Search results

This paper aims to investigate how product positioning affects the influence of product gender on consumers’ product evaluations.

Using experimental designs, this research investigates how hedonic versus functional consumption goals affect consumers’ choice between feminine and masculine products (Study 1) and how positioning products as either hedonic or functional influences consumers’ evaluations of feminine and masculine products (Studies 2 and 3).

When pursuing hedonic consumption goals, consumers are more likely to choose feminine (vs masculine) products, whereas when pursuing functional consumption goals, consumers are more likely to choose masculine (vs feminine) products. Further, consumers evaluate feminine products more favorably when the products are hedonically (vs functionally) positioned, whereas they evaluate masculine products more favorably when the products are functionally (vs hedonically) positioned. Perceptions of product credibility mediate this effect.

Connecting theories of gender identity, product positioning and congruity, this study extends previous literature by demonstrating that the effects of product gender are context-dependent.

Many companies use visual design cues (e.g. shape, color) to promote their products’ gender. The findings of this study suggest that companies promoting their products as feminine should highlight the products’ hedonic benefits, whereas companies promoting their products as masculine should highlight the products’ functional benefits.

Applying a conceptual congruity approach, this research is the first to demonstrate that the effects of product gender on consumers’ product evaluations depend on the product’s positioning.

The purpose of this paper is to relate the customer value proposition offered by a bank with its structure of ownership.

The study adopted a combination of exploratory and descriptive approaches. The attitudes and opinions of bank customers were gauged through a survey. Based on literature, a pool of items was identified to measure the construct of value proposition. It was hypothesized that different types of banks in India are chosen for different benefits offered by them. The relationship between value proposition and its constituent variables functional, emotional and self-expressive benefits was analyzed using multiple regression.

Results prove that while self-expressive benefits drive the choice of foreign banks (FBs), functional benefits are important for all types of banks.

The research intends to study only the perceptions of customers having an account in Indian public sector banks, private sector banks or FBs.

The study helps to relate the type of bank (public, private or foreign) a customer chooses, with the value proposition it offers. Using this study, banks can configure the value proposition that is appropriate for their target segment.

The paper examines the value proposition offered by the three different types of banks (public, private and foreign) empirically. It links bank choice of the customer to the benefit assortment offered by different types of banks.

This paper seeks to investigate the effects of relationship benefits on relationship quality and aspects of service quality, namely technical and functional quality, and the subsequent influence on word‐of‐mouth behavior.

The paper reports results from a structural equation model that utilizes data from 591 consumers across a range of services.

The findings highlight the important role of relationship benefits in driving customer perceptions of technical, functional and relationship quality. While confidence, social and special treatment benefits drive technical and functional quality, it is only confidence benefits that drive relationship quality. Furthermore, it is found that functional and relationship quality drive word‐of‐mouth behavior.

The findings of this study contribute to the literature by showing the differential impact that relationship benefits have on quality – technical, functional, and relationship – and subsequently the effect that functional and relationship quality have on word‐of‐mouth behavior.

The paper provides firms with the knowledge needed to more effectively implement relationship‐marketing activities. As the service economy continues to grow, competition intensifies, and to ensure service excellence, firms need to establish strong relationships with their customers as the quality of the customer‐provider relationship can increase word‐of‐mouth behavior.

The paper empirically investigates the role of relationship benefits in enhancing perceptions of quality while also providing an analysis of the differential role of functional, technical, and relationship quality in enhancing customers' word‐of‐mouth intentions.

This research aims to predict private club members’ intentions to switch service providers based on the benefit exchange theory through a structural model with a second-order factor.

This study uses a qualitative procedure to develop a functional, social and psychological model based on the benefit exchange and switching intention literatures. A further quantitative analysis surveyed a sample of 366 private club members and assessed the usefulness of this model.

The results of the confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling indicate that social benefits have a stronger impact on switching intention than loss of functional benefits under the context of a high level of interaction between members and between members and service providers. In addition, they confirm the moderating effects of psychological benefits on the relationship between functional benefits and switching intention.

The findings indicate that members are unlikely to switch if there are positive word of mouth and interpersonal interactions between members and the club (social benefits). Even if they are disappointed with the functional benefits of the club’s products or services, they may still choose to stay with it owing to psychological benefits affecting their decision to switch. The findings offer managerial insights into utilizing relationship marketing activities to strengthen interpersonal relationships, word of mouth, trust, commitment and emotional factors to retain members.

