First Step in Social Media: Measuring the Influence of Online Management Responses on Customer Satisfaction

With the growing influence of online social media, firms increasingly take an active role in interacting with consumers in social media. For many firms, their first step in online social media is management responses, where the management responds to customers' comments about the firm or its products and services. In this article, we measure the impact of management responses on customer satisfaction using data retrieved from a major online travel agency in China. Applying a panel data model that controls for regression toward the mean and heterogeneity in individual preference for hotels, we find that online management responses are highly effective among low satisfaction customers but have limited influence on other customers. Moreover, we show that the public nature of online management responses introduces a new dynamic among customers. Although online management responses increase future satisfaction of the complaining customers who receive the responses, they decrease future satisfaction of complaining customers who observe but do not receive management responses. The result is consistent with the peer‐induced fairness theory.     

道歉承诺类管理反馈策略对顾客二次满意度的影响——基于顾客多样情绪调节效应

O2O模式下，众多学者和商家都关注何种在线管理反馈策略能提升顾客满意度，然而多数研究仅针对顾客负向情绪，忽略了顾客多样情绪对在线管理反馈策略影响的调节作用。实际上顾客在接受在线管理反馈时带有矛盾情绪，表现为多种情绪。因此本文针对消费者多样情绪，研究不同情绪调节下道歉承诺类管理反馈策略与顾客满意度之间的关系。通过梳理在线管理反馈策略、顾客满意度、顾客多样情绪等相关研究，提出代表顾客多样情绪的在线评论类型包括：积极评论、偏积极评论、消极评论、偏消极评论，研究不同类型评论（顾客多样情绪）对顾客满意度有不同影响；道歉承诺类管理反馈策略对顾客二次满意度有积极影响；不同类型在线评论（消费者多样情绪）对道歉承诺类管理反馈策略的积极影响有调节作用等假设。本文以国内某旅行网站99027名顾客二次入住酒店数据为样本，用机器学习的方法对顾客评论和管理反馈策略进行分类，通过多元线性回归模型进行实证分析，结果表明：（1）偏积极评论、偏消极评论、消极评论对顾客二次满意度有负向影响；（2）道歉承诺类管理反馈策略对顾客二次满意度有积极作用；（3）顾客偏消极、消极情绪能够加强道歉承诺类管理反馈策略对顾客二次满意度的正向影响，即道歉承诺在调节顾客的消极情绪方面具有一定的积极作用。研究结果丰富了在线管理反馈策略理论和方法，为服务商进行在线管理反馈时应采取的措施提供了一些参考，对服务商通过第三方平台加强顾客关系管理具有一定的指导意义。     

Modeling the Effects of a Service Guarantee on Perceived Service Quality Using Alternating Conditional Expectations (ACE)*

This paper addresses the dearth of empirical research on the relationship between service guarantee and perceived service quality (PSQ). In particular, we examine the moderating effects of a service guarantee on PSQ. While a recent study provided empirical evidence that service quality is affected by service guarantee and employee variables such as employee motivation/vision and learning through service failure, the nature and form of the relationships between these variables remain unclear. Knowledge of these relationships can assist service managers to allocate resources more judiciously, avoid pitfalls, and establish more realistic expectations. Data was obtained from employees and customers of a multinational hotel chain that has implemented a service guarantee program in 89 of its hotels in America and Canada. As the employee variables could affect performance in a non‐linear fashion, we relaxed the assumption of model linearity by using the Alternating Conditional Expectations (ACE) algorithm to arrive at a better‐fitting, non‐linear regression model for PSQ. Our findings indicate the existence of significant non‐linear relationships between PSQ and its determinant variables. The ACE model also revealed that service guarantee interacts with the employee variables to affect PSQ in a non‐linear fashion. The non‐linear relationships present new insights into the management of service guarantees and PSQ. Explanations and managerial implications of our results are presented and discussed.     

