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Purpose The purpose of this research is to understand whether service robots can safeguard servicescapes from deviant consumer behaviour. Using routine activity theory, this research examines whether increasing the perceived humanness of service robots reduces customer intentions to commit deviant consumer behaviour and whether this negative relationship is mediated by perceived empathy and perceived risk of being caught. Design/methodology/approach Five hundred and fifty-three US residents responded to a hypothetical scenario that manipulated the humanness of a service agent (from self-service technology, to robot, to human employee) across seven conditions and measured the likelihood of deviant consumer behaviour, empathy towards the service robot, perceived risk of being caught and punished and negative attitudes towards robots. Findings The results indicate that replacing human service agents with different types of service robots does inadvertently reduce customer perceptions of capable guardianship (i.e. the human element that deters potential offenders from committing crimes) in the servicescape and creates conditions that allow customers to perpetrate more deviant consumer behaviour. Practical implications When investing in technology such as service robots, service providers need to consider the unintended cost of customer misbehaviour (specifically deviant consumer behaviour) in their return-on-investment assessments to optimise their asset investment decisions. Originality/value Moving beyond research on customer adoption and use, this research examines the unintended consequences that might arise when deploying service robots in a technology-infused service environment. Humanised service robots offer more guardianship than self-service technology but do not replace human employees in preventing deviant consumer behaviour, as they remain more capable of deterring customer misbehaviour.

Purpose Research into the dark side of online brand-managed communities (OBCs) and, specifically, consumer-to-consumer (C2C) conflicts within this context are scarce. This paper aims to explore the different forms of C2C conflicts in OBCs, measure their direct impact on observing consumers and brands and investigate their appropriate moderation by exclusively focusing on two actors: brands versus consumers. Design/methodology/approach This research adopts a sequential exploratory approach. First, the authors capture different forms of C2C conflict via netnographic observations of five brand-managed communities. Second, the identified forms of C2C conflict are used in an online experiment to examine their impact on OBCs’ social and commercial outcomes. Third, further two online experiments were used to assess how brand versus consumer conflict moderators impact perceived credibility and conflict de-escalation. Findings The authors uncover three prominent forms of C2C conflict based on whether conflict occurs between supporters, non-supporters or outsiders of the OBC. The authors further show that these affect consumers’ engagement behaviours and emotional responses, while brands suffer from diminished credibility and could be targets of unfavourable electronic word-of-mouth. Finally, for managing C2C conflict, the findings confirm that brands are perceived as more suitable, while under certain conditions consumers can also be viewed as appropriate moderators. Research limitations/implications This research used a range of participant self-selected brands and is limited to brand-managed (as opposed to consumer-managed) communities on Facebook. While beyond the scope of this paper, the dynamics for consumer-managed communities may differ. Practical implications This article offers guidance to marketing practitioners on the different nuances of undesirable consumer interactions in brand-managed communities on social media, their impact on customer engagement and brand perceptions and when/whether brands or consumers may be suited to moderating these. Originality/value This paper makes novel contributions to the literature on consumer (mis)behaviours and OBC management. The findings are among the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to examine the direct social and commercial consequences of C2C conflicts and to provide comparative insights into the appropriateness of two different moderators in OBCs.

Purpose This paper aims to elucidate instances whereby celebrity endorsements by social media influencers (SMIs) embedded within online consumption communities are perceived as transgressive by their fellow community members. In doing so, this study provides insights into the new challenges and considerations that such community contexts present for celebrity endorsement. Design/methodology/approach The research team conducted a longitudinal, netnographic study of the YouTube beauty community, involving an initial phase of netnographic immersion followed by an investigative netnography that examined community members’ response to celebrity endorsements by 12 SMIs within the community. Findings This study identifies five recurring celebrity endorsement transgressions, each violating an established moral responsibility within the community. The paper explores how community members attribute responsibility for transgressive endorsements and identifies consequences for both the SMI and the endorsed brand. Research limitations/implications This study focused on a single consumption community, developing a deep understanding of the distinct moral responsibilities that shape the reception of celebrity endorsements within this context. Practical implications The paper presents managerial recommendations that will aid both SMIs and brands in implementing celebrity endorsements that avoid communal perceptions of transgression. Originality/value The analysis extends prior study on celebrity endorsement by SMIs by explaining when and why SMI endorsements are likely to be perceived as transgressive by the community and providing new insights into community member responses to transgressive SMI endorsements. It also extends wider theories of celebrity endorsement by highlighting the influence of consumption community contexts upon endorsement reception and examining consumer responses to celebrity endorsements perceived as transgressive in and of themselves.

