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Showing papers in "Journal of Marketing in 2010"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined how product and consumer characteristics moderate the influence of online consumer reviews on product sales using data from the video game industry and found that online reviews are more influential for less popular games and games whose players have greater Internet experience.
Abstract: This article examines how product and consumer characteristics moderate the influence of online consumer reviews on product sales using data from the video game industry. The findings indicate that online reviews are more influential for less popular games and games whose players have greater Internet experience. The article shows differential impact of consumer reviews across products in the same product category and suggests that firms' online marketing strategies should be contingent on product and consumer characteristics. The authors discuss the implications of these results in light of the increased share of niche products in recent years.

1,952 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a parsimonious measure of brand attachment was developed and validated from a measurement perspective, test the assumptions that underlie it, and demonstrate that it indicates the concept of attachment.
Abstract: Research has not verified the theoretical or practical value of the brand attachment construct in relation to alternative constructs, particularly brand attitude strength. The authors make conceptual, measurement, and managerial contributions to this research issue. Conceptually, they define brand attachment, articulate its defining properties, and differentiate it from brand attitude strength. From a measurement perspective, they develop and validate a parsimonious measure of brand attachment, test the assumptions that underlie it, and demonstrate that it indicates the concept of attachment. They also demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity of this measure in relation to brand attitude strength. Managerially, they demonstrate that brand attachment offers value over brand attitude strength in predicting (1) consumers' intentions to perform difficult behaviors (those they regard as using consumer resources), (2) actual purchase behaviors, (3) brand purchase share (the share of a brand...

1,468 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a study of a marketing campaign in which mobile phones were seeded with prominent bloggers and the findings indicate that this network of communications offers four social media communication strategies: evaluation, embracing, endorsement, and explanation.
Abstract: Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing—firms' intentional influencing of consumer-to-consumer communications—is an increasingly important technique. Reviewing and synthesizing extant WOM theory, this article shows how marketers employing social media marketing methods face a situation of networked coproduction of narratives. It then presents a study of a marketing campaign in which mobile phones were seeded with prominent bloggers. Eighty-three blogs were followed for six months. The findings indicate that this network of communications offers four social media communication strategies—evaluation, embracing, endorsement, and explanation. Each is influenced by character narrative, communications forum, communal norms, and the nature of the marketing promotion. This new narrative model shows that communal WOM does not simply increase or amplify marketing messages; rather, marketing messages and meanings are systematically altered in the process of embedding them. The theory has definite, pragmatic implicati...

1,271 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Brand prominence as mentioned in this paper is a taxonomy that assigns consumers to one of four groups according to their wealth and need for status, and demonstrate how each group's preference for conspicuously or inconspicuously branded luxury goods corresponds predictably with their desire to associate or dissociate with members of their own and other groups.
Abstract: This research introduces “brand prominence,” a construct reflecting the conspicuousness of a brand's mark or logo on a product. The authors propose a taxonomy that assigns consumers to one of four groups according to their wealth and need for status, and they demonstrate how each group's preference for conspicuously or inconspicuously branded luxury goods corresponds predictably with their desire to associate or dissociate with members of their own and other groups. Wealthy consumers low in need for status want to associate with their own kind and pay a premium for quiet goods only they can recognize. Wealthy consumers high in need for status use loud luxury goods to signal to the less affluent that they are not one of them. Those who are high in need for status but cannot afford true luxury use loud counterfeits to emulate those they recognize to be wealthy. Field experiments along with analysis of market data (including counterfeits) support the proposed model of status signaling using brand pr...

1,135 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of customer participation on value creation and satisfaction for both customers and employees with different cultural value orientations in the context of professional financial services were investigated using data collected from 349 pairs of customers and service employees in two national groups (Hong Kong and the United States).
