Showing papers in "Journal of Marketing in 2012"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors conceptualize commercial sharing systems within a typology of shared goods and demonstrate that beyond cost-related benefits of sharing, the perceived risk of scarcity related to sharing is a central determinant of its attractiveness.
Abstract: Sharing systems are increasingly challenging sole ownership as the dominant means of obtaining product benefits, making up a market estimated at more than US$100 billion annually in 2010. Consumer options include cell phone minute-sharing plans, frequent-flyer-mile pools, bicycle-sharing programs, and automobile-sharing systems, among many others. However, marketing research has yet to provide a framework for understanding and managing these emergent systems. The authors conceptualize commercial sharing systems within a typology of shared goods. Using three studies, they demonstrate that beyond cost-related benefits of sharing, the perceived risk of scarcity related to sharing is a central determinant of its attractiveness. The results suggest that managers can use perceptions of personal and sharing partners' usage patterns to affect risk perceptions and subsequent propensity to participate in a commercial sharing system.
764 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the chain-of-effects model was used to study the relationship between innovativeness and firm value and found that the relationship is stronger for smaller firms, for firms that invest more in advertising and for firms in low-tech industries.
Abstract: Drawing on the chain-of-effects model as a unifying framework, this meta-analysis indicates that firm innovativeness indirectly affects firm value through its effects on market position and financial position. In addition, the findings suggest that innovativeness has direct positive effects on financial position and firm value. Moreover, the meta-analysis provides evidence of reverse causality in the innovativeness–firm value relationship. Importantly, the results also reveal that the positive effects of firm innovativeness on market position and financial position are stronger for larger firms, for firms that invest more in advertising, for firms in high-tech industries, for innovativeness outputs and for radical innovations. Finally, the meta-analytic evidence also indicates that the relationship between innovativeness and firm value is stronger for smaller firms, for firms that invest more in advertising, for firms in lowtech industries, for innovativeness inputs, for innovativeness culture, a...
597 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an integrative framework of quality that captures how firms and customers produce quality, how firms deliver and customers experience quality, and how customers evaluate quality.
Abstract: Quality is a central element in business strategy and academic research. Despite important research on quality, an opportunity for an integrative framework remains. The authors present an integrative framework of quality that captures how firms and customers produce quality (the quality production process), how firms deliver and customers experience quality (the quality experience process), and how customers evaluate quality (the quality evaluation process). The framework extends the literature in several ways. First, the authors describe important linkages between the three processes, including links reflecting the role of co-production. Second, they point to overlooked aspects of the quality processes that influence how quality is conceptualized and should be managed. These include customer heterogeneity in measurement knowledge and motivation; the role of emotion in quality production, experience, and evaluation; and a new typology of attributes. Third, they propose a quality state residing within each quality process and describe what gives rise to these states, which will enhance decision makers’ ability to measure and manage quality processes. Finally, they offer theoretical and managerial implications derived from their integrative quality framework including 20 strategies to increase customer satisfaction.
514 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the decision to hide or reveal the demographic characteristics of a brand's online supporters and find that even when the presence of these supporters is only passively experienced and virtual (a situation the authors term "mere virtual presence") their demographic characteristics can influence a target consumer's brand evaluations and purchase intentions.
Abstract: By 2011, approximately 83% of Fortune 500 companies were using some form of social media to connect with consumers. Furthermore, surveys suggest that consumers are increasingly relying on social media to learn about unfamiliar brands. However, best practices regarding the use of social media to bolster brand evaluations in such situations remain undefined. This research focuses on one practice in this domain: the decision to hide or reveal the demographic characteristics of a brand's online supporters. The results from four studies indicate that even when the presence of these supporters is only passively experienced and virtual (a situation the authors term “mere virtual presence”), their demographic characteristics can influence a target consumer's brand evaluations and purchase intentions. The findings suggest a framework for brand managers to use when deciding whether to reveal the identities of their online supporters or to retain ambiguity according to (1) the composition of existing suppor...
