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Article
Publication date: 22 September 2021

Joanna Phillips Melancon, Mary Jane Gardner and Vassilis Dalakas

The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of consumer entitlement among loyal consumers in response to a perceived brand failure, as well as the effect of consumer…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of consumer entitlement among loyal consumers in response to a perceived brand failure, as well as the effect of consumer entitlement on satisfaction and behavioral intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

An online questionnaire asked 226 Game of Thrones viewers about their reactions to the final season of the series. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was the analysis method for testing the hypotheses.

Findings

Investment, perceived justice and collective fairness are all predictors of entitlement. Fan identification increases feelings of investment. Entitlement has a negative relationship with satisfaction, and satisfaction is positively related to relational behaviors.

Practical implications

Loyal, highly entitled consumers can make life difficult for a brand in customer service encounters, on social media and financially. The manuscript offers managers an understanding of which consumers and situations may elicit entitlement and how to mitigate entitlement.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to attempt to model antecedents of consumer entitlement and to study entitlement among highly loyal consumers in response to a perceived brand failure. The study furthers existing research by pointing out the effect of entitlement on the relationship with the brand and consequences for the brand, as opposed to past studies, which have largely explored the effects of working with entitled consumers on front-line employees.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 38 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 May 2022

Vassilis Dalakas, Joanna Phillips Melancon and Izabela Szczytynski

Given the division between conservative and liberal ideologies on many issues, brands navigate social media minefields whenever they take a social or political stance. This study…

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Abstract

Purpose

Given the division between conservative and liberal ideologies on many issues, brands navigate social media minefields whenever they take a social or political stance. This study aims to explore real-time social media consumer responses to eight US boycott threats, including both conservative-based and liberal-based calls for boycott.

Design/methodology/approach

A grounded theory analysis of approximately 800 tweets collected in the 24 h following each brand’s trigger event led to a framework of motivations for using social media to engage in boycott discussions over a brand’s political stance.

Findings

Eleven pro-boycott and 11 anti-boycott consumer profiles emerged across cases. Overarching motivations for pro- and anti-boycotters include a desire to cause/prevent change, seeking justice/fairness, self-enhancement and expression of hostility. Findings suggest that political consumerism occurs with differing motivations and varying levels of emotion, that brand defenders may lessen boycott effectiveness and that threats to boycott may not always translate to actual boycotts.

Originality/value

This paper explores actual consumer boycott calls from various industries as they unfolded in real-time, as opposed to other research that explores hypothetical boycotts or a single case study. Additionally, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is among the first to explore how consumers enter the boycott conversation in defense of the brand and attempt to diffuse the call for a boycott.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2003

Aviv Shoham and Vassilis Dalakas

This study replicated an earlier study conducted in the USA and examined Israeli families’ decision making regarding various products and decision‐making stages. The results…

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Abstract

This study replicated an earlier study conducted in the USA and examined Israeli families’ decision making regarding various products and decision‐making stages. The results revealed that teenage children have influence over family purchases, particularly for products relevant to them (like cereal and vacations) and during the initiation stage. Moreover, consistent with the ranking of Israel as a low power‐distance country, Israeli teens had higher influence than US teens on family decisions.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2005

Aviv Shoham and Vassilis Dalakas

The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact of Israeli children on family decision making.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact of Israeli children on family decision making.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies were used, replicating two different approaches that have been used to measure children's influence with US children. In study one, a survey was given to each parent, whereas, in study two, a survey was given to each parent and their child.

Findings

Findings indicate that Israeli children have a similar influence to US children, suggesting that, overall, Israeli children exercise quite strong influence on family decision making. This was the case when rated by children, as well as by both mothers and fathers.

Research limitations/implications

Two main ways to improve on this kind of research in the future are using a non‐convenience sample and collecting data from multiple countries for cross‐cultural comparisons.

Practical implications

One important implication of the findings is that children across cultures tend to have higher influence for products that are more relevant for them; therefore, marketers should concentrate their efforts primarily on the children.

Originality/value

An important contribution of this research is that it examines children's influence on family decision making in cultures different from the USA. For example, Israel is less individualistic, more uncertainty‐avoiding, and less power‐distant than the USA.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 22 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2012

Vassilis Dalakas and Joanna Phillips Melancon

The purpose of this paper is to explore potential negative outcomes of high fan identification as well as to identify the causal mechanism or mediator by which high identification…

2931

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore potential negative outcomes of high fan identification as well as to identify the causal mechanism or mediator by which high identification may result in such negative responses.

Design/methodology/approach

A scale development process was used to develop a new mediating construct for the fan identification literature, the Importance of Winning Index (IWIN). Structural equations modeling was used to analyze the surveys.