Abstract: Emergent perspectives in marketing highlight new opportunities for co-opting customers as a means to define and cocreate value through their participation. This study delineates and empirically tests hypotheses regarding the effects of customer participation (CP) on value creation and satisfaction for both customers and employees with different cultural value orientations in the context of professional financial services. Using data collected from 349 pairs of customers and service employees in two national groups (Hong Kong and the United States) of a global financial institution, this study examines how (1) CP drives performance outcomes (i.e., customer satisfaction, employee job satisfaction, and employee job performance) through the creation of economic and relational values and (2) the effects of CP on value creation depend on participants' cultural value orientations. Promoting CP could be a double-edged sword for firms: CP enhances customers' economic value attainment and strengthens the r...

803 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrate that consumers associate higher product ethicality with gentleness-related attributes and lower product ethics with strength-related ones, and as a consequence, the positive effect of product sustainability on consumer preferences is reduced when strengthrelated attributes are valued, sometimes even resulting in preferences for less sustainable product alternatives.
Abstract: Manufacturers are increasingly producing and promoting sustainable products (i.e., products that have a positive social and/or environmental impact). However, relatively little is known about how product sustainability affects consumers' preferences. The authors propose that sustainability may not always be an asset, even if most consumers care about social and environmental issues. The degree to which sustainability enhances preference depends on the type of benefit consumers most value for the product category in question. In this research, the authors demonstrate that consumers associate higher product ethicality with gentleness-related attributes and lower product ethicality with strength-related attributes. As a consequence of these associations, the positive effect of product sustainability on consumer preferences is reduced when strength-related attributes are valued, sometimes even resulting in preferences for less sustainable product alternatives (i.e., the “sustainability liability”). C...

765 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors distinguish two types of visual complexity, differentiate them from the difficulty of comprehending advertising, and propose objective measures for each of them, including feature complexity and design complexity.
Abstract: Advertising needs to capture consumers' attention in likable ways, and the visual complexity of advertising plays a central role in this regard. Yet ideas about visual complexity effects conflict, and objective measures of complexity are rare. The authors distinguish two types of visual complexity, differentiate them from the difficulty of comprehending advertising, and propose objective measures for each. Advertisements are visually complex when they contain dense perceptual features (“feature complexity”) and/or when they have an elaborate creative design (“design complexity”). An analysis of 249 advertisements that were tested with eye-tracking shows that, as the authors hypothesize, feature complexity hurts attention to the brand and attitude toward the ad, whereas design complexity helps attention to both the pictorial and the advertisement as a whole, its comprehensibility, and attitude toward the ad. This is important because design complexity is under direct control of the advertiser. The...

525 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that customers who are empowered to select the products to be marketed show stronger demand for the underlying products even though they are of identical quality in objective terms (and their subjective product evaluations are similar).
Abstract: Companies have recently begun to use the Internet to integrate their customers more actively into various phases of the new product development process. One such strategy involves empowering customers to cooperate in selecting the product concepts to be marketed by the firm. In such scenarios, it is no longer the company but rather its customers who decide democratically which products should be produced. This article discusses the first set of empirical studies that highlight the important psychological consequences of this power shift. The results indicate that customers who are empowered to select the products to be marketed show stronger demand for the underlying products even though they are of identical quality in objective terms (and their subjective product evaluations are similar). This seemingly irrational finding can be observed because consumers develop a stronger feeling of psychological ownership of the products selected. The studies also identify two boundary conditions for this “e...

455 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a framework for understanding and revitalizing the important role of conceptual articles in the development of knowledge in the marketing discipline, and an analysis of 30 years (1978-2007) of publishing data from major marketing journals indicates that conceptual articles are declining.
Abstract: This article presents a framework for understanding and revitalizing the important role of conceptual articles in the development of knowledge in the marketing discipline. An analysis of 30 years (1978–2007) of publishing data from major marketing journals indicates that conceptual articles are declining, despite repeated calls for more emphasis on this form of scholarship. The sharpest decline has occurred in Journal of Marketing (JM), with much of the shift occurring over the past decade. Many substantive areas remain largely unexplored in conceptual articles. Over this 30-year period, conceptual articles published in JM have disproportionately more citations relative to their numbers, attesting to the importance of their role in knowledge development. Addressing the decline of conceptual articles and restoring their synergistic balance with other forms of scholarship will require concerted efforts on several interrelated fronts: the current generation of scholars; doctoral programs and student...