448 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that customer orientation is a consequence of job states, a proximate determinant of job outcomes, and most beneficial when ample opportunity for customer engagement exists, and that CO's influence on model variables is stronger when frontline employees' customer workloads increase and weaker as the need for customer persuasion increases.
Abstract: Previous research has conceptualized and modeled customer orientation (CO) in one of two ways: as a psychological phenomenon antecedent to critical job states (i.e., stress and engagement) or as frontline employee behaviors that are caused by these same job states. Building on meta-analytic data, this study finds greater support for the causal relationships implied by a psychological construal of the construct and reveals that CO influences frontline employees' job outcomes through its effects on stress and engagement. Moderation analyses also indicate that CO's influence on model variables is stronger when frontline employees' customer workloads increase and is weaker as the need for customer persuasion increases. These findings contradict widely held assumptions rooted in a behavioral view of CO—namely, that CO is a consequence of job states, a proximate determinant of job outcomes, and most beneficial when ample opportunity for customer engagement exists. Overall, the results support a broaden...
336 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a conceptual framework to explain whether and when the introduction of a new retail store channel helps or hurts sales in existing direct channels by analyzing the capabilities of a channel that help consumers accomplish their shopping goals.
Abstract: The authors propose a conceptual framework to explain whether and when the introduction of a new retail store channel helps or hurts sales in existing direct channels. A conceptual framework separates short- and long-term effects by analyzing the capabilities of a channel that help consumers accomplish their shopping goals. To test the theory, the authors analyze a unique data set from a high-end retailer using matching methods. The authors study the introduction of a retail store and find evidence of cross-channel cannibalization and synergy. The presence of a retail store decreases sales in the catalog but not the Internet channel in the short run but increases sales in both direct channels over time. Following the opening of the store, more first-time customers begin purchasing in the direct channels. These results suggest that adding a retail store to direct channels yields different results from adding an Internet channel to a retail store channel, as previous research has indicated.
330 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce customer stewardship control (CSC) to the marketing field, which represents a frontline employee's felt ownership of and moral responsibility for customers' overall welfare.
Abstract: This article introduces customer stewardship control (CSC) to the marketing field. This concept represents a frontline employee’s felt ownership of and moral responsibility for customers’ overall welfare. In two studies, the authors show that CSC is a more encompassing construct than customer orientation, which reflects a frontline employee’s focus on meeting customers’ needs. They provide evidence that the former is more potent in shaping in- and extra-role employee behaviors. Moreover, they highlight how CSC operates in conjunction with an organization’s agency control system: Stewardship’s positive influence on in- and extra-role behavior is weaker in the presence of high agency control. They offer actionable advice about how to solve the resulting managerial control dilemma. Finally, the authors show that CSC depends on drivers that reside at the individual level (employee relatedness), the team level (team competence), or both levels of aggregation (employee and team autonomy). These findings show how to effectively design a frontline employee’s work environment to ensure optimal frontline performance.
317 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors hypothesize that other consumers' online ratings moderate the effects of positive and regular negative features of product experience, product failure, and product recovery (to address product failure) on the reviewer's online product rating.
Abstract: Websites prominently display consumers' product ratings, which influence consumers' buying decisions and willingness to pay. Few insights exist regarding whether a consumer's online product rating is prone to social influence from others' online ratings. Examining this issue, the authors hypothesize that other consumers' online ratings moderate the effects of positive and regular negative features of product experience, product failure, and product recovery (to address product failure) on the reviewer's online product rating. The results from a model using 7499 consumers' online ratings of 114 hotels support the hypotheses. Other consumers' online ratings weaken the effects of positive and regular negative features of product experience but can either exacerbate or overturn the negative effect of product failure, depending on the quality of product recovery. For marketing theory, the findings indicate that consumers who influence others are themselves influenced by other consumers and that this i...
313 citations
TL;DR: The authors showed that persuasiveness of assertive language depends on the perceived importance of the issue at hand: recipients respond better to pushy requests in domains that they view as important, but they need more suggestive appeals when they lack initial conviction.
