countries, (2) empirically examines the transfer of stereotypical dimensions of different targets (i.e. country to brand), (3) explores boundary conditions for such transfer and (4) simultaneously considers the impact of both kinds of stereotypes on managerially relevant consumer outcomes.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate occupational stereotypes among a professional sample of recruiters and other employees on the two fundamental dimensions of warmth and competence.

The authors conducted a survey to collect professionals´ (mostly recruiters´) ratings of preselected occupations. Participants were asked to rate warmth and competence attributes. Factor and cluster analysis were employed to investigate the two-dimensional structure of the warmth/competence space and how and whether occupations cluster as predicted by the stereotype content model (SCM).

Almost all occupations showed a clear two-factorial structure, corresponding to the warmth/competence dimensions. A five-cluster solution was deemed appropriate as depicting how occupations disperse on these dimensions. Implications for stereotyping research, the design of hiring discrimination experiments, and HRM are discussed.

In contrast to previous related research, in which participants select the included occupations themselves, the authors included prespecified common occupations, which should be important for representativeness. In addition, previous research has been conducted in the United States, while the authors conduct this study in a European context (Sweden). Finally, instead of studying students or participants with unspecified work experience, the authors focus on professionals (mostly recruiters).

The main purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to investigate the unexplored connections among destination gender personality, destination stereotypes, brand attachment and destination brand love and (2) to examine the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between destination stereotypes and destination brand attachment (DBA).

The conceptual model is evaluated using qualitative methods (i.e. three focus groups, six academic experts and a pilot study). In addition, using an empirical study with 610 international travelers who visited Egypt selected by systematic random sampling, 8 hypotheses were analyzed and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) by AMOS 23, confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory factor analyses.

The study’s results suggest that destination gender plays a vital role in enhancing stereotypes, stereotypes positively affect attachment and DBA positively affects destination brand love. Finally, the results show that destination involvement moderates the dual influence of the warmth and competence of stereotypes on destination attachment.

The research supports the contention that social perception mechanisms are crucial in destination brand perception. It offers new understandings of the association between customers' destination brand perceptions and their responses to destinations.

This paper contributes to the travel literature by analyzing a novel model of destination gender personality, stereotypes, DBA and destination brand love using both social role (SR) theory and a stereotype content model (SCM). Besides attempting this task, it explores the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between stereotypes and destination attachment using the elaboration likelihood model.

This paper aims to draw from the stereotype content model (SCM) to investigate the mediating role of country-triggered emotions on the relationship between country stereotypes and intentions to visit a country as well as the boundary conditions under which such mediation occurs.

Two-hundred and eighty-three consumers participated in a between-subjects, Web-based study conducted in Hungary. Participants were randomly exposed to one out of six countries that are among the most popular tourist destinations for Hungarian consumers. Moderated-mediation analysis was performed to test the research hypotheses.

Country stereotypes of competence and warmth positively influence country-related emotions of admiration which, subsequently, transfer to consumer intentions to visit the focal country as a tourism destination. This mediation is moderated by consumers’ extraversion, such that intentions to visit are greater for highly extraverted consumers.

Policymakers should take into consideration both the country stereotype and related emotions triggered by this stereotype when developing and promoting the country destination brand. Practitioners should also consider extraversion as a potential personality-based segmentation and targeting variable when communicating a country as a destination brand.

This study delineates the link between country stereotype and affective responses to this stereotype, thus further adding to our understanding of the role that emotions play in determining tourism behavior. It also highlights the role of the personality trait of extraversion as a moderating influence on the stereotype-emotions-visit intentions link.

This paper aims to introduce the psychological variable of “social distance” and use SEM to analyze the relationship between tourism service providers’ physical attractiveness (SPPA) and tourists’ perceptions of social distance, stereotypes and service quality.

The data collectors were instructed to convenience sampling tourists in Guangzhou Chimelong Tourist Resort, the biggest resort in South China and 334 valid questionnaires were collected. This study used CFA to confirm the measurement model and to check the reliability and validity of the constructs. Using Mplus 7.0, SEM was performed to test the hypotheses of this study.

The study found that tourism SPPA can improve tourists’ stereotype perception by reducing the social distance between tourists and service providers, which ultimately improves service quality. This study also found that only warmth perception can significantly improve the service quality evaluation of tourists, with competence perception having no significant effect.