446 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the long-term relationship between advertising spending and market capitalization and found that advertising can have a direct effect on valuation beyond its indirect effect through sales revenue and profit response.
Abstract: Marketing decision makers are increasingly aware of the importance of shareholder value maximization, which calls for an evaluation of the long-term effects of their actions on product-market response and investor response. However, the marketing literature to date has focused on the sales or profit response of marketing actions, and the goals of marketing have traditionally been formulated from a customer perspective. Recently, there have been a few studies of the long-term investor response to marketing actions. The current research investigates one important aspect of this impact, the long-term relationship between advertising spending and market capitalization. The authors hypothesize that advertising can have a direct effect on valuation (i.e., an effect beyond its indirect effect through sales revenue and profit response). The empirical results across two industries provide support for the hypothesis that advertising spending has a positive, long-term impact on own firms' market capitalizat...

379 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, attitude toward global products (AGP) and attitude toward local products (ALP) are introduced as generalized attitudinal constructs and addressed the four issues these constructs raise: (1) How are AGP and ALP related to each other? (2) What is the motivational structure underlying AGP, or does it generalize across countries? and (3) What are the managerially relevant implications of these consumer attitudes?
Abstract: In this article, the authors introduce attitude toward global products (AGP) and attitude toward local products (ALP) as generalized attitudinal constructs and address the four issues these constructs raise: (1) How are AGP and ALP related to each other? (2) What is the motivational structure underlying AGP and ALP? (3) Is the proposed theory culturally circumscribed, or does it generalize across countries? and (4) What are the managerially relevant implications of these consumer attitudes? To answer these questions, the authors propose and empirically test an integrated structure for AGP and ALP and their antecedents, organized around the powerful motivational concept of values. They test their theory using a unique data set involving 13,000 respondents from 28 countries in the Americas, Asia, and Europe, thus allowing for a global investigation of a global issue. The study findings provide managers with strategic direction on how to market their products in a globalized world.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of cross-functional cooperation among sales, marketing, and R&D on NPD performance across multiple stages of the NPD process was examined and the results showed that the cooperation between sales and marketing has a significant, positive effect on overall NPD project performance beyond marketing-R&D cooperation.
Abstract: Prior research has identified the integration of marketing with research and development (R&D) as a key success factor for new product development (NPD). However, prior work has not distinguished the sales and marketing functions, even though they are distinctive departments within an organization. Therefore, the authors extend prior research and examine the effect of cross-functional cooperation among sales, marketing, and R&D on NPD performance across multiple stages of the NPD process. The authors use multiple-informant data from 424 sales, marketing, and R&D managers as well as project leaders of 106 NPD projects to test several hypotheses. The results show that the cooperation between sales and R&D and between sales and marketing has a significant, positive effect on overall NPD project performance beyond marketing–R&D cooperation. The authors also find that the effect of cross-functional cooperation among sales, marketing, and R&D on overall NPD project performance varies across stages of t...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a conceptual framework to examine how market disruptions affect customer-brand relationships and how firms can sustain brand loyalty when disruptions occur, drawing from social identity theory and the brand loyalty literature.
Abstract: There has been little research on how market disruptions affect customer–brand relationships and how firms can sustain brand loyalty when disruptions occur. Drawing from social identity theory and the brand loyalty literature, the authors propose a conceptual framework to examine these issues in a specific market disruption, namely, the introduction of a radically new brand. The framework focuses on the time-varying effects of customers' identification with and perceived value of the incumbent relative to the new brand on switching behavior. The authors divert from the conventional economic perspective of treating brand switching as functional utility maximization to propose that brand switching can also result from customers' social mobility between brand identities. The results from longitudinal data of 679 customers during the launch of the iPhone in Spain show that both relative customer–brand identification and relative perceived value of the incumbent inhibit switching behavior, but their e...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the role of normative and regulatory structures in facilitating the adoption and eventual acceptance of an industry through the social process of legitimation, and find that frames such as crime, business, and regulation change over time and these frames are used by multiple stakeholders to structure normative conceptions about the practice of casino gambling.