Abstract: Environmental communications often contain assertive commands, even though research in consumer behavior, psycholinguistics, and communications has repeatedly shown that gentler phrasing is more effective when seeking consumer compliance. This article shows that the persuasiveness of assertive language depends on the perceived importance of the issue at hand: Recipients respond better to pushy requests in domains that they view as important, but they need more suggestive appeals when they lack initial conviction. The authors examine this effect in three laboratory studies and one field experiment using Google AdWords. Their findings refer to various environmental contexts (i.e., economizing water, recycling plastic containers, reducing air and sea pollution). The key implication of these findings is that issue importance needs to be carefully assessed (or affected) before the language of effective environmental campaigns can be selected.
311 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between brand equity and customer acquisition, retention, and profit margin, the key components of customer lifetime value (CLV), and they examine a unique database from the U.S. automobile market that combines ten years of acquisition rate, retention rate, and customer profitability data with measures of brand equity from Young & Rubicam's Brand Asset Valuator.
Abstract: The authors investigate the relationships between brand equity and customer acquisition, retention, and profit margin, the key components of customer lifetime value (CLV). They examine a unique database from the U.S. automobile market that combines ten years of acquisition rate, retention rate, and customer profitability data with measures of brand equity from Young & Rubicam's Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) over the same period. They hypothesize and find that BAV brand equity is significantly associated with the components of CLV in expected and meaningful ways. For example, customer knowledge of a brand has an especially strong positive relationship with all three components of CLV. Notably, however, differentiation is a double-edged sword. While it is associated with higher customer profitability, it is also associated with lower acquisition and retention rates. The authors also find that marketing efforts exert indirect impacts on CLV through brand equity. Simulations show that changes in marketi...
295 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that consumers consider green, or environmentally friendly, products to be less effective than regular products; therefore, consumers increase the amount of the green product they use to make up for the perceived inferiority.
Abstract: The results from three studies suggest that consumers' perceptions of product effectiveness are critical in determining the amount of a product they choose to use in a given instance. In general, consumers consider green, or environmentally friendly, products to be less effective than regular products; therefore, consumers increase the amount of the green product they use to make up for the perceived inferiority. Notably, this pattern of green versus regular product usage is more pronounced among consumers who are environmentally conscious. When the perceived effectiveness of a green product is boosted by a credible endorsement, the discrepancy between green and regular product usage disappears.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use an inductive process method to study how six major innovation (MI) were developed for business-to-business markets by small and young technology firms.
Abstract: The marketing literature typically argues that customers cannot easily be involved with, and contribute to, the creation of major innovation (MI). This article finds otherwise. The authors use an inductive process method to study how six MIs were developed for business-to-business markets by small and young technology firms. Three of the MIs were successful, and three failed. The firms with MI success are distinguished by a nonconventional new product development process that includes five iterative and overlapping activities and up to ten different customer roles. These activities and roles are captured in a multifaceted taxonomy of customer participation. The analysis also uncovers three capabilities relevant to the development of successful MI—capabilities that are effectual rather than adaptive in nature. These findings and the propositions derived from them offer a more complete understanding of customer participation, new product development across contexts, and marketing capabilities.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply the concept of flow as an overarching framework and draw theoretical support from social cognitive theory, particularly its extension (i.e., the conceptual model of relational efficacy beliefs), to examine how customers and employees derive enjoyment from CP conditional on their perceived efficacy of themselves (selfefficacy [SE]) and their partners (other-efficacy[OE]) in financial services.
Abstract: Extant research confirms the importance of value cocreation through customer participation (CP), but relatively little is known about whether and how it creates an enjoyable experience for customers and service employees and the consequential outcomes of this positive affective experience. This study applies the concept of flow as an overarching framework and draws theoretical support from social cognitive theory, particularly its extension (i.e., the conceptual model of relational efficacy beliefs), to examine how customers and employees derive enjoyment from CP conditional on their perceived efficacy of themselves (self-efficacy [SE]) and their partners (other-efficacy [OE]) in financial services. Empirical results from 223 client–financial adviser dyads confirm that participation enjoyment, in addition to economic and relational values, mediates the impact of CP on participants' satisfaction evaluations, with SE positively moderating CP's impact on participation enjoyment. The synergistic effe...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate the conditions in which cause-related marketing campaigns that allow consumers to choose the cause that receives the donation lead to greater consumer support than those in which the company determines the cause.
