The direct and interactive effects of retail community engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Lund ◽  
John D. Hansen ◽  
Robert A. Robicheaux ◽  
Clara Cid Oreja

Purpose This paper aims to examine the direct and interactive effects of community engagement and economic value on customers’ trust in, and commitment to, the retailer. This paper also examines the extent to which these variables, in turn, drive desirable behavioral outcomes in the form of positive word of mouth communications and share of customer. Design/methodology/approach Study results are derived from a cross-sectional survey of 1,757 respondents. Findings The authors find that retailer community engagement positively impacts word of mouth and share of customer indirectly through commitment and trust. As hypothesized, the results support a suppressing interaction between community engagement and economic value on trust. Contrary to the hypothesis, the interactive effects on commitment are positive. Research limitations/implications The study uses cross-sectional, single-sourced data. Incorporating secondary data or using experiments would reinforce these findings. This research is limited to local community engagement, future studies could broaden the focus to strategies that benefit communities outside the local area. Practical implications Study results indicate that managers can indeed build stronger customer relationships through community engagement as customers are more apt to be trusting of and committed to retailers perceived to be more actively engaged in the community. These findings are particularly important considering that community engagement is typically less expensive than other marketing strategies. Community investments are inexpensive initiatives that retailers can leverage to generate a big impact in the hearts and minds of their customers. Originality/value While it seems logical to assume that community engagement will benefit retailers in the form of stronger customer relationships, the authors empirically validate this assumption. The finding that community engagement simultaneously serves as both an antecedent and moderator is novel, albeit counterintuitive in the sense that the variable negatively moderates the economic value-trust relationship while positively moderating the economic value-commitment relationship. Taken in their totality, these findings indicate that community engagement serves to simultaneously drive stronger customer relationships while also differentially affecting the way customers arrive at their assessments.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-313
Author(s):  
Amara Emuwa ◽  
Dail Fields

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which each dimension of authentic leadership (AL) is related with employee organizational commitment (OC) and assessment of leadership effectiveness for employees in Nigeria and to investigate the moderating effects of contingent reward leadership behaviors on these relationships. By testing the dimensions of AL with employee outcomes, this study provides further validity and empirical evidence to the theoretical structure of AL theory across cultures. Design/methodology/approach This empirical study used cross-sectional survey data collected from a sample of 212 Nigerian employees from 16 organizations across various sectors. Findings The results of hierarchical regression analysis of this study showed a positive relationship between AL behaviors and the outcome variables of OC and perceived leader effectiveness (LE) among Nigerian employees. The moderation result shows that the leader’s contingent reward behaviors reduce the effects of the internal moral perspective dimension of AL. As authentic leaders interact with followers and followers experience high levels of moral and ethical behaviors, contingent rewards become less important to followers. Practical implications Leadership effectiveness and OC are desirable organizational outcomes across cultures. From a practical standpoint, the results indicate several authentic dimensions are related to OC and leadership effectiveness among Nigerian employees. This extends the applicability of AL into the African countries. Particularly, it provides additional insight into a contemporary leadership model that can positively impact the leadership development in Nigeria. While the interactive effects of contingent reward were limited, they do suggest that some combinations of behaviors should be considered to effectively meet situational needs. Originality/value This is the first study that examines the relationship of the components that constitute AL with OC and perceived LE in the context of Nigeria, a major African nation.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ni Ny Wedarthani Achintya Amrita ◽  
Ni Wayan Arya Utami ◽  
Kadek Tresna Adhi