This study focused on the SPPA in tourism services, expanding the research on tourism service management and on the effect of physical attractiveness; enriched the stereotype content model and behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes map by clarifying the mediating role of social distance and stereotypes; found different roles played by the competence and warmth stereotype in the enhancement effect; helped find an insightful strategy to improve service quality by recruiting and training employees intentionally.

旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力与顾客服务质量评价：热情与能力同等重要吗？

本文的目的在于利用结构方程模型验证旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力、旅游者感知社会距离与服务质量感知之间的关系, 并为如何提升旅游服务质量提出建议。

研究使用方便抽样的方式在广州长隆旅游度假区共回收有效问卷334份。本文使用Mplus 7.0对研究模型进行了检验。

研究结果表明, 旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力可以通过拉近其与旅游者之间的社会距离, 从而能够提升旅游者对其的热情和能力刻板印象, 进而提升旅游者服务质量感知。本文还发现热情和能力刻板印象的重要性有所不同, 只有后者能够显著提升旅游者服务质量感知。

第一, 本研究从一线旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力因素视角, 推进了旅游服务管理和外貌刻板印象的相关研究。第二, 本文还通过厘清社会距离和刻板印象的中介作用, 丰富了SCM和BIAS map理论。第三, 本文发现了热情和能力刻板印象在提升服务质量感知过程中的不同作用。

关键词：外貌吸引力, 社会距离, 刻板印象, SCM, BIAS map, 服务质量

文章类型： 研究型论文

El atractivo físico de los prestadores de servicios turísticos y la evaluación de la calidad del servicio de los clientes: ¿qué es más importante, la calidez o las competencias?

El objetivo de este artículo es introducir la variable psicológica del “distanciamiento social” y utilizar un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para analizar la relación entre el atractivo físico de los prestadores de servicios turísticos y la percepción de los turistas sobre el distanciamiento social, estereotipos y la calidad del servicio.

Los recopiladores de datos recibieron instrucciones de tomar muestras de turistas a conveniencia en el centro turístico de Guangzhou Chimelong, el centro turístico más grande del sur de China. Se recolectaron 334 cuestionarios válidos. Este estudio utilizó el AFC para confirmar el modelo de medición y verificar la confiabilidad y validez de los constructos. Para probar las hipótesis de este estudio, se elaboró un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales utilizando Mplus 7.0.

En este estudio se encontró que el atractivo físico de los prestadores de servicios turísticos puede mejorar los estereotipos de los turistas, reduciendo el distanciamiento social entre los turistas y los prestadores de servicios y a la vez, en última instancia, formar una mayor calidad del servicio. En este estudio también se encontró que, en dos estereotipos, la percepción de la calidez y de las competencias, solo el último puede mejorar significativamente la evaluación de la calidad del servicio por parte de los turistas. No existe una relación significativa entre la percepción de la calidez y la evaluación de la calidad del servicio.

En primer lugar, este estudio se enfocó en el atractivo físico del personal de primera línea que presta los servicios turísticos, ampliando la investigación a la gestión de los servicios de turismo y el efecto del atractivo físico. En segundo lugar, este estudio enriqueció el SMC y el mapa BIAS al aclarar el rol mediador del distanciamiento social y los estereotipos. En tercer lugar, en este estudio se encontraron los diferentes roles que juegan el estereotipo de las competencias y el de la calidez en la relación entre el atractivo físico y la calidad del servicio.

Atractivo físico, distanciamiento social, estereotipos, SMC, mapa BIAS, calidad del servicio

The aim of this research is to examine the application of the stereotype content model (SCM) in the field of marketing from macro (the country of origin), meso- (corporate image) and micro (service providers, brands, advertising and promotions) levels.

This paper collects, reviews and summarizes the relevant literature, and prospects future research directions from three levels on this research topic.

First, the authors contend that competence primacy popularizes in the early work but warmth becomes more influential recently. Second, they identify and discuss two doubts of the SCM in marketing, namely the moral dimension and the link between brands as intentional agents framework (BIAF) and the brand personality theory. Finally, they suggest several research avenues for the use of SCM in marketing research, including research on nation branding, emerging global brands and Confucianist cultures at macro level, artificial intelligence and warmth-as-competence strategy at meso-level, and brand personality and the brand animal logo at micro level.