Abstract: Spurred by the consumer demand for companies to be socially responsible, cause-related marketing (CM), in which fund raising for a cause is tied to purchase of a firm's products, has become popular in recent years. The authors demonstrate the conditions in which CM campaigns that allow consumers to choose the cause that receives the donation lead to greater consumer support than those in which the company determines the cause. They show that choice in this context is helpful as long as it increases consumers' perception of personal role in helping the cause. Specifically, allowing consumers to select the cause in a CM campaign is more likely to enhance perceived personal role and, thus, purchase intentions (1) for those consumers who are high (vs. low) in collectivism and (2) when the company and causes have low (vs. high) perceptual fit. Finally, the authors show that under certain conditions, choice may have a negative impact on perceived personal role and consumer support of CM campaigns.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a framework of the antecedents and performance consequences of aligned sales and customer service provision, which can be used to understand ambidexterity at the employee level.
Abstract: Cross- and up-selling in inbound call centers is a growing business practice, with the promise of enhanced revenue generation and customer retention. Yet firms struggle to create conditions that are conducive to customer service representatives' (CSRs') concurrent engagement in service and sales. By developing a framework of the antecedents and performance consequences of aligned sales and customer service provision, this study advances understanding of ambidexterity at the employee level. The framework receives strong support from an empirical study based on CSRs' survey responses and matched performance data. A CSR's locomotion orientation facilitates ambidextrous behavior and interacts positively with an assessment orientation. However, team identification and bounded discretion impair this valuable interplay. Ambidextrous behavior also increases customer satisfaction and sales performance but decreases efficiency. Nevertheless, the overall performance effect is positive.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that firms can design governance strategies to deal with foreign institutions to secure both social acceptance and firm performance, using a Chinese sample of manufacturers that export products to various foreign markets through local distributors, and they develop and test a model that bridges the effects of institutional environments and governance strategy on channel performance.
Abstract: Firms doing business in foreign institutional environments face pressures to gain social acceptance (commonly referred to as legitimacy) and difficulty in evaluating market information, both of which undercut firm performance. In this article, the authors argue that firms can design governance strategies to deal with foreign institutions to secure both social acceptance and firm performance. Using a Chinese sample of manufacturers that export products to various foreign markets through local distributors, the authors develop and test a model that bridges the effects of institutional environments and governance strategy on channel performance. Specifically, they find that firms can use two governance strategies, contract customization and relational governance, to deal with both legitimacy and efficiency issues and to safeguard channel performance. Thus, international channel managers are advised to maintain an integrated management of legitimacy and efficiency in foreign marketing channels.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study consumer perceptions of firms that sell products designed by users and find that common design by users does not decrease but actually enhances consumers' perceptions of a firm's innovation ability, which leads to positive outcomes with respect to purchase intentions, willingness to pay and consumers' willingness to recommend the firm to others.
Abstract: The authors study consumer perceptions of firms that sell products designed by users. In contrast with the traditional design mode, in which professional designers employed by firms handle the design task, common design by users involves the firm's user community in creating new product designs for the broader consumer market. In the course of four studies, the authors find that common design by users does not decrease but actually enhances consumers' perceptions of a firm's innovation ability. This “innovation effect of user design” leads to positive outcomes with respect to purchase intentions, willingness to pay, and consumers' willingness to recommend the firm to others. The authors identify four defining characteristics of common design by users that underlie this innovation inference; namely, the number of consumers, the diversity of their background, the lack of company constraints, and the fact that consumer designers actually use the designed product all contribute in building positive p...
TL;DR: The authors found that highlighting how injustice can be redressed through purchases enhances fair-trade support under conditions of high need, but the effects are moderated by justice sensitivity factors, such as just-world beliefs and whether the product type makes the injustice of consumer privilege salient.
