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This paper aims to investigate how to design a firm’s customer demotion policy and communication styles differently for customers demoted from top-tier and bottom-tier to promote their willingness to restore lost status and loyalty intentions.

Four scenario-based experiments were conducted in the customer demotion context of an airline’s hierarchical loyalty program. A total of 796 customers recruited from a survey panel participated in the study.

The results reveal that customers in top-tier demotion significantly increase their willingness to restore lost status and loyalty intentions when a short evaluation period (vs a long evaluation period) is given. Further, customers in bottom-tier demotion improve their willingness to restore and, in turn, their loyalty intentions more with a gain-focused communication style than with a loss-focused communication style. Willingness to restore lost status plays a mediating role in the process by which an appropriate match between demotion type and evaluation period type/communication styles leads to higher loyalty intentions.

This study extends the research stream on customer demotion by examining how to execute customer demotion to mitigate its detrimental effects and facilitate demoted customers’ approach motivation and behavioral intentions, a critical but understudied topic that has been ignored by researchers.

Managers are advised to offer customized customer status evaluation periods and communication styles for top-tier and bottom-tier demoted customers to effectively promote their willingness to restore lost status and loyalty intentions.

This study is among the first to explore the possible varying effects of differential demotion policy and communication style on different tiers of customers.

Status demotion in hierarchical loyalty programs (HLPs) has received considerable academic attention. However, little is known about whether status demotion engenders two widely recognised behavioural intentions: revenge and avoidance. This study aims to make up this gap by examining the effects of status demotion on customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions. The underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of these effects are also explored.

Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 was conducted using a structured survey from 347 active HLP members/customers of Chinese airlines. Study 2 used an online experiment amongst 268 active HLP airline customers in Australia. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling and Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS macro were used for data analysis.

The results of Study 1 show that status demotion increases customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions simultaneously. Meanwhile, these effects are more significant for demoted customers with an external locus of causality than those with an internal locus of causality and demoted customers with higher entitlement tend to possess more revenge intentions than avoidance intentions. Study 2 further identified perceived inequity as a mechanism, which links status demotion to revenge and avoidance intentions of demoted customers.

This study examines demoted customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions amongst Chinese and Australian airline travellers. Future research may focus on actual behaviour and test the current study’s model in cross-cultural and cross-industry settings.

Managers should deal with demotion decisions carefully as the failure to manage outraged customers may weaken customer-company relationships.

This study extends the existing literature on relationship marketing and HLPs by offering a better understanding of how and under what conditions status demotion elicits customers’ intentions for revenge and avoidance.

The contemporary workplace is characterized by transience: Organizational members frequently turn over and careers span multiple organizations. Consequently, workplace friendships that were once close become less close and intimate, that is they become peripheral and can deteriorate. While research has examined the benefits for employees who move on to new opportunities, less clear is how stayers, or employees who remain behind in the work setting, are affected. To understand stayers’ experiences and how they manage, we draw on theories of belongingess and to offer a three-part episodic process model, which explains how stayers’ engagement in the task and social domains are influenced. In doing so, we (1) present a dynamic view of the deterioration of dyadic relationships, highlighting how workplace relationships can change over time; (2) discuss both the depth and breadth of emotions involved for stayers; and (3) integrate a positive organizational scholarship perspective by considering both strength of friendships with other present coworkers and coping approaches of stayers as important boundary conditions, which can facilitate their recovery process. We draw attention to the broader implications of our theorizing for research on relationships and emotions, and practical implications for management.

The purpose of this paper was to develop a quantitative classroom observation method that is able to analyse the school day to identify Time-on-Task losses comprehensively and systematically, at a level of detail that can be used by teachers and principals to stimulate and focus practical improvement efforts.

The novel Time-on-Task Analysis (TOTA) model was developed by triangulating the conceptual framework of the Overall Equipment Effectiveness metric with the semantics and structure of the target domain. Once developed, the model was tested structurally against a time-series classroom observation data set, after which the resulting TOTA was presented to a sample of 52 education stakeholders, who then gave their perspectives of the analysis in a structured survey.

The ontological model was found to be accurate, complete and without conceptual incongruencies, and its output novel and useful by the sample of education stakeholders. Of the participants, 90.3% found the analysis to provide a new perspective, 94.2% reported that the analysis triggered improvement ideas and 80.8% thought that their school(s) could benefit from a TOTA study.

The TOTA model introduces a time-loss-focused perspective to the field of quantitative classroom observation studies, which is dominated by more sociologic- and pedagogic-focused topics. Its grounding in Overall Equipment Effectiveness also gives it a more detailed and systematic approach than the few Time-on-Task studies done to date, resulting in a model made for the “Gemba”: the school classroom.

Firms employ various forms of disclosure to demonstrate commitment to and involvement in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices. This research provides guidance to firms employing framing strategies when communicating their SSCM with external stakeholders like consumers as part of their supply chain transparency efforts.

