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Although almost one in three U.S. households shops on a budget, it remains unclear whether and how shoppers track their in-store spending to stay within those budgets. A field study and two laboratory studies offer four key generalizations about budget shoppers in grocery stores: (1) They predominantly use mental computation strategies to track their in-store spending, (2) they adapt their mental computation strategy to the dominant range of price endings of items in their shopping baskets, (3) those who try to calculate the exact total price of their basket are less accurate than those who estimate the approximate price, and (4) motivated shoppers are less accurate than less motivated shoppers (because they tend to calculate instead of estimate the total basket price). A second field study demonstrates that shoppers who underestimate the total price of their basket are more likely to overspend, leading to negative store satisfaction. Keywords: budget shoppers, in-store spending behavior, mental computation, basket estimation, retail price setting

Existing research on price promotions typically investigates the effects of single-product promotions. However, brand managers often promote multiple items simultaneously to bolster the performance of a complete brand line. This paper investigates the brand performance implications of such multi-item promotions. We distinguish between two types of multi-item promotions: traditional, unconstrained multi-item promotions that grant a discount irrespective of the size or composition of the purchase set, and constrained multi-item promotions that require consumers to purchase specific quantities (self-bundling) or even predetermined combinations (fixed bundling) of promoted items. Using a normative consumer decision model, the authors analyze the relative effectiveness of these promotions in terms of unit sales and revenue impact and show that promotion performance is moderated by consumers’ preference for variety. The authors find that unconstrained multi-item promotions outperform single-item promotions, especially in markets without variety-seeking. In markets with variety seeking, unconstrained multi-item promotions are not as effective in stealing extra sales from competition because consumers prefer to spread their purchases across all items, including competitive ones. However, in those markets, self-bundling promotions are particularly effective because they force consumers to adopt larger amounts of the promoted items at the expense of competitors. Finally, in neither type of market does fixed bundling substantially improve promotion performance.

Although considerable research is dedicated to influence strategies and supplier development, a lack of empirical support exists of their effects on supplier satisfaction and commitment. This exploratory study aims to fill this gap by investigating first-tier suppliers in the German automotive industry. Supplier reactions to three different influence strategies and two types of supplier development efforts are examined. Results indicate that supplier commitment is affected by the use of promises and both human- and capital-specific supplier development, while supplier satisfaction is affected by indirect, other direct influence strategies and capital-specific supplier development.

Consumers' confidence in companies has fallen due to recent and widespread violations of integrity and consumers' voicing of discontent in weblog (blog) posts. Current research on integrity restoration offers little guidance regarding appropriate responses. We posit that not only what (with which content) but also how (in which format) the company responds, contributes to an effective restoration of integrity and a reduction of consumers' intentions to switch. The results of Study 1 show that the combination of denial content and analytical format as well as apologetic content and narrative format works better than combinations of opposing response content and format. Comparing narrative apologies and denials in two consecutive studies, we demonstrate that the concept of "transportation"-the engrossing effect of a narrative-is the mechanism underlying narrative-based integrity restoration. We further assess in Study 2 how the use of empathy accounts for higher levels of transportation and perceived integrity. In Study 3, we establish that a personal response by the involved employee is more effective than a response issued by the company's spokesperson. Consumers trust in stories from the involved employee. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

An increasing number of companies are setting up strategic alliances with suppliers and customers. However, the majority of these alliances do not succeed. Our aim is to understand how different behavioural characteristics are associated with alliance success. We hypothesise that alliance attributes, communication behaviour, and alliance management are predictors of cost benefits and service benefits. Furthermore, we found that while alliance attributes are related with both cost and service benefits, communication behaviour and alliance management are only associated with service and cost benefits, respectively. We also see that alliance attributes explain most of the variance of supply chain success and are thus better predictors of alliance success than other behavioural characteristics. Furthermore, we provide insight into the way managers can build up supply chain performance by setting up strategic alliances.

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how consumers cope with confusion caused by overload in information and/or choice. The paper investigates whether consumers who face different degrees of confusion use different coping strategies depending upon their decision‐making styles.Design/methodology/approach- The Dutch mobile phone market is a typical example of a turbulent market, overloaded with information and/or choice, which creates consumer confusion. A survey was conducted among 203 mobile phone users, using valid and reliable multi‐item scales to measure consumer confusion, decision‐making styles and coping strategies. Cluster analysis and Mancova were used to provide insight into the results.Findings- The paper finds that consumers of mobile phones can be characterized by combinations of decision‐making styles and find three clusters based on decision‐making styles: "price conscious and cautious" consumers, "brand‐loyal and quality‐driven" consumers, and "functionalist" consumers. Results show significant main effects of the degree of confusion and the decision‐making styles on the use of coping strategies as well as a significant interaction effect of these two. Higher levels of consumer confusion lead to an increased use of seven coping strategies: downsizing the consideration set; keeping status quo; reduced information search; search deferral; buying what others have bought; disengagement from decision; and decision delegation. "Price conscious and cautious" consumers engage less in downsizing the consideration set than the two other clusters, and are less inclined to keep the status quo as compared to "functionalist" consumers.Originality/value- Because of the intangible and heterogeneous nature of services, knowledge about coping with confusion due to an overload in information and choice is especially important for service providers in their efforts to build and sustain strong relationships with consumers. Practical implications in terms of different approaches on how to cope with confused consumers are provided.