Abstract: Although consumers report positive attitudes toward ethical goods, their intentions and behaviors often do not follow suit. Just-world theory highlights the conditions under which consumers are most likely to prefer fair-trade products. This theory proposes that people are motivated to construe the world as a just place where people get what they deserve. In the current research, when people are confronted with high levels of injustice (communicated need is high) and avenues for justice restoration seem uncertain or unavailable, assisting others by supporting fair trade decreases. However, highlighting how injustice can be redressed through purchases enhances fair-trade support under conditions of high need. The effects are moderated by justice sensitivity factors, such as just-world beliefs and whether the product type (indulgence vs. necessity) makes the injustice of consumer privilege salient. The results suggest that communicating high need when requesting consumer prosocial actions can somet...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that consumers engage in self-production when they play an active role in the creation of end products, such as preparing a meal or assembling a piece of furniture.
Abstract: Consumers engage in self-production when they play an active role in the creation of end products, such as preparing a meal or assembling a piece of furniture. In three experimental studies of self-production involving a branded input product, the authors show that consumers' active engagement in the value creation process (preparing a meal) positively biases their evaluations of an outcome (a dish) and an input product (a dinner kit). A positive evaluation bias for the input product occurs despite increased self-attribution due to self-production. In support of an associative self-anchoring explanation and the notion of self-generated validity, self-producing consumers bias their sensory perceptions (e.g., perceived level of saltiness and spiciness) so that they match a positive evaluation of the outcome. Mediation analyses show that perceived self-integration (perceived link between self and outcome) partly mediates the positive effect of self-production on outcome evaluation. The authors concl...
TL;DR: Using actor-network theory from sociology, this article explored the creation of new markets as a brand-mediated legitimation process and proposed a four-step brand image revitalization process that can be applied either by managers interested in fostering an innovation's congruence with prevailing social norms and ideals or by other stakeholders interested in undermining its marketing success.
Abstract: Using actor-network theory from sociology, the author explores the creation of new markets as a brand-mediated legitimation process. Findings from an eight-year longitudinal investigation of the Botox Cosmetic brand suggest that the meanings of a new cosmetic self-enhancement technology evolve over the course of contestations between brand images promoted by the innovator and doppelganger brand images promoted by other stakeholders. Each contestation addresses an enduring contradiction between nature and technology. A four-step brand image revitalization process is offered that can be applied either by managers interested in fostering an innovation's congruence with prevailing social norms and ideals or by other stakeholders (e.g., activists, competitors) interested in undermining its marketing success. The findings integrate previously disparate research streams on branding and market creation and provide managers with the conceptual tools for sustaining a branded innovation's legitimacy over time.
TL;DR: The authors found that incongruence between the actual COO and implied COO decreases purchase likelihood asymmetrically in both developed and emerging countries, and that it has little effect in utilitarian categories.
Abstract: Foreign branding—or using brand names that evoke foreign associations through, for example, spelling a brand name in a foreign language—is a popular means in both developed and emerging countries of suggesting a specific country of origin (COO) in the hope that it will evoke certain product qualities. As a result, consumers increasingly encounter products with brand names that imply a COO that differs from the actual COO (where the product is manufactured). In four experiments, the authors find support for the hypothesis that incongruence between the actual COO and implied COO decreases purchase likelihood asymmetrically. Incongruence backfires in hedonic categories but has hardly any effect in utilitarian categories. Furthermore, incongruence decreases purchase likelihood more if the actual COO is an emerging rather than developed country. The authors address the psychological process underlying the asymmetric effect of incongruence by showing that consumers apply different information-processin...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use dyadic field data from marketing managers and management accounting executives and extend prior work by developing and testing a more complex, contingency-based model, which shows that the relationship of comprehensiveness in a marketing performance measurement system to firm performance is conditional.
