Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper insight on the psychological mechanism of customer forgiveness viewed from a cross cultural perspective.

Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory, this paper relates forgiveness cognitive, emotional and motivational patterns with differences in cultural values' orientations.

The insights from this paper suggest that idiocentric customers are more likely to adopt problem solving strategies when they decide to forgive, whereas allocentric ones tend to regulate their emotional responses to their environment such as expressing benevolence and goodwill, as they are more sensitive to maintaining connectedness within group members.

Albeit conceptual and exploratory in nature, this paper is intended as a beginning for further empirical validation and theoretical refinement. The paper contends that forgiveness is a dynamic, interactive process that should be investigated with different sequential orders. Furthermore, as customer forgiveness is related to time, longitudinal studies are more appropriate to test the proposed model.

Firms serving international markets as well as multiethnic ones would have advantage to understand cultural differences in shaping customer forgiveness. This is relevant to conceive efficient marketing strategies aiming at managing interpersonal conflicts with wronged customers and promoting benevolence and goodwill.

Little is known about customer forgiveness. This paper adds a new insight by examining cultural effects on forgiveness process, allowing for a more comprehensive view of customer forgiveness triggers.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Organizations often pride themselves on a willingness to learn from their mistakes. A bad service encounter, with the resulting negative feedback, can be turned into a positive – something to be learned from. However, while it might be relatively easy to apologize to and/or compensate someone who has written an angry letter of complaint, there's little that can be done about the aggrieved customer who just decides to walk away.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

This briefing provides insights on the cultural environment and changes that need to occur to implement innovation planning methods within large enterprises.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approach for m‐valued classical and non‐classical (reversible and quantum) optical computing. The developed approach utilizes new multiplexer‐based optical devices and circuits within switch logic to perform the required optical computing. The implementation of the new optical devices and circuits in the optical regular logic synthesis using new lattice and systolic architectures is introduced, and the extensions to quantum optical computing are also presented.

The new linear optical circuits and systems utilize coherent light beams to perform the functionality of the basic logic multiplexer. The 2‐to‐1 multiplexer is a basic building block in switch logic, where in switch logic a logic circuit is implemented as a combination of switches rather than a combination of logic gates as in the gate logic, which proves to be less‐costly in synthesizing wide variety of logic circuits and systems. The extensions to quantum optical computing using photon spins and the collision of Manakov solitons are also presented.

New circuits for the optical realizations of m‐valued classical and reversible logic functions are introduced. Optical computing extensions to linear quantum computing using photon spins and nonlinear quantum computing using Manakov solitons are also presented. Three new multiplexer‐based linear optical devices are introduced that utilize the properties of frequency, polarization and incident angle that are associated with any light‐matter interaction. The hierarchical implementation of the new optical primitives is used to synthesize regular optical reversible circuits such as the m‐valued regular optical reversible lattice and systolic circuits. The concept of parallel optical processing of an array of input laser beams using the new multiplexer‐based optical devices is also introduced. The design of regular quantum optical systems using regular quantum lattice and systolic circuits is introduced. New graph‐based quantum optical representations using various types of quantum decision trees are also presented to efficiently represent quantum optical circuits and systems.

The introduced methods for classical and non‐classical (reversible and quantum) optical regular circuits and systems are new and interesting for the design of several future technologies that require optimal design specifications such as super‐high speed, minimum power consumption and minimum size such as in quantum computing and nanotechnology.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce new implementations for parallel processing applications using bijective systolic networks and their corresponding carbon-based field emission controlled switching. The developed implementations are performed in the reversible domain to perform the required bijective parallel computing, where the implementations for parallel computations that utilize the presented field-emission controlled switching and their corresponding many-valued (m-ary) extensions for the use in nano systolic networks are introduced. The second part of the paper introduces the implementation of systolic computing using two-to-one controlled switching via carbon-based field emission that were presented in the first part of the paper, and the computational extension to the general case of many-valued (m-ary) systolic networks utilizing many-to-one carbon-based field emission is also introduced.