This research examines the regulatory fit effect on perceived value and buying intentions in the context of private health insurance decisions. The so-called value-from-fit effect is assessed in conjunction with the effect of risk perceptions. Value-from-fit results from the interaction effect between regulatory focus concerns (discount vs. cost-sharing policies) and message framing (gain vs. loss). The results show that the fit effect on buying intentions is fully mediated by the perceived value of a health insurance policy and that perceived value functions as partial mediator of the effect of risk perceptions. The relative strength of the regulatory fit effect in explaining customer perceived value is small compared with the impact of perceived risk. The findings suggest that if health insurance providers wish to offer a premium discount, communicating the policy by emphasizing the benefits consumers attain from purchasing a deductible policy (i.e., getting the discount) may enhance the value of the policy. On the other hand, positioning a premium copayment policy can be more effectively done by emphasizing the costs associated with not choosing this policy.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify different information flow strategies to enhance integration in strategic alliances and studies these strategies with respect to contextual factors and the impact on performance.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines empirical data gathered from 56 manufacturing companies, describing 112 supply chain relationships. An empirical taxonomy is created based on cluster analysis.FindingsBased on a parsimonious description of inter‐firm information flows in the literature and this paper's empirical findings, three types of alliances are identified: Silent; Communicative; and IT intensive. While Silent alliances have the poorest overall performance, substantial similarities are found between Communicative and IT intensive alliances. In particular, the analysis suggests that IT intensive alliances, albeit performing better on operational capabilities, are not performing better on relationship satisfaction compared to Communicative alliances. Additional analyses indicate that partners of an IT intensive alliance are substantially more interdependent and larger in size.Research limitations/implicationsThis research presents a taxonomy of information flow strategies in a supply chain context. This research is not describing causality, since the data are not longitudinal in nature.Practical implicationsManagers need to selectively invest in IT according to an overall supply chain integration strategy, which also takes softer, less technological forms of integration into consideration.Originality/valueThis research provides insight into inter‐firm information flows from a contingency perspective, recognizing heterogeneity of firms and supply chain practices.

Prior research has found that the announcement of marketing alliances tends to produce no effect on firm value creation in a high-tech context. This article reexamines this issue and investigates whether the characteristics of a firm's network of alliances affect the firm value created from the announcement of a new marketing alliance. The authors investigate whether network centrality, network density, network efficiency, network reputation, and marketing alliance capability influence firm value creation. They examine this question using an event study of 230 announcements for marketing alliances in the software industry. The results indicate that, in general, marketing alliance announcements create value (i.e., abnormal stock returns) for the firm in the announcement period event window. Furthermore, network efficiency and network density have the strongest positive impact when they are moderate; network reputation and network centrality have no effect. These results point to the greater role of relational network characteristics than size-/status-based benefits. Finally, marketing alliance capability, which reflects a firm's ability to manage a network of previous marketing alliances, has a positive impact on value creation.

The last 4 decades have seen the transformation of food supply chains from being supply driven to becoming much more closely integrated with consumer demand. With this development, the transaction mechanism in food marketing channels has changed from an open-market mechanism to coordination through the use of contract-supply arrangements between farmers and food processors and retailers. In this article, we assess the interaction of marketing channel members through the use of contracts and its impact on incentives, coordination costs, risk aversion, risk allocation, and risk management strategies. For this purpose we specify a 3-stage principal-agent supply chain model involving producers, wholesalers, retailers, and a futures market. We compare the situation with and without a futures market. The empirical results regarding the dutch ware potato marketing channel during 1971 to 2003 reveal that as a result of increases in incentives to producers and wholesalers, the coordination costs of the marketing channel decreased significantly, both with and without futures trade. The coordination costs of the marketing channel in the case with a futures market appear to be lower than without futures, demonstrating the informational (i.e., price discovery) role of futures markets.