Abstract: Drawing from institutional theory in sociology, this article theorizes the process of “megamarketing”—defined by Kotler (1986) as the use of strategic efforts by a firm or firms to gain the cooperation of multiple stakeholders—to understand how new industries are created and sustained in a complex social and political context. The author uses an analysis of the casino gambling industry to demonstrate the role of normative and regulatory structures in facilitating the adoption and eventual acceptance of an industry through the social process of legitimation. In a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 7211 newspaper articles from 1980 to 2007, the author finds that frames such as crime, business, and regulation change over time and that these frames are used by multiple stakeholders to structure normative conceptions about the practice of casino gambling. These findings contribute to a theoretical understanding of market creation and development over time and provide marketing managers w...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper investigated how movie ratings from professional critics, amateur communities, and viewers themselves influence key movie performance measures (i.e., movie revenues and new movie ratings) using movie-level data, and found that high early movie revenues enhance subsequent movie ratings.
Abstract: This research investigates how movie ratings from professional critics, amateur communities, and viewers themselves influence key movie performance measures (i.e., movie revenues and new movie ratings). Using movie-level data, the authors find that high early movie revenues enhance subsequent movie ratings. They also find that high advertising spending on movies supported by high ratings maximizes the movie's revenues. Furthermore, they empirically show that sequel movies tend to reap more revenues but receive lower ratings than originals. Using individual viewer–level data, this research highlights how viewers' own viewing and rating histories and movie communities' collective opinions explain viewer satisfaction. The authors find that various aspects of these ratings explain viewers' new movie ratings as a measure of viewer satisfaction, after controlling for movie characteristics. Furthermore, they find that viewers' movie experiences can cause them to become more critical in ratings over time...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare three mechanisms that may explain why older consumers tend to prefer older brands, and find that mature consumers are attractive targets because they tend to remain attached for a longer duration to the same preferred brand.
Abstract: The authors compare three mechanisms that may explain why older consumers tend to prefer older brands. Data are from the French perfume market, in which some market leaders are decades old while hundreds of new entrants launch yearly. The authors reveal monotonically increasing differences across age ranges. Younger consumers have a greater propensity to change their preferred brand, a form of innovativeness that benefits relatively recent entrants, whereas older consumers exhibit a propensity to remain attached for a longer duration to the same preferred brand. Nostalgia for options encountered during an early “formative period” has only a limited impact. Furthermore, strong heterogeneity emerges: At all ages, some consumers frequently change their preferred brand, whereas others remain attached to it for long periods. It is the proportion of these two behaviors that varies across age ranges. The resultant managerial implications indicate that mature consumers are attractive targets because they...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine consumers' style of thinking (analytic versus holistic thinking) to better understand the elasticity of prestige versus functional brands, and they find that holistic thinkers provide more favorable responses to distant extensions than analytic thinkers.
Abstract: Why are some brands more elastic than others? Prior research shows that consumers are more accepting of extensions into distant product categories for brands with prestige concepts (Rolex) than for brands with functional concepts (Timex). In this article, the authors examine consumers' style of thinking—analytic versus holistic thinking—to better understand the elasticity of prestige versus functional brands. For functional brands, the authors find that holistic thinkers provide more favorable responses to distant extensions than analytic thinkers; however, for prestige brands, holistic and analytic thinkers respond equally favorably. Thus, analytic thinkers are identified as the roadblocks for functional brands launching distant brand extensions. To meet this challenge, the authors offer several strategies, including (1) using a subbrand (Excer wallets by Toyota) instead of a direct brand (Toyota wallets) to reduce analytic thinking; (2) using elaborational communications, which address potentia...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative study of subsistence consumer-merchants (SCMs) in Chennai, India, reveals that they sustain relationships in three interdependent relationship domains: vendor, customer, and family.
