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1 – 10 of 98Mauricio Palmeira, Nicolas Pontes, Dominic Thomas and Shanker Krishnan
A fundamental aspect of hierarchical loyalty programs is that some consumers get rewards that others do not. Despite the widespread use of such programs, academics have long…
Abstract
Purpose
A fundamental aspect of hierarchical loyalty programs is that some consumers get rewards that others do not. Despite the widespread use of such programs, academics have long debated whether these benefits are outweighed by the potential negative impact of the differential treatment of customers. This study aims to extend our understanding, examining the impact of message framing on consumers’ reactions to hierarchical loyalty structures.
Design/methodology/approach
Three online studies were conducted. Study 1 uses advertisements to manipulate the message frame’s emphasis (benefits vs status). Study 2 manipulates consumers’ frame of thought by directing their attention to either changes in benefits or status. Finally, Study 3 uses the proposed framework to reconcile contradictory findings from past research.
Findings
Low-frequency customers who do not expect to qualify for a superior customer tier tend to reject hierarchical programs when thinking about status. In contrast, when these customers think about concrete rewards, loyalty program messages produce no negative reactions. High-frequency customers are positively affected by communication regardless of the type of benefits framed.
Research limitations/implications
All studies were done online, potentially limiting the external validity of the results. Nevertheless, the impact of message framing on perceptions about the loyalty program seems to be quite robust across different studies and manipulations.
Practical implications
When communicating with low-frequency customers, managers should avoid promising status; customers should instead be motivated based on concrete rewards. High-frequency customers are indifferent to alternative emphasis of communication frames.
Originality/value
Marketing academics have acknowledged the importance of being able to reward top customers without demotivating light and moderate users. This research is the first to provide a solution to this issue.
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Jun Gu, Chris Nyland, Xin Fan and Dan Wu
China's universities have decoupled academic staff rewards and returnee status (scholars with a higher degree or substantial work experience gained outside China). This…
Abstract
Purpose
China's universities have decoupled academic staff rewards and returnee status (scholars with a higher degree or substantial work experience gained outside China). This development possibly poses a threat to returnees' psychological contract fulfilment (PCF), i.e. the extent to which employees perceive their employer has fulfilled their promises or obligations regarding the employment relationship. Drawing on the efficiency–flexibility balance theory, the authors predict Chinese universities would institutionalise human resource management (HRM) practices intended to countervail the decoupling's potentially negative influence. Furthermore, the positive effect of returnee status on PCF would subsequently manifest as higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising a mixed-method approach, the authors first undertook a large-scale multi-time field survey of Chinese business school academics from a group of non-elite universities located in Southern China. The authors then conducted a series of in-depth interviews with a subsample of the surveyed cohort, which was then analysed using multivariate regression analyses and machine-aided qualitative content analysis (i.e. NVivo 10).
Findings
The authors find that, despite the decoupling of returnee status and faculty rewards, returnee status is positively associated with PCF. This positive association further manifests as an indirect effect on job satisfaction and a negative indirect effect on turnover intention. The authors also determine that returnees experience higher PCF because universities have revised HRM practices to reward evidenced job activities. Returnees can gain a competitive advantage by using their skills gained overseas.
Originality/value
This study makes four original contributions. First, the authors investigate a neglected yet essential issue, namely, how returnee status relates to PCF in China's universities. Second, the authors enrich the theoretical understanding by introducing the efficiency–flexibility balance theory into the employee PCF literature. Third, the authors provide new insights on how China's universities maximise the effectiveness of academic returnees' talents and skills. Finally, by focusing on non-elite universities, the authors provide insights relevant to a broader faculty population than is available in the existing literature.
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Hengyun Li, Fang Meng, Miyoung Jeong and Zili Zhang
Online reviews are often likely to be socially influenced by prior reviews. This study aims to examine key review and reviewer characteristics which may influence the social…
Abstract
Purpose
Online reviews are often likely to be socially influenced by prior reviews. This study aims to examine key review and reviewer characteristics which may influence the social influence process.
Design/methodology/approach
Restaurant review data from Yelp.com are analyzed using an ordered logit model and text mining approach.
Findings
This study reveals that prior average review rating exerts a positive influence on subsequent review ratings for the same restaurant, but the effect is attenuated by the variance in existing review ratings. Moreover, social influence is stronger for consumers who had a moderate dining experience or invested less cognitive effort in writing online reviews. Compared to reviewers classified by Yelp as “elite,” non-elite reviewers appear more susceptible to the social influence of prior average review rating.
Practical implications
This study provides guidelines for mitigating the social influence of prior reviews and improving the accuracy of online product/service ratings, which will eventually enhance business and the reputation of online review platforms.
Originality/value
The findings from this study contribute to the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) literature and social influence literature in terms of the bidirectional nature of social influence on eWOM.