The introduced systolic systems utilize recent findings in field emission and nano applications to implement the functionality of the basic bijective systolic network. This includes many-valued systolic computing via field-emission techniques using carbon-based nanotubes and nanotips. The realization of bijective logic circuits in current and emerging technologies can be very important for various reasons. The reduction of power consumption is a major requirement for the circuit design in future technologies, and thus, the new nano systolic circuits can play an important role in the design of circuits that consume minimal power for future applications such as in low-power signal processing. In addition, the implemented bijective systems can be utilized to implement massive parallel processing and thus obtaining very high processing performance, where the implementation will also utilize the significant size reduction within the nano domain. The extensions of implementations to field emission-based many-valued systolic networks using the introduced bijective nano systolic architectures are also presented.

Novel bijective systolic architectures using nano-based field emission implementations are introduced in this paper, and the implementation using the general scheme of many-valued computing is presented. The carbon-based field emission implementation of nano systolic networks is also introduced. This is accomplished using the introduced field-emission carbon-based devices, where field emission from carbon nanotubes and nano-apex carbon fibers is utilized. The implementations of the many-valued bijective systolic networks utilizing the introduced nano-based architectures are also presented.

The introduced bijective systolic implementations form new important directions in the systolic realizations using the newly emerging nano-based technologies. The 2-to-1 multiplexer is a basic building block in “switch logic,” where in switch logic, a logic circuit is realized as a combination of switches rather than a combination of logic gates as in the gate logic, which proves to be less costly in synthesizing multiplexer-based wide variety of modern circuits and systems since nano implementations exist in very compact space where carbon-based devices switch reliably using much less power than silicon-based devices. The introduced implementations for nano systolic computation are new and interesting for the design in future nanotechnologies that require optimal design specifications of minimum power consumption and minimum size layout such as in low-power control of autonomous robots and in the adiabatic low-power VLSI circuit design for signal processing applications.

The introduced bijective systolic implementations form new important directions in the systolic realizations utilizing the newly emerging nanotechnologies. The introduced implementations for nano systolic computation are new and interesting for the design in future nanotechnologies that require optimal design specifications of high performance, minimum power and minimum size.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce new non‐classical implementations of neural networks (NNs). The developed implementations are performed in the quantum, nano, and optical domains to perform the required neural computing. The various implementations of the new NNs utilizing the introduced architectures are presented, and their extensions for the utilization in the non‐classical neural‐systolic networks are also introduced.

The introduced neural circuits utilize recent findings in the quantum, nano, and optical fields to implement the functionality of the basic NN. This includes the techniques of many‐valued quantum computing (MVQC), carbon nanotubes (CNT), and linear optics. The extensions of implementations to non‐classical neural‐systolic networks using the introduced neural‐systolic architectures are also presented.

Novel NN implementations are introduced in this paper. NN implementation using the general scheme of MVQC is presented. The proposed method uses the many‐valued quantum orthonormal computational basis states to implement such computations. Physical implementation of quantum computing (QC) is performed by controlling the potential to yield specific wavefunction as a result of solving the Schrödinger equation that governs the dynamics in the quantum domain. The CNT‐based implementation of logic NNs is also introduced. New implementations of logic NNs are also introduced that utilize new linear optical circuits which use coherent light beams to perform the functionality of the basic logic multiplexer by utilizing the properties of frequency, polarization, and incident angle. The implementations of non‐classical neural‐systolic networks using the introduced quantum, nano, and optical neural architectures are also presented.

The introduced NN implementations form new important directions in the NN realizations using the newly emerging technologies. Since the new quantum and optical implementations have the advantages of very high‐speed and low‐power consumption, and the nano implementation exists in very compact space where CNT‐based field effect transistor switches reliably using much less power than a silicon‐based device, the introduced implementations for non‐classical neural computation are new and interesting for the design in future technologies that require the optimal design specifications of super‐high speed, minimum power consumption, and minimum size, such as in low‐power control of autonomous robots, adiabatic low‐power very‐large‐scale integration circuit design for signal processing applications, QC, and nanotechnology.

