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Customer forgiveness is gaining importance in service recovery. This study debates that service firm employees and the customers’ relations are supportive resources for the customer while deciding for forgiveness. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to test the effects of structural, relational and cognitive social capital on customer forgiveness and thereof the effects of customer forgiveness on negative word of mouth and repatronage intentions.

Partial least squares–structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized relations on usable data from 428 banking customers who registered their complaint recently.

Results show that structural, relational and cognitive social capital explained a unique variance in customer forgiveness with significant positive influence, whereas customer forgiveness has a significant positive effect on repatronage intentions and a significant negative influence on negative word of mouth.

Customer forgiveness is a convincing idea in service recovery. This study proposed and empirically verified that social capital in relations of service firm employee and customer relations is important for customer forgiveness to minimize negative word of mouth and enhance repatronage intentions.

This paper aims to advance the literature by extending the empirical relation between a firm’s strategy and socially responsible value drivers (customer/employee relations) beyond firm performance to the impact on earnings persistence. Although existing research demonstrates that management’s effective implementation of a specific strategic orientation such as cost focus or product differentiation leads to better financial performance, no studies, to the authors’ knowledge, directly address the effect of strategic orientation on the persistence of earnings.

This paper utilized the evaluation of a firm’s focus on employee and customer relations through the rating provided by Kinder, Lydenberg and Domini. It uses linear regression analysis to identify statistically significant relations.

The findings demonstrate that simply focusing on socially responsible employee and customer relations alone does not result in higher earnings persistence. But rather, higher earnings persistence is associated with firms whose strategic orientation is aligned with the firm’s socially responsible value drivers. Additionally, we find that the capital market understands the importance of alignment between a firm’s strategy and its value drivers.

The analysis was based on a large-scale sample, and the authors concede that as a consequence of this decision, the results are based on indirect assessments of the firm’s actions rather than direct feedback from the firm. However, the authors believe the large-scale, external assessment that they use increases the generalizability of the results.

The results provide guidance to management and boards of directors regarding the critical nature of disclosure regarding firm strategy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as well as inform financial statement users as to useful relations beyond the actual reported accounting numbers.

Existing research has explored the relation between CSR and improved financial performance, but no studies, to our knowledge, examine the relation a firm’s strategy and value drivers (customer/employee relations) has on earnings persistence. Earnings persistence is worthy of study, as it captures the non-transitory nature of earnings, which is a useful attribute for both internal and external users of financial reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of structural social capital, relational social capital and cognitive social on relationship satisfaction, and also to investigate how relationship satisfaction is associated with negative word-of-mouth and re-patronage intentions, in service recovery.

A sample of 478 Pakistani banking industry clients, who registered a complaint to their bank recently, answered the survey. Variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis.

Results demonstrate that all three facets of social capital have a significant positive impact on relationship satisfaction. However, relationship satisfaction enhances customer re-patronage intentions and restrains negative word-of-mouth intentions.

Findings are important for service firms, particularly for banks to adjust their service recovery strategies.

The paper verified the influence of structural social capital, cognitive social capital and relational social capital on relationship satisfaction and tested the influence of relationship satisfaction on negative word-of-mouth and re-patronage intentions.

This study examines whether common directors are guilty of contagion of corporate frauds from the customer side and, if so, how contagion occurs. Moreover, it explores a way to mitigate it, which is the increased digital orientation of firms.

Secondary data analysis is applied in this paper. We extract supply chain relations from the China Stock Market and Account Research (CSMAR) database as well as corporate fraud data from the same database and the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Digital orientations are estimated through text analysis. Poisson regression is conducted to examine the moderating effect of common directors and the moderated moderating effect of the firms’ digital orientations.

By analysing the 2,096 downstream relations from 2000 to 2021 in China, the study reveals that corporate frauds are contagious through supply chains, while only customers’ misconduct can contagion to upstream firms. The presence of common directors strengthens such supply chain contagion. Additionally, the digital orientation can mitigate the positive moderating effect of common directors on supply chain contagion.

This study highlights the importance of understanding supply chain contagion through corporate fraud by (1) emphasising the existence of the contagion effects of corporate frauds; (2) understanding the potential channel in the process of contagion; (3) considering how digital orientation can mitigate this contagion and (4) recognising that the effect of contagion comes only from the downstream, not from the upstream.

The purpose of the paper is to explore how transactions between temporary agencies and customer firms are organised. It aims to describe various cooperative arrangements and identify three dilemmas in the organisations of such transactions.

This is a qualitative study based on interviews with ten temporary help agencies, two internal resource pools and three customer firms.

First, the authors identify different collaboration modes, and analyse how transactions between a temporary help agency (THA) and a customer firm are organised; ranging from ad hoc transactions, through framework agreements to internal resource pools. Second, they describe three dilemmas in such transactions; the pros‐and‐cons of framework agreements; close vs distant relations; and intermediaries' balancing act between the two stakeholders: employees and customers.

A limitation of the study is that the sample size is low and the findings cannot be generalised statistically.

The study informs the parties (THA and customer firm) of the many possibilities in organising their transactions, as well as the challenges/dilemmas/advantages involved.

