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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to determine the extent to which hedonic and utilitarian attitudes and loyalty are influenced by perceived financial performance (PFP) and executive compensation plan image (ECPI) in financial services; second, the authors evaluate relationships among hedonic and utilitarian attitudes, trust, and loyalty.

Using a quasi-experimental design in Study 1 the authors test the relationship between antecedents (PFP and ECPI) and relational elements (attitudes, trust, and loyalty) to address the first objective. To accomplish the second objective, the authors employ structural equation modeling in Study 2 to test the relationship among hedonic and utilitarian attitudes, trust, and loyalty.

Study 1 confirms that PFP and ECPI positively impact both hedonic and utilitarian attitudes but do not directly affect loyalty. Study 2 demonstrates a positive association between utilitarian attitudes and trust, although the hedonic attitudes-trust relationship is negative. Hedonic attitudes are also significantly related to utilitarian attitudes. Finally, trust mediates the relationship between attitudes and loyalty.

Building customer trust is an important correlate of loyalty, and emphasizing an attribute-based aspect of perceived financial service generates greater trust compared to enhancing a non-attribute aspect (i.e. minimizing negative effects on image of executive compensation plans).

The authors link attitude research to service/relationship quality research and discover that attitudes are indirectly related to loyalty through increases in trust. The findings suggest that perceived image and performance of financial services are important to relationship quality when applied to financial services.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a cross‐cultural study which examined individualism's moderating effect on the relationship between bonding and commitment between banks and their corporate clients.

Data were collected through surveys completed by corporate customers from 126 Canadian companies and 156 Indian companies. Multiple regression analysis was used to calculate relative effects of structural and social bond on commitment across the two samples. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to examine individualism's moderating effect on the bonding‐commitment relationship.

The paper's findings indicate that social and structural bonding are both antecedent to commitment, but that social bonding is given higher importance in the low individualism Indian society, while structural bonding is more important in the high individualism Canadian society. Individualism moderates the relationship between both social and structural bonding and commitment.

Bank relationships are dependent upon specific cultural contexts in which buyers and sellers interact. The type of bonding relationship (e.g. social or structural) determines the strength of commitment. Bank managers must understand the proper emphasis to place on developing social connections versus business transactional relationships with clients in individualistic versus collective cultures.

This paper dramatizes the importance of understanding ways in which bonding relates to commitment, particularly when societal values vary and thus alter the relative importance of forms of bonding that generate commitment. Through empirical analyses, the paper demonstrates the moderating effect of individualism on the social bonding‐commitment and structural bonding‐commitment linkages in the context of an important service sector. To date, these relationships have not been explored in either the Indian or Canadian context.

The purpose of this cross‐cultural study is to examine the moderating effect of power distance on perceived interdependence and relationship quality in a bank‐corporate client relationship.

Data were collected through surveys administered to bank customers in India and Canada. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression were employed to assess the relationships among model variables.

Results indicate that Power distance moderates the Interdependence and Relationship Quality Relationships.

This research was limited to only Indian and Canadian customers and their banks. Only one dimension of culture was used as a moderator of the Interdependence and Relationship Quality relationship. The study is limited to a single dimension of service banking.

Buyer‐seller relationships are dependent on the specific cultural basis of the parties. Managers must be cognizant of the cultural values of the buyer/client in order to understand the most effective means of establishing and nurturing the buyer‐seller relationship.

Given that Values, Interdependence, Interdependence Asymmetry, Trust and Commitment are critically important to the development of effective relationships, statistical data are presented supporting the fact that an element of national culture (Power Distance) moderates the degree of interdependence and the strength of the trust‐commitment linkage. To date, these relationships have not been explored in an eastern cultural context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Canadian and Indian consumers' national cultural orientations and banking service quality expectations. Using two of Hofstede's five cultural dimensions operationalized at the individual level, and five dimensions of service quality from Parasuraman et al.'s SERVQUAL scale, the aim is to develop and test hypotheses relating national culture values to service quality expectations.

The study is quantitative in nature, using surveys (online and written) from respondents in Canada and India. Data were analyzed using dummy variable regression and structural equation modeling.

