Search results

Pursuit of meaning is at the heart of much of organizational life. It has implications for how different organizational stakeholders associate value to various organizational initiatives. Research on meaning has generally shown that effort increases meaning and favorable valuation of and willingness to pay for economic activities by organizational stakeholders. The authors build on and advance this research by offering theory and experimental evidence showing that effort, particularly at high levels, results in enhanced meaning and favorable valuation when effort does not threaten the focal stakeholders' resources through expectation disconfirmation.

Three experimental studies are designed and conducted in this research. In one study, the authors replicate prior research findings that establish labor generally increases meaning and favorable valuation. In the two subsequent studies, the authors test the proposed hypothesis in this research and check for robustness of the empirical analysis.

The authors find that any internalized threat to the focal stakeholder's resources coupled with a high exertion of effort decreases, rather than increases, meaning and favorable valuation of and willingness to pay for economic activities.

The theory and empirical evidence in this research advance the understanding of how organizational stakeholders may associate effort-induced meaning with various economic activities in counter-intuitive ways. The findings also highlight the importance of recognizing and shaping the expectations of organizational stakeholders in influencing willingness to pay in organizational settings.

This study aims to use emotions-as-social information theory to investigate how physical (customer perceived store atmosphere) and social servicescapes (customer information searching) influence the effects of employees’ positive affective displays on customer outcomes via customer positive moods and positive expectation disconfirmation.

This research included two studies, each using a distinct research design, to empirically test the proposed model. Study 1 involved 200 observational data points on objective purchase amounts from designer watch shops. In Study 2, data were collected from 230 customers in designer jewelry stores.

The results of path analyses revealed that: employee positive affective displays are positively associated with customer purchase outcomes; employee positive affective displays had positive indirect effects on customer purchase outcomes by enhancing customer positive moods and positive expectation disconfirmation; these positive indirect effects were strengthened when customers engaged in information search behaviors; and these positive indirect effects were attenuated when customers perceive store atmosphere as favorable, indicating a substitution effect of customer perceived store atmosphere.

Previous research has not thoroughly examined the role of the servicescape in moderating the effects of employees’ positive affective displays on customer purchase outcomes. This present study not only clarified the affective and cognitive mechanisms that link employees’ positive affective displays on purchase outcomes but also identified servicescape as a critical boundary condition of these effects.

In this study, the expectancy disconfirmation model (EDM) was applied to explain the formation of public health emergency preparedness cooperative behavior (EPCB) as well as considering the roles of official media exposure and positive emotions.

The analysis was based on a sample of 374 respondents collected during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A t-test was used to examine the differences in variables by sex, age and educational background. Hypothesis testing was conducted using structural equation modeling. Amos 24.0 and R 4.0.3 were used to analyze the data.

The results indicated that (1) official media exposure has a positive impact on expectations for and perceived performance of public services, as well as positive emotions; (2) the EDM can be used to explain public satisfaction with government public health services; and (3) public satisfaction and positive emotions have positive effects on EPCB; (4) EDM and positive emotions mediate the relationship between official media exposure and EPCB.

This study provides practical implications for increasing the EPCB from the perspective of risk communication.

All hypothesized relationships were significant. Specifically, H1 was supported as disconfirmation and surprising consumption were significantly correlated. Moreover, arousal (H2) and outrage (H4a) were functions of surprising consumption and negative affect (H3) and outrage (H4b) were functions of arousal. H4c was also supported as negative affect had a significant direct effect on consumer outrage. In addition, disconfirmation had negative direct effects on both negative affect (H5) and dissatisfaction (H6a) and dissatisfaction was a function of negative affect. Finally, both outrage (H7a) and dissatisfaction (H7b) had significant negative effects on behavioral intentions.

Respondents were recruited to participate in the data collection in a “college town” in the Southeastern United States. Respondents were provided a paper and pencil data collection instrument that include complete survey instructions and the balance of the research design. To adequately test all hypotheses, the researchers developed a unique scenario that described an extreme service failure that takes place during a hotel check-in. Each respondent was asked to read the scenario and then reflect upon it as they responded to items that assessed their feelings toward the hotel check-in experience.