In stark contrast to traditional depictions of customers and organisational actors as functional and good natured entities, the past decade has witnessed a surge in research that explores the dark ...

Purpose The theory of double jeopardy (DJ) is shown to hold across broad ranging geographies and physical product categories. However, there is very little research appertaining to the subject within an online environment. In particular, studies that investigate the presence of DJ and the contrasting view point to DJ, namely, that of negative double jeopardy (NDJ), are lacking. This study aims to contribute to this identified research gap and examines the presence of DJ and NDJ within a product category, utilising data from Twitter. Design/methodology/approach A total of 354,676 tweets are scraped from Twitter and their sentiment analysed and allocated into positive, negative and no-opinion clusters using fuzzy c-means clustering. The sentiment is then compared to the market share of brands within the beer product category to establish whether a DJ or NDJ effect is present. Findings Data reveal an NDJ effect with regards to original tweets (i.e. tweets which have not been retweeted). That is, when analysing tweets relating to brands within a defined beer category, the authors find that larger brands suffer by having an increased negativity amongst the larger proportion of tweets associated with them. Research limitations/implications The clustering approach to analyse sentiment in Twitter data brings a new direction to analysis of such sentiment. Future consideration of different numbers of clusters may further the insights this form of analysis can bring to the DJ/NDJ phenomenon. Managerial implications discuss the uncovered practitioner’s paradox of NDJ and strategies for dealing with DJ and NDJ effects. Originality/value This study is the first to explore the presence of DJ and NDJ through the utilisation of sentiment analysis-derived data and fuzzy clustering. DJ and NDJ are under-explored constructs in the online environment. Typically, past research examines DJ and NDJ in separate and detached fashions. Thus, the study is of theoretical value because it outlines boundaries to the DJ and NDJ conditions. Second, this research is the first study to analyse the sentiment of consumer-authored tweets to explore DJ and NDJ effects. Finally, the current study offers valuable insight into the DJ and NDJ effects for practicing marketing managers.

Customer incivility toward frontline employees (FLEs) is a widespread phenomenon within tourism and hospitality industries, severely depleting the psychological resources of FLEs and delivered customer service. Drawing on the job demands-resources and conservation of resources frameworks, the current research compares the effects of the two most common forms of customer incivility on FLEs’ psychological responses and behavioral intentions (study 1). Moreover, this work explores the degree to which supervisor leadership style can mitigate the depleting effects of these two forms of customer incivility on FLEs (study 2). Findings demonstrate that FLEs’ responses to customer incivility episodes remain contingent upon supervisor’s leadership style and acknowledge that an empowering (vs. laissez-faire) leadership style can better mitigate the depleting effects of both customer incivility forms on FLEs’ role stress, rumination, retaliation and withdrawal intentions. The implications of these findings for tourism and hospitality theory and practicing managers are discussed.

