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Scholars have widely studied engagement in consumer contexts, but research attention on engagement in interorganizational partnerships is lacking. The authors introduce the construct of partner eng...

This research explores the pandemic-related experiences of frontline employees (FLEs) relative to customer rule-enforcement interactions within retail and service industries. Using a survey, incorporating closed-ended and CIT questions, we investigated, from the FLEs' perspectives, the occupational stress of rule-enforcement, company expectations of FLEs regarding rule enforcement, and the emotional impact of customer interactions on FLEs. Results indicate that several customer misbehaviors, such as not following rules and being rude, produce significant occupational stress. Further, based on our CIT assessments, many of the FLEs’ recounted rule-enforcement incidents involved negative customer reactions, translating to heightened negativity for FLEs due to emotional contagion.

Numerous studies have demonstrated correlation between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty where the latter ultimately results in both revenue growth and profitability for the (service provider) firm (Zeithaml et al. 2013) (Heskett et al 1997). Fewer, but several, studies have examined the relationship between customer participation and customer satisfaction of service delivery and provider (Lovelock and Young 1979; Zeithaml 1981; Mills and Morris 1986; Benapudi and Leone 2003; Chan et al. 2010; and Wu 2011). Earlier research defined service customer engagement (CE) and service customer participation (CP), where the former was more psychological, where customers think, feel, and trust, and the latter was more behavioral, where customers act and do. This research works to better differentiate these two constructs where Customer Participation has been studied prior and more extensively than Customer Engagement. Being Customer Engagement a behavioral construct, it is easier to measure that Customer Participation, a psychological construct. The premise of this research is to establish a relationship between customer engagement (CE), customer participation (CP), and customer satisfaction (CS) where antecedent CE is necessary for mediator CP which is necessary for outcome CS. Research indicates that customers who perceive more value from their service encounters tend to be more satisfied (Ouschan et al. 2006; Patterson and Smith 2001; Sharma and Patterson 1999) (Chan et al. 2010) and that greater (customer) engagement will be associated with perceptions of greater value received (Vivek et al. 2012). This paper concludes that customers perceive more value when they are engaged; thus, service providers can maximize customer participation effectiveness with engagement. In other words, customers can engage without participating but not (effectively) participate without engaging. Two propositions are posited. Limitations and future research are also discussed such as considering outcomes beyond customer satisfaction such as service quality (SQ), a construct studied heavily by Parasuraman et al. (1985).

This chapter presents the antecedents of successful customer engagement programs. Drawing from in-depth interviews with practitioners as well as customers, the authors address and discuss eight influences relative to both customer and firm antecedents. The propositions are corroborated with an analysis of a German railway company’s marketing programs.

As firms work tod engage customers better, researchers have attempted to understand customer engagement (CE) empirically. CE goes beyond purchase and is the level of the customer's (or potential cu...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing knowledge about joint ventures (JV) by modeling the interactional strength of fit between JV partners. The paper integrates different constructs from three theoretical perspectives most widely used in JV studies – trust and commitment from the relational perspective; opportunism and specific investments from the transaction cost perspective; and assesses the moderating role of fit from the contingency perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative data from JVs were collected using the survey method. Relationships in the moderated mediation model were tested using complex sets of hierarchical regression steps. Findings – Relational intentions of partners influence specific investments between the partners. The two together drive JV performance and their impact is moderated by the extent of fit between the partners. Thus, it is concluded that the strength of fit, as perceived by partners, influences the role of other constructs from the relational, transactional and contingency perspectives, which together can help us understand performance of JVs better. Research limitations/implications – An assessment of longitudinal view of the relational variables and subsequent performance can be captured in future. This research assesses fit based on compatibility, which assesses similarity as well as complementarity, primarily by way of harmony in different aspects. Future research could differentiate complementarity from similarity to further assess the impact of fit. Practical implications – The relational behavior of JV partners, or their rational approaches to resource seeking, will be optimally effective only when the fit between partner characteristics is high. While the relational or transactional approaches can evolve in JVs, the partners should assess the extent of fit before getting into a JV relationship. Originality/value – The research presents a holistic framework that draws from various theoretical perspectives. The results establish that contrary to its peripheral treatment in the literature, fit plays an important role and can modify the influence relational variables and specific investments can have on the performance of JVs.

Using qualitative studies involving executives and customers, this study explores the nature and scope of customer engagement (CE), which is a vital component of relationship marketing. We define CE as the intensity of an individual's participation in and connection with an organization's offerings and/or organizational activities, which either the customer or the organization initiate. We argue that it is composed of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social elements. Finally, we offer a model of CE, in which the participation and involvement of current or potential customers serve as antecedents of CE, while value, trust, affective commitment, word of mouth, loyalty, and brand community involvement are potential consequences.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of perceived value on customer intention to use the internet as a retailing platform and, more specifically, the impact that perceived value (comprising functional, social, emotional and epistemic values) has on Taiwanese customer intention to conduct the two distribution channel functions, i.e. information collection and order placement, through the internet.Design/methodology/approachA total of 295 usable survey responses were collected in the main commuter district of Taipei, Taiwan.FindingsThe findings indicate that both functional and epistemic values have a significant impact on information collection and order placement. Nevertheless, social value has an impact only on information collection, whereas emotional value has a significant impact only on order placement.Originality/valueThe aforementioned issue has rarely been researched but is essential to the development of a channel of distribution theory and is of immediate relevance to marketing practices. The paper pioneers the study of the impact of perceived value in this context work that empirically investigated such an issue.

The complexity of the global marketplace is driving the growth of new corporate strategies that are centered on creating “synergistic alliances in procurement, distribution, marketing, and technology”. This study employs a grounded qualitative approach to investigate a growing belief that perspectives of relational governance and the resource-based view of the firm should be integrated to help explain the evolution of offshoring relationships in international marketing and supply chain settings. Specifically we ask—how well do general theories of organization correspond to governance in offshoring relationships? The premise of our longitudinal study found that offshoring relationships begin with calculative trust and opportunism, which later gives way to resource-based competency building and non-economic trust. Over time the offshoring relationships focus on building dynamic capabilities to increase process value through a trust-based relationship. In this way, offshoring relationships are a moving target in terms of governance of relationships from transactional to resource complementarity to a phase where trust and long-term orientation governs the offshored process or processes.

Through the use of core, transactional and relational specificity constructs, the paper studies how the emphasis of clients’ who move business processes offshore, changes over time to represent complex relationships between investments in core, transaction and relationship-specific assets. The complex combination of these investments helps clients attain evolving objectives in offshoring alliances. Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) has been used to establish changing emphases of the specific elements in offshoring alliances.

This paper discusses the issues of focus, motivation and chatiquettes in a synchronous collaborative learning environment in a graduate class.