The results provide additional evidence in support of the existence of the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum, as well as specifically identifying the affective nature of levels of satisfaction that fall surprisingly well-below the zone of tolerance. The authors feel that the present study is a necessary step to provide a more comprehensive view of the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum. Likewise, the authors posit initial evidence of the antecedents and consequences of consumer outrage. This research supports the prior assumptions of Westbrook (1987) about the vast detrimental effects of negative affective responses to service or product failures.

Future research needs to discover just how extremely deficient service has to be to elicit outrage. Is outrage a personal phenomenon with every consumer experiencing it to different degrees? As such, is outrage triggered at different points on the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum? The zone of tolerance seems to suggest this, but it would be interesting to discover if at some collective level of dissatisfaction consumers generally begin to show signs of outrage. Likewise, it would be interesting to understand how the level and pattern of outrage results in customers exiting the relationship but also results in loyal customers becoming enemies (e.g. Gregiore et al., 2009; Gregiore and Fisher, 2008).

The motivation for the current study is both pragmatic and theoretical. As alluded to above, it is evident that the level of service customers’ emotional responses to their service experiences are increasing in frequency and intensity. These negative emotions affect the efficacy of service workers and impede the financial performance of service providers. The popular mantra of “anti-woke” consumers, “Go Woke, Go Broke,” is indicative of the importance of negative emotion. Sometimes referred to as “brand activism” (Moorman, 2020; Sarkar and Kotlet, 2019), recent public stances on social and political issues have led to a boycott of Gillette razors, the burning of Nike shoes, and the canceling of Costco Memberships in what has been called “virtue signaling” (Vredenburg et al., 2020). While none of these actions are desirable, the importance of investigating the impact of strong negative emotions (i.e. outrage) is further demonstrated in reports that 65% of consumers expect companies to authentically support such issues (Barton et al., 2018; Edelman, 2018; Larcker and Tayan, 2018; Moorman, 2020).

The purpose of this study is to unearth antecedents of regrettable dining experiences related to the information source, action and inaction perspectives, dining companion influence and interactions among information source, the focal customer’s valence and the dining companion’s valence on regret, leading to sequential behavioral outcomes.

Using a scenario-based experimental study, 344 qualified questionnaires were collected. Univariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression analyses were implemented.

The results of this study reveal that action regret is more intense than inaction regret during the choice-making phase; dining companion negative feedback intensifies focal customer’s regret. The significance of the information source on regret disappeared when only one party reported negative feedback; conversely, when two parties in the co-consumption experience revealed negative feedback, the relationship between information source of choice and regret was sustained.

The nature of scenario-based design may lack realism. Thus, more field experiments are encouraged to test the propositions further. This research enhances our understanding of gastronomic experiences in a negative disconfirmation context, drawing upon action/inaction regret theory, attribution theory and the expectancy disconfirmation model.

From a triad relationship perspective, this study provides valuable input on who or what will be attributed to the issues when encountering a food and wine sensory failure. Additionally, insightful recommendations are supplied on avoiding the possibility of inducing the experience of regret and how practitioners can increase the potential for a memorable dining experience.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that enriched the existing knowledge of regrettable dining experiences relating to information sources and social influence.

Enterprise information systems (EISs) are intricate technological artifacts with wide user base within organizations. While much is known about the adoption and implementation of EISs, little is known about what subsequently follows them, i.e. the assimilation of EISs. This article aims to examine the assimilation of the EISs which is consequential to realizing any benefits from such enterprise technology.

The author conceptually draws on the insights from the expectation confirmation theory, theory of reasoned action, equity theory, and prospect theory to examine the assimilation of the EISs. In doing so, the author generates competing testable hypotheses regarding the relationship between individual users' psychological and social influences through expectation (dis)confirmation and the users' intention to assimilate the EISs.

By conceptually articulating the individual users' psychological and social influences through expectation (dis)confirmation, the author offers a more complete account of the assimilation of EISs, and provide several avenues for future empirical and theoretical research on enterprise technology assimilation.

The extant research that there is on the assimilation of the EISs focuses more on the organizational – as opposed to individual – level determinants of EISs assimilation and largely considers the functional – rather than psychological and social – drivers. This article addresses these important, yet understudied, factors to offer a more nuanced account of EISs assimilation.

This research investigates the effects of consumers' online information searching on their dining satisfaction in upscale restaurants during the pandemic. Customers frequently rely on online sources to gather information about upscale restaurants prior to their visits.