This research confirms that the benefit exchange theory can explain members’ intentions to switch from their current clubs and provides valuable recommendations to managers on retaining their clubs’ members. Because the switching intentions of club members have not previously been adequately studied, this study fills an important gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the consumer’s emotional shopping experience on the perception of benefits and on the corporate reputation of a department store.

This study was applied to a non-probabilistic sample survey proportionally distributed among the main department stores in Chile and Mexico.

The findings show for both countries that the functional and symbolic benefit perceived by consumers significantly influences the reputation of department stores. However, the hedonic benefit perceived by the consumer had a negative effect on the reputation of the store.

The companies could redirect their marketing and commercial management strategies based on the variables and relationships of the model proposed in this study. For instance, managers should implement strategies to improve the emotional experience of their clients. In addition, future studies also could use other variables inherent to the consumer’s purchasing behavior to evaluate their effects on the corporate reputation of the department store.

This research contributes with the proposal of an explanatory model for decision making, using structural equations that suggest that the affective evaluation of the shopping experience is a key antecedent of the functional, hedonic and symbolic benefits perceived by the consumer. Moreover, the emotional experience plays a key role as an antecedent for the corporate reputation of a company.

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar el efecto de la experiencia emocional de compra del consumidor en la percepción de los beneficios y en la reputación corporativa de una tienda por departamentos.

Este estudio se aplicó a una muestra no probabilística a través de una encuesta distribuida proporcionalmente entre las principales tiendas por departamentos de Chile y México.

Los resultados muestran para ambos países que el beneficio funcional y simbólico percibidos por los consumidores influye significativamente en la reputación de las tiendas por departamentos. Sin embargo, el beneficio hedónico percibido por el consumidor tuvo un efecto negativo en la reputación de la tienda.

Las empresas podrían redirigir sus estrategias de marketing y gestión comercial en función de las variables y relaciones del modelo propuesto en este estudio. Por ejemplo, los gerentes deben implementar estrategias para mejorar la experiencia emocional de sus clientes. Además, los estudios futuros también podrían usar otras variables inherentes al comportamiento de compra del consumidor para evaluar sus efectos en la reputación corporativa de las tiendas por departamentos.

Esta investigación contribuye con la propuesta de un modelo explicativo para la toma de decisiones, utilizando ecuaciones estructurales que sugieren que la evaluación afectiva de la experiencia de compra es un antecedente clave de los beneficios funcionales, hedónicos y simbólicos percibidos por el consumidor. Además, la experiencia emocional juega un papel clave como antecedente de la reputación corporativa de una empresa.

This paper aims to extend previous research investigating the effect of relationship benefits on firm outcomes by developing a model that includes the effect on individual employees in the buyer firm. The model also aims to address benefits beyond the functional in business‐to business (B2B) settings by including psychological and social benefits.

The study is based on a survey of 275 B2B buyers in Australian manufacturing firms.

The findings reveal that functional benefits enhance firm‐level commitment to the relationship, whereas psychological and social benefits affect individual commitment to the relationship directly and firm‐level commitment indirectly, thereby emphasizing the importance of considering the individual as distinct from the firm. Given that the relationship is a process over time, and in recognition of the non‐static nature of relationship benefits, the paper also explores the changes in benefits over relationship stages, including their impact on commitment. In contrast to expectations results show that while all three types of benefits increase, there is no change in the impact of all three benefit types on commitment across relationship stages.

The study recognizes that the individual in the firm also benefits from B2B relationships and offers a measure of both firm and individual relationship benefits for use in future studies. The measure may also be used as a point of discussion about relationship management.

The study is framed within social exchange theory and, is the first to simultaneously examine three types of relationship benefits and their interaction with both the individual and firm viewpoint. The study is also one of the first to empirically examine changes in relationships over the relationship stages.

Cause‐related and affinity marketing are based on the assumption that linking a commercial organisation's product with a non‐profit organisation enhances the product's appeal and provides differentiation from rival offers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of this premise.

In‐depth qualitative research was conducted to explore the construction of consumer value in affinity credit cards, followed by large‐scale quantitative research to assess the prevalence of the perceptions and behaviour patterns identified.

Linked products offer a range of individual and group benefits, both functional and symbolic. However, the value placed on these benefit categories varied according to the type of affinity group.

Whilst encompassing a wide range of affinity categories, all of the affinity credit cards were issued by one financial services organisation. Variation is therefore possible between the benefits offered by other financial services organisations operating affinity schemes.

The findings demonstrate the need to identify the value perceived by different groups of consumers of affinity products and to tailor affinity products to the type of affinity organisation with which they are linked.