PurposeThis paper aims to uncover the specific difficulties associated with buying services and proposes a structured purchasing process which can help organisational buyers to overcome the problems associated with services purchasing.Design/methodology/approachThe authors investigate the supposed differences between goods and services procurement by means of literature research and a questionnaire distributed among Dutch purchasing managers. Additionally, they draw on experiences from additional case study research and business practice to better understand the results of the survey and to further explore the actual process of buying services.FindingsThe results of the literature review and the survey show that developing a proper specification is an important prerequisite for purchasing services successfully. Based on these findings, an expansion to the traditional purchasing process is proposed which incorporates the steps of pre‐selecting suppliers and detailing the initial specification.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey is limited to The Netherlands. Furthermore, the questions in the survey consider the respondent's perception and not the “truth”.Practical implicationsFor organisational buyers, the importance of a proper specification implies that they should involve service providers early on in the service purchasing process. The service providers consequently can exercise the appropriate resources to develop a high quality solution, but need to be able to demonstrate this added value in these early phases of the services purchasing process.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the discussion on buying services and tries to find out why this is perceived as complicated. It highlights three problem areas and proposes a solution to tackle these.

Understanding proenvironmental consumption behavior may enable companies to establish reputational and competitive advantages. This study generates new insights by analyzing consumer-related factors related to distinct but connected package-related behaviors regarding beverage consumption: purchase and postconsumption disposal. An online survey among 176 German respondents provides empirical support for all but one hypothesis. The results suggest that eco-friendly purchase and disposal decisions for beverages are related to the environmental awareness of consumers and their eco-friendly attitude. Furthermore, consumers are willing to trade off almost all product attributes in favor of environmentally friendly packaging of beverages, except for taste and price. The nonsupported hypothesis pertains to the expectation that believing in the positive effects of own eco-friendly disposal actions will guide ecological disposal behavior. Perceived behavioral control may thus not translate into actual disposal behavior. Underlying this may be the belief that individual actions are not enough to contribute to a greener world.

Firms increasingly offer customers the opportunity to coproduce self-service using online technologies. This requires novice customers to adopt a new role and engage in information search. This is particularly challenging in complex, high-risk services, such as online investment trading. Actively managing customers' task-specific self-confidence, or self-efficacy, in these types of technology-based self-service (TBSS) may convert novice customers into regular users and thereby increase return on investments. The authors show that self-efficacy increases novice customers' financial performance perceptions, service value evaluations, and future usage intentions. During online information search, novices focus on credibility and argument quality cues to determine their self-efficacy. The effects differ across information sources; third-party credibility and firm argument quality are most influential. Moreover, when consumers are highly engaged in their self-service role, the impact of credibility is strengthened, whereas that of argument quality is attenuated.

The boom in online marketing research represents one of the fastest-growing segments of the research industry. Although the design and quality of online surveys has received widespread attention, little empirical research compares the effectiveness of online and offline qualitative research techniques. Therefore, this research compares offline focus groups, online focus groups and e-Delphi with respect to depth, breadth, efficiency, group dynamics, non-verbal impressions and attitudes of respondents. Results show that offline focus group results have the highest depth and breadth, and are most efficient, leading to high-quality outcomes. However, e-Delphi discussions provide very elaborate and relatively deep outcomes that give a good impression of respondents’ feelings and attitudes. Results from online focus groups remain rather superficial, but experts value the spontaneous reactions and interactiveness, and consider online focus groups very efficient.

This article examines the impact of private self-awareness on consumer decision making. In four studies, the authors show that the ease of preference formation accompanying private self-awareness makes people more willing and able to rely on their personal preference weights. As the authors predict, privately self-aware consumers are less inclined to opt for a varied choice set (Study 1) and less likely to select compromise options (Studies 2 and 3), unless it is too difficult for them to construct their personal preferences (Study 4). ispartof: Journal of marketing research vol:46 issue:5 pages:682-692 status: published

PurposeAlthough research is emerging, the knowledge base on the evaluative determinants of the effectiveness of corporate employment web sites is still limited. This paper attempts to narrow this gap by investigating how potential job applicants' evaluations of web site content‐ and form‐related attributes contribute to corporate employment web site effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe approach takes the form of an empirical study using PLS path modeling.FindingsApplicants' attitude toward a corporate employment web site is found to be differentially influenced by the web site's content‐ and form‐related evaluations. In turn, attitude toward the web site influences intentions to apply. This relationship is fully mediated by attraction toward the organization. The latter is also influenced by attitude toward corporate employment web sites in general, which consequently contributes indirectly to application intentions.Research limitations/implicationsUsing a non‐laboratory setting and a broader sample, future research should further apply a person‐organization fit perspective to corporate online recruitment and investigate effects of personality‐related factors such as risk/security‐seeking tendencies. Furthermore, it may be worthwhile to include technology‐oriented variables such as technological self‐efficacy as well.Practical implicationsCorporate employment web sites used to inform potential applicants about employment opportunities should be easy to use. In addition, firms should provide applicants with updated information and make sure that the information provided matches the applicants' needs during their information search process.. Persons who hold a more favorable overall predisposition toward corporate employment web sites are more attracted toward an organization using such sites. This suggests that corporate employment web sites may be particularly effective for certain groups of applicants, beyond the effects of web site content and form.Originality/valueDrawing on literature in areas such as job applicant decision making, information systems, and web site effectiveness, the paper develops the understanding of the role of web site features in determining intentions to apply for a job via corporate employment web sites.