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Danting Cai, Hengyun Li, Rob Law, Haipeng Ji and Huicai Gao
This study aims to investigate the influence of the reviewed establishment’s price level and the user’s social network size and reputation status on consumers’ tendency to post…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the influence of the reviewed establishment’s price level and the user’s social network size and reputation status on consumers’ tendency to post more visual imagery content. Furthermore, it explores the moderating effects of user experiences and geographic distance on these dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a multi-method approach to explore both the determinants behind the sharing of user-generated photos in online reviews and their internal mechanisms. Using a comprehensive secondary data set from Yelp.com, the authors focused on restaurant reviews from a prominent tourist destination to construct econometric models incorporating time-fixed effects. To enhance the robustness of the authors’ findings, the authors complemented the big data analysis with a series of controlled experiments.
Findings
The reviewed establishments price level and the users reputation status and social network size incite corresponding motivations conspicuous display “reputation seeking” and social approval motivating users to incorporate more images in reviews. “User experiences can amplify the influence of these factors on image sharing.” An increase in the users geographical distance lessens the impact of the price level on image sharing, but it heightens the influence of the users reputation and social network size on the number of shared images.
Practical implications
As a result of this study, high-end establishments can increase their online visibility by leveraging user-generated visual content. A structured rewards program could significantly boost engagement by incentivizing photo sharing, particularly among users with elite status and extensive social networks. Additionally, online review platforms can enhance users’ experiences and foster more dynamic interactions by developing personalized features that encourage visual content production.
Originality/value
This research, anchored in trait activation theory, offers an innovative examination of the determinants of photo-posting behavior in online reviews by enriching the understanding of how the intricate interplay between users’ characteristics and situational cues can shape online review practices.
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The purpose of this paper is to offer theoretical and methodological guidance for ethnographers of finance and financialization. It critiques the notion of financialization as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer theoretical and methodological guidance for ethnographers of finance and financialization. It critiques the notion of financialization as a macro process and argues for more in-depth ethnographic studies of professional financial actors.
Design/methodology/approach
The author analyzes existing ethnographies of financial “elites” and “non-elites” and draws on his years of employment at two contrasting British retail stockbroking firms. The concepts of “identity” and “self” are used to analyze the ways in which professional financial actors are shaped by their activities and working cultures.
Findings
The processes through which financial actors are constructed and the consequent ways in which they come to understand their professional selves are influenced by a variety of dynamics: occupational and organizational cultures and practices, the nature of the work itself, technological development, and social interactions with colleagues.
Research limitations/implications
The paper demonstrates the situated nature of financial action and suggests that future research grapples with these dimensions.
Originality/value
The application of an ethnographic perspective to British retail stockbroking and the method of “ethnographic reflection” evoked to achieve this are new contributions. The broad analysis of ethnographies of finance through the lens of identity offers a fresh view of the literature. The paper may be of interest to those wishing to study stockbrokers, financial actors, and financial organizations, as well as those in the social sciences, more generally, who are interested in the micro-dynamics of organizations, financialization, and capital circulation.
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This paper aims to explore the nature of the cooperation–competition nexus in regional clusters by examining how wine firms in Australia engage in knowledge exchanges about a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the nature of the cooperation–competition nexus in regional clusters by examining how wine firms in Australia engage in knowledge exchanges about a “common” strategic issue: climate change. Further, it determines if differences in climate change innovations exist based on sub-regional position.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a survey, data were collected from 557 firms across three wine-producing regions in Australia. Respondents were drawn from a leading wine industry database.
Findings
The findings suggest that, after accounting for all knowledge exchanges, firms across the regions appear to be generally engaging in knowledge exchanges about climate change within their own geographic sub-regions. However, paradoxically, firms in “elite” sub-regions appear to be demonstrating more of a cooperative posture via a greater level of external knowledge exchanges. The results also suggest that implementation rates differ for adaptive climate change innovations only (as opposed to mitigative innovations) to the apparent advantage of firms in elite sub-regions.
Research limitations/implications
The study represents Australian wine regions and should not be taken as a general population sample. The impacts of climate change in other wine-producing regions around the world may vary, leading to different results than those found in this study.
Practical implications
Wine producers face many challenges with respect to climate change. To respond effectively to this issue, the sharing of knowledge is important to innovate around mitigative and adaptive practices. This research suggests that greater stimulation of open knowledge exchanges is likely needed so that all producers can benefit from industry-wide learning.
Originality/value
This paper provides insights to wine scholars, industry practitioners and peak industry bodies seeking to understand and enhance the wine industry’s response to climate change. The paper also points to areas of future research opportunity and provides policy recommendations.
