European Journal of Marketing

Elaine Wallace; Leslie de Chernatony; Isabel Buil

doi: 10.1108/EJM-01-2011-0031pmid: N/A

Purpose – Ind suggests front line employees can be segmented according to their level of brand‐supporting performance. His employee typology has not been empirically tested. The paper aims to explore front line employee performance in retail banking, and profile employee types. Design/methodology/approach – Attitudinal and demographic data from a sample of 404 front line service employees in a leading Irish bank informs a typology of service employees. Findings – Champions, Outsiders and Disruptors exist within retail banking. The authors provide an employee profile for each employee type. They found Champions amongst males, and older employees. The highest proportion of female employees surveyed were Outsiders. Disruptors were more likely to complain, and rated their performance lower than any other employee type. Contrary to extant literature, Disruptors were more likely to hold a permanent contract than other employee types. Originality/value – The authors augment the literature by providing insights about the profile of three employee types: Brand Champions, Outsiders and Disruptors. Moreover, the authors postulate the influence of leadership and commitment on each employee type. The cluster profiles raise important questions for hiring, training and rewarding front line banking employees. The authors also provide guidelines for managers to encourage Champions, and curtail Disruptors.

John Dawes

doi: 10.1108/EJM-06-2011-0337pmid: N/A

Purpose – There is increasing managerial and academic interest in understanding behavioural loyalty to private label (PL) brands. A widely used behavioural loyalty measure is share of category requirements, or “SCR”. This study aims to examine why some PLs enjoy higher levels of SCR compared to others. Design/methodology/approach – The study models consumer purchase data using the well‐accepted NBD‐Dirichlet model to identify the circumstances in which PL brands exhibit higher (“excess”) or lower SCR than expected. Findings – The study finds four factors linked to excess SCR for PLs. They are: higher share of overall category sales accounted for by the PL within the retailer's stores, higher penetration of the category by the retailer, low relative price of the PL, and lastly, lower average purchase frequency for the category overall. Research limitations/implications – While the study uses 13 product categories, its geographic scope is limited to the UK. Further research could examine how the findings generalize to other markets. Originality/value – The study is original in that it identifies factors that are linked to behavioural loyalty toward specific PL brands. The findings will help marketers in brand management and retailing to understand and contextualize brand performance metrics for PL brands.

Micael Dahlén; Henrik Sjödin; Helge Thorbjørnsen; Håvard Hansen; Johanna Linander; Camilla Thunell

doi: 10.1108/EJM-10-2011-0597pmid: N/A

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate how marketing leakage to undesired audiences, a common phenomenon in today's globally connected world of consumers, impacts on the target audience, and how marketers can mitigate the negative effects of leaked marketing. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conduct three studies in line with research on the third‐person effect (TPE). The studies feature experimental designs with participants from neighbouring countries. Findings – The first study finds that people in the intended target audience expect and overestimate a (negative) reaction in the undesired audience to marketing leakage, and this impacts negatively on their own reactions. The second study replicates and extends the findings, showing that explicit information that marketing has leaked to an undesired audience impacts negatively on both the attitudes and behaviors of the intended, target audience. The third study tests potential strategies to mitigate the negative effects of leaked marketing and finds that the most important thing is to inform the intended target audience that the undesired audience has accepted the marketer's actions. Research limitations/implications – Extending the TPE to marketing, this is, to the authors' knowledge, a first investigation of the previously neglected phenomenon of marketing leakage and the impact of undesired audiences on marketing effectiveness. It hopes to stimulate further research on consequences of marketing leakage and enrich research on international advertising and crisis management. Originality/value – This is, to the authors' knowledge, the first inquiry into how and why marketing leakage to undesired audiences impacts on the intended target audience, and how negative effects can be mitigated. The original use of a third‐person approach in this setting helps explain marketing effectiveness and assess managerial strategies.

Fernando R. Jiménez; Kevin E. Voss; Gary L. Frankwick

doi: 10.1108/EJM-09-2011-0459pmid: N/A

Purpose – A growing body of literature reveals that the domain of customer co‐production of goods is expansive. Many research articles in the area of co‐production of goods, however, have focused on specific sub‐areas within the larger domain. One result of these multiple lines of inquiry is that they establish overlapping construct names and definitions. The purpose of this article is to propose a classification schema of customer co‐production of goods based on general systems theory (GST). Design/methodology/approach – A logical partitioning approach was employed. Findings – A classification schema of co‐production of goods is derived from two criteria: the nature of the customer's input and the customer's autonomy. The classification suggests six sub‐areas of co‐production of goods: restricted co‐manufacturing, unrestricted co‐manufacturing, co‐ideation, co‐design, mass customization, and participation loop. Practical implications – The distinction of activities involving co‐production of goods guides practitioners in the generalization of research findings and the selection of participation opportunities for their customers. Originality/value – This study proposes the first classification schema of co‐production activities resulting in tangible goods. The classification reduces the overlap of constructs and definitions, defines the domain of co‐production of goods, aids in the construction of nomological networks, and delimits generalizations drawn from empirical research. The authors recommend that researchers interested in co‐production of goods should use the schema to guide their theory development and empirical research designs.