Abstract: Comprehensive performance measurement systems such as the balanced scorecard have received considerable attention in marketing. However, whether and under which circumstances comprehensiveness as a performance measurement system property is desirable and contributes to firm performance is still a subject of debate in research and practice. To address this issue, the authors use dyadic field data from marketing managers and management accounting executives and extend prior work by developing and testing a more complex, contingency-based model. The empirical results confirm the developed framework. In particular, the results show that the relationship of comprehensiveness in a marketing performance measurement system to firm performance is conditional. Marketing alignment and market-based knowledge mediate this relationship, depending on marketing strategy, marketing complexity, and market dynamism. These insights explain mixed findings of previous research and provide important implications for re...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine factors that may facilitate or inhibit information and resource sharing across alliances and thus influence the realization of any benefit of portfolio resource diversity, and identify various factors along three dimensions, including the composition of an alliance portfolio, alliance management, and the market environment, that moderate the relationship between alliance p...
Abstract: As interfirm collaboration plays an increasingly important role in firm innovation, many firms are engaged in multiple partnerships, forming portfolios of alliances. Research in marketing has predominantly focused on dyadic relationships without considering the important interdependencies among different alliances. This study takes a portfolio approach to examine the resource diversity of multiple alliance partners and its contribution to firm innovation. The authors argue that resource diversity in an alliance portfolio can only benefit innovation when resources and information are shared across alliances. They examine factors that may facilitate or inhibit information and resource sharing across alliances and thus influence the realization of any benefit of portfolio resource diversity. The model identifies various factors along three dimensions, including the composition of an alliance portfolio, alliance management, and the market environment, that moderate the relationship between alliance p...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine service sweethearting, an illicit behavior that costs firms billions of dollars annually in lost revenues, and reveal that a variety of job, social, and remuneration factors motivate service sweethearing behavior and several measurable employee traits suppress its frequency.
Abstract: This research is the first to examine service sweethearting, an illicit behavior that costs firms billions of dollars annually in lost revenues. Sweethearting occurs when frontline workers give unauthorized free or discounted goods and services to customer conspirators. The authors gather dyadic data from 171 service employees and 610 of their customers. The results from the employee data reveal that a variety of job, social, and remuneration factors motivate sweethearting behavior and several measurable employee traits suppress its frequency. The results from the customer data indicate that although sweethearting inflates a firm's satisfaction, loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth scores by as much as 9%, satisfaction with the confederate employee fully mediates these effects. Thus, any benefits for customer satisfaction or loyalty initiatives are tied to a frontline worker that the firm would rather not employ. Marketing managers can use this study to recognize job applicants or company settings...
TL;DR: The authors compare the normative assumptions about customers that underlie equity-based return shipping policies with the more realistic, positivist expectations as predicted by attribution, equity, and regret theories, finding that customers who paid for their own return decreased their post-return spending at a retailer 75% to 100% by the end of two years.
Abstract: To limit costs associated with product returns, some online retailers have instituted equity-based return shipping policies, requiring customers to pay to return products when retailers determine that customers are at fault. The authors compare the normative assumptions about customers that underlie equity-based return shipping policies with the more realistic, positivist expectations as predicted by attribution, equity, and regret theories. Two longitudinal field studies over four years using two surveys and actual customer spending data indicate that retailer confidence in those normative assumptions is unjustified. Contrary to retailer assumptions, neither the positive consequences of free returns nor the negative consequences of fee returns were reversed when customer perceptions of fairness were taken into account. Depending on the locus and extent of blame, customers who paid for their own return decreased their postreturn spending at that retailer 75%–100% by the end of two years. In contr...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine whether and how third-party product reviews of new products influence the financial value of firms introducing the products and find that the impact exists only for prerelease reviews and is strongest on the product release date, though it disappears when sales information becomes available after product release.
Abstract: Third-party product reviews (TPRs) have become ubiquitous in many industries. Aided by communication technologies, particularly on the Internet, TPRs are widely available to consumers, managers, and investors. The authors examine whether and how TPRs of new products influence the financial value of firms introducing the products. An event study covering 14 major media and professional reviews of movies released by 21 studios shows that TPRs exert significant impact on stock returns in the direction of their valence. However, the impact comes from the valence of a review that is measured relative to other, previously published reviews and not from the absolute valence of the review itself. The authors further study the dynamics of TPR impact on firm value and find that the impact exists only for prerelease reviews and is the strongest on the product release date, though it disappears when sales information becomes available after product release. These results demonstrate that TPRs play significan...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate whether and to what extent, marketing conduct varies over the business cycle and how this contributes to the growing popularity of private labels, and they examine a unique data set that combines a broad set of seven marketing-mix instruments with private-label share, using two decades' worth of data for 106 consumer packaged goods categories.