Customer mistreatment of frontline employees (FLEs) is a widespread phenomenon and is detrimental to employee well-being driving increased job stress, work withdrawal, and employee incivility (Wang et al. 2011). To date, research in this field has focused on exploring the antecedents and conditions that trigger customer mistreatment of FLEs, mapping the reactions and consequences of customer mistreatment of FLEs. The role of supervisory interventions in managing the immediate impact on FLEs from such disruptive experiences has yet to be addressed, despite constituting the only proximal resource that can be enacted to help FLEs cope with in-progress episodes of customer mistreatment (Zhan et al. 2014). Drawing on the premises of the job demands–resources (JD-R) and conservation of resources (COR) frameworks, the current research employs an experimental methodology and explores how two of the most common forms of customer mistreatment toward FLEs (verbal aggression and demand for untenable service levels) affect FLEs’ psychological and behavioral reactions. In addition, the buffering effect of three supervisor leadership styles on FLEs’ psychological reactions and behavioral intentions following customer mistreatment is investigated.

This paper is the first to apply the services marketing framework of service-dominant logic (S-D logic) to enhance understanding of patient conceptualizations of value in the context of cancer health services. Using data from a case study, the findings reveal that ‘value’ is a temporal, experiential, and complex concept. Three dominant themes are identified as contributing to value creation; access to resources, quality of interactions, and resource use. Although these findings show a broad degree of support for the S-D logic framework, distinctive variations emerge from this application in a health-care context.

Conceptual and empirical studies on the impact of physical environments\ud in educational settings are lacking. In comparison, consumption\ud environments research has a rich history. In this paper we bring together\ud these two research streams to develop (Study 1) and test (Study 2) an\ud ‘Eduscape’ model of the effects of emotions and servicescape factors in\ud higher education settings. Study 1 (423 students) explores aspects of the\ud physical environment. Building on Study 1, Study 2 uses structural\ud equation modelling (209 students) to test the proposed conceptual\ud model. The results highlight that comfort, temperature/humidity, functionality/\ud design and acoustics/visual features are key in determining students’\ud pleasure within the environment. Although Study 1 highlights\ud that cleanliness/upkeep is important to students, Study 2 does not find\ud statistical support for this association. The proposed model also emphasizes\ud the links between students’ pleasure derived from the environment\ud and their satisfaction, engagement/involvement and approach behaviour.

Purpose This research employs value co-destruction as a theoretical lens to investigate the antecedents\ud of consumer showrooming behavior. Drawing on relevant literature, a research model specifying\ud showrooming dynamics from the consumer’s perspective is conceptualized and empirically tested.\ud Methodology Utilizing survey data from 275 consumers, structural equation modelling is employed\ud to assess a research model including thirteen hypotheses.\ud Findings The study findings reveal that showrooming behavior is complex and comprises differing\ud degrees of accumulative value co-destruction and value co-creation behavior across online and offline\ud channels. Specifically, consumer characteristics, channel characteristics and product characteristics\ud are shown to be associated with in-store value taking and online value co-destruction and co-creation.\ud Originality and Value Scholarly insights into the antecedents of consumer showrooming are rare. In\ud responding to calls for research, this paper represents the first empirical investigation of consumer\ud showrooming behavior utilizing the lens of value co-destruction. The study adds to academic\ud understanding of the showrooming phenomena and demonstrates that co-destructive and co-creative\ud behaviors can occur in a simultaneous, concurrent and iterative fashion. Focusing on practice, the\ud findings reveal opportunities for experience-led shopping environments.

Traditionally, studies that examine the activities of misbehaving employees and customers have done so in a separate and unrelated manner. Drawing on research that explores deviance amplifications and deviant learning, the current study aims to address this identified gap in the literature and provide empirical evidence of the linkages between perceived employee deviance and the severity of customer misbehaviour. Utilising equity, power and differential association theories, a conceptual model is forwarded comprising four hypotheses between the constructs: perceived employee service deviance; customer repatronage intent; severity of customer misbehaviour; and past customer misbehaviour. Using survey responses from 380 consumers of bars, hotels and restaurants, the empirical results offer support for the forwarded research model. The results show that customers perceiving employee misbehaviour are profoundly affected. Such experiences erode their repatronage intentions and are linked (directly and indirectly) to the severity of dysfunctional customer behaviour performed. Consumers’ past experience of misbehaviour is also found to impact the hypothesised relationships. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings and outlining directions for future research.