Exploring the Effects of the Privacy‐Handling Management Styles of Social Networking Sites on User Satisfaction: A Conflict Management Perspective

The issue of consumer information privacy, arguably the most substantial and persistent problem confronting e‐commerce companies in general and online social networking service providers in particular, often results in unsatisfied customers. Researchers have investigated privacy from various perspectives and in a multitude of settings, yet there have been few attempts to understand privacy versus satisfaction, particularly from the perspective of conflict management. Because users’ privacy can be negatively affected by social networking sites (SNSs), this study focuses on the privacy conflicts between SNSs and their users. Drawing on conflict management theory, this article investigates the effects of different conflict management styles exhibited by an SNS on users’ satisfaction with its privacy practices, which then affects their intention to disclose personal information. The SNS examined in this study is Facebook, the most popular SNS with the largest number of users. Data were collected using an online survey and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that the two cooperative conflict management styles demonstrated by the SNS—accommodating and problem‐solving—positively affect users’ satisfaction with the privacy practices of the SNS both directly and indirectly through perceived privacy risk control. With regard to uncooperative styles, an avoiding style negatively affects user satisfaction directly, whereas an asserting style negatively affects user satisfaction indirectly through perceived privacy risk. The results also support that satisfaction is positively related to intention; users who are satisfied with the privacy practices of SNSs are more willing to disclose personal information than unsatisfied ones.     

融合特征情感和产品参数的客户感知偏好模型

在线评论作为一种公开、可获取的信息资源，蕴含了关于产品质量的各种有价值的信息，对这些信息的分析与挖掘有助于企业了解客户的需求和偏好。目前，基于在线评论的客户偏好模型考虑了特征观点和评论数量，忽视了产品参数对消费者购买决策的影响。因此，本文提出了一种融合特征情感和产品参数的客户感知偏好模型。首先，利用在线评论提取客户讨论的产品特征，并识别产品特征的情感极性，从而进一步计算特征正负面情感得分，生成产品的特征情感。然后，结合企业定义的产品参数，构建特征情感和产品参数融合作用对产品销量影响的计量经济模型，分析客户对产品的感知偏好。最后，为验证模型的有效性，获取了汽车之家网站的39款汽车产品（SUV车型）的评论文本，并持续8个月的销量跟踪。研究结果显示本文提出的模型比信息增益和TF-IDF方法能够更加准确地获取客户的感知偏好。此外，研究结果解释了特征情感和产品参数与产品销量的关联关系，为企业的市场营销和产品设计决策提供了理论基础。     

基于在线评论数据的产品需求趋势挖掘

随着经济水平的提高和物质生活的丰富，消费者的需求变化也越来越快。能否迎合市场需求的变化是企业产品成功的关键。随着社交媒体的发展，消费者为了分享购物体验发表了许多在线评论信息，其中蕴含着消费者的需求变化。本文在产品特征提取和属性情感分析的基础上，构建了垃圾评论识别模型。然后，利用时间序列分析模型预测下阶段的产品属性关注度和情感计算。最后结合历史数据的变化趋势，分析产品属性的重要性和市场满意情况。利用汽车论坛上的汽车评论数据对本文提出的研究模型进行了验证。研究结果可以为企业制定营销策略以及产品改进与创新提供决策支持。     

Impact of Customer‐based Corporate Reputation on Non‐monetary and Monetary Outcomes: The Roles of Commitment and Service Context Risk

A firm's reputation is an important intangible asset, because of its potential for value creation. The authors explore non‐monetary and monetary outcomes of customer‐based corporate reputation (CBR) and hypothesize that commitment serves as a partial mediator, while service context risk is a moderator, of these relationships. Using a large sample of service customers who evaluated the reputation of service firms in four service categories, the results show that (1) commitment partially mediates the relationship between CBR and most of the outcome variables, and (2) service provider selection risk moderates these relationships, such that reputation has a stronger effect on several non‐monetary outcomes for higher‐risk services and commitment has a stronger effect for lower‐risk services, consistent with a dual‐processing framework explanation. The authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications.     