Vertical line extensions extend an established brand to products at different price/quality points. In this study, we examine consumer evaluations of vertical service line extensions and the feedback effects of these extensions on the parent brand. Findings of two empirical studies in the hotel industry indicate that consumers perceive higher risks in step-up extensions than in step-down extensions, which consequently influences their evaluations of the extensions. This effect of extension direction is also found to be moderated by risk relievers such as service guarantee and consumers’ prior knowledge in the service category. Furthermore, we found that a parent brand receives more positive evaluations after the introduction of a step-up extension than that of a step-down extension.

Marketers cultivate brand relatedness in their brand portfolios to increase marketing efficiency through positive spillover of brand equity. However, creating linkages between brands may also make them vulnerable to negative spillover. This research investigates the structure of relatedness in a brand portfolio to understand the nature of spillover effects. The results of two experiments show that the magnitude of spillover between brands is a function of not only the strength of brand associations but also their directionality. The results also show that the directional strength of association is influenced by the number and salience of associations linked to each brand. The authors draw implications for a theoretical understanding of spillover effects in marketing, as well as for the management of brand portfolios.

This paper examines a range of coercive strategies used by dominant suppliers in both gas and electricity utility markets serving the Netherlands. The conditions are explored under which specific influence strategies are utilized. A dyadic-based interview approach generated several new insights. Contrary to prevailing views in the literature, our study indicates that dominant suppliers are not concerned about the negative effects of coercive strategies. We observe that dominant suppliers use a succession of influence strategies, which they consider effective in achieving compliance and cooperation from buyers. Dominant suppliers only recognize compliance or non-compliance of buyers to the use of coercive influence strategies, whereas buyers emphasize that they also show partial and delayed compliance. Recommendations for buyers and suppliers and suggestions for further research are provided.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the linkage between self‐managing team (SMT) member perceptions of collective efficacy and customer‐perceived service quality, and the most cost‐efficient way to reliably assess collective efficacy and customer‐perceived service quality, using generalizability theory (G‐theory).Design/methodology/approachLongitudinal design; employee and customer survey data from 52 teams of a major financial services institution were collected at two points in time.FindingsFirst of all, results of OLS regression analysis show a positive effect of collective efficacy on customer‐perceived service quality. In addition, taking a G‐theory approach, the results indicate that collective efficacy possesses a higher psychometric quality than customer‐perceived service quality and that the costs of reliably comparing SMTs on collective efficacy are considerably lower compared to customer‐perceived service quality. Finally, for both constructs, the results reveal subtle but relevant differences in psychometric quality and costs of data collection across different types of service (routine versus non‐routine) settings.Practical implicationsTo begin with, as a linkage construct, collective efficacy provides managers a mechanism for team intervention by means of task‐focused team building, role‐play exercises, and using feedback to increase service employee confidence. Secondly, when deciding to use survey data as one means to compare performance of organizational units, managers should first determine to what extent the distinct measurement design facets (e.g. items, persons, and occasions) account for variance in measures and sample correspondingly to save money on data collection. In doing so, they should explicitly take into account the type of service context and type of respondent.Originality/valueThis study identifies collective efficacy and customer‐perceived service quality as a set of service SMT performance measures that meaningfully connects employee and customer perceptions at the group level. Secondly, a G‐theory approach was used to assess the psychometric quality of these two measures and how data collection costs can be minimized to achieve a desired level of generalizability.

Marketing academics and practitioners frequently employ cross-sectional surveys. In recent years, editors, reviewers, and authors have expressed increasing concern about the validity of this approach. These validity concerns center on reducing common method variance bias and enhancing causal inferences. Longitudinal data collection is commonly offered as a solution to these problems. In this article, the authors conceptually examine the role of longitudinal surveys in addressing these validity concerns. Then, they provide an illustrative comparison of the validity of cross-sectional versus longitudinal surveys using two data sets and a Monte Carlo simulation. The conceptualization and findings suggest that under certain conditions, the results from cross-sectional data exhibit validity comparable to the results obtained from longitudinal data. This article concludes by offering a set of guidelines to assist researchers in deciding whether to employ a longitudinal survey approach.