Consumer affinity may be a key factor in overcoming ethnocentric barriers and promoting a favourable attitude towards specific foreign countries and their products. However, progress in knowledge of this concept in international marketing literature has suffered from a lack of integration and analysis. The purpose of this study was to shed new light on the concept of consumer affinity based on a comprehensive systematic review of the literature, provide a critical analysis of previous research in terms of conceptual, methodological and substantive issues and problems and offer avenues for future research.

This structured systematic review of consumer affinity included articles published in international peer-reviewed journals from 2008 to 2021, examining key conceptual, operational and substantive aspects.

This systematic review of articles on consumer affinity published over the past 14 years revealed that this line of research is a growing vibrant domain in the context of international marketing. It also showed that current knowledge of consumer affinity is characterized by theoretical inconsistencies, contradictory empirical results and scant international marketing research in the affinity domain.

This article provides an overview of the extant literature on consumer affinity and yields a consolidated image of its current status, as well as a research agenda that raises new questions for the academic community.

The common market practice by foreign marketers is to sell their brands in standard or localised packaging or sometimes both in the context of Pakistan. By examining the differential influence of standard (Western) and local (Urdu) packaging on Pakistani consumers’ perceptions and choice under conspicuous and inconspicuous situations, this study aims to examine whether the localisation strategy is effective or even necessary.

A pre-test first identified suitable products and brands. The main survey was conducted using convenience sampling in popular shopping precincts of the Lahore district in 2015. Participants first rated the packaging of hedonic and utilitarian products. After rating the packaging likeability, the respondents were asked to assume the two consumption situations. Their choice of standard versus local packaging under conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption situations for the same brand was recorded.

Overall, findings suggest that for hedonic products, localisation is not an effective strategy particularly for well-known Western brands such as M&M’s. For utilitarian products, packaging localisation does not render a Western brand more competitive as consumers did not like one packaging type over the other. Mode of consumption did not change the preference for standard packaging in case of hedonic products, whereas in case of utilitarian products, the mode of consumption did moderate the results for the choice of packaging; standard packaging is chosen more often under conspicuous a situation but not under an inconspicuous situation.

The findings of this research show that indiscriminately localising the packaging of any products as they enter foreign markets may not be the most effective strategy for international marketers.

This is first study to question the common market practice of packaging localisation and investigate the differential effects of standard versus local packaging of foreign products on consumers’ perceptions and choice under varying consumption modes.

When a product fails out of negligence on the seller’s part, consumers can either retaliate against the seller, more so if a third party encourages them to do so, or forgive the seller should the seller express remorse. This paper aims to examine how the fit between the consumer’s promotion/prevention regulatory orientation and the promotion/prevention frame of a message of contrition (retaliation), such as an apology from a chief executive officer (CEO) (a class action suit threat by a lawyer), affects such forgiveness (retaliation) intentions in the form of product repurchase decisions.

In two laboratory experiments, this paper temporally induces a promotion or prevention orientation in the study participants and thereafter ask them to imagine experiencing a product failure and listening to (1) the CEO apologize for the harm (eliciting sympathy/encouraging repurchase); or (2) a lawyer inviting them to seek damages for the harm (eliciting anger/discouraging repurchase). This paper frames the messages from the CEO/lawyer such that they fit either with a promotion mindset or with a prevention mindset.

This paper finds that, following a message of apology, a frame-focus fit (compared to a frame-focus misfit) elicits sympathy and encourages repurchase universally across promotion and prevention-oriented consumers. However, following a message encouraging retaliation, the same fit elicits anger and discourages repurchase more among prevention-oriented than promotion-oriented consumers.