Purpose This study aims to examine determinants of underweight and overweight nutritional status among late adolescents in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional analysis of the 2015 Indonesian Family Life Survey 5 (IFLS-5) was conducted. Respondents for this study were selected through stratified and multistage random sampling. Of all IFLS-5 respondents, 2,791 were adolescents 18–24 years old. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to identify major determinants of nutritional status among late adolescents. Findings The prevalence of underweight and overweight nutritional status was 19.10% and 12.79%, respectively. Underweight status among late adolescents was strongly associated with smoking (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.29–2.33). Moreover, living in urban areas showed the strongest association with overweight status among the same group (AOR = 1.77, 95%CI = 1.29–2.44). Research limitations/implications This study gained the advantage from the use of national data that are collected by trained enumerators. Therefore, the possibility of bias is very small, and the study results can be generalized to a late adolescent group in Indonesia. However, this study also has limitations in the types of data available, as it uses secondary data. The lack of detailed data regarding food security, frequency of food consumption in a month and sources of income of the adolescents limit the interpretation of the study. Further studies should consider using a retrospective cohort approach in all adolescent age groups using data from the IFLS-1 to IFLS-5 so that the temporal relationship of the multifactorial nutrition variables can be identified. Practical implications Provide input and advice to policymakers in all sectors related to adolescent health and educational curricula for consideration in making interventions that focus on improving nutrition by taking into account the characteristics of adolescents, such as smoking habits, area of residence, income and age of adolescents because nutritional problems are multifactorial. Social implications This study can provide education to adolescents to create healthier consumption habits to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the adult phase, ideal body weight, reduce unhealthy lifestyles (smoking, drinking alcohol and drugs) and increase self-esteem and reduce depression. Originality/value This study brings significant findings on the dominant determinant of nutritional status among late adolescents in Indonesia and their vulnerability to NCDs. To address the high prevalence of underweight and overweight nutritional status in Indonesia, a collaboration between smoking cessation, community nutrition and reproductive health programs is required for preventing the underweight nutritional status in adolescents, with a focus on obesity prevention for adolescents living in urban areas. It is expected that this collaboration will support the early prevention of NCD risks.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Andy Wood ◽  
Julie Johnson ◽  
James S. Boles ◽  
Hiram Barksdale

Purpose – The purpose of this research is an examination of three different types of sales approaches (product-, solution- and provocation-based) on relational outcomes. The type of sales approach influences buyer's assessments about the trustworthiness of the salesperson and the conflict with the salesperson. These outcomes of the sales approach affect the customer's economic and non-economic satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Using cross-sectional survey data from a sample of 840 organizational buyers, a structural equation model measures the path coefficients of the proposed model and tests the differences in the magnitude based on gender. Findings – The results indicate that sales approaches will differentially influence assessments of trustworthiness and conflict. The magnitude of the influence of the sales approach on outcomes is different between genders. Originality/value – To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study to examine the impact of sales approaches on both genders of organizational buyers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang J. Weitzl

Purpose This paper aims to demonstrate that online complainants’ reactions to a company’s service recovery attempts (webcare) can significantly vary across two different types of dissatisfied customers (“vindictives” vs “constructives”), who have dramatically diverging complaint goal orientations. Design/methodology/approach Online multi-country survey among 812 adult consumers who recently had a dissatisfying brand experience and turned to a marketer-generated social media site to voice an online complaint for achieving their ultimate complaining goals. Scenario-based online experiment for cross-validating the survey findings. Findings Results suggest that “vindictive complainants” – driven dominantly by brand-adverse motives – are immune to any form of webcare, while “constructive complainants” – interested in restoring the customer-brand relationship – react more sensitively. For the latter, “no-responses” often trigger detrimental brand-related reactions (e.g. unfavorable brand image), whereas “defensive responses” are likely to stimulate post-webcare negative word-of-mouth. Research limitations/implications This research identifies the gains and harms of (un-)desired webcare. By doing so, it not only sheds light on the circumstances when marketers have to fear negative effects (e.g. negative word-of-mouth) but also provides insights into the conditions when such effects are unlikely. While the findings of the cross-sectional survey are validated with an online experiment, findings should be interpreted with care as other complaining contexts should be further investigated. Practical implications Marketers have to expect a serious “backfiring effect” from an unexpected source, namely, consumers who were initially benevolent toward the involved brand but who received an inappropriate response. Originality/value This research is one of the first research studies that enables marketers to identify situations when webcare is likely to backfire on the brand after a service failure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 1963-1986
Author(s):  
Tilottama G. Chowdhury ◽  
Feisal Murshed