In this paper we investigate a vehicle routing problem motivated by a real-world application in cooperation with the german automobile association (adac). The general task is to assign service requests to service units and to plan tours for the units such as to minimize the overall cost. The characteristics of this large-scale problem due to the data volume involve strict real-time requirements. We show that the problem of finding a feasible dispatch for service units starting at their current position and serving at most k requests is np-complete for each fixed k = 2. We also present a polynomial time (2k - 1)-approximation algorithm, where again k denotes the maximal number of requests served by a single service unit. For the boundary case when k equals the total number |e| of requests (and thus there are no limitations on the tour length), we provide a (2-1|e| ) (2-1|e|){\left(2-\frac{1}{|e|} \right)}-approximation. Finally, we extend our approximation results to include linear and quadratic lateness costs.

PurposeBrand communities may manifest the ultimate degree of connectedness between a consumer and a brand. Research typically approaches such communities as collections of highly homogenous members but generally fails to recognize them as individual persons with their own idiosyncratic backgrounds and reasons to join the community. This article aims to explore whether a community population can be meaningfully segmented on the basis of different motivations to join.Design/methodology/approachInformation from two communities is collected, following the customer‐centric model of brand community of McAlexander et al.. The relationship variables in this model are used as a segmentation basis in cluster analysis to identify various segments. Different kind of motivations can be identified with the relationship variables of the McAlexander et al. model.FindingsMultiple segments based on different consumption motivations exist. Two investigated communities show significant overlap in the identified segments. Furthermore, the findings suggest that segments evolve in relation to the lifecycle stage of the community.Practical implicationsSegmentation is important for fine‐tuning marketing efforts, particularly for brand communities. Members of communities share dedication to the brand but are heterogeneous in many respects.Originality/valueTreating a brand community as a marketing tool requires an understanding of the composition of its population. This study explores how to achieve this understanding and links community characteristics to theoretical concepts surrounding consumer behaviour.

Producers have a wide variety of risk management instruments available, making their choice(s) complex. The way producers deal with this complexity can vary and may influence the impact that the determinants, such as risk aversion, have on their choices. A recently developed choice bracketing framework recognizes that producers are unable to evaluate all alternatives simultaneously and that to manage a complex task, they often group or bracket individual alternatives and their consequences together in choice sets. Data on 1,105 U.S. producers show that producers do not use all available combinations of risk management tools and that the influence of the determinants of producer’s risk management decisions are not necessarily the same across risk management strategies within and across bracketing levels. The findings may help resolve puzzling results on the role that well-known determinants of risk management behavior have on producers’ choices, extending knowledge on producers’ risk management behavior. Further, the findings have managerial implications for policy makers and agribusiness companies that provide risk management services. [EconLit citations: M000, G1000, Q130] � c 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

In this paper, the authors propose that psychological safety, a sense of interpersonal trust and being valued in a work team, is an important determinant of groupware technology adoption in an educational setting. They develop and test a model of antecedents and consequences of psychological safety. Data were collected from 361 university students, organized in 36 teams. Results of multi-level regression analysis reveal positive individual-level effects of perceived tutor support and perceived peer support on psychological safety. Furthermore, our findings show a positive unique group-level effect of perceived tutor support on psychological safety, where an individual’s level of self-consciousness strengthens this positive impact. In addition, findings of structural equation modeling demonstrate that both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use partially mediate the positive effect of psychological safety on groupware usage. Psychological safety also shows a positive direct effect on groupware usage. Finally, a student’s offline communication frequency with his tutor and peers appears to strengthen the impact of psychological safety on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and groupware usage.

Firm-hosted commercial online communities, in which customers interact to solve each other's service problems, represent a fascinating context to study the motivations of collective action in the form of knowledge contribution to the community. We extend a model of social capital based on Wasko and Faraj (2005) to incorporate and contrast the direct impact of commitment to both the online community and the host firm, as well as reciprocity, on quality and quantity of knowledge contribution. In addition, we examine the moderating influence of three individual attributes that are particularly relevant to the firm-hosted community context: perceived informational value, sportsmanship, and online interaction propensity. We empirically test our framework using self-reported and objective data from 203 members of a firm-hosted technical support community. In addition to several interesting moderating effects, we find that a customer's online interaction propensity, commitment to the community, and the informational value s/he perceives in the community are the strongest drivers of knowledge contribution.