Abstract: A qualitative study of subsistence consumer–merchants (SCMs) in Chennai, India, reveals that they sustain relationships in three interdependent relationship domains: vendor, customer, and family. Relying on long interview data, the authors interpret the subsystems as closed-loop and self-sustaining relationships. Subsystems are managed by SCMs through buying and selling activities alongside the receiving and granting of credit, and these activities engender three facets of commitment: continuance, affective, and normative. Different facets of commitment underlie the relationships in the three subsystems. Through different role-based activities, SCMs enhance or diminish commitment levels to keep all three types of relationships viable while moving their scarce time, energy, and financial resources into the domain with the greatest need. Activities and the management of commitment are performed within 24-hour business cycles, with negligible resources, and in highly unstable environments, providing...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed and tested a new four-step approach to compute customer referral value (CRV) and determine the behavioral drivers of CRV and then identify the most effective methods of targeting the most promising customers on the basis of their customer lifetime value (CLV), and CRV scores.
Abstract: Many firms are now using referral marketing campaigns to harness the power of word of mouth and to increase referrals to acquire new customers. Prior research has identified a method of computing the value of referrals using only a customer's actual past referral behavior to compute customer referral value (CRV). In this article, the authors develop and test a new four-step approach to compute CRV. In addition, they determine the behavioral drivers of CRV and then identify the most effective methods of targeting the most promising customers on the basis of their customer lifetime value (CLV) and CRV scores. The authors illustrate and test this approach through four separate field experiments with firms from two industries: financial services and retailing. They find that to maximize profitability, it is critical to manage customers in terms of both their CLV and CRV scores and that understanding the behavioral drivers of CRV can help managers better target the most profitable customers with their...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, implicit theories regarding personality traits (whether they are deemed to be fixed or malleable) affect consumer inferences about the malleability of a brand's personality traits and thus its ability to extend into new categories.
Abstract: This research documents how implicit theories regarding personality traits (whether they are deemed to be fixed or malleable) affect consumer inferences about the malleability of a brand's personality traits and, thus, its ability to extend into new categories. Study 1 documents that consumers who believe that traits are malleable (incremental theorists) are more accepting of brand extensions than consumers who believe that traits are fixed (entity theorists). These results hold whether implicit theories are measured or manipulated. Study 2 reveals how implicit theories affect consumers' perceptions regarding the flexibility of a brand's personality traits and not its physical traits. Study 3 demonstrates that consumers primed with different implicit theory orientations respond differently to varying degrees of change within a single trait. This study tests the limits of the effect and demonstrates the impact of using primes embedded within standard marketing communication.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the relative influence of salesperson attitudes toward selling a new product, perceptions of subjective norms, and selfefficacy on the development of selling intentions and, ultimately, the success of new product launch.
Abstract: This research explores the relative influence of salespeople's attitudes toward selling a new product, perceptions of subjective norms, and self-efficacy on the development of selling intentions and, ultimately, the success of a new product launch. The longitudinal study employs a nonlinear growth curve model that leverages survey data from industrial salespeople and objective performance records of their daily sales during the first several months in the market of two new products: a new-to-market product and a line extension. By examining salesperson-level variance on new product performance, the authors suggest that managers should focus on increasing salesperson self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward selling the product to build selling intentions and quickly grow new product performance. They also suggest that sales managers should resist the temptation to rely on normative pressure during a new product introduction. Not only are subjective norms less effective in building selling inten...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the diffusion of market orientation as a social learning process to acquire and transfer individual-level MO, and identify the important work-group members or envoys.
Abstract: This study examines the diffusion of market orientation (MO) as a social learning process to acquire and transfer individual-level MO. Central to the diffusion are important work-group members, or envoys. Through their market-oriented action, top managers serve as market-oriented role models to two important types of observers in work groups—formal middle managers and work-group expert peers. In turn, these observers become top managers' envoys and role models of market-oriented behavior to frontline employees. Empirical results from a three-level data set from a Fortune 500 company support this perspective. While envoys who are neither market oriented nor identified with the firm are the least effective, envoys who are not market oriented but are strongly identified with the firm are also detrimental. Network size hinders the informal route of learning through expert peers but not the formal route through middle managers. By identifying who the important work-group envoys are and under what cond...

