Topic
Surprise
About: Surprise is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4371 publications have been published within this topic receiving 99386 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
More filters
••
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the linkages of employee effort, employee expertise and the firm's tangibles to customer surprise and joy which in turn lead to customer delight and per cent of budget spent.
Abstract: Purpose
Historically, firms have dedicated an abundance of resources in the pursuit of customer satisfaction and its corresponding favorable consequences. However, research indicates that customer satisfaction may not necessarily result in the outcomes pursued. This paper aims to focus on the concept of customer delight and explore antecedents and consequences of interest to the service firm. More specifically, the proposed model explores the linkages of employee effort, employee expertise and the firm’s tangibles to customer surprise and joy which in turn lead to customer delight and per cent of budget spent.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a grocery store. The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results from this study yield new insights into the dual pathways leading to customer delight through joy and surprise. That is, joy and tangibles lead to both joy and surprise, whereas expertise leads to joy alone. Both joy and surprise are completely mediated through delight to per cent of budget spent. Interestingly, higher frequency customers experience a stronger relationship from joy to delight.
Research limitations/implications
The findings have implications for the ongoing debate on the viability of customer delight and extending the theoretical understanding of why customer delight represents such a powerful force in the service environment.
Practical implications
By providing specific variables that impact both joy and surprise, management can develop tactics to develop delight initiatives.
Originality/value
This is the first study proposing multiple paths to customer delight. Further, this is the first study to link needs based and disconfirmation into a single model.
58 citations
••
TL;DR: Using functional magnetic-resonance imaging in humans, it is shown that dopamine-rich midbrain regions encode shifts in beliefs whereas surprise is encoded in prefrontal regions, including the pre-supplementary motor area and dorsal cingulate cortex.
58 citations
••
TL;DR: The existence of these remarkable differences is a surprise in itself: one would have expected that the uniformity of political structure, the similarities of economy, and the impact of the same ruling ideology would have led to more "standardization" in social relations as well.
Abstract: H E C O L L A P SE of the communist regimes in East-Central Europe has revealed significant differences in the situation of women in the respective countries, differences which have been strengthened by varied economic and political developments in the region in the last two or three years. The existence of these remarkable differences is a surprise in itself: one would have expected that the uniformity of political structure, the similarities of economy, and the impact of the same ruling ideology would have led to more "standardization" in social relations as well.
58 citations
••
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use exogenous variation in independent director departures triggered by director deaths to test whether surprise independent departure causes negative outcomes or whether an anticipation of negative outcomes is responsible for the surprise departure.
Abstract: Following surprise independent director departures, affected firms have worse stock and operating performance, are more likely to restate earnings, face shareholder litigation, suffer from an extreme negative return event, and make worse mergers and acquisitions. The announcement returns to surprise director departures are negative, suggesting that the market infers bad news from surprise departures. We use exogenous variation in independent director departures triggered by director deaths to test whether surprise independent director departures cause these negative outcomes or whether an anticipation of negative outcomes is responsible for the surprise director departure. Our evidence is more consistent with the latter.
58 citations
••
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors collected suggestions for basic emotional music excerpts in the western art music repertoire through a survey that was sent to about 500 music professionals, and a total of 78 music excerpts were then tested in the listening experiments, considering emotional quality and intensity, and the topological organization of the music excerpt in the basic emotion dimensions (i.e. joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust).
Abstract: Suggestions for basic emotional music excerpts in the western art music repertoire were collected through a survey that was sent to about 500 music professionals. A total of 78 music excerpts were then tested in the listening experiments 1 (n = 44) and 2 (n = 55), considering emotional quality and intensity, and the topological organization of the music excerpts in the basic emotion dimensions (i.e. joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust) was examined using Kohonen’s neural network. The results suggest that, in general, the basic emotions can be considered as distinct emotional dimensions in music. Joy and sadness seem to be easier to express and recognize than fear, anger and surprise. The participants’ level of music education or other background factors had no effect on emotional or intensity judgments. The results also suggest that the emotional connotations in modern music are not so well established as in music that is more tonal (i.e. Baroque, Classical, and Romantic).
58 citations