Jordan Gamble; Audrey Gilmore

doi: 10.1108/EJM-10-2011-0584pmid: N/A

Purpose – This paper aims to address the emerging post‐millennium trends in co‐creational marketing, in the context of how these trends apply to the recorded and live sectors of the music industry. Consideration of marketing as a broadened concept to include societal processes has implications not only for the marketing concept itself, but also for the roles of the parties implicitly involved in the marketing process. Therefore, the standard and polarising marketing clichés of “firm and customer”, “buyer and seller”, and “producer and consumer” may be replaced with a more contemporary marketing approach in which value can be created and shared by either party. Design/methodology/approach – Initially the paper provides a review of contemporary literature on co‐creational aspects of marketing and a subsequent identification of typologies of co‐creation practices. Conceptual frameworks pertaining to the relationships of these typologies are then proposed. An extensive review and analysis of journal articles, industry reports and news sources on music industry marketing was conducted. From this review and analysis, 30 examples of co‐creational marketing were identified. The music industry was chosen as it constitutes a relevant and contemporary marketing context due to the existence of interactive technology and changing consumer preferences regarding their interaction with music intermediaries and against a context of digital piracy. Findings – Five typologies of co‐creational marketing were found to be relevant to the music industry. Key examples of co‐creational marketing within the music industry are discussed and analysed in relation to the identified typologies and conceptual frameworks. Research limitations/implications – The relevancy of co‐creational marketing practices to the music industry is investigated, followed by consideration of managerial implications and future research directions. Originality/value – The theoretical prospect of value co‐creation through active consumer contributions to the marketing process is not revolutionary or new, but the implications of such a potential shift in power or influence have developed into a contemporary challenge for marketers.

Anne M. Smith

doi: 10.1108/EJM-08-2011-0420pmid: N/A

Purpose – This paper aims to adopt a conservation of resources (COR) theoretical approach to examine the process of value co‐destruction (VCD) emanating from the misuse of customer resources by organisations. Design/methodology/approach – A critical incidents approach was adopted where 120 customers recounted their negative experiences. The analysis identified both the nature of resources and processes involved. Findings – From a customer perspective, the VCD process is triggered by a failure of the resource integration process to co‐create expected value (resources). This involves customers in unexpected primary, and often secondary, resource loss. Loss “cycles” or “spirals” develop impacting negatively on well‐being. Customers' attempts to restore their resources through coping strategies typically involve loss of well‐being for the organisation. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to a relatively small sample of UK customers involving diverse contexts. However, COR theory provides a framework for a better understanding of customer perceived value, the value co‐creation and co‐destruction process. Practical implications – The findings offer a new perspective to practitioners for understanding customer expectations and behaviour. There is a need to re‐evaluate and re‐design value propositions in line with organisational capabilities and customers' resource needs. Social implications – Organisations' misuse of customers' resources negatively impacts on “well‐being”: a phenomenon of increasing interest at the societal level. Originality/value – This study is the first to empirically examine the concept of VCD, as perceived and experienced by customers, from a resource ecology perspective. It contributes to the growing body of work deriving from the service‐dominant logic approach to value co‐creation.

Yue Meng‐Lewis; Des Thwaites; Kishore Gopalakrishna Pillai

doi: 10.1108/EJM-06-2010-0347pmid: N/A

Purpose – The study aims to explore the novel issue of how consumers perceive sponsorship initiatives by foreign companies and how the sponsors' country‐of‐origin (COO) cue may influence sponsorship outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The measurement model and proposed relationships were tested based on a sample of 811 Chinese consumers using confirmatory factor analysis and structural path analysis. Findings – The results reveal that attitudes toward the sponsor completely mediate the effect of event involvement on willingness to buy from the sponsor (WBS). Attitudes toward the sponsor also partially mediate the relationship between economic animosity towards a specific sponsor's COO and WBS. Additionally, the level of a country's economic competitiveness found to moderate the negative relationship between economic animosity, attitudes toward the sponsor and WBS. Research limitations/implications – The nature of the product type and the desire of the consumer to own such a product may have influenced the measurement of willingness to buy. Practical implications – The research adds to the existing knowledge by identifying the opportunities and potential biases that a foreign company may encounter when considering sponsoring a mega sport event in a different cultural context. The study helps managers to understand how sports sponsorship could be used effectively in emerging markets. Originality/value – The proposed conceptual model advances the application of classical conditioning theory, the consumer animosity model of foreign product purchase and the belief‐attitude‐intention hierarchy in the sponsorship arena. It is the first investigation of the role of event involvement and economic animosity in understanding sponsorship responses.

