Search results

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.

The purpose of this paper is to extend research on customer loyalty status and customer demotion by investigating if the effect of demotion on customer attitudinal and behavioral responses is the same for top-tier and low-tier customers in the context of airlines.

A survey was conducted with travelers intercepted at large airport terminals in Australia. Multivariate analyses examined group differences across status change (no change vs demoted) and status level (high status vs low status). Multi-group moderation structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis tested the moderating role of status (high status vs low status) on the effects of demotion on the relationship between customers’ attitudes and loyalty intention, and between loyalty intention and share of wallet.

This study shows that the detrimental effects of demotion on the relationship between customer satisfaction/commitment/perceived betrayal on loyalty intentions, and on the relationship between loyalty intentions and share of wallet are stronger for “high status” than “low status” customers.

A cross-sectional design was employed to investigate customer demotion in the airline industry. Future studies could investigate different types of demotions in other industries by employing a longitudinal design.

The study provides new insight about the effects of status demotion and highlights that service firms could be jeopardizing the loyalty of numerous valuable customers, especially among the “high status” customer group.

This study reveals loyalty status moderates the effect of demotion on customer attitudinal responses and loyalty behaviors. It draws on social identity, social comparison, emotion and equity theories to explain the different effects of demotion on customers from different status level groups.

Loyalty programs are pervasive across service industries. However, the examination of cross-customer effects represents a critical gap in the loyalty literature. To address this gap, this research conducts two between-subjects experimental design studies to examine traditional versus endowed loyalty status earner attitudinal loyalty intention toward the company, switching intentions and perceived unfairness.

Study 1 conducts a 2 (self: earned vs endowed) × 2 (others: earned vs endowed) between-subjects experimental design on the direct effects of attitudinal loyalty intention toward the company and switching intentions. Study 2 builds upon these findings by examining the mediation effect of perceived unfairness on the attitudinal loyalty intention toward the company and switching intentions.

Results from Study 1 find that cross-customer comparisons exist, and traditional loyalty members have negative attitudinal loyalty intention toward the company and switching intentions when comparing their rewards to endowed earner rewards. Study 2 examines an airline context and finds that unfairness mediates the relationship.

The research builds upon the literature surrounding cross-customer comparisons, loyalty programs, equity theory and endowed status and discusses the unintended negative consequences related to endowed loyalty rewards on other customer intentions that have critical managerial implications.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive model representing the relationships among service quality, customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty in a retail banking service. Because many banks now emphasize acquiring more high-wealth and main-bank customers, this study also focuses on investigating the moderating roles of main-bank and wealth status on such relationships.

This study applies a hierarchical model to measure service quality in line with recent advances in the general-marketing and consumer-behavior literature. A total of 400 valid samples were obtained from customers of a large commercial bank in Thailand. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis.

Customer-perceived service quality directly and indirectly affects, via satisfaction and trust, attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. Service quality affects customer loyalty less if the customer holds main-bank status. It affects behavioral loyalty less for high-wealth customers than regular customers; however, its impacts on attitudinal loyalty are identical. Main-bank and wealth status have a co-moderating impact on the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty.

This study was conducted on a cross-sectional basis; further, longitudinal analysis could help to assess causality and time-dependent effects among variables.

The present study reconceptualizes the loyalty model, forging a deeper understanding of the moderating effects of main-bank and wealth status and thus helping banks to formulate better strategies to win customer loyalty.

This study aims to contribute to further discussions regarding the direct and indirect effects of service quality on loyalty to help banks formulate effective strategies for acquiring main-bank and high-wealth customers.

The purpose of the current exploratory study is to examine whether place status (ordinary or prestigious) and place loyalty can be related to personal well being (measured by happiness and self‐esteem).

Data were collected through a field survey with 150 respondents.

Significant differences were found between residents of prestigious versus ordinary communities. Among those who perceive their community as ordinary, the paper found no relationship between place loyalty and self esteem, and a marginally significant negative relationship between place loyalty and happiness. In contrast, among those who perceive their community as prestigious, the paper found a positive relationship between place loyalty and happiness, and a marginally significant positive relationship between place loyalty and self esteem.

The present study is based on a rather small non‐representative sample. As it is unclear whether place loyalty predicts happiness or vice versa, future research is needed to further examine this relationship.

The current findings suggest that place branding efforts have the potential of strengthening residents' loyalty to their living places on the one hand, and enhancing their well being on the other.