Findings

The IWIN construct represents a new and distinct construct from fan identification. Additionally, IWIN mediates the relationship between fan identification and negative outcome behaviors, thus serving as an explanatory mechanism of when fan identification can produce negative behaviors (in this study Schadenfreude, or wishing ill/harm on rivals).

Research limitations/implications

A student sample and limitation to one context of negative outcomes leaves opportunities for future research to assess the generalizability of these results across various populations and contexts.

Practical implications

Schadenfreude is manifested toward a variety of targets associated with a rival team, including the team's sponsors. Companies should be cautious when selecting what teams they sponsor so that they do not alienate potential consumers who are fans of rival teams. Moreover, the study raises important ethical and social responsibility issues with broader implications suggesting that sports organizations need to promote strong identification among their fans in a responsible manner.

Originality/value

This article is one of few studies that addresses the adverse effects of a highly identified fan/customer base and extends the identification literature by introducing a new variable (IWIN) that mediates the relationship between identification and negative outcomes.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2003

Lynn R. Kahle, Damon Aiken, Vassilis Dalakas and Marc Duncan

This article sheds light on how fans, as consumers of sports, perceive environmental factors at collegiate sporting events and how these consumer perceptions relate to positive…

Abstract

This article sheds light on how fans, as consumers of sports, perceive environmental factors at collegiate sporting events and how these consumer perceptions relate to positive affect toward the event for men's versus women's intercollegiate basketball customers in the USA. Gaining a deeper understanding of environmental factors and their relation to attitudinal favorableness is important as sports marketers continue to strive to satisfy sports consumers better. This work is especially important because environmental factors are often under the control of sports marketers — as opposed to uncontrollable factors such as winning percentage and player personnel. A mail survey was distributed to exiting customers at four basketball games at a large northwestern US university (two men's games and two women's games, n = 759). The overall favorableness of women's basketball customers exceeded the overall favorableness of men's customers on environmental factors tested. Women's customers placed more emphasis on atmospheric factors such as the courteousness of staff as well as facility and hospitality factors such as seating and concessions in rating their overall favorableness. Men's customers emphasized secondary entertainment factors, such as the band, as important environmental sources of favorableness.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2006

Aviv Shoham and Vassilis Dalakas

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence tactics used by adolescent children and parental yielding to these tactics outside North America.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence tactics used by adolescent children and parental yielding to these tactics outside North America.

Design/methodology/approach

Parents of children ages ten to 18 in Israel were surveyed. The questionnaire included questions on adolescents' influence tactics for two products – breakfast cereals and athletic shoes. It also included items to assess parental yielding.

Findings

The findings indicate that Israeli adolescents use rational tactics more often than emotional tactics for both products. Parental yielding follows the same pattern – it is highest for rational tactics and lowest for emotional tactics for both products.Research limitations/implicationsSome ways to improve on this kind of research in the future are using a non‐convenience sample with more balanced gender composition of adolescents and collecting data from multiple countries.

Practical implications

One important implication of our findings is that, given that parents are more likely to respond to rational rather than emotional tactics, marketers' efforts toward parents need to use similar appeals. Another practical implication pertains to how parents can handle constant purchase/consumption requests by their children. The findings suggest that parents can find comfort in the fact that not yielding to emotional tactics like guilt trips is quite common (and, therefore, okay) among parents in different places in the world.

Originality/value

An important contribution of this research is that it examines an important issue, children's influence on family decision making, in a culture outside North America. Children's influence on family purchases continues to grow, both within the USA and elsewhere. Yet, with a few exceptions, most empirical studies were conducted in the USA and less is known about children's influence elsewhere.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 June 2010

Vassilis Dalakas and Aviv Shoham

The paper intends to enrich the set of national contexts used so far in studies about gift‐giving. It also intends to test the unique explanatory power of the dimensions of…

1469

Abstract

Purpose

The paper intends to enrich the set of national contexts used so far in studies about gift‐giving. It also intends to test the unique explanatory power of the dimensions of egalitarianism.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a survey methodology with an Israeli sample.

Findings

The results suggest that egalitarianism affects gift‐giving behaviors only for females and anniversary presents.

Research limitations/implications

The research is not cross‐cultural per se. Thus, further research is needed in nations that are maximally different from the USA and Israel on their cultural dimensions.

Practical implications

Strong social norms about gift‐giving “protocol” may override the effect of egalitarianism attitudes on gift‐giving behavior. Thus, marketers can benefit greatly from creating, nurturing, and promoting ritualistic and structured gift‐giving situations.

Originality/value

The paper examines gift‐giving in Israel, a culturally different setting than the USA and other developed nations. It also extends the use of gender‐role attitudes, especially egalitarianism, as a predictor of gift‐giving behaviors.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

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