Abstract: The authors investigate whether, and to what extent, marketing conduct varies over the business cycle and how this contributes to the growing popularity of private labels. To address this issue, they examine a unique data set that combines a broad set of seven marketing-mix instruments with private-label share, using two decades' worth of data for 106 consumer packaged goods categories in the United States. The results show that private-label share behaves countercyclically and that part of the boost in private-label share during contractions is permanent. Retailers' observed practice of supporting their own labels in contraction periods while cutting back in expansion periods helps this cyclical sensitivity even further. In addition, national brands' procyclical behavior in terms of (1) major new product introductions, (2) advertising, and (3) their promotional pressure compared with private labels is associated with more pronounced cyclical fluctuations in private-label share and even with perm...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose service productivity as a strategic decision variable and develop a theory of optimal service productivity that explains when the optimal productivity level will be higher or lower and distinguishes between short-term effects of service productivity due to labor-automation trade-offs and longterm effects due to the advance of technology.
Abstract: To increase service productivity, many companies utilize automation extensively to reduce the use of labor. However, greater use of automation does not always result in higher service quality, and the effectiveness of automation in providing service hinges on how advanced the technology level is. Departing from the standard perspective in which productivity is simply treated as an output measure of firm performance, the authors propose service productivity as a strategic decision variable; that is, the firm manages the service productivity level to maximize profits. They develop a theory of optimal service productivity that explains when the optimal productivity level will be higher or lower and distinguishes between short-term effects of service productivity due to labor–automation trade-offs and long-term effects due to the advance of technology. The theory, together with the existing literature, inspires the development of three testable empirical hypotheses, which are confirmed using data fro...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce a generalizable and robust structure of abstract brand concepts as representations of human values, and demonstrate that this proposed structure is particularly useful for predicting brand meanings that are compatible (vs. incompatible) with each other and, consequently, more favorably accepted by consumers when added to an already established brand concept.
Abstract: Global brands are faced with the challenge of conveying concepts that not only are consistent across borders but also resonate with consumers of different cultures. Building on prior research indicating that abstract brand concepts induce more favorable consumer responses than functional attributes, the authors introduce a generalizable and robust structure of abstract brand concepts as representations of human values. Using three empirical studies conducted with respondents from eight countries, they demonstrate that this proposed structure is particularly useful for predicting (1) brand meanings that are compatible (vs. incompatible) with each other and, consequently, more (less) favorably accepted by consumers when added to an already established brand concept; (2) brand concepts that are more likely to resonate with consumers with differing cultural orientations; and (3) consumers' responses to attempts to imbue an established brand concept with new, (in)compatible abstract meanings as a func...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine whether work stress causes a depletion effect, such that high work stress undermines service employees' performance on tasks requiring self-regulation (e.g., customer complaint handling performance) versus tasks requiring limited selfregulation, and whether the depletion effect can be overcome by supervisory support or employees' engagement in perspective taking.
Abstract: This research delineates and empirically tests how regulatory depletion may affect high-stress employees' service performance on different types of job tasks. Using a laboratory experiment and a survey study, the authors examine (1) whether work stress causes a depletion effect, such that high work stress undermines service employees' performance on tasks requiring self-regulation (e.g., customer complaint handling performance) versus tasks requiring limited self-regulation (e.g., customer-directed extra-role performance); (2) whether the depletion effect can be overcome by supervisory support or employees' engagement in perspective taking; and (3) how these moderating effects might be mediated by employees' feelings of fatigue and intrinsic job motivation. The results confirm regulatory depletion: High-stress employees feel more fatigue and perform more poorly than low-stress employees in tasks requiring self-regulation. However, the depletion effect from work stress is largely attenuated on emp...