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Hygiene theater is a new phenomenon that has emerged from the ongoing Coronavirus (Covid-19) global pandemic. The authors propose and test the concept of hygiene theater – comprised of purposeful and visible dynamic performance and static staging cues – on customers' approach-avoidance intentions in the retail environment. The authors explore the underlying process and show when environmental conditions such as human crowding dilute the positive effects of hygiene theater.

Across three experiments, participants evaluated a video or scenario related to a shopping experience in a retail store. Sequential mediation and moderated sequential mediation using PROCESS were performed.

The results show a positive and direct effect of hygiene visibility on approach responses, due to a reduction in perceived risk and increased psychological comfort. This positive effect is diluted when crowding in the retail environment is high.

As society adapts to a new normal, this study offers contributions to improve theoretical knowledge of the impact of hygiene theater on customer approach responses, helping retailers to develop and implement health and safety policies, better equipping them to manage similar situations going forward. The authors provide insights for academics and practitioners alike.

This paper aims to formally conceptualize service mega-disruptions as any far-reaching and unforeseen general environmental stressor or threat that impacts a service organization’s ability to provide a desired level of service. The authors differentiate sudden large-scale general environmental threats from traditional service failures in scope and scale of impact via number of customers and sectors affected and duration and speed of the disruption.

This paper draws from service recovery theory to build a conceptual model of service mega-disruptions. The resulting conceptual model maps service failure recovery strategies against a service mega-disruption recovery approach to examine consumer response to changes in service value. This work further articulates additional research needs including conceptualization, measurement and methods as traditional drivers of service recovery and the value of the service experience change in response to service mega-disruptions.

This work proposes a research agenda to investigate whether service mega-disruptions can bypass the need for service recovery due to a consumer self-moderating process. As past research shows, the less control a service provider has over a failure, the more customers attribute fault to the situation and transfer blame away from an organization. This paper suggests that this self-moderating process disrupts the need for service providers to court forgiveness for a failure with perceptions of similarity and controllability providing an alternate pathway to customer forgiveness. Similarly, it is suggested that service mega-disruptions play a role in transforming service ecosystems into tighter, more contractual systems with less agency for service providers and poorer ability to adjust to market conditions. The duration and longevity of effects on service providers’ control, agency and ability to adjust following a service mega-disruption must be researched further.

This paper builds theory to develop a conceptual model of service mega-disruptions and their role in customer engagement and reshaping the service ecosystem. This paper culminates in the proposition of a research agenda that aims to build research capacity among services marketing scholars as service providers’ coordination and market conditions are challenged by service mega-disruptions.

The purpose of this study is to fill the research gap by investigating the impact of brand social initiatives on both the warmth and competence dimensions of the brand, as well as examining the brand's potential to induce pro-environmental behavioral change among consumers.

The study employed a scenario-based survey design and surveyed 415 consumers in India. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0.

The results show that social initiatives enhance both dimensions of social perception and increase cooperative intentions. Brand competence is more crucial than warmth in predicting behavioral intentions. Brand-cause fit, CSR commitment and initiatives' impact all influence the brand image. A brand's commitment to the cause is more significant than brand-cause fit in determining how consumers evaluate a brand.

This research provides insights into how social initiatives can enhance brand image and encourage helping intentions through effective communication traits. It can aid brands in building consumer trust, benefiting society and boosting finances. The study offers a framework for effective cause communication strategies, highlighting the importance of commitment to the cause over fitting with the brand's image to elicit desired responses.

This study is a novel attempt that uses the stereotype content model and costly signaling theory to explore how social initiatives influence a brand's warmth and competence and impact consumer behavior. It provides critical insights into the psychological mechanisms behind social initiatives' impact on consumer behavioral intentions.