Journal ArticleDOI
Anita Elberse1
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors empirically examined the effect of digital bundling on sales in the context of the music industry, using data on weekly digital-track, digital-album and physical-album sales from January 2005 to April 2007 for all titles released by a sample of more than 200 artists.
Abstract: Fueled by digital distribution, unbundling is prevalent in many information and entertainment industries. What is the effect of this unbundling on sales, and what bundle characteristics drive this effect? The author empirically examines these questions in the context of the music industry, using data on weekly digital-track, digital-album, and physical-album sales from January 2005 to April 2007 for all titles released by a sample of more than 200 artists. The modeling framework, a system of an “album-sales” and a “song-sales” equation estimated with the seemingly unrelated regression method, explicitly accounts for the interaction between sales for the bundle and its components. The findings reveal that revenues decrease significantly as digital downloading becomes more prevalent, but the number of items included in a bundle (a measure of its “objective” value) is not a significant moderator of this effect. Instead, bundles with items that are more equal in their appeal and bundles offered by pr...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the sometimes conflicting impact of salesperson brand identification, salesperson organizational identification, and manufacturer-channel member control system alignment on brand and channel member sales performance.
Abstract: A manufacturer's success in the marketplace is contingent in part on its ability to energize its downstream channel members in support of its brands. Gaining the focused effort of the reseller's sales personnel is particularly important, and this has become increasingly challenging as resellers broaden their brand portfolios in the wake of industry consolidation. This study reveals a motivating influence that can potentially be harnessed by both manufacturer and channel member: identification. Using a multilevel analysis, the authors explore the sometimes conflicting impact of salesperson brand identification, salesperson organizational identification, and manufacturer–channel member control system alignment on brand and channel member sales performance. The authors also examine favorable extra-role consequences of salesperson brand identification. The results show that while organizational identification strengthens salesperson adherence to controls, brand identification can increase salesperson...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the performance implications of contract specificity for the procurement of information technology products and show that deviations between the observed and the predicted levels of specificity are an important determinant of these transaction costs.
Abstract: Governance theories, such as transaction cost economics, argue that systematic deviations from an attribute–governance alignment should influence performance. This article investigates the performance implications of contract specificity for the procurement of information technology products. The authors argue that parties choose a level of contract specificity that economizes on both the ex ante contracting costs and the ex post transaction costs and that deviations between the observed and the predicted levels of contract specificity are an important determinant of these transaction costs. The authors test the hypotheses using a comprehensive archival data set of information technology transactions and employ a two-step estimation procedure. First, they estimate the “predicted” level of contract specificity, which accounts for key transactional attributes. Second, they study the consequences of deviating from this predicted level of contractual specificity. The results provide the first explicit demonstration of the trade-off between ex ante contracting costs and ex post transaction problems and suggest that parties need to economize jointly on these costs when choosing the governance form.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a framework for understanding the complex relationships among satisfaction, moderating variables, and repurchase, and proposed that the satisfaction-repurchase link is subject to complementary and substitute effects and present satiation and inertia as key theoretical mechanisms that explain and predict those effects.
Abstract: Customer satisfaction is universally acknowledged as a key driver of customer repurchase behavior, but recent evidence suggests that satisfaction has no effect on repurchase under certain circumstances. In this study, the authors develop a framework for understanding the complex relationships among satisfaction, moderating variables, and repurchase. They propose that the satisfaction–repurchase link is subject to complementary and substitute effects and present satiation and inertia as key theoretical mechanisms that explain and predict those effects. In weak-satiation purchase categories, complementary effects are more likely, which suggests that managers should invest in customer satisfaction and complementary initiatives simultaneously. In strong-satiation purchase categories, substitute effects are more likely, which suggests that managers should invest in either customer satisfaction or substitute initiatives. An empirical test combining survey and longitudinal purchase data from two categor...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define service separation as customers' absence from service production, which denotes the spatial separation between service production and consumption, and examine customer reactions to service separation, finding that service separation increases customers' perceptions of not only access convenience and benefit convenience but also performance risk and psychological risk.