Matthew Gorton; Robert Angell; John White; Yu‐Shan Tseng

doi: 10.1108/EJM-06-2011-0286pmid: N/A

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present and test a conceptual model for understanding consumer responses to cause related voucher schemes (CRVS), considering the initiatives of two UK‐based grocery retailers (Tesco and Morrisons). Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model incorporates six theoretically derived exogenous constructs, i.e. status of the cause, company‐cause fit, personal involvement with the cause, attitudes to the company, perceived sincerity of the company and perceived ubiquity. These are hypothesized to influence consumer responses to three primary endogenous variables: interest in the company, favourability of attitudes to the company and use (impact on purchasing intentions). The model is tested using survey data ( n =401) collected in two UK cities. Findings – All but two of the hypothesized path relationships were confirmed and the percentage of explained variance for the primary endogenous variables compares well against previous models. Attitudes to the company, perceived ubiquity and favourability were identified as significant predictors of behavioural intentions (use). Practical implications – In selecting a cause, managers need to think carefully about the status of the cause, its degree of fit with the company and how to build personal involvement. CRVS initiatives should be focused, with consistency in communication. If a company suffers from negative consumer attitudes, a CRVS alone is unlikely to turn around their business performance. Originality/value – The paper represents the first academic assessment of consumer responses to CRVS, introducing and validating a conceptual model.

Catherine Liston‐Heyes; Gordon Liu

doi: 10.1108/EJM-03-2012-0142pmid: N/A

Purpose – Cause‐related marketing (CRM) involves firms working in partnership with non‐profit organizations (NPOs). While CRM offers a range of potential benefits to NPOs, some managers are reluctant to partake in these ventures. The purpose of this paper is to uncover their concerns and highlight what can be done to improve their experience of CRM. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses semi‐structured interviews with 160 UK NPO managers and a stakeholder theory framework to document their experience of the CRM process and investigate what they can do to improve it. Findings – It identifies three types of concerns relating to issues of: organizational identity, alliance risks, and the prioritization of NPO stakeholders. The analyses also uncover a number of strategies used by NPO managers to safeguard their organisations. Research limitations/implications – By focusing not only on the measurable outcomes of CRM but also on its processes, the authors provide a more thorough analysis of CRM and its impact on NPOs. Practical implications – By emphasizing potential NPO stakeholder dissent, the authors' study provides a list of pitfalls that may help NPO managers select more suitable corporate partners, come better prepared to the negotiation table, improve the selection and training of negotiators, and generally manage the CRM process more efficiently. Originality/value – Studies of CRM have been predominantly from the corporate perspective. Consequently, the understanding of CRM from an NPO viewpoint remains limited both theoretically and empirically. The authors' paper complements this literature by investigating NPO managers' concerns about the process of CRM.

Jing Yang Zhong; Vincent‐Wayne Mitchell

doi: 10.1108/EJM-10-2011-0585pmid: N/A

Purpose – While having “more” in life seems to have a positive impact on consumers' well‐being, the role of how satisfied consumers need to be with this “more” before it is able to enhance their well‐being is not clear. This study aims to examine an integrated model of the mediating effect of satisfaction on the relationship between objective life circumstances and subjective well‐being. Design/methodology/approach – The new model proposed is tested by using data obtained from British Household Panel Survey. A fixed‐effects econometric model is estimated using Stata 10 to identify the mediating effect of satisfaction with life circumstances on the relationship between life circumstances and well‐being. Findings – The results show that objective circumstances affect well‐being primarily through the mediating effect of satisfaction with corresponding life domains irrespective of the level of objective circumstances. However, this mediating effect varies by life domain and cannot be generalized. Practical implications – The implications for public policy makers are that intervention policies that improve the three life domains of health, leisure and housing will effectively enhance consumers' well‐being. Meanwhile, government should also allocate more resources to increase consumers' positive thinking to help them to improve their well‐being. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the mediating effect of subjective satisfaction on the effect of objective circumstances on well‐being across six life domains.