Introduction: Although older individuals are more prone to hypoglycaemia, it is not known if they have sufficient understanding of the risks of hypoglycaemia or the factors that predispose to it. We evaluated the effectiveness of hypoglycaemia education and examined the factors that increased susceptibility to hypoglycaemia among older people with diabetes. Methods: Forty-five patients (male/female) aged >65 years and known to have diabetes were identified through outpatient clinics at a secondary care hospital. Information relating to education received, awareness of hypoglycaemia and associated risk factors was collected using a standard questionnaire. Additionally, data regarding demographics, treatment regimes, patient attitudes, hypoglycaemic awareness and risks and barriers to self-management of diabetes was collected. Patients were categorised as low, moderate and high risk based on their responses. Independent sample t-tests and Analysis of Variance were carried out to identify factors contributing to high hypoglycaemic risk. Results: Overall, 70% of the patients reported receiving education about hypoglycaemia from health professionals and 95% of them reported good understanding of hypoglycaemia and were able to self-test. Proportion of women receiving education was, however, lower than men (52% women versus 88% men). Compared with men, women were less likely to recognise (59 versus 73%), or act appropriately to a hypoglycaemic episode (59 versus 78%). The mean number of hypoglycaemic episodes per year (41 versus 12) and the duration of hypoglycaemia (9.9 versus 6.3 min) was also greater among women compared with men. The duration of diabetes (P = 0.018), female gender, type 1 diabetes (0.002) and lack awareness of medications causing hypos (P = 0.006) were strong predictors of hypoglycaemia risk. Conclusions: There are significant gaps in education around hypoglycaemia in older people with diabetes. Women, people with longer duration and type 1 diabetes in particular, need additional attention and future educational initiatives need to address these issues.

Purpose – In this study the authors aim to explore the impact of customer misbehavior on frontline employees and managers and to elucidate the management tactics and strategies that managers employ in an attempt to minimize the impact of customer misbehavior on the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – Following a discussion of the research design and methodology employed, the findings of 88 in-depth interviews are presented. Findings – These data suggest that customer misbehavior impacts on frontline employees, managers, and managerial strategies. Three main effects of customer misbehavior on customer-contact employees are uncovered: physiological, cognitive, and attitudinal. These are connected with four main management challenges: conflicting pressures, recruitment and retention, counseling and motivation, and time expenditure. Finally, data analysis finds evidence of six main ways in which managers attempted to reduce or to alleviate harmful customer misbehavior: selective recruitment, changes to training and induction procedures, enhanced rewards, work-team design, increase counseling, and alterations to the servicescape. Practical implications – The authors recommend that practitioners undertake a misbehavior audit that explores not only the extent of customer misbehavior but also the mechanisms, systems, and procedures the organization has for identifying, recording, and attempting to minimize the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior. Originality/value – This study contributes insights into how customer-contact personnel and managers are both affected and cope with customer misbehavior. These insights are helpful for service managers faced with customer misbehavior and academicians interested in how employees respond to contemporary customers.

This research examines how people advertise themselves on Craigslist. The authors develop a framework that highlights 13 resources that heterosexual and homosexual men and women offer in Craigslist advertisements. The results reveal that many heterosexual advertisers offer and seek similar resources on Craigslist, whereas gay men primarily use Craigslist to seek and offer sex. About one-fourth of homosexual advertisers are in committed relationships. The authors build on this finding by exploring the extent to which married men use Craigslist for “hookups.” The authors show the extent to which married men solicit responses to 6 different advertisements for sexual encounters that range from safe to high risk.