Purpose This paper proposes that categorization flexibility, operationalized as the cognitive capacity that cross-categorizes products in multiple situational categories across multiple domains, might favorably influence a consumer’s evaluation of unconventional options. Design/methodology/approach Experimental research design is used to test the theory. An exploratory study first establishes the effect of categorization flexibility in a non-food domain. Study 1 documents the moderating role of decision domain, showing that the effect works only under low- (vs high-) consequence domain. Studies 2A and 2B further refine the notion by showing that individuals can be primed in a relatively higher categorization flexibility frame of mind. Study 3 demonstrates the interactive effect of categorization flexibility and adventure priming in a high-consequence domain. Study 4 integrates the interactive effects of decisions with low- vs high-consequence, adventure priming and categorization flexibility within a single decision domain of high consequence. Findings Consumers with higher- (vs lower-) categorization flexibility tend to opt for unconventional choices when the decision domain entails low consequences, whereas such a result does not hold under decision domain of high consequences. The categorization flexibility effects in case of low-consequence decision domain holds true even when consumers are primed to be categorization flexible. Furthermore, with additional adventure priming, consumers show an increased preference for unconventional options even under a decision domain with high consequence. Research limitations/implications This study could not examine real purchase behavior as results are based on cross-sectional, behavioral intention data. In addition, it did not examine the underlying reason for presence of cross-domain categorization flexibility index. Practical implications The results suggest that stimuli may be tailored to consumers in ways that increase the salience and the perceived attractiveness of unconventional choices. Further, data reinforce the notion of cross-categorical interrelations among different domains, which could be leveraged by marketers. Originality/value This study represents the first documentation of the potential ways by which unconventional product choice might be a function of individuals’ categorization flexibility level across different types of decision domains. The findings yield implications that are novel to both categorization and consumer decision-making literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272110133
Author(s):  
Neel Shimpi ◽  
Ingrid Glurich ◽  
Catherine Maybury ◽  
Min Qi Wang ◽  
Kazumasa Hashimoto ◽  
...  

Objective Health education interventions during pregnancy can influence maternal oral health (OH), maternal OH-behaviors and children’s OH. Interventions that can be delivered at anytime and anywhere, for example mobile-health (mHealth) provides an opportunity to address challenges of health education and support activation of women in underserved and rural communities to modify their health behavior. This pilot study was undertaken as a part of a mHealth initiative to determine knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to pregnancy and ECC prevention among women attending obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN) practices at a large rurally-based clinic. Methods A cross-sectional survey study was voluntarily engaged by women (n = 191) aged 18 to 59 years attending OB/GYN visits, over a 3-week period from 12/2019 to 1/2020. Survey results were analyzed applying descriptive statistics, X2 and Fisher’s Exact tests. The significance level was set at P < .0001 for all analyses. Results Approximately half of respondents were between 18 and 29 years (53%), had a college degree (55%), and 100% reported cell phone use. Whereas 53% and 31%, respectively, indicated that they were “somewhat” or “very” sure of how to prevent ECC in their children, only 9% recognized evidence of early decay and 30% did not know the purpose of fluoride. Overall, only 27% of participants correctly answered the knowledge-based questions. Further, only 57% reported their provider explained things in a way that was easy to understand. Only 24% reported seeing a dentist during their current pregnancy. Conclusions Study results suggested potential gaps in knowledge and behaviors related to ECC prevention and provided baseline data to inform future interventions to improve ECC prevention practices. Notably, majority of participants used their cell phones for making medical/dental appointments and reported using their phones to look up health-related information. This demographic represents a potentially receptive target for mHealth approaches to improve understanding of oral health maintenance during pregnancy and ECC prevention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Casey Overby Taylor ◽  
Natalie Flaks Manov ◽  
Katherine D. Crew ◽  
Chunhua Weng ◽  
John J. Connolly ◽  
...  