突发危机事件网络舆情治理的多情景演化博弈分析

互联网时代，网络媒体已经成为谣言传播的重要载体，严重威胁到我国的网络空间安全和社会和谐稳定，因此加强和创新对网络媒体的监管，妥善治理突发危机事件网络舆情是各级政府面临的重大挑战。针对突发危机事件网络舆情治理的研究，本文运用演化博弈理论构建了网络媒体与地方政府双方演化博弈模型，在引入中央政府惩罚机制基础上，对比分析了网络媒体与地方政府双方行为策略选择的演化稳定均衡，同时采取多案例进行实证研究，并通过数值仿真分析对模型进行多情景推演模拟。研究结果表明：突发危机事件网络舆情传播热度与网络媒体和地方政府双方的策略选择有着直接关系；若地方政府承受突发危机事件网络舆情恶性演化造成的经济损失与信誉损失持续增大，双方演化系统都会出现周期性波动现象；引入中央政府惩罚机制后，其惩罚力度若高于网络媒体消极应对网络舆情所受到的惩罚和地方政府的监管投入成本时，最终系统会演化至良性状态，研究结论为政府部门在面对突发危机事件网络舆情治理方面提供了新思路。     

Are Self‐Service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?

This paper investigates the impact of self‐service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self‐service customers. Our empirical analysis examines 26,924 multi‐channel customers of a nationwide retail bank. We track each customer's channel usage, overall satisfaction, and retention over a 1‐year period. We find that, relative to face‐to‐face service, customers who use self‐service channels for a greater proportion of their transactions are either no more satisfied, or less satisfied with the service they receive, depending on the channel. However, we also find that these same customers are predictably less likely to defect to a competitor if they are heavily reliant on self‐service channels characterized by high switching costs. Through a mediation model, we demonstrate that, when self‐service usage promotes retention, it does so in a way that is consistent with switching costs. As a robustness check, we examine the behavior of channel enthusiasts, who concentrate transactions among specific channels. Relative to more diversified customers, we find that self‐service enthusiasts in low switching cost channels defect with greater frequency, while self‐service enthusiasts in high switching cost channels are retained with greater frequency.     

Leadership Styles as Predictors of Self‐reported and Observed Workplace Bullying

The connection between leadership or management style, on the one hand, and perceptions of bullying, on the other, has received little attention within bullying research. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the relationship between subordinates' ratings of their immediate superiors' behaviours, and both perceived exposure and claims of observations of bullying at work. Based on a sampling process which emphasized randomness and representativeness, the responses from 5288 respondents in Great Britain taking part in a nationwide study on psychosocial issues at work were included in the analysis. Bullying correlated with all four leadership styles measured. Yet, ‘non‐contingent punishment’ emerged as the strongest predictor of self‐perceived exposure to bullying, while autocratic leadership was the strongest predictor of observed bullying. Hence, while observers particularly associate bullying with autocratic or tyrannical leader behaviour, targets relate bullying more to non‐contingent punishment, i.e. an unpredictable style of leadership, where punishment is meted out or delivered on leaders' own terms, independent of the behaviour of subordinates. In addition, laissez‐faire leadership emerged as a predictor of self‐reported as well as observed bullying. Thus, leadership styles seem to play an important but complex role in the bullying process.     

Hiding Customer Complaints: Studying the Motivations and Forms of Service Employees' Complaint Concealment Behaviours

