PurposeThis paper extends Lawler's argument (in “An affect theory of social exchange”) that social exchanges can create a sense of shared responsibility to service settings, and predict that inseparability produces customer perceptions of shared responsibility for service outcomes, resulting in greater emotions. When emotions are positive, there should be increased loyalty to the service provider.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was used to obtain cross‐sectional data pertaining to our model's constructs: inseparability, shared responsibility, emotional response, and service loyalty. A structural equation model evaluated the strength of relationships between these constructs.FindingsSupport was found for the predicted relationships between inseparability and shared responsibility, shared responsibility and emotions, and emotions and service loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsInseparability and shared responsibility have not been measured before, and more research is needed to validate and test the scales we develop. Goods are seldom sold without some service attached, and anything that contributes to perceptions of inseparability and shared responsibility may affect emotional responses and brand loyalty for both services and goods.Practical implicationsService employee training programs should emphasize the customer's role in the service experience to increase perceptions of shared responsibility and to create a positive emotional experience for customers.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the services marketing literature by viewing inseparability as a potential source of service brand loyalty, developing original scales for measuring inseparability and shared responsibility in a services setting, and applying a previously untested theory to a marketing context.
Although some research into warning labels in advertisements has been conducted, little examines the impact of the placement of labels in print ads, including consumer responses to warning label placement and consumer response effects. Social contract theory suggests that consumers may, somewhat paradoxically, put a relatively high value on an advertisement of a brand that prominently displays warning information, rather than minimizing it. Our research probes the relevance of social contract assumptions by reviewing current print advertisement warning practices with a content analysis (CA) of consumer magazines and by testing the effectiveness of label placement strategies with a between-subjects experiment. Validating social contract assumptions, our study shows more positive consumer responses for recall, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, purchase intention, and responsible advertising when warnings are overtly rather than discreetly placed in print ads. Also, we develop a robust, multi-item responsible advertising scale. Our paper explores the implications and directions for future research from our warning label findings.
This research uncovers the impact of a multifaceted crisis on consumers' immediate shopping behaviors, short‐term financial spending, and long‐term shopping and spending responses. This longitudinal study adopts a future studies approach to expose consumers' current experiences, expectations of the future, and realized future experiences to understand a pandemic's impact on consumers' collective shopping and spending behaviors. Data were collected at the beginning of the COVID‐19 pandemic, during its peak, and as restrictions were being lifted. Findings reveal that consumers adapt their shopping and spending behavior through a crisis in response to constantly shifting environmental stimuli. Consumers moved from fear to frugality and then followed one of two paths—maintaining new crisis‐induced behaviors or, more often, returning to prior familiar consumption behaviors. Retailers and service providers must understand these responses to be able to serve both groups during and after a crisis.
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