The current study examines for the first time the relationship between the marketing parameters of brand status and customer loyalty, and the psychological constructs of happiness and self‐esteem, in the unique context of living place. This relationship has not been previously studied and has much relevance to the literature about place branding.

In managing hierarchical loyalty programs (HLP), firms often use a reward point expiration and status demotion policy to reduce financial liability and to encourage repeat purchases. This study aims to examine how point expiration and status demotion policies affect customer patronage, the role of extension strategies in mitigating the negative effects of these policies on customers and the moderating role of status endowment in the effect of point expiration on customers patronage following status demotion experience.

Three experiments were conducted using the hotel industry as the context. The hypothesized relationships were tested using ANOVA and a serial moderated mediation analysis using SPSS PROCESS Macro.

Customers subjected to reward point expiration exhibited a higher level of anger and perceived severity of the problem than those subjected to status demotion in HLP. Consequently, when customers experienced both point expiration and status demotion, the point extension strategy rather than the status extension strategy was found to be a more effective remedy for reducing perceived unfairness, although there was no change in the level of patronage reduction between the two extension strategies. Importantly, the effect of point expiration on patronage reduction was stronger among endowed-status customers than earned-status customers, serially driven by heightened feelings of embarrassment and perceived unfairness.

The study adds to the existing literature on HLP by comparing the effects of point expiration and status demotion on customer patronage with practical insights for HLP managers.

Status demotion in hierarchical loyalty programs (HLPs) has received considerable academic attention. However, existing research is relatively silent on whether HLP status demotion fosters service relationship fading by influencing demoted customers’ psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction. Drawing on the relationship fading literature and the stimulus–organism–response framework, this study aims to examine these effects. It further investigates the moderating role of psychological ownership on the links of status demotion with psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction.

Two studies (Studies 1 and 2) were conducted in the context of airline HLPs. Study 1 was a structured survey conducted among 213 demoted airline HLP customers in Australia, and Study 2 was an experiment conducted among 178 executive MBA students in Bangladesh. The PROCESS macro was used to test the moderated mediation model.

The results of both studies show that HLP status demotion significantly influences customers’ psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction. The findings also reveal that psychological disengagement mediates the relationship between status demotion and the likelihood of patronage reduction. Further, customers with high (low) psychological ownership feel high (less) psychological disengagement and show high (less) likelihood of patronage reduction due to their HLP status demotion.

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’ psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction.

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 purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of employee loyalty and counter-productive work behaviour (CWB) among employees working in the Indian hospitality sector. The study also compared the status of employee loyalty among managers, who exhibit either very high and or very low traits of CWB. The study also examined the factors responsible for the high tendency of employee loyalty and for that of CWB.

Primary data were collected by using questionnaire and interview methods from employees and managers working in hotels situated in the National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi, India. A sample of total 220 junior and middle level managers and other employees was taken and a selected sample was tested for tendencies of employee loyalty and CWB and analyzed to interpret the findings.

The findings reveal that the tendency of employee loyalty among managers in the hospitality sector was high, whereas the status of CWB was low. Results also predicted that the tendency of employee loyalty was high among the managers with low traits of counter-productive behaviour and very low among managers with a higher tendency of CWB. Factors such as compensation and benefits, job security and growth and satisfaction were found to be responsible for high tendency of employee loyalty; the controlling of factors such as ignoring or arguing with others, physically damaging organizational property, stealing organizational or employee’s property, intentionally working slowly, doing work incorrectly, neglecting to follow procedures, taking longer breaks than allowed, coming late and leaving early was responsible for a high degree of CWB.

This study was conducted by involving lower and middle level hospitality sector managers in the NCR Delhi region only. To generalize the findings effectively, a more comprehensive study should be conducted that also involves senior level managers.

There are relatively few prior studies of the factors addressed in this study which has sought to explore an under-research aspect of workplace behaviour.

Work values and attitudes were compared for 117 African and 82 British managers and management students. It was predicted that Africans would place more importance on status, prestige and position as motivators, would be less likely to accept criticism, and rate courtesy, social approval and loyalty more favourably than British respondents. Existing scales of social approval and derived need satisfaction were modified and a third one constructed in order to obtain the measurements. The results confirmed the hypothesis relating to status, prestige, position, tentatively supported that relating to social approval, partly confirmed the hypothesis for loyalty and the results for courtesy and acceptance of criticism were not proven. These results are discussed in terms of the methodological issues associated with cross‐cultural comparisons and the implications for motivation and management activities.