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This research integrates recent work on customer information acquisition in services marketing and economics of information research with literature on industrial buying behavior for the purpose of proposing and empirically testing a model that explores information acquisition in industrial purchasing.

To test the proposed model, an online survey was prepared using WebSurveyor and an introductory e‐mail with a link to the survey was sent to a sample of members of a professional organization of industrial purchasing managers.

Results indicated a differential use of information sources across differing purchase situations. When purchasing situations were perceived to be easy to evaluate, there was a significantly greater use of impersonal information sources. In addition, we offer evidence that the use of both personal and impersonal information sources does, in fact, increase the perception of goal clarity with respect to the purchasing task among industrial purchasers.

If marketers can help provide key information – both personal and impersonal – to their customers, they are helping to clarify the purchasing task. These communication efforts can then contribute to that satisfying outcome which might ultimately enhance the relationship between the two parties.

The authors' research examines how negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) alters focal customers' post-recovery justice perceptions and attitudes to determine their future behavior with the service provider. Specifically, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model to investigate how negative e-WOM alters focal customers' perceptual and attitudinal outcomes after the service recovery experience. It also examines the post-recovery effect of negative e-WOM on focal customers’ willingness to patronize the service after their recovery experience.

To test the hypotheses, two pretests and two experimental studies with created scenarios in the retail context were conducted.

The authors' findings reveal that services are judged during and well beyond failure and recovery occurrences. To maintain a loyal customer base, service managers should develop processes that address service complaints both within and beyond the service consumption stage. The authors also find that despite a favorable recovery, focal customers gravitate toward the failure experience and develop unfavorable attitudes toward the service provider, leading to likely defections.

The authors' research demonstrates the persuasive power of negative e-WOM at the post-service recovery stage, making a unique contribution to the service recovery literature. This research also contributes to the persuasive effect of negative e-WOM, demonstrating message context as a boundary condition of negative e-WOM effects. In general, the authors' work highlights the importance of understanding the psychological processes involved in eliciting the persuasive influence of negative e-WOM in the post-service recovery stage that may lead to the defection of “so-called” successfully recovered customers.

Dietary supplements have been subject to considerable criticism because of their lack of regulation and questionable claims; yet, research indicates that consumers who are more health conscious are more likely to use supplements because the products are associated with preventive health behaviors. This research aims to examine whether consumers’ familiarity with supplement advertising or their level of health consciousness significantly affects their attitudes toward three different types of dietary supplements. It also assesses whether advertising familiarity and health consciousness are related to perceptions of supplement price.

This paper used a point-of-purchase approach and collected data at a nationwide supplement retail store in a major metropolitan area in the southeast, resulting in a final sample of 136 consumers. In addition to the survey items, data were collected on a number of demographic factors, including gender, age, marital status, race and education.

Results suggest that health consciousness is significantly related to attitudes toward different supplement types and perceptions of supplement price, but familiarity with supplement advertising is not related.

The results suggest that health consciousness is a significant predictor of attitudes toward different nutritional supplements and the perceived price of supplements, but familiarity with advertising is not a predictor. Implications for marketers and public policy are provided.

While this research informs public policy, it is especially useful for marketers and advertisers of dietary supplements.

Examines differences in emotional and rational advertising appeal use across experiential and utilitarian services for 11 culturally diverse countries. Pooled across countries, rational appeals were found to be more dominant in utilitarian service advertising, while emotional appeals were used more heavily in experiential service advertising. On a country by country basis, utilitarian service advertisements consistently used a larger number of rational appeals, and experiential service advertisements contained more emotional appeals. Finally, culture appeared to influence the use of appeals more when the appeals were important to the service selling premise. That is, more variation across cultures was observed for emotional appeal use in experiential service advertising, and more variation was observed for rational appeal use in utilitarian service advertising.

The growth of international business, combined with an increase in the number of service offerings, underscores the importance of understanding effective promotional strategies for services versus goods in international markets. The current study examines advertising appeals for services and goods across four different countries: Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico and the USA. Results of a content analysis indicate that the use of rational and emotional appeals differs across both product type and country. It is suggested that culture plays a role in the use of the appeals and that the product type × country interaction is strongly reflected in Taiwanese and US advertising.

There are many anecdotal accounts about industrial buyers’ perceptions of sellers, but little research exists empirically to determine these perceptions. This research generates a profile of industrial buyer perceptions of salespeople developed from a perceptual inventory gathered from a national sample of purchasing professionals. Both positive and negative profiles are identified, but means analysis generally supports the contention that industrial buyers have largely positive perceptions of salespeople. These profiles can be useful to both researchers and industry professionals in assessing the effects of buyer perceptions in industrial, business‐to‐business, and relationship marketing situations.

The insurance industry has placed increased emphasis on service quality and customer satisfaction as companies seek to compete with generally undifferentiated products. This attention to customer service dictates that insurers understand exactly what elements individuals use to assess their providers’ performance. This study examines the most significant dimensions of service quality and customer satisfaction across four large companies in the auto casualty industry, using the familiar SERVQUAL instrument. Results indicate that reliability is consistently the most important determinant of both perceived service quality and feelings of satisfaction among customers engaged in auto insurance claims. Implications for auto insurance providers are discussed.

Service quality continues to be a significant issue in the banking industry. Because money and other financial services are generally undifferentiated products, banks are continually striving for increased service quality in order to achieve and maintain a competitive edge. Critical to the improvement of service quality is the determination of those service quality characteristics considered important by consumers. Moreover, it is necessary to understand which of those elements of service quality are more important to different groups of customers. Reports a study that identifies distinct elements of bank service quality and ascertains which of those elements are most important to different demographic groups.

Spousal influence in the decision‐making process has been studied by marketing researchers for many years. Although the knowledge base has increased substantially on this topic, the empirical research has generally focussed on goods. As services continue to dominate the gross domestic product, understanding marital influence in the decision‐making process for services becomes critical. Reports an initial study of the relative influence of husbands and wives and the decision‐making process for four different services. Results suggest that for experiential services, joint decision making is the norm. However, for services higher in credence qualities, role specialization tends to occur during the decision‐making process.