The results show that the importance of various SERVQUAL dimensions is related to Hofstede's power distance and individualism cultural dimensions both at the individual and national levels. More specifically, consumers low on power distance expect highly responsive and reliable service. High power distance customers attach higher importance to tangible service attributes. Consumers high on individualism expect lower empathy and assurance from service providers. Furthermore, Indian consumers attach higher importance to tangible attributes, whereas Canadian consumers find service reliability more important. However, differences in overall service quality expectations are not significantly different across the two countries.

The results suggest that managers must be aware of the cultural values of the buyer/client in order to fully understand the most effective means of establishing and nurturing the service delivery process and, consequently, establishing service quality expectations. Banks will be more successful when service delivery is in tune with cultural imperatives, particularly sub‐group cultural imperatives.

The study provides an original insight into the manner in which national culture impacts on service quality expectations. Furthermore, the study identifies individual sub‐cultural influences that shape service quality expectations.

This study aims to demonstrate that meta-perceptions play a contributing role in customers’ direct complaint intention.

In an exploratory study, we identified different types of meta-perceptions. In a scenario-based experiment, we tested the interaction effect of service failure attribution and the perceived service failure severity on meta-perceptions and direct complaint intention.

After experiencing service failure, customers amplify both positive and negative meta-perceptions. Depending on how customers attribute the service failure and perceive the magnitude of service failure, they evaluate these meta-perceptions differently which then determine their subsequent actions.

The use of hypothetical scenarios may not capture the richness of an actual service encounter. The study is limited to two service failure contexts: cable TV connection and restaurant booking.

Service managers should design marketing strategies that can elevate customers’ positive social image associated with voicing complaints.

This study offers a new explanation, in that some customers do not engage in direct complaining behavior owing to meta-perceptions that they develop during service failure.

Generally, this study contributes to our understanding of the situations when conflict facilitates performance versus when it hampers performance. More specifically, the study distinguishes between conflict potential, conflict stimulus, and actual conflict. We present two hypotheses that compare two competing views to further disentangle whether and when conflict is functional. Our empirical tests, using a sample of Mennonite congregations, lead us to speculate that conflict may be functional for individual‐centered performance measures, but dysfunctional for group‐based performance measures.

This paper examines a New Zealand website, nzgirl.co.nz, in order to theorise the Internet as a communication tool, the Internet as a marketplace and the Internet as a public sphere. As a communication tool, the Internet serves to foster electronic relationships. A key concept discussed in the context of electronic relationships is interactivity. Within the second section of the paper, the role of public relations practitioners in identity and brand building form the discussion of the electronic marketplace. In particular, the importance of an integrated marketing communications approach to Internet branding is examined. One of the central issues of electronic public relations is the potential role of the Internet as a public arena of the public sphere. In this paper, the role of websites in discursive development, social and political identity formation and the evolution of a sense of community is considered.

All seventeen had graciously agreed to my proposal to gather for a small conference to seek consensus. A generous grant from the Pierian Press Foundation would cover all of our expenses for a long weekend at a resort hotel; the only condition of the grant was that we offer our results to Reference Services Review for first publication. Over the past five years each of the seventeen had in turn accepted my challenge to answer the following question:

This study compares the strategies and impact of six British activist groups, as documented in 1997, with data gathered on the same groups in 2000. These groups, Voice of the Listener and Viewer, Campaign for Quality Television, Deaf Broadcasting Council, Consumers Association, National Consumers Council and National Listeners and Viewers Association, attempted to build a public sphere for generating debate around and catalysing changes to broadcasting policies and programming. They were tracked in 2000 in order to identify those issues, relationships and groups that had endured. The research design provided a telescopic look at their interactions with their targets and with each other during a period of rapid technological and industry change. In a multichannel broadcasting environment where convergence and globalisation are buzzwords, activists used public relations to create a broader public forum for a wide range of significant issues with which to engage demographically, psychographically and geographically diverse publics. The ensuing media education, media advocacy and relationship building, although elite in origins, strengthened democratic discourse, thus reaffirming broadcasting’s invaluable role in civil society.