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Although stress has become a prominent research theme in consumer behavior and occupational health, to the authors knowledge there is only one review on the relationship between consumer behavior and stress (i.e., when internal and external factors exceed an individual’s resources and endangering the individual’s well-being) and this was published 10 years ago. Further, research on occupational stress has yet to be fully integrated into the consumer stress literature. In this chapter, the authors attempt to advance research on consumer stress by a drawing on a satisfaction mirror framework which outlines that consumers and employees influence each other through a “mirror” where they positively and cyclically influence each other in a service environment. The authors argue that consumers and employees may likewise mirror each other in a negative cycle of stress and well-being depletion. First, the authors describe how stress is viewed in consumer behavior and marketing. Second, the authors review evidence that consumption serves as a form of coping with stress. Third, the authors discuss the role of consumption as a stressor that may drive consumer stress. Finally, the authors introduce the satisfaction mirror model and outline the bi-directional influence on increased stress and well-being depletion at the consumer–employee interface in service encounters. The model introduced in this chapter serves as a framework for organizing findings related to stress and well-being in the fields of consumer behavior and occupational health. In addition, the model serves as a springboard for developing propositions for future research. Ultimately, the authors hope this chapter both updates and builds upon previous findings on stress and consumer behavior, as well as grounds future research on stress and well-being at the intersection of consumers and employees.

Based upon social exchange theory, this study investigates the mediating effect of consumers' trust in banking industry frontline employees on two relationships: (1) the relation between consumers' perceptions of frontline employees' empathy and consumers' perceptions of frontline employees' performance, and (2) the relation between consumers' perception of frontline employees' customer orientation and consumers' perceptions of frontline employees' performance.

The authors used a time-lag research design to collect data through online questionnaires distributed in two waves. The sample comprises 375 respondents having experience and interaction with banking frontline employees.

Results confirm the mediating effect of consumers' trust in the banking industry on the relationships between their perceptions of frontline employees' empathy and consumer orientation on the one hand and their perceptions of frontline employees' performance on the other hand.

Results may be helpful to policymakers and managers in the service industries, prompting them to adopt approaches and strategies designed to build strong relationships with consumers, thus increasing consumers' trust and frontline employees' performance.

This study confirms the relevance of social exchange theory in understanding the role of consumers' trust and perceptions of frontline employees' empathy and consumer orientation in understanding their perception of frontline employee performance in the banking industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers, family-run small businesses (small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)) and their employees’ perceptions and attitude towards reform of the Sunday Trading Act in Britain.

A multi-method approach was employed to collect data in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 family-run small business owners/managers, 25 employees and 30 consumers. A survey was also conducted amongst 385 consumers and 279 employees. A convenience sampling method was used to collect data. Interview data were analysed by using content analysis and survey data were analysed by using descriptive statistics.

The results demonstrate considerable support for extending Sunday trading hours. Most of the arguments against the reform were found to be redundant. The findings suggest that in contemporary Britain, the restricted Sunday trading hours are perceived to be outdated and inconvenient.

The findings demonstrate that a paradigm shift is needed to meet and understand the changing market conditions. This exploratory study is limited to the UK. Future research will be extended to other European countries.

This is the first academic study to investigate the current debate regarding the deregulation of the Sunday trading hours. This study highlighted the psychographic changes and socio-economic demand in the marketplace. Sunday trading offers different types of benefits to consumers, employees and SMEs. The study proposed an original model that categorised these benefits into three major levels: primary benefits, ancillary benefits and ultimate benefits.

This study aims to investigate how employee and other-consumer safety compliance amid the COVID-19 outbreak influences a focal consumer’s intention to approach a service establishment. The study also examines the three-way interaction effect of employee compliance, other-consumer compliance and perceived threat associated with COVID-19 on approach intentions.

This study uses an experimental approach with a 2 (employee safety compliance: low vs high) × 2 (other-consumer safety compliance: low vs high) × 2 (consumer perceived threat from COVID-19: low vs high) between-subjects design. Students were trained to recruit a convenience sample of 827 consumers in Qatar and data were analyzed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression.

Employee safety compliance has a positive impact on the consumer’s approach intentions. Employee safety compliance has a bigger impact on approach intentions if other consumers in the service environment are also compliant with safety measures and even a greater effect when the perceived threat from COVID-19 is high. The effect of the interaction between employee and other-consumer safety compliance is significantly different under two levels of perceived threat.

To enhance approach intentions, managers should start by establishing and maintaining safety compliance among employees and then achieving compliance among consumers. Achieving compliance among employees and consumers has a positive impact on approach intentions despite the focal consumer’s perceived risk associated with COVID-19.

This is the first study to investigate how the safety compliance of employees and other consumers jointly affects consumers’ approach intentions during a global pandemic, and it is among very few attempts to manipulate dimensions of the social servicescape.

The research concerns the effect of frontline employees’ averted or direct gaze on consumers’ evaluation of the encounter. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that in normal interactions, a direct or averted gaze affects people’s evaluation of others. The question was whether this finding would hold true in commercial interactions.

The authors conducted three experiments using a written scenario with a photograph among a total sample of 612 participants.

This research showed that consumers’ social impression of the frontline employees mediated the effect of the employees’ gazing behaviour on consumers’ emotions and satisfaction with the encounters. The findings also showed that averting gaze had a negative effect on consumers’ first impression of the frontline employee, which affected consumers’ satisfaction with the encounter. The findings also showed that a direct gaze had a negative effect on encounter satisfaction when consumers sought to purchase embarrassing products.

