Suchergebnisse

This research examines the factors driving consumer dis(satisfaction) in the online service environment. Using a critical incident technique and content analysis, the authors identify the critical drivers reported by consumers to produce particularly satisfactory or dissatisfactory online service encounters. Using 616 surveys and 1,183 observations, the authors first classify and then compare reported drivers across outcomes (dissatisfaction vs. satisfaction) and three industry groups (hard goods, soft goods, and services). Classifications are also compared with several important service-quality scales and other literature on the topic in order to compare the findings and to develop an overall framework. The results address how satisfiers and dissatisfiers vary both overall and across industry classifications, providing an assessment of the differences between the factors producing online success versus those preventing failure. The authors conclude with implications for online retailers and directions for future research.

Organized service recovery policies and programs are important tools to firms in their efforts to maintain satisfied, loyal customers. Although service failure and recovery issues have received considerable attention in the literature, these topics have received only limited attention in the context of online retailing. Specifically, we lack an understanding of the types of online service failures occurring, the success with which firms are recovering from these failures, and consumer reactions to the service failure/recovery encounters they are experiencing. Therefore, this research involves two studies employing both qualitative and quantitative methods with samples of online shoppers to provide an initial examination of the service recovery management of online retailers. The results provide a typology of online service failures and demonstrate a number of areas in which online retailers are failing to effectively manage their service recoveries. The discussion includes implications for online retailers as well as directions for future research.

A service failure and its negative effects can involve multiple customers at the same time, which suggests the need to understand the psychological mechanisms that underlie differential perceptions of group service failures (GSFs) versus individual service failures (ISFs) as well as their related outcomes. With an attributional framework, this article reports on two experiments that varied in their blame-attribution ambiguity. The results reveal that customers experience greater anger and show higher negative word-of-mouth and complaint intentions after a GSF versus an ISF. These differential effects are mediated by blame attributions, such that GSFs cause customers to blame the service provider more than ISFs. Customer entitlement also moderates the effect of the failure context (GSF vs. ISF) on blame attribution, contingent on perceptions of whether the service provider or customer violated an existing rule. Thus, we find that customers respond differently to service failures depending on the context. Managerial implications include separating customers from each other when GSFs are likely to take place, using techniques to redirect customer's blame attributions to sources other than the service provider after a GSF and using customer scripts to minimize the occurrence of customer-induced service failures.

Abstract
Previous consumer research suggests that individuals who finance high‐cost items tend to differ from those who lease the same items. Some differences are economic, such as income and wealth, while other dissimilarities involve non‐economic issues such as personal preferences. We employ non‐hierarchical cluster analysis to create consumer segments of motor vehicle lessees and financers based on motives for leasing versus financing and demographics. Five segments were uncovered. Lessees predominate in two categories: budget gourmets and automotive hedonists. Another two categories, utility seekers and basic transportation seekers, are mainly comprised of financers. The final group, mature luxury seekers, consists of a roughly equal mix of lessees and financers. Differences between the segments are addressed here, along with a discussion of findings and implications.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Two experimental studies reveal that customers' reactions to different levels of recovery compensation differ between a recovery that occurs at the group level (such that every customer knows that every other affected customer receives the same compensation) and one that occurs at the individual level (such that the individual does not know whether and how much compensation other affected customers receive). In both cases, recovery compensation exhibits diminishing returns on compensation size in terms of recovery satisfaction. However, at the group level, the rate at which the returns on compensation diminish is greater and satisfaction reaches a plateau at lower compensation levels than at the individual level. The salient social comparison made during a group service recovery (GSR), as evidenced by the mediating role of distributive justice, explains these effects. Finally, we note that at midrange compensation levels, GSR and individual service recovery did not lead to different levels of recovery satisfaction, suggesting a zone of tolerance or indifference at these levels. Further, our findings yield important managerial implications for the efficient allocation of service recovery resources after a group service failure.