Service recovery research remains conflicted in its understanding of consumers' recovery expectations and of why similar goods or service failures may lead to different recovery expectations. The authors argue that this conflict results from the assumption that consumer recovery expectations are monolithic and largely homogeneous, driven mainly by behavioral, relational, or contextual stimuli. Instead, recovery scenarios involving high-involvement (i.e., self-relevant) goods and service failures may activate closely held, identity-related cultural models that, though ultimately applied to regain balance (a foundational schema), differ according to their sociocultural heritage and create a range of unique consumer recovery preferences. The authors empirically identify three embodied cultural models—relational, oppositional, and utilitarian—that consumers apply to goods or service failures. Furthermore, the authors discuss implications for service recovery research and services marketing practice and introduce adaptive service recovery diagnostics that enable providers to identify and respond to consumers' varying recovery preferences.

Multi-channel retailers that utilize an e-CRM approach stand to benefit in multiple arenas by providing targeted customer service as well as gaining operational and competitive advantages. To that end, it is inherent that multi-channel retailers better understand how satisfaction—a necessary condition for building customer loyalty—influences consumers’ decisions to shop in one retail channel or another. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of shopping experience on customers’ future purchase intentions, both for the retailer and for the channel. Using a controlled experimental design, U.S. and European subjects responded to a series of questions regarding the likelihood making a future purchase following either a positive or nega-tive shopping encounter. Results suggest that shopping intentions vary based on the shopping channel as well as cultural differences.

Research on traditional store shelf effects has shown that a product’s absolute and relative shelf position may strongly affect consumer choices. In this paper, we examine whether such shelf effects are still at play in an online grocery store. While traditional ‘eye-level’ placement is no longer predominant, we find that a product’s choice probability increases when presented on the first screen or located near focal (highly-preferred) items. Our results further demonstrate that these primacy and proximity effects depend on assortment size and composition. Larger and more difficult to process assortments complicate the choice process, thereby stimulating the use of shelf-based simplifying choice heuristics.

Many suppliers invest heavily in channel partner programs that incentivize selling and learning. The authors conduct a multi-wave field study to investigate the roles of indebtedness and gratitude in transforming these investments into returns. The results show that indebtedness has negative effects on commitment to the supplier, as well as the reseller's sales effort. Gratitude however attenuates the effects of indebtedness on sales effort and commitment, and thus offers a buffer against indebtedness’ negative effects. Indebtedness and gratitude thus play key roles in channel partner programs. In addition, the results highlight the importance of perceived motives as they differentially predict these two states. Benevolent motives are found to increase gratitude, though ulterior motives do not detract from it. Ulterior motives do however increase indebtedness. Finally, the results also reveal how entitlement negatively impacts channel partner programs: It decreases the positive effect of perceived program value on partner gratitude while increasing the effect of ulterior motives on indebtedness. This study thus assesses the simultaneous yet contrasting role of gratitude and indebtedness, as well as the complexity associated with realizing the full benefits of channel partner programs. The findings have implications for suppliers, marketers, and further research.Data source: Data dissertation J. Pelser, Maastricht University (supervisors Ko de Ruyter, Martin Wetzels and Dhruv Grewal)

Hoewel de interesse in slimme winkelwagens groeit, maken zowel retailers als consumentenbelangengroepen zich zorgen over hoe realtime bestedingsfeedback tijdens het winkelen het aankoopgedrag van klanten beïnvloedt. Voortbouwend op theorieën omtrent budgetteren, bestedingen, en beslis- en winkelgedrag laten de auteurs middels een veldexperiment, uitgevoerd in een fysieke supermarkt, zien dat realtime bestedingsfeedback een unieke invloed heeft op de bestedingen van personen die winkelen met een beperkt budget ("budget" shoppers) versus personen die winkelen zonder budget beperkingen ("nonbudget" shoppers). Realtime bestedingsfeedback stimuleert budget shoppers om meer te besteden (door meer A-merken te kopen). Daarentegen zorgt deze feedback er voor dat nonbudget shoppers minder besteden (door het vervangen van A-merken door huismerken). Bovendien zorgen slimme winkelwagens voor een stijging van budget shoppers’ intenties om de winkel opnieuw te bezoeken, terwijl deze intenties stabiel blijven voor nonbudget shoppers. Deze bevindingen onderstrepen de fundamentele onontgonnen verschillen tussen budget en nonbudget shoppers. Bovendien hebben ze belangrijke implicaties voor zowel fysieke en online retailers, evenals voor app-ontwikkelaars. No data source used