This chapter presents a study of the development of the clustering methodology to data analysis, with particular attention to the analysis from a crisp environment to a fuzzy environment. An applied problem concerning service quality (using SERVQUAL) of mobile phone users, and subsequent loyalty and satisfaction forms the data set to demonstrate the clustering issue. Following details on both the crisp k-means and fuzzy c-means clustering techniques, comparable results from their analysis are shown, on a subset of data, to enable both graphical and statistical elucidation. Fuzzy c-means is then employed on the full SERVQUAL dimensions, and the established results interpreted before tested on external variables, namely the level of loyalty and satisfaction across the different clusters established.

This chapter examines the impact of pricing on company profitability and set out a framework for considering pricing more broadly within the organisation. It covers how to formulate a pricing strategy, alternative approaches to setting prices, how to implement prices in both B2C and B2B markets and discusses the infrastructure that a firm needs to be best-in-class in pricing and consider the legal framework within which pricing must operate. The principal problem with cost-based pricing is that, as an approach, it is inherently inward looking, considering only a company's costs and its own ambitions for profit. Many companies have a discount escalation structure whereby to offer bigger discounts, higher authority sign-off is required. Such controls certainly prevent major pricing mistakes, but do little to drive the best possible pricing outcomes. Pricing in B2B organisations is therefore as much about the management of internal behaviour as it is about understanding customer willingness to pay.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the associations between individual factors (personality and demographic variables) and contextual factors (servicescape and situation‐specific variables), and the motives that drive episodes of dysfunctional customer behavior.Design/methodology/approachSelf‐report data were collected from a survey of bar, hotel, and restaurant customers (n=380). Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were utilized to analyze the data.FindingsAnalysis of the data revealed three clusters of motives labelled: financial egotists, money grabbers, and ego revengers. Statistically significant differences were revealed across the personality, servicescape, and situation specific variables for each motive. However, no differences were found concerning demographic variables.Research limitations/implicationsThis research emphasizes the primacy of three customer behavior motivations. Future research might investigate the motives for dysfunctional customer behavior across different organizational contexts and the dynamics between such motivations.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study indicate that service managers can proactively control and manipulate servicescape and situation‐specific variables that relate to customer misbehavior motives.Originality/valueNo existing scholarly research has developed a data‐grounded understanding of the motivations of dysfunctional customer behaviors. Moreover, to date, no study has explored the associations between customer's motives to misbehave and personality, situation specific, servicescape, and demographic variables.

Although wide agreement exists between scholars and marketing practitioners concerning the prevalence of dysfunctional customer behaviour, to date empirical research into this phenomenon is lacking. This article aims to identify empirically grounded categories of dysfunctional customer behaviours and examine the extent to which customers' perceptions of physical servicescape environments, social facets of servicescape, and customer disaffection with service differ for each category. Based on a quantitative sample of 380 consumer perpetrators, cluster analysis reveals three clusters of dysfunctional customer behaviour forms labelled ‘petty norm infringements’, ‘felonious norm infringements’, and ‘belligerent norm infringements’. Subsequent variance analysis assesses the perceived differences between perceived physical servicescape, social servicescape, and customer disaffection for each identified form cluster. Specifically, the study findings reveal statistically significant differences between the forms of dysfunctional customer behaviour that are perpetrated across different service environments. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the study for theorists and practitioners.

The activities of misbehaving customers represent a significant problem for organizations across diverse sectors and industries. Customer misbehavior signifies behavior within the exchange setting that deliberately violates the generally accepted norms of conduct in such situations. The core aim of this study is to advance understanding of the antecedents to past customer misbehavior and examine the relationship between past misbehavior and future misbehavior intentions. Although prior studies offer insights into individual events or types of customer misbehavior, to date, empirical evidence of the antecedents to past misbehaviors and future behavioral intentions is lacking. Synthesizing literature from varied theoretical backgrounds, this study puts forth five personality-based variables (consumer alienation, Machiavellianism, sensation seeking, aggressiveness, and self-esteem) and four demographic variables (gender, income, age, and education) as antecedents to past customer misbehavior. In turn, this study reveals an association between past customer misbehavior and future misbehavior intent. Structural equation modeling procedures using a sample of 380 respondents reveals support for eight of the nine specified hypotheses. The article concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for theory and practice.