This study aims to explore both how and why customer service employees conceal the complaints made by customers. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, data were gathered through the in‐depth interviewing of 25 managers, 25 supervisors and 57 front‐line employees of UK general retailers/supermarkets. Data analysis reveals that the concealment of customer complaints by store employees of all hierarchical levels is common. Front‐line, customer‐contact employees were found to conceal complaints in four ways: through (1) misleading customers, (2) complaint resolution without logging, (3) concealing recorded complaints and (4) falsification of recorded complaints. Store‐level supervisory and managerial employees were also found to conceal complaints in four ways: through (1) complaint resolution without logging, (2) concealing recorded complaints, (3) the non‐recording of complaints and (4) the disregarding of ‘minor’ complaints. The motives for complaint concealment differed between managerial/supervisory and front‐line employees but included reasons of (1) personal protection, (2) perceived customer unpleasantness, (3) serial complaint avoidance, (4) alienation, (5) friends or family protection, (6) instrumental gain, (7) avoidance of additional work, (8) perceived unfairness and (9) limited time. These findings suggest that theorists and practitioners need to acknowledge the existence and prevalence of these motives and behaviours and incorporate them into their conceptualizations and practices.     

A Choice‐Based Dynamic Programming Approach for Setting Opaque Prices

Opaque pricing is a form of pricing where certain characteristics of the product or service are hidden from the consumer until after purchase. In essence, opaque selling transforms a differentiated good into a commodity. Opaque pricing has become popular in service pricing as it allows firms to sell their differentiated product at higher prices to regular brand loyal customers while simultaneously selling to non‐brand loyal customers at discounted prices. We use a nested logit model in combination with logistic regression and dynamic programming to illustrate how a service firm can optimally set prices on an opaque sales channel. The choice model allows the characterization of consumer trade‐offs when purchasing opaque products while the dynamic programming approach allows the characterization of the optimal pricing policy as a function of inventory and time remaining. We compare optimal prices and expected revenues when dynamic pricing is restricted to daily price changes. We provide an illustrative example using data from an opaque selling mechanism ( Hotwire.com ) and a Washington DC‐based hotel.     

Profitability of Service‐Level‐Based Price Differentiation with Inventory Rationing

In this paper, we study the profitability of service‐level‐based price differentiation (SLBPD) in an inventory‐rationing context. SLBPD implies that a company offers several combinations of prices and guaranteed service levels, from which customers self‐select; different customers choose different offerings because they incur different shortage costs if an order is not fulfilled immediately. We develop an analytical model for SLBPD and explore if and when such a service differentiation strategy yields higher profits than a single undifferentiated offering. The results of our analyses suggest that SLBPD is profitable only if a company faces pricing restrictions, e.g., because of competitive pressure or regulatory restrictions. We develop necessary and sufficient conditions under which a specific and relevant form of SLBPD (called “service‐level‐based upselling”) is profitable, and provide an algorithm to compute the optimal parameters of such a policy. Based on this algorithm we carry out numerical analyses that allow us to characterize the profit increment of service‐level‐based upselling. We derive managerial insights into the attractiveness of SLBPD and explain how our basic analytical framework can be extended to account for more complex practical features.     

Transaction‐Specific Investments,Relational Norms,and ERP Customer Satisfaction: A Mediation Analysis*

Integrating the perspectives of transaction cost economics, the resource‐based view, and resource dependency theory, this study analyzes the institutional settings of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations in China. Specifically, it examines how bilateral transaction‐specific investments (TSIs) and relational governance mechanisms influence customer satisfaction with ERP implementations. The model is empirically tested using data from on‐site interviews with 208 ERP customers in China. The results demonstrate that the effects of vendors’ and customers’ TSIs on customer satisfaction are facilitated by multiple‐stage micromediational chains. The influence of TSIs on customer satisfaction is mediated by relational norms, and the impact of relational norms on customer satisfaction is bridged by perceived service quality and customer trust. Furthermore, the influence of vendors’ TSIs is stronger than the influence of customers’ TSIs. The findings contribute to business research and practice by providing valuable insights into how ERP vendors and customers should strategize TSIs to enhance relationship performance.     