Although past research has investigated how regulatory fit affects forgiveness intentions, this paper fills three research gaps therein by (a) addressing both forgiveness and retaliation intentions, (b) deconstructing the fit-induced “just right feelings” by exploring their underlying emotions of sympathy and anger, and (c) showing that fit effects are not universal across promotion and prevention-oriented consumers. For practice, the results suggest that managers can lessen the fallout from product failures by putting consumers in a promotion mindset that strengthens the effect of a promotion-framed apology and inoculates them against all types of retaliatory messages.

The study focuses on the core issue faced by bankers on how to retain existing customers who have encountered an e-service failure and who are skeptical about the justice received through the service recovery process. It further endeavors to create an internal bench-marking model for assessing e-service recovery satisfaction.

By the experimental study, the authors confirm a measurement model using structural equation modeling for examining the impact of perceived service recovery quality antecedents on e-service recovery satisfaction moderated by perceived justice. In total, responses from 399 e-banking customers, who had experienced a e-service failure, were recorded using a 5-point Likert scale with a structured questionnaire.

The perceived e-service recovery quality antecedents identified were perceived information quality, digital commitment, perceived employee performance and perceived service orientation of organization. The empirical results revealed that “perceived information quality” was the most significant predictor of e-service recovery satisfaction. Perceived justice moderates the relation between perceived service recovery quality and e-service recovery satisfaction.

The research does not contemplate the e-service recovery satisfaction of customers who have undergone multiple service failures.

The conclusions of the investigation suggest that the four antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality model are suitable instruments for creating benchmarks for e-service recovery satisfaction for banks, and that perceived justice moderates the relationship between e-service recovery quality and e-service recovery satisfaction. Therefore, policymakers in banks can use this model to assess the e-service recovery quality, and they ought to enhance the perceived justice feel of the customers who have experienced a service failure.

There remains scarcity of empirical research focusing on perceived information quality and digital commitment as antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality and its effect on e-service recovery satisfaction in the banking context. Furthermore, similar studies within the banking sector have rarely considered perceived justice as a moderator variable. Hence, this paper attempts to accomplish the research gap by empirically testing the e-service recovery satisfaction level of a large sample of the population toward four antecedents of perceived e-service recovery quality rendered by banks and create a benchmark model to ascertain e-service recovery satisfaction.

New approaches for non‐classical neural‐based computing are introduced. The developed approaches utilize new concepts in three‐dimensionality, invertibility and reversibility to perform the required neural computing. The various implementations of the new neural circuits using the introduced paradigms and architectures are presented, several applications are shown, and the extension for the utilization in neural‐systolic computing is also introduced.

The new neural paradigms utilize new findings in computational intelligence and advanced logic synthesis to perform the functionality of the basic neural network (NN). This includes the techniques of three‐dimensionality, invertibility and reversibility. The extension of implementation to neural‐systolic computing using the introduced reversible neural‐systolic architecture is also presented.

Novel NN paradigms are introduced in this paper. New 3D paradigm of NL circuits called three‐dimensional inverted neural logic (3DINL) circuits is introduced. The new 3D architecture inverts the inputs and weights in the standard neural architecture: inputs become bases on internal interconnects, and weights become leaves of the network. New reversible neural network (RevNN) architecture is also introduced, and a RevNN paradigm using supervised learning is presented. The applications of RevNN to multiple‐output feedforward discrete plant control and to reversible neural‐systolic computing are also shown. Reversible neural paradigm that includes reversible neural architecture utilizing the extended mapping technique with an application to the reversible solution of the maze problem using the reversible counterpropagation NN is introduced, and new neural paradigm of reversibility in both architecture and training using reversibility in independent component analysis is also presented.

Since the new 3D NNs can be useful as a possible optimal design choice for compacting a learning (trainable) circuit in 3D space, and because reversibility is essential in the minimal‐power computing as the reduction of power consumption is a main requirement for the circuit synthesis of several emerging technologies, the introduced methods for non‐classical neural computation are new and interesting for the design of several future technologies that require optimal design specifications such as three‐dimensionality, regularity, super‐high speed, minimum power consumption and minimum size such as in low‐power control, adiabatic signal processing, quantum computing, and nanotechnology.