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In dit artikel wordt de merkbeleving van een stad/regio onderzocht bij ex-inwoners van een woonplaats. Als iemand verhuist en een woonplaats verlaat, wil dit niet zeggen dat deze persoon de oude woonplaats niet meer belangrijk vindt. Ex-inwoners kunnen zich, ook als ze niet meer in een stad of regio wonen, nog steeds identificeren met deze plaats. Een verhuizing is een belangrijke gebeurtenis die vraagt om verwerking. Verwerking na een verhuizing en de rol van identificatie -in de fase na ontbinding van een relatie met een plaats- wordt in deze studie onderzocht. De resultaten laten zien dat identificatie er voor zorgt dat ex-inwoners terugkeerintentie laten zien ten opzichte van een plaats en dat ze positieve mond tot mond reclame over de oude woonplaats verspreiden. Verwerking speelt een minder grote rol. Waarschijnlijk vindt verwerking al gedeeltelijk plaats voor de verhuizing. De resultaten van deze studie dragen bij aan het vaak gecompliceerde en nog weinig onderzochte proces van vermarkten van een plaats of stad.

Users spend a significant amount of time broadcasting their thoughts and experiences through social media. But we know little about how sharing information online affects the individuals who post information. In this dissertation, this research gap is confronted by studying positive and negative consequences of sharing information online. One of the findings is that the act of writing reviews may foster self-reflection and personal development, however in some circumstances it may also cause reviewers to behave impulsively. Sharing information may make users feel vulnerable particularly when this information is used by firms to provide personalized services without their consent.

Retailers gather data about customers' online behavior to develop personalized service offers. Greater personalization typically increases service relevance and customer adoption, but paradoxically, it also may increase customers' sense of vulnerability and lower adoption rates. To demonstrate this contradiction, an exploratory field study on Facebook and secondary data about a personalized advertising campaign indicate sharp drops in click-through rates when customers realize their personal information has been collected without their consent. To investigate the personalization paradox, this study uses three experiments that confirm a firm's strategy for collecting information from social media websites is a crucial determinant of how customers react to online personalized advertising. When firms engage in overt information collection, participants exhibit greater click-through intentions in response to more personalized advertisements, in contrast with their reactions when firms collect information covertly. This effect reflects the feelings of vulnerability that consumers experience when firms undertake covert information collection strategies. Trust-building marketing strategies that transfer trust from another website or signal trust with informational cues can offset this negative effect. These studies help unravel the personalization paradox by explicating the role of information collection and its impact on vulnerability and click-through rates.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to craft a future research agenda to advance smart service research and practice. Smart services are delivered to or via intelligent objects that feature awareness and connectivity. For service researchers and managers, one of the most fascinating aspects of smart service provision is that the connected object is able to sense its own condition and its surroundings and thus allows for real-time data collection, continuous communication and interactive feedback. Design/methodology/approach – This article is based on discussions in the workshop on “Fresh perspectives on technology in service” at the International Network of Service Researchers on September 26, 2014 at CTF, Karlstad, Sweden. The paper summarizes the discussion on smart services, adds an extensive literature review, provides examples from business practice and develops a structured approach to new research avenues. Findings – We propose that smart services vary on their individual level of autonomous decision-making, visibility and embeddedness in objects and customer lives. Based on a discussion of these characteristics, we identify research avenues regarding the perception and nature of smart services, the adoption of smart services, the innovation through smart services as well as regarding the development of new business models. Originality/value – Smart services is a new emerging topic in service marketing research, their implications on organizations, customers and the service landscape have not been fully explored. We provide a fresh perspective on service research by characterizing relevant aspects of smart service that will stimulate fruitful future research and advance the understanding and practice of smart services.

It is not easy to encourage environmentally-friendly behaviour. This is largely due to the personal disadvantages in the short term outweighing the collective advantages in the long term. Creating a strong sense of environmental responsibility can help to encourage environmentally-friendly behaviour, otherwise known as environmental stewardship. This dissertation found that branch managers play a key role in creating environmental stewardship among retailers and explains how this leads to environmentally-friendly sales. It is also possible to encourage environmental stewardship among consumers by stressing an affinity with future generations and by drawing attention to the individual influence they have on the environment.

Many businesses use virtual experience (VE) to enhance the overall customer experience, though extant research offers little guidance for how to improve consumers' VE. This study, anchored in activity theory, examines key drivers of VE and its influences on value perceptions and customer loyalty. A hierarchical model indicates that VE comprises second-order variables (i.e., social presence, social capital, flow experience, and situational involvement) and third-order variables (i.e., communal and individual experience). The results obtained from a substantive model further reveal that VE positively influences perceptions of both economic and social value and thus influences loyalty in both the real world and virtual environments. data source: Data dissertation B. Piyathasanan, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. (supervisors P. Patterson, K. de Ruyter and C. Mathies)

