Segmenting Umrah performers based on outcomes behaviors: a cluster analysis perspective

Purpose Umrah is a religious ritual that takes place inside the Holy Mosque in Makkah. Umrah can be performed any time during the year; however, performing Umrah in the month of Ramadan is much rewarded. Although the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hosting this event each year, studies that focus on exploring the Holy Mosque visitor segments are scarce. This study aims to explore and describe the marketing segments of Umrah performers relative to their Umrah experience inside the Holy Mosque of Makkah. Most specifically, this study aims to explore segments of Umrah performers based on their perception of servicescape, hedonic and convenience value and the visitors’ outcome behaviors [i.e. intention to revisit and positive word of mouth (PWOM)]. Design/methodology/approach Mixed-method techniques of data collection [i.e. self-administered questionnaires (n = 278) and short discussions (n = 10)] were used. Findings Cluster analysis is used for data analysis. The findings revealed four clusters of Umrah performers: real, occasional, rational and passionate performers. Research limitations/implications This study is a first attempt to target pilgrims based on their experience with the servicescape during the organized religious event; despite its exploratory nature, it reveals interesting insights that will be useful for managers and scholars. Although the study helps to enrich the existing knowledge on visitors’ experience and proposes some implications for practitioners, it does have some limitations. First, convenience sampling was used, and hence the findings cannot be generalized. Second, the limited period of observation did not allow the authors to provide a complete picture of the pilgrims’ behavior; for this reason, the study findings partially describe the phenomenon. Another limitation is related to the difficulty of approaching respondents from Asia or South East Asia although they constitute a significant percentage of the total Umrah performers every year; this is because of the language barrier as data was collected from only English and Arabic speakers. Hence, to overcome these limitations, it is suggested that future studies could be expanded to target Asian respondents and perhaps other nationalities; and could be undertaken in other religious contexts. Moreover, an interesting future study could be carried out to compare the same model during other religious events. Added to that, another growing area of research could be approached by researchers, such as the impact of pilgrims sharing their experiences on influencing E-PWOM. Practical implications The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders. The segmentation of Umrah performers assists destination managers, policymakers and local firms involved in managing this mass event to identify effective marketing decision-makers, business strategies and policymakers to satisfy the needs of these visitors (Disegna et al., 2011). Particularly, the identification of the key characteristics of these visitors can help destination marketers to develop a marketing mix that suits the needs of each cluster (Smith et al., 2014). Despite that the performers’ main motivation is the religious purpose, marketing strategists can attract the attention of these visitors to visit other religious, cultural and heritage sites in the country. Social implications Encouraging the visit to other tourist spots in Saudi has several impacts on nourishing the economy and the community. Tourism in Saudi could encourage entrepreneurs to start new ventures to satisfy the need of visitors to the country. Small-medium enterprises could benefit from tourism as they could target market niches in which leader companies are not serving. For instance, hand-made souvenirs are one of these industries that could grow to satisfy the need of visitors. Originality/value The results contribute to the literature of event segmentation by identifying visitors’ profiles to rarely investigated destinations. The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders.

An Empirical Study of the Effect of Communication Visibility on Innovation Behavior

The effect of communication visibility on employee behaviors has garnered attention for the widespread use of enterprise social media; yet, this research has rarely considered the typical employee behavior of innovation behavior. This paper explores the relationship between communication visibility and innovation behavior. In addition, the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions are examined drawing on communication visibility theory, regulatory focus theory, and voice literature. Data were collected in a field experiment from a Chinese enterprise. It was found that communication visibility was positively associated with innovation behavior, and the positive association was mediated by voice behavior. Meanwhile, the positive indirect effect of communication visibility on employee innovation behavior was strengthened by promotion regulatory focus. Our research expands our understanding of the outcome behaviors of communication visibility and provides valuable management implications by shedding light on measures to promote innovation behavior.

Understanding the Continuance of Mobile Financial Services in Kenya

This study develops an integrated model that extends the means-end theory with customer value research and examines continuance intention towards using mobile financial services. A large-scale online questionnaire targeting M-PESA customers in Kenya was employed to analyze the research model. The results indicate that utilitarian and hedonic values affect continuance intention. Hedonic and personal values impact customer satisfaction, while customer satisfaction influences continuance intention. Customer satisfaction mediates the indirect effects of hedonic and personal values on continuance intention. This study presents a value-based framework to examine the hierarchical influences of customer value on attitudes and outcome behaviors. This study offers several research contributions as well as insights for practitioners to enhance mobile financial services for sustained adoption, use, economic and developmental success.

The effect of consumer emotions on outcome behaviors following service failure

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of emotions that consumers experience following service failures and to assess the effects of each of these emotions on important behavioral outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This paper extends the work of Wetzer et al. (2007) and draws upon the existing literature to test a series of research hypotheses tying emotions to four important behavioral outcomes primarily using stepwise regression. Findings When a service failure occurs, customers experience any of a variety of negative emotions. The effect on behavioral outcomes depends on the specific emotion experienced by the consumer. The current research, which benefits by using retrospective experience sampling, finds that frustration is the predominant emotion experienced by customers following service failure, but that anger, regret and frustration affect behavioral outcomes. Uncertainty also plays a role. Research limitations/implications Future research should investigate the antecedents of propensity for emotions and predisposition toward industries, as well as the consequences of word-of-mouth (WOM) praise and WOM activity. Additionally, emotions could be examined by service stage. Several other moderators could be investigated, including severity, complaining behavior, repeat occurrence, service importance, remedies and forgiveness, product vs process failures, tenure, gender and age. Practical implications The current research emphasizes the importance of understanding which emotion is being experienced by a customer following service failure to identify the behavioral outcomes that will be most impacted. The specific managerial implications depend upon the specific emotional response experienced by the customer and are discussed separately for anger, regret and frustration. Service personnel must be trained to recognize and address specific customer emotions rather than to provide a canned or generalized response. Originality/value To date, there has been little, if any, systematic research into the effects of multiple discrete negative emotions on multiple desirable behavioral outcomes. The current study examines six discrete emotions. Predominant emotions are differentiated from emotional intensity. The behavioral outcomes of reconciliation and reduced share-of-wallet are added to the traditional outcomes of repatronage intentions and negative WOM. While existing research tends to rely on a scenario approach, this study uses the retrospective experience sampling method. The authors distinguish between mixed emotions and multiple emotions. The relative effects of disappointment and regret are examined for each of the four outcomes. Finally, importance-performance map analysis was applied to the findings to prioritize managerial attention. Numerous managerial and research implications are identified.

Salesperson’s spirituality: impact on customer orientation and adaptability

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use the perspective of ego to investigate the spirituality of a salesperson and its influence on customer orientation and adaptive selling behavior. Meaningful work is proposed as a mediator. Design/methodology/approach Cross-sectional data were collected from 218 insurance salespeople in India. Bootstrap with SEM was used to test mediation. Findings The paper finds that there is full mediation through meaningful work on both the outcome behaviors. Research limitations/implications The findings will encourage researchers to link various salesperson outcomes such as ethical sales behavior, salesperson service behavior, and so on to spirituality. Practical implications The findings can provide some relevant inputs for sales leadership actions aimed at facilitating employees’ spiritual experiences. Originality/value This is among the first few studies, as what the authors believe, in the sales literature to find out that spirituality and sales job not only can co-exist, but they do complement each other.