Consumer trust repair: A critical literature review

Consumers are fundamental to organisational functioning and survival. Their loyalty, commitment, product acceptance and good long-term relationships with firms and brands are underpinned by their trust. Unfortunately, over the last decade or so, we have witnessed some of the more spectacular violations of consumer trust in the history of business. This has led to negative consequences, such as loss of competitive advantage, rage, lack of commitment and decrease in turnover. Consequently, study of trust repair has become an important theoretical concern for a growing number of trust scholars. This article reviews and synthesises existing theory and research on the topic. It first sketches general characteristics of the consumer trust repair literature, including its meta-theoretical underpinning. It then identifies specific strategies associated with consumer trust repair and synthesises them into five categories of trust repair strategies. In addition, this paper highlights theoretical processes that explain why/how trust repair strategies work. Third, the paper proposes six fruitful avenues for future research. This study contributes to the field of consumer trust repair research by critically reviewing and synthesising emerging theory and research on strategies associated with consumer trust repair, by showing why and how these strategies work and by identifying most fruitful research areas.     

重点产业政策对出口再分配的影响

基于2000-2013年海关数据与各省份五年规划数据,本文考察了重点产业政策对出口再分配的影响机制。研究发现,政府对特定行业的支持会引致产品维度不同类型企业间的出口再分配;产品市场获得支持会吸引潜在出口商参与出口、争夺市场份额,也会吸引在位出口商将部分业务转移到获得政策支持的行业、进行业务试探;同时,市场竞争的加剧也会加速淘汰竞争力较差的中小企业,促进产品维度新旧企业的更新换代。进一步,本文通过对比不同类型企业的出口动态,考察了重点产业政策对企业出口平均单价与产品质量的影响,发现政府对特定行业的支持会降低出口市场的准入门槛,导致更多的低价低质企业进入市场。可见,适度的政策支持有助于产品市场内企业的更新换代,激发市场活力;但政策的制定必须兼顾企业更新换代过程中的质量攀升机制,才能充分发挥其对出口再分配的优化作用,推动对外贸易的可持续发展。     

儿童玩具礼品包装设计的研究与思考

现如今礼品类高端产品由于自身的品牌效应，得到了市场上极高的受欢迎指数，因其包装精美和视觉鲜明的因素，越是在国际市场环境低迷的时候，越容易抢占市场。在中国的儿童玩具礼品领域，不单单需要效仿国际流行的设计趋势，而且还要积极提升国内自主品牌影响力，这才是中国当今发展儿童玩具礼品包装产业，缩小与国际水平之间的差距，夺回本土市场继而进军国际市场的必由之路。具体分别从消费群体和包装设计本身两方面进行调查和分析研究。     

Consumers’ credit card repayment decisions: The role of higher anchors and future repayment concern

We investigated two aspects of credit card repayment decisions: the extent to which the anchoring effect of minimum repayment information may be mitigated by information on alternative anchors, specifically repayments that would repay the balance in two years (Study 1) or nine months (Study 2); and the role of future repayment concern. In two experiments, three realistic credit card statements were presented with different outstanding balances. Participants, who were randomly allocated to one of four information conditions depending on supplementary information provided on the statements, stated how much they would repay that month. They were then asked about concerns they would have about repayment difficulties if they had a fixed consumer loan over three years. In Study 1 the alternative two-year repayment anchor had a negative effect on percent repayment, whereas in Study 2 the nine-month repayment anchor had a significant positive effect, especially for those with higher future repayment concern. Also, in both studies, future repayment concern had a direct inverse effect on repayment decisions which partially mediated the effect of disposable income. It is concluded that the addition to credit card statements of a table of cost and duration information for a range of repayment amounts may usefully support repayment decisions.     