Data from 307 diners across the top ten popular upscale restaurants in Hong Kong were analysed by using SEM to explore the links between customers' needs, information search, restaurant attributes and customer satisfaction.

This study uncovers customers' online search behaviours and identifies restaurant attributes that are associated with customer satisfaction, which were not typically emphasised before the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by their social and psychological needs, customers devoted more time to reading written comments by other consumers compared to visual images or self-descriptions from restaurants. Only service attribute significantly influenced customer satisfaction, while food and price attributes were not significant.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners, shedding light on the altered needs and preferences of consumers following the unprecedented health crisis.

This study contributes to the development of expectancy disconfirmation theory and needs theory through the investigation of consumers' online information searching behaviours and dining satisfaction in upscale restaurants during the pandemic. By identifying the most important attributes influencing customer satisfaction, this research can aid upscale restaurants in developing effective marketing strategies and enhancing customer experiences.

Academic research has supported the belief that consumers undertip minority race service workers due to implicit racial biases. However, there has been less focus in examining possible moderating factors. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing the role of direct and indirect experience in tipping frontline service workers from a minority background. Given the prominence of customer ratings on digital service platforms and the perception that African Americans are discriminated against, the authors look at the interplay of interaction length (direct experience) and customer ratings (indirect experience) on the relationship between race and tipping.

An expectancy disconfirmation framework was developed and tested with a sample of 360 US participants in an online experiment. The experiment followed a 2 × (race: African-American versus Caucasian) × 2 (direct experience: limited versus extensive) × 3 (indirect experience: absent versus positive versus negative customer rating) design.

The authors found consumers who have extended direct experience (longer service interaction) and no indirect experience (absent customer ratings) tipped African Americans more than Caucasians. Interestingly, this effect is reduced in the presence of indirect experience (customer ratings). Finally, where the consumer lacks direct experience (shorter service interaction) but is exposed to positive indirect experience (positive customer ratings), consumers tip African Americans more.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the role of direct and indirect experience in the relationship between race and tipping. Based on the authors’ findings, the authors provide several contributions, including recommendations to reduce inequalities arising from implicit racial bias on digital service platforms.

The primary intent of this study was to assess the influence of novelty-seeking on the satisfaction of consumers. The investigation concentrated on Malaysian consumers who have experience using online food delivery (OFD) applications.

To perform the research, non-probability and convenience sampling methods were enforced to gather the required data. An online questionnaire in the form of a Google Survey was conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Upon completion of the survey, the results were analyzed using SPSS software. Both the Service Quality (SERVQUAL) model and expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT) were exploited to shed light on the impact of consumer satisfaction.

Analysis of responses from the 250 participants unveiled that novelty-seeking positively influences consumer satisfaction. The finding depicted that reliability and responsiveness have the most positive impact on consumer satisfaction whereas tangibility has no effect on the satisfaction of consumers by using OFD applications.

This study had three main limitations: first, the limitations on access to the participants during the pandemic; second, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain more accurate results; third, the study was limited to the context of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The conclusions brought to the fore that OFD marketers should provide appropriate service quality while concentrating on novelty and well-designed apps to surge consumer satisfaction.

OFD apps have facilitated customers' access to various meals and helped food vendors survive in the competitive marketplace. A new aspect, novelty-seeking, is added to the SERVQUAL dimensions (i.e. empathy, tangibility, reliability, assurance and responsiveness) identified in the literature review.

The concept of online shopping has been in vogue for the past two decades and is on the rise. Even developing countries like Pakistan are using electronic platforms to buy and sell goods and services, and the trend has been increasing ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this study aims to test the e-service quality (E-SQ) and e-customer satisfaction (ECS) linkage with the mediating roles of functional values (FVs) and hedonic values (HVs).

The data have been collected from 298 customers of AliExpress and Daraz e-commerce platforms and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM).

The results of the study showed a significant positive relationship between E-SQ and ECS and indirect linkage through FVs and HVs have also been established.

E-commerce platforms, particularly in Pakistan, should place a strong emphasis on FVs by providing accurate product details, user-friendly navigation, transparent pricing and streamlined transactions. Customers' trust and confidence will increase if they have a smooth and effective online purchasing experience. Customer satisfaction may be influenced by regular platform functionality and usability changes.

The use of functional and HVs is considered to be a novel factor in testing the relationship between E-SQ and ECS.