Managerial Risk‐taking in International Acquisitions in the Brewery Industry: Institutional and Ownership Influences Compared

This paper deals with the role that institutional differences play in managerial risk‐taking when firms engage in international acquisitions. It is assumed that multinational corporations (MNCs) have different interests and capabilities when dealing with international acquisition, which in the authors’ view are significantly shaped by specific home country institutional influences. This study concerns the question of how different forms of ownership – concentrated (e.g. family and bank based) and dispersed (stock market based) – influence risk‐taking and managerial decision‐making in large international acquisitions. Comparing a total of 12 large acquisitions of four leading MNCs in the global brewery industry, the paper shows that mutually reinforcing influences of country of origin (coordinated vs liberal market economies) and ownership (family ownership vs stock market ownership) lead to different risk profiles and managerial risk‐taking with regard to international acquisitions.     

关系投资和价格促销的价值比较研究

过去营销界一直把关系投资和价格促销策略作为获得新顾客和提高现有顾客满意度的主要工具。然而关系投资和价格促销作为流失顾客的赢回策略,对于失而复得的顾客而言,哪种策略能令顾客更满意,购买更多,能使厂商绩效更好,是我们需要解答的问题。本文通过对酒店业的抽样调查数据分析发现:第一,用关系投资策略赢回顾客的满意度和购买份额较用价格促销策略赢回的顾客更高。第二,在关系投资策略的影响下,价格敏感度高(低)的顾客满意度与购买份额之间拟合的函数曲线边际递减(递增);在价格促销策略影响下,价格敏感度高(低)的顾客满意度与购买份额之间拟合的函数曲线边际递增(递减)。第三,注重价格促销策略的酒店,其绩效低于注重关系投资策略的酒店,绩效的稳定性也相对较差。研究对指导企业管理实践具有重要参考价值。     

Human Resource Management–Performance Research: Is Everyone Really on the Same Page on Employee Involvement?

Differences in the treatment of involvement in the human resource management (HRM)–performance research stream have been underplayed, as commentaries concentrate on showing that HRM produces a performance premium, and more recently on exploring the mechanisms explaining this. This paper first identifies the two initial concerns of the research stream – the value of employee involvement and the holistic treatment of HRM – and the way these are joined to present a unified view of the area. It then reviews the studies, confirming that involvement has been underplayed or neglected completely, and is only prioritized in a minority. A divide is identified between HRM as an orientation towards fostering employee involvement – seen as a managerial philosophy – and as a technology – a set of practices constituting high‐performance work systems. The paper then argues that acknowledgement of this divide matters, and concludes by drawing out some implications for how we should progress the research stream.     

A Case Study of Gender Differences in Job Satisfaction Subsequent to Implementation of an Employment Equity Programme

In this research case study, the competing hypothesis of socialization, structural and social role theories were derived and used to explore and compare the job attitudes and satisfaction of women and men in a Canadian insurance company subsequent to voluntary implementation of an employment equity programme. Gender comparisons of both managerial and clerical employees on individual facets of satisfaction indicated the most support for social role theory, some support for structural theory and the least support for socialization theory. These findings indicate that managerial women and men tend to derive work satisfaction from similar sources. The variation in facet results cautions against global conclusions about gender and job satisfaction. Unanticipated consequences such as a 'backlash' (Faludi, 1991) of managerial men and a 'glass escalator' (Williams, 1992) for clerical men were also suggested by the findings in this case. A key implication is the potential benefit to both organizations and managerial women from steps taken to level the structural playing field.     

Strategic intent in the management of the green environment within SMEs: An analysis of the UK screen-printing sector

What drives the environmental behaviour of companies is an under-researched and under-developed area of study, particularly in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This article investigates to what extent the responses by UK screen-printing companies to pressures to improve their environmental performance represented a deliberate attempt by senior managers to provide their organisations with a strategic competitive advantage.Using both a quantitative and qualitative approach, the research shows that the environmental responses of this sector tended to be reactive, defensive and driven by – and frequently limited to – legislative compliance. Even though companies accepted that there were potential commercial benefits to be gained from environmental action, there was very little evidence to indicate that managerial decisions were motivated by strategic intent or that managerial mindsets were tuned to the notion that a proactive environmental response could offer a competitive edge. The article discusses the management implications of this lack of strategic orientation and highlights how a more innovative response by companies could provide both demand and supply side benefits.