Safety as a Fifth Dimension in Supervision: Stories from the Frontline

Child and family practice is recognised as a field of social work that has become increasingly complex. While evidence is growing in relation to effective supervision, there has been little research about the attributes of an effective supervisor, or the components of effective supervision. This paper reports on research undertaken in Victoria, Australia, which explored practitioners’ and supervisors’ experiences of effective supervision in this field. Data collection involved in-depth interviews with experienced supervisors and supervisees in order to explore the concept of effective supervision from participants’ perspectives. The data were systematically interrogated using a thematic inductive process, designed to enhance the voice of participants in the research. The study findings confirmed the complexity and centrality of the supervisory relationship, with the experience of a safe supervisory relationship proving essential. The importance of contemporary knowledge, leadership skills, and an enabling organisational and community context were also highlighted.     

产品质量内部性问题的政府管制

文章引入了对产品质量的分析,将产品质量和数量作为并列的因素进行考察,着重分析了产品质量的内部性问题,并进一步提出了单纯的较大的交易成本和单纯的不对称信息,都不能解释产品质量内部性问题产生的根源,与信息不对称紧密联系的较大的交易成本才是其根源。如何降低这种交易成本就成为政府对产品质量内部性进行管制,提高消费者福利水平的管制重点。     

产品差异化对市场结构的影响分析——基于演化经济学的观点

以双占垄断为例,产品差异化对市场结构的影响具有以下几个方面:(1)完全垄断可能是同质产品竞争的结果;(2)尽管产品差异化不能排除完全垄断的存在,但是从长期看,它极大增加了厂商共存的可能性;(3)产品差异化程度越大,双占寡头的结构越稳定。     

A Probabilistic Dealing Strategy

A probabilistic dealing strategy is proposed which allows all premium brands in an established market to earn nonnegative profits without cooperation. Following the strategy, brands take turns attracting deal-responsive customers. Relative to a reactive competitive strategy, the proposed strategy improves the positions of all premium brands. With use of the strategy, average deal sizes are positively related to a brand's market share, the proportion of quality conscious customers, the proportion of informed customers, the span of regular prices in a market, and the range of customers' acceptable prices.     

The effects of information form and domain-specific knowledge on choice deferral

Three studies examined the effect of information form on choice deferral in consumer choice and explored the moderating role of knowledge about the product domain. Two theoretical approaches were contrasted: (1) The process approach predicting that choice deferral varies as a function of information form, and (2) the communication approach predicting an interaction of information form and domain-specific knowledge. Participants were presented with different laptops described in an absolute (e.g. ‘300 GB hard disc’), evaluative-numerical (e.g. ‘hard disc with 30 out of 100 points in an expert rating’) or evaluative-verbal (e.g. ‘bad hard disc’) information form, and they could choose to buy one of the laptops or defer. Domain-specific knowledge was also assessed. In Study 1, evaluative-numerical and evaluative-verbal values led to more deferral in people with high domain-specific knowledge. The pattern for evaluative-numerical and evaluative-verbal values was replicated for a different information organization in Study 2. Study 3 showed that absolute values led to more deferral the less knowledgeable participants were and demonstrated that domain-specific knowledge and deferral were unrelated when absolute and evaluative-verbal values were presented in combination. In sum, the results support the communication approach and have methodological implications for decision research and theoretical implications for understanding choice deferral in real-life decisions.     

Mitigating the Impact of Functional Dominance in Cross‐Functional Process Improvement Teams

Manufacturing process improvement teams often draw upon cross‐functional expertise. However, teams dominated by a single or few functions often do not achieve the desired interdisciplinary learning and cooperation, which in turn could negatively affect the performance of that cross‐functional team. Through an empirical analysis of 149 manufacturing process improvement teams in six SIC industrial categories, we show that even after controlling for several factors such as team size, number of functions, gender diversity, ethnicity, number of management levels, and geographic dispersion of team members, psychological safety of work environment fully mediates the relationship between functional dominance and team performance. We also confirm that a team leader possessing high interpersonal justice mitigates the deficiency of dominated teams and improves team performance by fostering a psychologically safe work environment. Our recommendation therefore is that when a dominated team is unavoidable due to the needed skill sets or other organizational considerations, to ensure success it is imperative that the firm chooses a team leader who can promote psychological safety by being just, and who can effectively encourage input from all functional team members and give them objective feedback.