A number of recent studies argue that consumer misbehaviour is common and representative of consumer behaviour overall. Concurrently, a number of leadings scholars have found that consumers employ a number of cognitive techniques of neutralisation to justify or rationalise their behaviour. However, existing studies that explore these two issues in conjunction typically focus on a single form of consumer misbehaviour (e.g. shoplifting). The aim of the current paper is to investigate the extent to which the techniques of neutralisation used by service consumers vary across different forms of deviant consumer behaviour. After providing an overview of extant research into deviant consumer behaviour and of research into the techniques of neutralisation, we detail our methodology. Thereafter, we present our findings to reflect the five forms of deviant consumer behaviour that were most consistently identified by informants (property abuses, verbal abuses during service, post-service negative word of mouth, dishonest actions, and sexual exploitation). The findings reveal that consumers employ various techniques of neutralisation to rationalise or justify their behaviour, leading to the forwarding of 12 propositions. After a discussion of the implications of the study for theorists and practitioners, we conclude the paper with a discussion of the limitations of the study, while highlighting a series of potentially fruitful avenues of future research.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight important issues in the study of dysfunctional customer behavior and to provide a research agenda to inspire, guide, and enthuse. Through a critical evaluation of existing research, the aim is to highlight key issues and to present potentially worthy avenues for future study.Design/methodology/approachIn reviewing recent and past advances in the study of customers behaving badly, an overview of existing research into customers behaving badly and addressing issues of terminology and definition is provided. Thereafter, three perspectives that provide the most opportunity and insight in studying the darker side of service dynamics are outlined. This leads to a review of some of the research design and methodological problems and issues that are faced when rigorously studying these issues. Subsequently, the paper devotes a section to the provocative idea that while dysfunctional customer behavior has many negative influences on customers, employees, and service firms, there are actually some positive functions of customers behaving badly.FindingsA research agenda is provided that is believed to identify and discuss a range of projects that comprises not only insightful theoretical contributions but is also practically relevant.Originality/valueThe paper identifies a range of issues about which managers should be aware and proactively manage.

From a firm's perspective, deviant or dysfunctional customers are those who act in a negative and unwanted manner. Such behaviours violate organizational and/or societal norms. Many alternative terms are used within the marketing literature to describe customers' misdeeds. These include, aberrant consumer behaviour, jaycustomer behaviour and consumer misbehaviour. Multiple forms of deviant and dysfunctional consumer behaviours are identified, including acts of theft, vandalism, verbal aggression, physical aggression and drunken behaviour. Keywords: deviant customer behaviour; dysfunctional customer behaviour; jaycustomer behaviour; consumer misbehaviour; deviance

Patient engagement has gained increasing prominence within academic literatures and policy discourse. With limited developments in practice, most extant academic contributions are conceptual, with initiatives in the National Health Service (NHS) concentrating at macro- rather than at micro-level. This may be one reason why the issue of ‘value co-creation’ has received limited attention within academic discussions of patient engagement or policy pronouncements. Drawing on emerging ideas in the services marketing and public management literatures, this article offers the first elucidation of the importance of studying ‘value co-creation’ as a basis for further empirical analysis of patient engagement in micro-level encounters.

Background and aim. Vitamin D exerts its biochemical function on skeletal muscle through vitamin D receptors (VDR). Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in the general population especially in the elderly. It is postulated that lower vitamin D levels lead to reduced expression of VDR in skeletal muscles. This then may lead to reduced muscle strength, function and ultimately falls in the elderly. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between human ageing, circulating vitamin D levels and VDR expression in human skeletal muscle. Methods. Twenty six participants were recruited to the study; 8 young participants, 8 older participants who were vitamin D sufficient (25-OH-D3 ≥50 nmol/L) and 10 older participants who were vitamin D insufficient (