Abstract: Recent research suggests that inseparability is not a universal distinguishing characteristic of services and that the consumption of many services is or can be separated from their production. This research defines service separation as customers' absence from service production, which denotes the spatial separation between service production and consumption. In a series of qualitative and quantitative studies across different services, the authors examine customer reactions to service separation. The results indicate that service separation increases customers' perceptions of not only access convenience and benefit convenience but also performance risk and psychological risk. Furthermore, these effects differ across services. Specifically, relative to experience services, for credence services, the effects of separation on service convenience are mitigated, and the effects on perceived risk are magnified. Subsequently, the convenience and risk perceptions induced by service separation can influ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a model that conceptualizes and estimates the concept of hardcore piracy in an attempt to resolve the apparent paradox of the recent move toward offering DRM-free music by some major online music sellers appears paradoxical.
Abstract: The music industry has widely viewed digital rights management (DRM) as an effective strategy for reducing digital piracy. Digital rights management systems aim to prevent unauthorized copying and to reduce the overall rate of piracy. Therefore, the recent move toward offering DRM-free music by some major online music sellers appears paradoxical. In this article, the authors propose a model that conceptualizes and estimates the concept of hardcore piracy in an attempt to resolve this apparent paradox. Based on two large empirical studies and a validation exercise with a large sample of more 2000 college students, the model results indicate that the music industry can benefit from removing DRM because such a strategy has the potential to convert some pirates into paying consumers. In addition, a DRM-free environment enhances both consumer and producer welfare by increasing the demand for legitimate products as well as consumers' willingness to pay for these products. The authors find that producer...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article found that customer service models are related to customer orientation, competence, surface and deep acting, and interpersonal values among retail frontline employees, indicating that differences in customer service attitudes, behaviors, and performance can be attributed to organizational characteristics, social environment, job characteristics, or personality.
Abstract: Service literature has implicitly assumed that frontline employees (FLEs) share a common understanding of the term “customer service.” Perhaps because of this assumption, differences in FLE attitudes, behaviors, and performance have been ascribed to organizational characteristics, social environment, job characteristics, or personality. This article shows that FLEs' interpretations of customer service also matter. Using qualitative and quantitative data, this study finds that three distinct interpretations of customer service, or service models, exist among retail FLEs: (1) the act of giving customers what they ask for, efficiently and courteously; (2) a means to accomplishing immediate objectives, such as sales quotas; and (3) the formation of mutually beneficial relationships with customers through problem solving. Service models are related to FLEs' customer orientation, competence, surface and deep acting, and interpersonal values. The findings indicate that differences in FLEs' attitudes, be...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that the influence of these governance mechanisms on electronic market performance (i.e., meeting strategic and financial objectives) depends on behavioral and external uncertainty in the market.
Abstract: Rather than relying on traditional relational exchanges, recent technological advances have made it feasible for firms to undertake market-based transactions through information technology‐mediated electronic markets. The success of such business-to-business electronic markets depends on the governance practices of the market maker —that is, the firm that manages and administers the electronic market. Market makers use three governance mechanisms to manage electronic markets: (1) monitoring the market participants (i.e., buyers and sellers that participate in the market), (2) building a sense of community among market participants to instill mutual respect and trust, and (3) self-participating in the electronic market to build know-how about how the market functions. Building on transaction cost analysis theory, the authors suggest that the influence of these governance mechanisms on electronic market performance (i.e., meeting strategic and financial objectives) depends on behavioral and external uncertainty in the market. Survey data from market makers show that (1) monitoring is effective for reputed market makers and when demand uncertainty is high , (2) community building is beneficial when pricing is static rather than dynamic , and (3) self-participation is useful when the market maker is well reputed and when the market relies on dynamic pricing.