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Although academic research has provided tremendous insights about the organizational form of franchising, considerable work remains with regard to understanding the critical factors that enable international franchise expansion and performance. [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.06.006 Byline: Rajesh Chandrashekaran (a), Dhruv Grewal (b) Keywords: Internal reference price; Comparative price advertising; Saving presentation format Abstract: This study investigates how consumers utilize an advertised reference price and the posted sale price (SP) as anchors to adjust their internal reference prices (IRP). As expected, the effect of SP on IRP depends on the magnitude and direction of deviation from the IRP. When the posted SP exceeds IRP, it exerts an upward pressure on IRP, whereas when it falls below IRP, it has a negative impact. Consistent with prior research, consumers rely at least partially on the advertised reference price to adjust their IRP. The saving presentation format also moderates the effects of gains and losses on IRP but does not influence offer evaluation directly. Results suggest that retailers can enhance evaluations directly by pricing their products appropriately relative to consumers' IRP and indirectly through the choice of saving presentation format. Author Affiliation: (a) Silberman College of Business, H-DK2-06, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1000 River Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666, United States (b) Division of Marketing, Babson College, Babson Park, MA, United States Article History: Received 21 October 2004; Accepted 2 June 2006

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2005.10.005 Byline: Katherine E. Harris (a), Dhruv Grewal (a), Lois A. Mohr (b), Kenneth L. Bernhardt (b) Keywords: Service failure; Recovery; Electronic commerce; Satisfaction; Postpurchase intentions Abstract: In this article, we examine consumer reactions to two service recovery strategies: fixing the service failure for a fee and fixing the service failure for no fee and adding compensation. We expect that the more desirable recovery strategy will result in higher levels of satisfaction and higher postpurchase intentions. However, the effect of these recovery strategies on consumers' reactions is likely to be moderated by the setting (online versus offline). The empirical results support our predictions that the effect of the service failure recovery on satisfaction and postpurchase intentions would be stronger in offline media than in online media. Managerial implications thus are presented. Author Affiliation: (a) Babson College, Marketing Division, Babson Park, MA 02457-0310, United States (b) Georgia State University, Department of Marketing, University Plaza, Atlanta, GA 30303-3083, United States Article History: Received 31 December 2004; Accepted 14 October 2005

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2005.02.001 Byline: Monika Kukar-Kinney (a), Dhruv Grewal (b) Keywords: Price-matching; Low price guarantees; Retailing; Service quality; Refund policy Abstract: The authors examine the process to determine the likelihood that a consumer will claim a price-matching refund when he or she identifies a lower competitive price after the purchase. They conduct a laboratory experiment in which the retail channel (Internet or bricks-and-mortar), store reputation, and presence of a price-matching refund policy are manipulated. These variables affect the perceived difficulty of claiming the price-matching refund, the perceived service quality, the perceived likelihood of receiving the refund if requested, and through them, consumer willingness to claim the refund. The authors discuss the managerial implications of the findings. Author Affiliation: (a) Robins School of Business, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, United States (b) Division of Marketing, Babson College, Babson Park, MA, United States Article History: Received 2 September 2004; Accepted 9 February 2005

Deciphering consumers‘ sentiment expressions from big data (e.g., online reviews) has become a managerial priority to monitor product and service evaluations. However, sentiment analysis, the process of automatically distilling sentiment from text, provides little insight regarding the language granularities beyond the use of positive and negative words. Drawing on speech act theory, this study provides a fine-grained analysis of the implicit and explicit language used by consumers to express sentiment in text. An empirical text-mining study using more than 45,000 consumer reviews demonstrates the differential impacts of activation levels (e.g., tentative language), implicit sentiment expressions (e.g., commissive language), and discourse patterns (e.g., incoherence) on overall consumer sentiment (i.e., star ratings). In two follow-up studies, we demonstrate that these speech act features also influence the readers‘ behavior and are generalizable to other social media contexts, such as Twitter and Facebook. We contribute to research on consumer sentiment analysis by offering a more nuanced understanding of consumer sentiments and their implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different inherent structural and functional weaknesses of Internet retailing are described and the various strategies designed to improve the performance of e-tailers are explored. Several strategies and competencies that would enable e-tailers to withstand the competitive onslaught of online manufacturers and hybrid format stores are suggested.

Employee courtesy is recognized as an important dimension of customer service. This paper presents and tests a model suggesting that employee courtesy affects attitudes toward a service firm. Employee courtesy, the physical environment, and locus of causality are three important elements of a service experience that might affect attitude toward a service firm. The paper reports results of two experiments that found there was an interaction effect between employee courtesy and the physical environment on attitude toward the service firm. That is, the effect of employee courtesy on attitudes is more positive when the environment is evaluated favorably than when it is evaluated unfavorably. However, there were no interaction effects of locus of causality and courtesy on attitude toward the service firm. In the second study, there was a main effect from locus of causality on attitude toward the firm in that experiment. That is, participants with an internal locus of causality had a more favorable attitude toward the service firm than did participants with an external locus of causality.

Consumer preferences are not only motivated by various emotional factors, but are influenced by a number of cognitive responses, as well. It was proven that a consumer's quality perception for a particular product or service is strongly determined by intrinsic characteristics, such as tolerance and high value of raw materials, and extrinsic factors including product warranty and workmanship. These sensory cues, which are crucial in determining the nature of emotional response exhibited by consumers, may be analyzed effectively through the use of a multi-dimensional conceptual model.

Product warranties are issued by companies as a means of minimizing the negative emotional impact expressed by consumers as a result of product breakdowns. Survey results unveiled that consumers tend to exhibit extreme anxiety and vexation when a product wears out beyond the limits of the warranty coverage. On the other hand, product breakdowns that occur within or prior the warranty coverage tend to induce positive emotional response among consumers.

Ad format and credibility produce desirable effects on the beliefs, attitudes and purchase intentions of consumers regarding over-the-counter drugs. Direct comparative ads and ads that have high credibility are found to be associated with positive brand beliefs, brand attitudes and purchase intentions. The belief that ad credibility help moderate ad format was was invalidated by the study.