Search results

Falsified online reviews (FORs) are the published/viewable consumer-generated online content regarding a firm (or its representatives) or its services and goods that is, to some degree, untruthful or falsified. The purpose of this study is first to explore the nature of FORs, focusing on reviewers' interpretations and refections on falsity, intent, anonymity and the target of their FOR. Secondly, the authors examine the valence and veracity dimensions of FORs and introduce a typology to differentiate their variations.

using an exploratory research design, 48 interviews were conducted with participants who post online reviews on social media about their experiences with food and beverage serving outlets.

The results show four common forms of FORs on social media. These are reviews focused on equity equalizing, friendly flattery, opinionated opportunism and malicious profiteering.

The authors provide exploratory and in-depth information via interviews, but do not analyse the content of FORs.

Firms should be aware of varieties of FORs and that these may not be limited to malicious content. This is important in terms of showing that in dealing with FORs, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. FORs are not always entirely fabricated, and instead various levels of falseness are observed, ranging from slight alterations to complete fabrications.

Previous research explored how to identify and differentiate FORs from truthful ones, focusing on the reviews or how they are perceived by readers. However, comparatively little is known of the reviewers of FORs. Hence, this study focuses on reviewers and offers new insights into the nature of FORs by identifying and examining the main forms of FORs on social media.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight important issues in the study of dysfunctional customer behavior and to provide a research agenda to inspire, guide, and enthuse. Through a critical evaluation of existing research, the aim is to highlight key issues and to present potentially worthy avenues for future study.

In reviewing recent and past advances in the study of customers behaving badly, an overview of existing research into customers behaving badly and addressing issues of terminology and definition is provided. Thereafter, three perspectives that provide the most opportunity and insight in studying the darker side of service dynamics are outlined. This leads to a review of some of the research design and methodological problems and issues that are faced when rigorously studying these issues. Subsequently, the paper devotes a section to the provocative idea that while dysfunctional customer behavior has many negative influences on customers, employees, and service firms, there are actually some positive functions of customers behaving badly.

A research agenda is provided that is believed to identify and discuss a range of projects that comprises not only insightful theoretical contributions but is also practically relevant.

The paper identifies a range of issues about which managers should be aware and proactively manage.

Since the merger of Lloyds and TSB banks in 1995/96, the number of operational staff working within the company has increased two‐fold, paving the way for Lloyds TSB to develop a new company training, programmes, aimed specifically at operational and support staff.

This paper aims to examine the associations between individual factors (personality and demographic variables) and contextual factors (servicescape and situation‐specific variables), and the motives that drive episodes of dysfunctional customer behavior.

Self‐report data were collected from a survey of bar, hotel, and restaurant customers (n=380). Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were utilized to analyze the data.

Analysis of the data revealed three clusters of motives labelled: financial egotists, money grabbers, and ego revengers. Statistically significant differences were revealed across the personality, servicescape, and situation specific variables for each motive. However, no differences were found concerning demographic variables.

This research emphasizes the primacy of three customer behavior motivations. Future research might investigate the motives for dysfunctional customer behavior across different organizational contexts and the dynamics between such motivations.

The findings of the study indicate that service managers can proactively control and manipulate servicescape and situation‐specific variables that relate to customer misbehavior motives.

No existing scholarly research has developed a data‐grounded understanding of the motivations of dysfunctional customer behaviors. Moreover, to date, no study has explored the associations between customer's motives to misbehave and personality, situation specific, servicescape, and demographic variables.

A considerable proportion of donor aid is dedicated to technical assistance to support developing countries in their development initiatives. The majority of this aid comes from globally-operating international donors including the World Bank and the European Union. In spite of several harmonization attempts, there still exist major differences in their procurement regulations and standard contracts. Based on an extensive literature review on consulting services and an in-depth analysis of the standard forms of contract, it was found that divergence between both forms is not only clear but also paradigmatic owing mainly to market orientation paradigm differences. The findings and recommendations help advance research on and practice of various types of consultancy services in general.

Although there has been much academic discussion of employee behaviours as potential barriers to market orientation, comparatively little attention has been focused on organizational barriers to market orientation. No single study has undertaken a holistic review of structural, strategic and systems impediments. The aim of this paper is to extend and synthesize existing research into the obstacles to market orientation by performing a holistic analysis of the organizational characteristics which influence the extent of market orientation in an organization. This paper begins with a brief review of existing research into the barriers to developing market orientation. After a discussion of research design and methodology, the summary findings of three in‐depth case studies are presented and eight hypotheses are forwarded. Thereafter, the results of a survey of organizational barriers to market orientation are presented and the findings are discussed. The paper concludes with a number of implications for both strategic marketing and management theory and practice.

Proposes responding to earlier calls for further research into “fraudulent” or “feigned” customer complaints, and providing insights which explore and describe the motivations and forms of such deliberate “illegitimate” customer complaints.

Critical incident technique was utilized in analyzing 104 interviews with customers who had knowingly made an illegitimate complaint within the six months prior to the interview. Data collection stopped at the point of theoretical saturation and was subsequently analyzed according to the coding procedures advocated by Strauss and Corbin (open, axial and selective coding).

Two key insights emerged from data analysis. First, coding procedures revealed four distinct forms of customer complainants. These are labeled; “one‐off complainants”, “opportunistic complainants”, “conditioned complainants”, and “professional complainants”. Second, six main motives for articulating fraudulent complaints were uncovered during data analysis. These are termed; “freeloaders”, “fraudulent returners”, “fault transferors”, “solitary ego gains”, “peer‐induced esteem seekers”, and “disruptive gains”.

The study is constrained by its exploratory design and qualitative methods employed. Subsequently, future studies could employ survey methods to improve empirical generalizability. Future studies could adopt a more inclusive approach and incorporate insights from employees, managers, and other relevant actors within service encounters.

Practical implications highlighted by the study include a need for businesses to examine and, in many cases, reevaluate their personnel training, customer complaint and service recovery procedures. Furthermore, managers may wish to enforce mechanisms wherein customer complaints are monitored and tracked in a manner that assists in the identification and challenging of re‐offending fraudulent complainers.

The study constitutes the first systematic attempt to explore and describe illegitimate customer complaining behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss a conceptual model of purchase intentions, trust, and e‐servicescape that presents online physical environments as comprising three dimensions. It aims to develop and extend existing research into physical service environments through proposing, operationalizing, and testing a model of online servicescape.

The study utilizes a survey approach to gather data regarding consumers' perceptions of online servicescape. Surveys were administered to 257 respondents regarding a broad range of web sites.

A measure of e‐servicescape is evaluated that comprises three dimensions and 52 items while relationships between the dimensions of e‐servicescape, trust, and purchase intentions are described.

The first contribution of this study stems from the successful operationalization of a comprehensive multi‐item (in total 52 items), multi‐scale (nine scales), multi‐dimensional (three) measure of e‐servicescape. Second, a contribution is made through the finding that trust constitutes a key variable during online exchange. Third, we contribute insights into the antecedents of consumers' purchase intentions. Finally, the study reveals that consumers' interpretations of online environments exert a powerful influence over trust and purchase intentions.

The findings of this study also have numerous implications for both services managers and internet developers. The findings supply valuable insights into which factors practitioners should focus their attention to better tailor their approaches. This study strongly endorses the view that the loyalty intentions of online customers are linked to the extent to which they trust the service provider.

Since the merger of Lloyds and TSB banks in 1995/96, the number of operational staff working within the company has increased two‐fold, paving the way for Lloyds TSB to develop a new company training program, aimed specifically at operational and support staff. The training closely matches participants’ experience and current job, and ties into the national qualification network outside the bank.