The study is one of the first that analyses how temporary labour transactions between customer firms and intermediaries are organised. It describes the various ways in which such transactions are organised, and describes three dilemmas for the firms involved.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature of driving and impeding switching factors by operationalizing the catalyst factor of perceived power among customers. Acknowledging the importance of trust in a financial context, a trust-based framework for the analysis is used. The study explicitly analyzes factors of importance for subsequent switching of banks for empowered customers (i.e. savers) and low-on-power customers (i.e. borrowers).

The study measures factors driving or impeding switch of service provider, together with measures of trust and power using online survey methods. The sample is intended to focus on savers and borrowers, defined quantitatively as well as perception wise. Through a multi-group SEM analysis, differences between the samples of savers and borrowers are analyzed. The dependent variable was in both cases inclination to switch.

The paper manages to define differences between empowered and less empowered customers, such as borrowers and savers. The mediating effect of trust prevails only for borrowers: here, the only effect on switching behavior stems from a full mediation of stability through trust. For savers, direct influences of both service failure and lack of involvement on trust are of major importance. The importance of trust, however, is lacking; for the sample of savers, the link between trust and switching behavior is insignificant.

The results may be used as a tool box in order to address consumer switching behavior and mobility in the financial services market. The biggest obstacle for switching banks among savers is the low level of involvement. This has clear implications regarding how to increase switching, e.g., by raising interest. Focusing instead on borrowers, stability of the chosen financial institution turned out to be the most important factor.

This paper introduces a view on consumer switching behavior, taking into account differences regarding service provider relations (empowered savers vs less empowered borrowers) and the importance of trust in these two settings. The paper introduces trust as a mediator between switching behavior and four determinants: stability, personal relations, service failure and internet-related issues, and involvement.

This monograph argues that boardroom marketing must be integrated with purchasing and distribution activities in a synthesised role focused on customer policy. The author sees this as the next step forward and argues that such a new alignment in company thinking would enable it to take account of the host of societal pressures it encounters, as well as improving management approaches toward channel members. Issues of independence/interdependence, professionalism, educational imperatives, and materialism are all examined and a customer policy audit proposed with suitable guidelines. It is a radical and provocative think‐piece worthy of widespread attention amongst senior marketeers, purchasing and distribution executives.

The changing environment within which SMEs are operating is examined by reference to detailed case studies of three medium‐sized firms (one in the pharmaceutical sector and two in engineering). Following the development of a framework for analysis the cases are discussed to illustrate the direct and indirect ways in which pressures in the network of business relationships affect the management of employment relations. Particular attention is given to the effects of these pressures on management structure, work organisation and human resources policies and practices. Far from enjoying greater discretion following the decline in institutional arrangements and labour market deregulation, managers in SMEs find themselves constrained in new ways. It is argued that employment relations in these firms is shaped strongly by specific customer requirements exercised through the supply chain rather than being driven by broad market forces.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate interorganizational knowledge exchange from the perspective of the individual manager/professional. The paper aims to study the kinds of relationships managers/professionals in SMEs are involved in and the way in which they construct boundaries within and around these interorganizational relationships enabling and hindering knowledge acquisition.

The paper is based on 31 interviews with managers and professionals in seven SMEs. Interviews focused on the interorganizational relationships they viewed as important sources of knowledge for themselves and their organizations.

The study shows that managers/professionals gain vital knowledge from far more interorganizational relationships than those formally designed for knowledge acquisition. The most important sources of knowledge were relationships with suppliers and customers. The study also identifies five boundary dimensions – interests, interpretive frameworks, trust, private/organizational and priority – which respondents use in constructing boundaries within and around the relationships. These boundary dimensions represent important conditions for knowledge acquisition through the relationship.

The five boundary dimensions are generated based on a sample of SMEs in Sweden. They must thus be regarded as provisional and need to be validated in further research including larger organizations in different cultural contexts. Future studies should also focus on the dynamics of the boundaries and their interrelations as relationships evolve.

This paper adds to research on interorganizational knowledge acquisition by taking an individual level perspective and identifying boundary dimensions through which the relationships and their knowledge flows are shaped.

The purpose of this study is to understand how women as small‐business owners build good internal and external relations and to what extent they develop their businesses and contribute to community development.

This longitudinal study is ongoing. In the first broader study, personal interviews were made with 30 women business owners. To get a deeper understanding a case study was carried out with four of them. The result of this study was a typology with two categories.

The paper finds that the category Visionary entrepreneurs are genuine entrepreneurs and they work in teams within the company and also have a network around their business. The team‐oriented way of working develops their business as well as society. The dynamic process that supports the team is both stable and flexible and through openness, testing new ideas and discrediting habits, small changes take place all the time. The Visionary entrepreneurs represent a modern business role and are socially gifted. The Managing leaders, the other category representing a more traditional way of doing business, have not been able to create a team within the company or a network around it that could develop the business.

Modern business management is characterised by a team‐based way of working. Building relations with customers, partners and employees takes time and much effort and you have to meet and communicate.

The internal team in a small business, or a network that is team‐oriented, is not often the subject of research. The team‐oriented working method, supported by a dynamic process, develops the business and helps to renew society.