Recent work in behavioral finance showed how investors’ perceptions (i.e., return expectations, risk tolerance, and risk perception) affect hypothetical trading and risk-taking behavior. However, are such perceptions also capable of explaining actual trading and risktaking behavior? To answer this question, we combine monthly survey data with matching brokerage records to construct a panel dataset allowing us to simultaneously examine investor perceptions and behavior. We find that investor perceptions and changes therein are important drivers of actual trading and risk-taking behavior: Investors with higher levels of and upward revisions of return expectations are more likely to trade, have higher turnover, trade larger amounts per transaction, and use derivatives. Investors with higher levels of and upward revisions in risk tolerance are more likely to trade, have higher buy-sell ratios, use limit orders more frequently, and hold riskier portfolios. Investors with higher levels of risk perception are more likely to trade, have higher turnover, have lower buy-sell ratios, and hold riskier portfolios. Keywords: Individual investors, Investment decisions, Investor perceptions, Trading behavior, Risk-taking behavior

Data source: CBS

This article presents a review of published research on global purchasing in the period 1990-2005. We rely on 123 articles to discuss the fields' conceptual foundations and methodological approaches. We synthesize findings on the central phenomenon, its antecedents and consequences as well on the globalization process of purchasing. This review learns that the conceptual foundation of this field remains premature. Global purchasing research would benefit from a significant convergence in and formalization of its conceptual basis as well as from more explanatory and less descriptive empirical work. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article introduces the idea of moderated group chat (MGC) on the Internet. Building upon existing theory from the research stream on group dynamics, we examine the possible influence of efficacy beliefs on customer’s satisfaction with MGC. Specifically, we focus on the influence of self- and group-efficacy beliefs at multiple levels of analysis. Furthermore, we take into account a relevant aspect of MGC: the style of the facilitator. The findings support the influence of self- and group-efficacy and show that the exact nature of these influences on customer satisfaction varies across facilitator style and group-level processes.

This paper investigates the impact of an online retailer's stock-out policy on consumers' category purchase and choice decisions. We investigate three different policies: (1) stock-outs are immediately visible and there are no replacement suggestions, (2) stock-outs are only visible after purchase attempts and (3) stock-outs are immediately visible but a replacement item is suggested. Results from an online grocery shopping experiment reveal that the adopted stock-out policy has a significant impact on both decisions. Making stock-outs not immediately visible creates confusion and intensifies the consumer's loss experience, thereby reducing the tendency to buy in the category. Suggesting a replacement item, in contrast, facilitates the substitution decision and slightly reduces the purchase cancellation rate. It also substantially increases the suggested item's choice probability. Yet, this effect disappears when higher-priced - suspicious - items are suggested. Overall, these results indicate that online grocery retailers have an interest in pursuing open and convenience-oriented stock-out policies. © 2006 New York University. ispartof: Proceedings of the 34th European marketing academy vol:82 issue:3 pages:215-228 ispartof: location:Milan (Italy) status: published

In this paper we introduce Global Purchasing Strategy (GPS) as an explanatory construct of global purchasing performance. GPS is embedded in a contingent resource-based view. The construct is conceived as the driving force behind the strategy-organization alignment. GPS is conceptualized along four dimensions: the configuration of the global purchasing process, the standardization of the global purchasing process, the standardization of product-related characteristics and the standardization of the purchasing staff organization. We develop the GPS scale and test it on a sample of 151 internationally purchasing firms. The analytic results show evidence of both reliability and validity. We propose a general model of global purchasing performance with GPS as a central mediating construct. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Based on an experiment among more than 2000 students in nine culturally diverse countries, this article investigates how the cultural characteristic of uncertainty avoidance moderates the impact of valence and intensity on the effectiveness of antismoking messages. The results show that adolescents with high uncertainty avoidance respond more favorably to loss-framed advertisements than to benefit-framed advertisements, whereas the opposite holds for those with low uncertainty avoidance.

A quasi-experimental study was designed to investigate the recall effect of Short Message Service (SMS) as a complementary marketing communications instrument. An experimental group (EG) was formed, consisting of people who had called an SMS number mentioned in a car brand campaign. A control group was formed using respondents who replied on a television quiz question through SMS. For both groups unaided and aided recall for two similar car brand campaigns was recorded. In campaign 1 no SMS support was used; campaign 2 was the original SMS-supported campaign. Using an omnibus χ2 test, the data show a statistically significant effect supporting the hypothesis that SMS, as a relatively cheap complementary instrument, can boost the recall effect of an advertising campaign. Furthermore, two limitations of the study are discussed: limited control regarding respondents9 exposure to the communication campaigns and the relatively long time elapsed between exposure to the campaigns and recall measurement, which necessitate further research.