The authors employed a middle-range theorizing approach to understand the context of SSCM practices and mechanisms of variously framed communication methods to disclose sustainability information to consumers. The authors conducted two experiments in an e-waste recycling context, studying how sustainable information disclosed to consumers using attribute framing and goal framing can affect consumers' attitudes. The authors also examined the moderating role of consumers' environmental involvement.

Results suggest that when attribute framing is used, firms should avoid framing the attribute from a negative valence. When goal framing is used, messages with consequences stated as “avoid loss” yield the most substantial effect. Additionally, framing effects are more significant for consumers with higher-than-average environmental involvement.

The authors’ results contribute to the ongoing theorization of SSCM by providing contextual understanding of how to communicate sustainability information. Corroborating evidence from marketing, framing effects are found to be context specific, thereby elucidating the framing literature more fully to the SSCM context. The authors extend this literature by studying attribute framing and comparing the effectiveness of all possible goal framing combinations of valence and gain/loss perspective in the SSCM communication context.

The objective of this study is to investigate the differential impact of gain versus loss message framing on the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications in eliciting online brand engagement within the hospitality industry. Furthermore, this research aims to examine the extent to which evoked happiness and message credibility mediate the relationship between CSR message framing and online brand engagement, as these mediating factors have not been thoroughly examined in the existing academic literature.

This study utilizes a between-subjects experimental design to test an integrative research framework, which is grounded in message framing theory and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), in order to examine the interrelationships among the various constructs of the study within a coffee shop context on Facebook.

The findings of this study indicate that gain framing is a more powerful predictor of online brand engagement than loss framing. A mediation analysis supports the assertion that the effects of CSR framing communications on online brand engagement are mediated by evoked happiness and message credibility. Specifically, when the CSR message was framed in a positive (gain) manner, it was perceived as more credible and evoked more happiness, leading to increased online brand engagement. Additionally, the study’s results provide empirical evidence for the notion that the happiness elicited by brand messages enhances their credibility, leading to further online brand engagement.

This research makes a novel contribution to the literature by investigating the distinct effects of message framing on online brand advocacy and examining the complex interrelationships that modulate consumer engagement within the context of the hospitality industry.

Fact-checking is a process of seeking and displaying facts to confirm or counter uncertain information, which reduces the spread of fake news. However, little is known about how to promote fact-checking posts to online users on social media. Through uncertainty reduction theory and message framing, this first study examines the effect of fact-checking posts on social media with an avatar on online users' trust, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The authors further investigate the congruency effects between promotional message framing (gain/loss/neutral) and facial expressions of the avatar (happy/angry/neutral) on online users' trust, attitudes, and behavioral intentions in the second study.

The authors conducted two studies and statistically analyzed 120 samples (study 1) and 519 samples (study 2) from Facebook users.

Results showed that including the neutral facial expression avatar in fact-checking posts leads to online users' greater trust and more positive attitudes. Furthermore, the congruency effects between loss message framing and the angry facial expression of the avatar can effectively promote online users' trust and attitudes as well as stronger intentions to follow and share.

This study offers theoretical implications for fact-checking studies, and practical implications for online fact-checkers to apply these findings to design effective fact-checking posts and spread the veracity of information on social media.

Mortgage lenders often combine a variety of framing strategies when developing mortgage advertisements. To date, these frames have mostly been studied separately. This paper, however, studies the combined framing effects of message valence, specificity, and temporality on consumers' mortgage decision-making.

A mixed methods design was used. First, 13 unique print ads collected from a Canadian newspaper were analyzed for content. Second, a 2 × 2 × 2 scenario-based experiment with 400 undergraduate participants examined the framing effects of valence, specificity and temporality on attitudes toward the mortgage advertising message, the product advertised, and the brand, as well as on consumers' behavioral intentions toward the advertised mortgage product.

The content analysis suggests that combined framing does exist in print ads. A positive message with a fixed term and a specific interest rate were the most commonly used frames. The experiment revealed that, for behavioral intentions, the main effect of the message temporality was significant. The effects of advertising a long-term mortgage on behavioral intentions were more favorable than those of advertising a short-term mortgage.

This research provides a combined framing model for designing advertising strategies for the financial services industry to market complex financial products, such as mortgage loans to consumers. This is relevant to lenders when designing a persuasive package or ads for potential customers.

This study is the first of its kind to investigate the effects of combinations of message frames on consumers' mortgage decision-making, while also advancing the understanding of message framing theory for the financial services industry.

The national programme for personalising adult social care represents a massive change management challenge for local government in England. The programme has entered its third year and this article presents evidence of councils struggling to deliver change on the scale required. In addition, councils now have to find savings at an unprecedented level as part of the new coalition government's emergency budget to tackle the financial deficit.This article demonstrates the need for leadership development to deliver change of a magnitude never before confronted by social care leaders. In particular, the report identifies a need for leadership capabilities to be developed in the two key areas of change management and financial management.The article introduces the Personalisation Tipping Point Framework as one tool to help leaders deliver personalisation programme changes and significant savings quickly. The article concludes that it is possible to deliver personalised services and the financial savings, provided that the right leadership and tools are in place.