Search results

Much of the success of a relationship marketing program rests on the consumers' choice to participate in a service relationship in the first instance. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which this desire of the consumer to engage in a relationship impacts on their perceived cognitive‐state gains (motivation, confidence and affiliation) and key measures of consumer‐to‐business relationship success (relationship strength, satisfaction and retention intentions).

Following a qualitative study, the main quantitative study used a self‐administered survey of 334 service consumers to understand relationship perceptions. Structural equation modeling was then used to test the hypotheses.

Analysis revealed that consumers desire to participate in a relationship influenced their level of motivation, degree of confidence and these, in turn, impacted on the consumers' sense of affiliation with the service provider. A consumer's sense of affiliation subsequently influenced the strength of their relationship and their level of satisfaction with the relationship. Additionally, the effect of relationship desire on relationship strength and satisfaction was apparent. Consumers' desire indirectly impacted on retention intentions, suggesting that service managers should be careful not to assume that consumers' deliberate choice to participate in a relationship will routinely result in loyalty.

Practitioners and academics have sought to determine why some consumers, and not others, participate in relationships. This study adds to knowledge in this area by empirically demonstrating the extent to which the desire of a consumer to participate in a service relationship effects the gains accrued to the consumer and the relationship outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of gender, work factors, and non‐work factors with aspirations to positions in senior management. A process model of senior management aspirations was developed and tested.

Data were collected via an online survey that resulted in a sample of 368 working professionals. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to analyze results.

Women were less likely than men to desire promotion into a senior management position. Moreover, women's lower desired aspirations for promotion to senior management were due in part to the smaller degree of congruence that women perceive between personal characteristics and senior management positions and in part to the less favorable prospects for career advancement that women perceive relative to men.

The cross‐sectional, correlational research design does not permit strong inferences regarding the causal direction of observed relationships. In addition, the specific nature of the sample (working professionals enrolled in graduate study at one university in the USA) may limit the generalizability of the results.

Because women's career aspirations are affected by their perceived congruence with senior management positions and by their perceived opportunity to reach senior management, organizations should assure that senior management roles are not predominantly associated with masculine characteristics and should evaluate their promotion systems to eliminate artificial barriers to women's advancement into senior management.

This research distinguishes between desired and enacted aspirations as well as provides insights into some factors that explain why women hold weaker desired aspirations for senior management positions than men.

This paper reports the results of a three-year-long research on business relationships, relying on qualitative data gathered through multiple-case study research of four focal companies operating in Australia. The industry settings are as follows: steel construction, vegetable oils trading, aluminum and steel can manufacture, and imaging solutions. The research analyzes two main aspects of relationships: structure and process. This paper deals with structure describing it by the most desired features of intercompany relationships for each focal company. The primary research data have been coded drawing on extant research into business relationships. The main outcome of this part of the research is a five construct model composed by trust, commitment, bonds, distance, and information sharing that accounts for all informants’ utterances about relationship structure.

The purpose of this paper is to identify variables that intervene in the relationship between shopping center image and frequency of visits to that shopping center. Variables investigated as intervening are desires, intentions, and positive anticipated emotions.

The method uses a two wave mail survey. One wave gathers intentions and variables antecedent to intentions while a second wave gathers behavioral data.

Findings suggest that desire (i.e. motivation), intention, and positive anticipated emotions intervene between shopping center image and frequency of shopping center visits. Positive anticipated emotions are not emotions felt while shopping but are the expected emotional consequences of achieving a goal, in this case visiting a shopping center. Visiting a shopping center might be a goal in itself or it could be the means to goal attainment (e.g. shopping to get a product).

A limitation of the study is that results are aggregated across types of shopping centers and across respondent classifications.

Results provide evidence that desire, intention, and positive anticipated emotions intervene between shopping center image and frequency of visits to the shopping center. Implications for shopping center managers are guidance for allocating resources towards increasing desire, intention, and positive anticipated emotions.

The value of this study is investigation of the process by which shopping center image impacts the frequency of visits to a shopping center. Focusing on this process should allow shopping center managers to more efficiently allocate resources. The value of this study is offering resource allocation guidance to shopping center managers.

This study investigates the influence of affective organizational commitment, career aspirations, and networking activities on propensity to mentor (serving as a mentor and desiring to become a mentor).

Data from websurveys of 262 managerial employees of a Dutch bank are analyzed using logistic regression.

Results indicate that affective organizational commitment is unrelated to propensity to mentor, whereas career aspirations are positively related, and networking activities are negatively related to serving as a mentor, but not desiring to be a mentor.

The study is limited by its reliance on self‐report data and the Dutch culture may have influenced the results of the study to an unknown degree.

Results of this study suggest that employees volunteering to be a mentor are clearly ambitious in terms of their own career, but are not necessarily highly committed to their organization nor do they perform exemplary behaviors in terms of extra role behavior or networking.

Individuals are more likely to engage in mentoring activities and to desire to become a mentor if they have high career aspirations. This relationship may be the result of an instrumental perspective on the part of the mentor, who sees developing a cadre of loyal and supportive organizational members as having a positive effect on his or her own career advancement.

The purpose of this paper is to study the child–brand relationship dynamic in interaction with the relationships children develop with their family, peers and teacher.

In all, six classes in French primary schools are observed for six months. Among the 112 children observed, aged 10-11 years, 24 of them are interviewed twice individually and 24 others are interviewed in focus groups.

