Purpose As self-service technologies (SSTs) become more prevalent, service providers are actively encouraging customers’ involvement with these technologies, sometimes even forcing their customers to use SSTs. This paper aims to examine the influence of the SST-only (vs full-service) mode on customers’ negative attitude toward SST providers through the mediating mechanism of powerlessness and explores how SST familiarity and SST anthropomorphism moderate the impacts of the SST-only mode on powerlessness. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were performed, study 1 tested the main and mediating effect and studies 2 and 3 verified the moderating effects. Findings The results suggest that customer perceived powerlessness mediates the relationship between SST-only (vs full-service) mode and negative attitude toward SST providers. When the levels of SST familiarity and SST anthropomorphism are high, the impacts of SST-only on powerlessness are attenuated. Alternative mediating mechanism of powerlessness is examined and ruled out. Research limitations/implications Future research should investigate other moderators that may reduce the impacts of SST on customer powerlessness. These moderators could be service-operating procedures, SST interface design, types of service situations and customer characteristics. In addition, other consequences of powerlessness, other than the negative attitude toward SST providers and intention to switch investigated here, should be investigated as well. Practical implications This research provides guidelines helping service providers to improve their customers’ SST usage experience by showing both SST familiarity and SST anthropomorphism may alleviate the negative effects of SST-only mode on customer perceived powerlessness more effectively. Originality/value This research examines the role of customers’ psychological reactions toward the SST-only mode, particularly from the perspective of power and control.

This study considers the moderating effect of involvement on consumers' response to one-sided vs. two-sided online advertising. Results obtained from an experimental study confirm that involved consumers' responses to two-sided online ads are more favorable than that of one-sided online ad, but only for involved consumers. Two-sided ad is no more persuasive for uninvolved consumers except for those who recognize the twosided nature of the communication. The routes to persuasion of two-sided ads are also different for involved and uninvolved consumers. These findings provide a new economical way for enterprises to improve their online advertising effectiveness in the absence of trust nowadays.

Purpose From the perspective of customer segmentation, most scholars show more interest in the very important person (VIP) customer’s service experience and satisfaction; however, the way in which ordinary customers view VIP services has received less attention. Based on fairness heuristic theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to examine the impact of the social visibility of VIP services on ordinary customers’ satisfaction and explored the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of this effect. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments were conducted, Study 1 verified the main effect and mediating effect, Study 2 tested the moderating effect. Findings The results show that the social visibility of VIP services decreases ordinary customers’ satisfaction and perceived fairness mediates this effect. The deservingness of VIP status moderates the connection between social visibility and perceived fairness. Research limitations/implications This research changes the objects of VIP services research and focuses on ordinary customers as its main group and expands the scope of social comparisons among customers. Practical implications The findings expand the scope and perspective of research on VIP services and provide guidance to service providers to reduce ordinary customers’ feelings of unfairness so as to improve customer satisfaction. Originality/value This study explores the effect of the social visibility of VIP services on ordinary customer satisfaction from the perspective of perceived fairness, as well as the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect.

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The paper explores the structure and content of customers' reactions to fellow customer misbehavior following the scale development technology based on open-ended questionnaires. Two formal data investigations are taken after pre-test in Shenyang, with the sample of 203 and 413 consumers for exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis respectively. The results show that: (1) the structure of customers' reactions to fellow customer misbehavior consists of 9 dimensions named as dissuasion, understanding, approval, exit, retaliation, creative suggestion, sympathy for employees, venting and complaints, a total of 26 items; the scale developed has acceptable levels of reliability and validity, which could be the measurement tool for further research; (2) customers are more probable to exit the service enterprises while less possible to retaliate due to fellow customer misbehavior, and some positive reactions also exist with low possibility; (3) differences of customers' reactions to fellow customer misbehavior are statistically significant on demographic variables.