There is a need for multimodal strategies to keep research participants informed about study results. Our aim was to characterize preferences of genomic research participants from two institutions along four dimensions of general research result updates: content, timing, mechanism, and frequency. Methods: We conducted a web-based cross-sectional survey that was administered from 25 June 2018 to 5 December 2018. Results: 397 participants completed the survey, most of whom (96%) expressed a desire to receive research updates. Preferences with high endorsement included: update content (brief descriptions of major findings, descriptions of purpose and goals, and educational material); update timing (when the research is completed, when findings are reviewed, when findings are published, and when the study status changes); update mechanism (email with updates, and email newsletter); and update frequency (every three months). Hierarchical cluster analyses based on the four update preferences identified four profiles of participants with similar preference patterns. Very few participants in the largest profile were comfortable with budgeting less money for research activities so that researchers have money to set up services to send research result updates to study participants. Conclusion: Future studies may benefit from exploring preferences for research result updates, as we have in our study. In addition, this work provides evidence of a need for funders to incentivize researchers to communicate results to participants.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwuma C. Nwuba ◽  
Uche S. Egwuatu ◽  
Babatunde M. Salawu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate client influence on mortgage valuation in Nigeria to establish and rank the means of influence clients employ, and the impact of firm characteristics on client influence. Design/methodology/approach – A combination of cross-sectional survey and focus groups research designs was adopted. Questionnaire structured on five-point Likert format was used to collect data from a sample of valuation firms in five Nigerian cities. Descriptive statistics, χ2, and moderated hierarchical linear model were used for data analysis. Findings – Clients’ means of influence on valuation are more of subtle approach than threat or coercion. The most prevalent means are respectively, plea for assistance, promise of continued retainership on banks’ valuer panels, and disclosing the loan amount. Client influence differs across cities; firm characteristics have no influence on client pressure. Practical implications – The research provides basis for valuation bodies to review practice rules and standards and seek for legislation for valuer independence. It can serve as material for teaching and training in professional ethics. Social implications – Biased valuations jeopardises credit risk mitigation process with potential for destabilising banks, finance sector, and consequences for the economy. Originality/value – The study provides empirical evidence of the nature of client influence across several major Nigerian cities. In contrast to existing Nigerian studies that focus on single cities, the study covers several cities. It therefore provides a broad basis for problem-solving and decision-making.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkan Oktay ◽  
Abdulkerim Karaaslan ◽  
Ömer Alkan ◽  
Ali Kemal Çelik

Purpose – The main aim of this study is to determine the factors that influence the housing demand of households in Erzurum, northeastern Turkey. Housing demand is generally affected by several factors including housing prices, individuals’ income, expectations and choices and so on, as a means of its demographic and socio-psychological contexts. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey was carried out, in which the outcome variable had binary responses such as whether to invest in housing or not. A binary logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the underlying data. Findings – The questionnaire was conducted in 2,927 households living in Erzurum city center, and 47 per cent of the respondents claimed that they would consider investing in housing in the future. The estimation results reveal that demographic or socio-economic factors that may possibly influence housing demand of the respondents are as follows: household head’s and spouse’s occupation, monthly income, the number of individuals in the family and car ownership. Originality/value – This paper involves the most comprehensive survey addressing the housing demand in the East Anatolian Region, Turkey. Additionally, this paper aims to contribute to the existing housing literature through establishing the statistical analysis of housing demand in an unstudied territory of the world.


2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 886-906 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erling Rasmussen ◽  
Barry Foster ◽  
Deirdre Farr

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to place empirical research on New Zealand employers’ attitudes to collective bargaining and legislative change within the context of the long running debate of flexibility. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey design using a self-administered postal questionnaire, covering private sector employers with ten or more staff and including employers within all 17 standard industry classification. To explore particular issues, an additional in-depth interviews were conducted of 25 employers participating in the survey. Findings It is found that employers support overwhelmingly recent legislative changes though there are variations across industries and firm sizes. There is also considerable variation in terms of which legislative changes are applied in the workplace. Despite fewer constraints on employer-determined flexibility, there was a rather puzzling finding that most employers still think that employment legislation is even balanced or favouring employees. Originality/value Cross-sectional survey findings of New Zealand employer attitudes to legislative changes are few and provide valuable data for policy makers, unions, employers and employment relations researchers. The paper also contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of pressures to increase employer-determined flexibility in many western countries.


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