The research demonstrated that the effect of gaze on encounter satisfaction was mediated by the social impression and moderated by consumers’ approach/avoidance motivation.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

This study aims to focus on how grocery store retail entrepreneurs invest in formal and informal surveillance, and how these investments affect consumers' and employees' sense of security. In particular, it tries to understand what kind of surveillance investments can be found from the stores with high consumer and employees' sense of security.

The present study utilizes elements of CPTED in its theoretical approach. The population for the study consisted of 946 grocery store K‐retailers. The data collection was carried out through an internet survey in February and March of 2009. A total of 161 grocery store retailers filled in the questionnaire, yielding a response rate of 17 percent.

The research reveals that investments in informal surveillance are more likely to create a high sense of security among consumers and employees than are investments in formal surveillance. In other words, the analysis shows that the stores where consumers and employees have a high sense of security have made more investments in comfortable, clean and well‐lit premises than stores where consumers and employees have a low sense of security.

The present study was limited to surveillance and to consumers' and employees' sense of security as understood by the retailers. Unquestionably, there is a need to study surveillance from the consumers' and employees' viewpoints. In addition, qualitative studies would enable more thorough operationalization of the concepts that linked the surveillance and sense of security in the store context.

Retailers wishing to create a safe retail space for employees and customers should invest in informal surveillance. Investments in comfortable, well‐cleaned and well‐lighted premises make both consumers and employees feel safe in the store environment. In this way, retailers can enhance the competitiveness of their store.

Very little empirical research has evaluated the effectiveness of surveillance in the store environment, although many articles and reports have commented on the importance of surveillance. The present study fills this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to examine food safety behaviors of consumers and employees at university food courts.

Using a smartphone-based observation technique, a total of 149 consumers and 34 employees were observed at three food courts at a mid-western university in the USA. The observational tool recorded 30 sequential transactions of each individual, allowing researchers to identify the compliance rate to the rubric. Both descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance were used for data analysis.

This study found a low compliance rate of food safety practices among consumers and employees at university food courts. Consumers’ food safety practices varied depending on gender, observed ethnicity and party size, while none of those factors was significant for employees. Specifically, females, Caucasians, and lone diners showed higher non-compliance rates than those of males, non-Caucasians and group diners.

The results of the study raise the pressing needs of developing effective risk communication strategies at university food courts for both consumers and employees in order to reduce the potential risk of foodborne illness outbreaks.

University food courts are not only major foodservice operations for on-campus populations as well as off-campus visitors and the local public, but also the presence of shared dining area pertains the potential risk of foodborne illnesses. However, lack of attention has been paid to the food safety issues at university food courts, and especially food safety behaviors of consumers. This study extended the knowledge of previous food safety literature by adopting a smartphone-based observation technique and developing a rubric customized for consumers and employees at university food courts.

This study aims to introduce transformative place management – TPM – (defined as the deliberate efforts of place managers in commercial settings to provide a pool of restorative resources to improve the consumers’ emotional well-being) by merging the REPLACE framework and transformative service research. Additionally, this research analyzes the direct and indirect impacts of restorative resources as a form of TPM on consumers’ emotional well-being and place attachment, considering the moderating role of employee emotional labor.

A total of 240 customers were surveyed in an experience-based store in a developing country by using a questionnaire. Then, a moderated mediation model was applied to analyze the moderating role of employee emotional labor in the relationship between TPM and place attachment through consumers’ well-being.

TPM that provides restorative resources to consumers influences place attachment by improving consumer well-being. However, surface acting by employees reduces the ability of TPM to increase place attachment through the improvement of consumers’ emotional well-being. Deep acting, on the other hand, does not enhance the effect of TPM on place attachment through consumers’ emotional well-being.

This paper proposes new developments in the transformative service research (TSR) paradigm by introducing TPM. By showing how the place of consumption increases the well-being of customers, this paper helps TSR researchers to accomplish the purpose of transforming the lives of consumers through relevant research. Although marketing researchers and environmental psychologists have theoretically anticipated the positive effects on well-being from consumption settings, this paper explains how commercial places promote customer well-being through the provision of restorative resources. Also, this paper shows how the place of consumption transforms consumers’' lives and identifies some of the boundary conditions at which such a transformation occurs.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, this study aims to understand whether and how sales employee clothing style would influence consumers' perceptions of store image through their expectations of service quality. Second, this study hopes to uncover how fashion orientation would influence the aforementioned relationship.

A 3 (formality of employee clothing: formal vs moderate vs casual) × 2 (level of fashion orientation: low vs high) between‐subject experiment design was conducted. Data were collected from 105 university students in a laboratory setting.

Results indicated that formality of employee clothing (i.e. formal business, moderate, or casual attire) served as a cue in the retail environment for consumers to make inferences about the service quality expected to be provided by the sales employee. Furthermore, formality of employee clothing both directly and indirectly influenced consumers' perceptions of store image.

This study adds to existing literature by uncovering the moderating role of fashion orientation in consumers' service quality expectations and confirms the function of service quality as an antecedent to store image.

Retailers should pay attention to the design of their salespeople's clothing because different clothing styles draw forth different evaluations from customers about the service quality provided in retail stores.

This study investigates the role of clothing formality in influencing consumers' service quality expectations.