As an established framework in social psychology, the SCM has been increasingly applied in marketing research and a literature review in this light appears timely. This paper conducts for the first time a comprehensive review of the SCM in the marketing field on three levels, projects promising research directions, and thus contributes to the academia of marketing.

Longitudinal studies have shown that consumer satisfaction has increased over the last 15 years, whereas trust and loyalty have decreased during the same period. This finding contradicts the trust–value–loyalty model (TVLM), which posits that higher satisfaction increases consumers' trust, value and loyalty levels. To explain this counterintuitive trend, this study draws on models of trust formation to integrate the stereotype content model and the TVLM. It argues that consumers' occupational and industry stereotypes influence their trust, value and loyalty judgments through their trusting beliefs regarding frontline employees and management practices/policies.

The study was conducted among 476 consumers who were randomly assigned to one of five service industries (apparel retail, airlines, hotels, health insurance or telecommunications services) and asked to rate their current service provider from that industry.

The results suggest that both occupational and industry stereotypes influence consumers' trusting beliefs and trust judgments, although only the effects of industry stereotypes are transferred to consumers' loyalty judgments.

The results of the study indicate that industry stereotypes have become increasingly negative over the last decades, which has a dampening effect on the positive effects of satisfaction.

This study provides guidelines for practitioners regarding the management of frontline employees and the development of consumer trust, value and loyalty.

This is the first study to propose and test an explanation for the counterintuitive trend concerning customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty. It is also the first to examine the roles of multiple stereotypes in the relationship between consumers and service providers.

Drawing on person–environment fit theory, this study aims to investigate how the relationships between service task types (i.e. utilitarian and hedonic service tasks) and perceived authenticity (i.e. service and brand authenticity) differ under different conditions of service providers (human employee vs service robot). This study further examines whether customers’ stereotypes toward service robots (competence vs warmth) moderate the relationship between service types and perceived authenticity.

Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, Study 1 examines a casual restaurant, whereas Study 2 assesses a theme park restaurant. Analysis of covariance and PROCESS are used to analyze the data.

Both studies reveal that human service providers in hedonic services positively affect service and brand authenticity more than robotic employees. Additionally, the robot competence stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services, service and brand authenticity, whereas the robot warmth stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services and brand authenticity in Study 2.

Restaurant managers need to understand which functions and types of service outlets are best suited for service robots in different service contexts. Robot–environment fit should be considered when developers design and managers select robots for their restaurants.

This study blazes a new theoretical trail of service robot research to systematically propose customer experiences with different service types by drawing upon person–environment fit theory and examining the moderating role of customers’ stereotypes toward service robots.

The purpose of this paper is to address an overarching question: Does matching consumer place–brand associations with stereotype-consistent messaging affect consumer perceptions of an advertisement?

This paper presents two experiments that examine participants’ differing evaluations of advertisements under various experimental conditions. Study 1 examines the match of place–brand warmth versus competence stereotypes and the use of symbolic versus utilitarian advertising messaging for both new foreign and domestic brands. Study 2 examines this match for global brands.

The paper reveals that stereotype-consistent messaging increases the perceived fit between the advertisement and the brand for new foreign brands but not for new domestic or global brands. Furthermore, in a post-hoc analysis, this congruence is found to improve attitude towards the brand, purchase intentions and brand response, through the mediating effect of attitude towards the ad.

Place–brand stereotypes impact consumer attitudes and opinions regarding brands from different countries. This paper applies two universal social judgment dimensions from social psychology—warmth and competence—to the novel context of advertising messaging to examine previously unexplored facets of the place–brand image.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on developing and validating a multidimensional measure of work-related age-based stereotypes (WAS) scale.

Based upon a review of the literature, a three-dimensional stereotype content model including both negative (incompetence, inadaptability) and positive (warmth) stereotypes of older workers was created. Construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity for the WAS scale were examined across three independent samples constituting both lab-based experimental studies and a field-based survey (total n=1,245).

Across all samples, the WAS evidenced good construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity.

As evidenced by a review of the literature, the WAS is unique in that it measures both negative and positive stereotypes of older workers. Implications for research are discussed.