A lack of coherence between parents, peers and the teacher, as well as with the child’s own desires, affects the child–brand relationship and reduces the child’s self-esteem. Based on this, this study proposes a four-case typology of child–brand relationship dynamics with two criteria: the child’s attitude toward the brand relationship (favorable and unfavorable) and the consistency of attitudes in his/her socialization spheres (peers, parents and teacher) relative to this relationship. Then, the most frequent trajectories children follow across these brand relationship cases are identified.

This study applies to branded clothes.

From a marketer’s perspective, this study reveals that there are different qualities in child–brand relationships. The strongest one appears when the child feels free from outside pressure and when peers, parents and the teacher create a virtuous circle for brands (or at least do not contradict the child’s desires for brands).

For public policymakers, it can be useful to be aware that when peers, parents and teachers’ opinions about brands differ, this affects the child’s self-esteem.

The study offers a dynamic approach to child–brand relationships.

The purpose of this study was to examine the millennial fans decision-making process in connection with various sport consumption behaviors (i.e. game attendance, TV viewing, participation in online activities, and participation in social media activities) using a modified model of goal-directed behavior (i.e. Sport Fan MGB).

We collected data using Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 222) to test the hypothesized model. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the psychometric properties of the measurement model, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses.

Sport Fan MGB was found have good psychometric properties. In addition, the findings indicate that the Sport Fan MGB explained various millennial fan behaviors (i.e., event attendance, TV viewing, online activity participation, and social media activity participation).

This paper examined the validity of the Sport Fan MGB and improved the predictability of the millennial fans' sport consumption behavior decision-making process.

Previous research on negotiation skills has focused mostly on the negotiation itself and tactics used when bargaining, while little research has examined the process by which people become effective negotiators. The purpose of this paper is to develop an initial model from an intra-organizational perspective to outline the factors that contribute to the development of negotiation skills and behaviors by employees.

This conceptual paper relies on prior research and existing theory to focus on the types of developmental and learning experiences and processes that lead to the acquisition of three specific types of key negotiation skills and behaviors.

Distributive, integrative, and adaptable negotiation skills are developed most effectively via different learning and development activities, respectively. Additionally, unique individual difference and situational variables could contribute to particular negotiation behaviors, either directly or via an interaction with developmental experiences.

The paper proposes a model for future testing in which results can provide support for tailored/customized training and development of employee negotiation skills. Providing the correct people with the correct tools in the correct manner is always desirable by practitioners.

This proposed holistic model provides new insights, structure, and suggestions for more research on factors that lead to negotiation skill development and exhibition of effective negotiation behaviors. This paper goes beyond description of negotiation tactics and addresses the various negotiation contexts and the unique skills needed for each. Most importantly, the paper addresses how those skills are uniquely and most effectively developed.

This conceptual article develops a theory-based set of themes that characterize how a leader and member interact based on their attachment style, motivation to lead and follow and their interpersonal orientation.

This study proposes that the leader's and member's attachment styles, effectuated by their motivation to lead and/or follow and their interpersonal orientation, determine the emergence of primary (most frequently occurring) and secondary (less frequently occurring) leader–member relationship (LMR) themes.

The themes are labelled mutual affirmation, control, prestige, mutual indifference, conflict, imbalance and co-dependence. The article describes how these seven themes are grounded in their own streams of research, including leader–member exchange (LMX) as the basis for the first three, and how the themes vary in behaviors that generate the operational outcomes of psychological safety, proactivity and functionality, which, in turn, yield performance outcomes. Performance outcomes affect the leader's and member's perceptions of their relationship and their anticipation for the future. Leader–member similarity, situational pressures and perceptions of others' relationships moderate LMR development.

Each theme reflects a pattern of interactions that produces degrees of psychological safety felt by the leader and member, proactivity of the leader and member to devote energy to their relationship and how well the leader and member function together. The behaviors, in turn, influence how the leader and member perceive each other and themselves and their anticipation for the future of the relationship.

The model can be used by organizational development and human resource professionals to assess leader–member dyads and train leaders and members to be aware of factors that influence their relationship and how these factors affect performance outcomes.

The model contributes to the literature on leader–member relationships by suggesting a theory-based set of themes that characterize how the leader and team member interact and how their relationship develops.

Relationship marketing (RM) studies have produced a range of conclusions that are attributed to the different exchange contexts, strategies and constructs used for analysis. This study aims to explore RM within the context of a membership association to gain insights into membership maintenance, customer advocacy and association performance.

The exploratory, qualitative research conducted draws on existing relationship marketing constructs. Six focus groups with current and former members of an Australian wine club provide insights regarding factors that influence their membership experience.

The results show that satisfaction of membership benefits and confidence in the association's expertise are essential in strong relationships. Moreover, member commitment to the relationship appears to be multidimensional, with affective commitment in particular leading to member retention and advocacy. The results also indicate that trust, satisfaction and commitment can be combined as an overall assessment of relationship quality. Desire for recognition, the social nature of wine and product involvement all emerge as important to the membership context.

This research provides valuable insights into relationships in membership associations and is a strong foundation for future confirmatory research regarding relationships between associations and their members.

Membership maintenance is vital to the survival and profitability of membership-based associations. By determining the benefits and factors that foster strong relationships, management can create marketing strategies and programs aimed specifically at influencing the key drivers of strong relationships.

Although relationship marketing has gained prevalence in recent times across a number of industries, research into membership contexts is limited.