A key strength is the research's access to card holders from a wide spectrum of affinity categories. This has proved elusive in prior research. The paper challenges the assumption that linking a product to a non‐profit organisation enhances its appeal and provides a basis for differentiation. The efficacy of this premise depends on the type of cause or affinity group, with the value placed on benefit categories varying accordingly.

Considerable efforts have been exercised to influence the intestinal microbiota by dietary means in such a way that the health of host is beneficially affected. Consumer's belief that certain foods can exhibit health benefits has resulted in the coining of the term functional foods. Functional foods exist at the interface between food and drugs, therefore offers great potential for health improvement and prevention of diseases when ingested as part of a balanced diet. The purpose of this paper is to examine functional foods as self‐care and complementary medicine.

The paper explores various aspects of functional foods such as the reasons for consumer's inclination, health claims, formulation, regulation, and labeling.

Any food can be regarded as functional if it can be demonstrated to affect beneficially one or more target functions in the body or reduce disease risk besides basic nutrition. Health beneficial properties of functional foods suggest their application as self‐care and complementary medicine.

Ingestion of functional food may help in maintaining the intestinal microbiota and prevent disease risk beyond their basic nutritional needs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model for smartphone brand switching behavior, based on the consumption value theory (functional value, emotional value, social value and epistemic value) and the cognition affect behavior (CAB) model. Two paths – product consumption values and retail service relational benefits – were considered as the cognitive elements to predict brand commitment (affect) and smartphone brand switching behavior. In addition, switching cost was used to measure the moderating effect on the relationship between brand commitment and smartphone brand switching behavior.

This research examined whether product consumption value and cognitive benefits related to retail services will enhance brand commitment and then further decrease smartphone brand switching behavior. Switching cost was predicted as a moderator in the model. An investigation of consumers who own a particular brand of smartphone (e.g. the top five smartphone brands: Samsung, Apple, HTC, Sony and Asus) was conducted, and 565 valid responses were collected for the structural equation modeling analysis.

The results demonstrated that emotional value, social value, epistemic value and confidence benefits increased consumer brand commitment and predicted less smartphone brand switching behavior. In addition, switching cost played a significant moderator role in the relationship between brand commitment and brand switching behavior.

A multiple cognitive paths design, with a consumption values aspect and a relational benefits aspect, can elaborate consumer perceptions of product values and service benefits simultaneously, which can lead to a better understanding of the whole picture of the brand services and the key reasons why consumers commit to a brand. Administrators of brand vendors are suggested to improve product innovation and the professionalism of sales services in order to facilitate consumer consumption values, increase their degree of confidence in members of sales staff and, in the meantime, help these administrators gain an understanding of the real reasons for brand switching so as to provide solutions leading to the maintenance of consumer brand commitment through products or services. This is, in turn, likely to increase continued usage intention and reduce the possibility of brand switching.

This study extended the consumption value theory and the CAB model to show that product consumption value and cognitive benefits related to retail services can enhance brand commitment and further decrease smartphone brand switching behavior. The results indicated that brand retailer managers should regularly conduct activities to connect with their customers to induce consumption values and relational benefits and, consequently, increase brand commitment and prevent customer switching behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the purchase intention of functional food is influenced by the perception of carrier-ingredient fit, that is, to what extent the carrier product and functional ingredient are intuitively perceived to be matched, and how such influence is moderated by consumers’ prior nutrition knowledge and provided health claim.

Through two phases of experimental studies on 30 hypothetical functional foods, this paper analyzed the relationship between perceived carrier-ingredient fit and purchase intention which were reported by participants with different nutrition knowledge levels and in conditions that differed in the content of health claim.

Phase 1 (n=62) found that the positive influence of perceived fit on purchase intention of functional products was moderated by one’s prior nutrition knowledge; compared to those knowledgeable in food/nutrition fields, consumers with less knowledge relied more heavily on the perceived carrier-ingredient fit when making purchase decision. The results of study 2 Phase 2 (n=93) revealed that the perceived fit was more important to predict purchase intention in the condition without health claim. A further analysis revealed that health claim increased the purchase intention particularly for functional foods receiving poor perceived carrier-ingredient fit.

For innovative functional foods, the product development and market penetration may be benefit from fine-grained segmentation and positioning strategies that are based on the understanding of interaction between intuitive perception and cognitive knowledge.

The present work highlights consumers’ perception of the carrier-perception fit, interacting with nutrition knowledge and health claim, as a critical factor determining the acceptance of functional foods.