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Alberto Sa Vinhas and Douglas Bowman
This study aims to determine the antecedents and consequences of information source choice to support a purchase decision for services high in experience attributes.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine the antecedents and consequences of information source choice to support a purchase decision for services high in experience attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct two studies to test their propositions. Study 1 is a single-category application using data from a national survey of 974 consumers who recently made a hotel-stay purchase/reservation. Correspondence analysis was used to identify search patterns, and regression analysis was used to identify their antecedents and influence on search outcomes. Study 2 is a cross-category study using data from a survey of 422 MTurk respondents reporting on search processes across six different services contexts, including hotel reservations. In this study, the authors seek generalization of their results to other services categories.
Findings
The authors identify four dimensions that characterize what information sources consumers, on average, use together when purchasing services. It is found that loyalty program membership and consistency in service delivery across a brand’s outlets for the brands in a consumer’s evoked set are important determinants of search patterns. Search patterns partially mediate the impact of consumer characteristics, choice context and choice set characteristics on search effort and, ultimately, on price paid.
Practical implications
An understanding of the factors that are associated with consumers’ choices of information sources and whether these choices are systematically related to search outcomes has implications for market segmentation and for marketers’ initiatives with respect to what information content to emphasize across sources.
Originality/value
The contribution is an understanding of the antecedents and consequences of consumer search patterns – and what information sources consumers tend to use together, considering the diversity of both internet and non-internet sources. There are limited insights in the services literature regarding how the internet impacts information search processes.
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Soniya Billore and Hans Hägerdal
The present paper aims to focus on the Indian influence in the transfer of, the business of and consumer markets for Indian products, specifically, textiles from producers in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The present paper aims to focus on the Indian influence in the transfer of, the business of and consumer markets for Indian products, specifically, textiles from producers in the South Asian subcontinent to the lands to the east of Bali. This aspect of the influence of Indian products has received some attention in a general but not been sufficiently elucidated with regard to eastern Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on archival research, as well as secondary data, derived from the published sources on early trade in South Asia and the Indian Ocean world. The study includes data about the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, a Dutch-owned company, and its textile trade history with India and the Indonesian islands with a special focus on Patola textiles. Narratives and accounts provide an understanding of the Patola, including business development and related elite and non-elite consumption.
Findings
The paper shows how imported Indian textiles became indigenised in important respects, as shown in legends and myths. A search in the colonial sources demonstrates the role of cloth in gift exchange, alliance brokering and economic network-building in eastern Indonesia, often with important political implications.
Research limitations/implications
The study combines previous research on material culture and textile traditions with archival data from the early colonial period, thus pointing at new ways to understand the socio-economic agency of local societies.
Originality/value
Only mapping the purchase and ownership of trading goods to understand consumption is not enough. One must also regard consumption, both as an expression of taste and desire and as a way to reify a community of people.
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Draws on the extant literature in the areas of services marketing, sport tourism and service quality to present a range of concepts and models that have utility in heightening…
Abstract
Draws on the extant literature in the areas of services marketing, sport tourism and service quality to present a range of concepts and models that have utility in heightening management’s appreciation of the complexities of achieving service quality in a sport‐tourism context. Emphasis is placed on the multidimensional nature of the issues involved. Generic service and quality concepts and models are tailored to sport tourism through a range of examples. More in‐depth illustrations are provided by case material relating to Club La Santa, which is located on the northern coast of Lanzarote. Marketed as “the world’s leading sport and leisure resort”, La Santa offers all‐year‐round training and leisure facilities for national and international standard sportsmen and women, as well as less competitive visitors who merely seek exercise and relaxation. The managerial implications of the issues are discussed.
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Hengyun Li, Fang Meng and Bing Pan
With the growing online review manipulation and fake reviews in the hospitality industry, it is not uncommon that a consumer encounters disconfirmation when comparing the existing…
Abstract
Purpose
With the growing online review manipulation and fake reviews in the hospitality industry, it is not uncommon that a consumer encounters disconfirmation when comparing the existing online reviews with his/her own product or service evaluation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of review disconfirmation on customer online review writing behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a mixed-method combining online secondary big data modeling and experimental design.
Findings
Review disconfirmation influences customers’ emotional responses embedded in the review; a customer who encounters review disconfirmation tends to exert more reviewing effort, manifested by writing longer reviews; negativity bias exists in disconfirmation effects, in that negative review disconfirmation shows more significant and stronger effects than positive review disconfirmation.
Practical implications
Findings from this study provide important managerial implications for business owners and marketers who attempt to influence online reviews. The study suggests that fictitious online review manipulation might be detrimental to the business.
Originality/value
This research contributes to two literature streams, including research on the social influence of online consumer reviews, and the relationship between disconfirmation and consumers’ post-consumption behavior, by extending the influence of disconfirmation from the offline context to the online context.
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