Alastair Tombs

Social-Servicescape Conceptual Model

There is considerable evidence that environmental variables can substantially influence consumer behavior in service settings (cf. Turley and Milliman, 2000). However, research to date has focused on the effects of the physical elements (‘atmospherics’), with the social aspects (customers and service providers) of the environment largely ignored. First, we provide a review of the extant literature drawing on four major streams of research from (1) previous marketing (servicescapes); (2) environmental psychology (approach–avoidance theory, behavior setting theory); (3) social psychology (social facilitation theory); and (4) organizational behavior (affective events theory). Second, we present a new conceptual model, the ‘Social-servicescape’. In this paper we argue that the social environment and purchase occasion dictates the desired social density which influences customers’ affective and cognitive responses, including repurchase intentions. Furthermore, we argue that customers play a key role in influencing the emotions of others either positively or negatively, and this largely determines whether they intend to return to the service setting. Implications of this conceptual model for theory and practice are discussed.

Measuring Emotion: Methodological Issues and Alternatives

Given the increased profile of emotions in the past decade (Ashkanasy & Daus, 2002), the aim of this chapter is to raise awareness of measurement issues. As scholars, we are interested in examining emotions as dependent and independent variables, and also in manipulation checks to verify experimental induction of emotional states. In spite of the many studies on emotion, poor measurement remains the Achilles’ heel of this line of research (Huelsman, Furr, & Nemanick, 2003). Accurate assessment of emotion is imperative for advancing knowledge in this field; therefore, our focus is on critical evaluation of commonly used emotions measures

The effect of service employees’ accent on customer reactions

Purpose – The primary objective of this article is to investigate customer reactions to service employees with accents that differ from a non-native accent taking into account customer emotions. Design/methodology/approach – This article reports on a study with a 2 (accent of service employee: Australian or Indian) × 2 (service employee’s competency: competent or incompetent) × 2 (customer’s affective state: positive or negative) between-subject experimental design to uncover the effects of service employees’ accent on customers’ reactions. Findings – The findings revealed that hearing a service employee with a foreign accent was not enough on its own to influence customer responses. However, when the service employee is incompetent or the customer was in a negative affective state, a foreign accent appeared to exacerbate the situation. Research limitations/implications – While the findings indicate that accents are used a cue for customers to evaluate service employees, further research should also take ...

Recognising emotional expressions of complaining customers: A cross-cultural study

Purpose – This study aims to test service providers’ ability to recognise non-verbal emotions in complaining customers of same and different cultures. Design/methodology/approach – In a laboratory study, using a between-subjects experimental design (n = 153), we tested the accuracy of service providers’ perceptions of the emotional expressions of anger, fear, shame and happiness of customers from varying cultural backgrounds. After viewing video vignettes of customers complaining (with the audio removed), participants (in the role of service providers) assessed the emotional state of the customers portrayed in the video. Findings – Service providers in culturally mismatched dyads were prone to misreading anger, happiness and shame expressed by dissatisfied customers. Happiness was misread in the displayed emotions of both dyads. Anger was recognisable in the Anglo customers but not Confucian Asian, while Anglo service providers misread both shame and happiness in Confucian Asian customers. Research limita...

Chapter 6 The Intentional Use of Service Recovery Strategies to Influence Consumer Emotion, Cognition and Behavior

Service recovery strategies have been identified as a critical factor in the success of service organizations. This study develops a conceptual framework to investigate how specific service recovery strategies influence the emotional, cognitive and negative behavioral responses of consumers, as well as how emotion and cognition influence negative behavior. Understanding the impact of specific service recovery strategies will allow service providers to more deliberately and intentionally engage in strategies that result in positive organizational outcomes. This study was conducted using a 2×2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design. The results suggest that service recovery has a significant impact on emotion, cognition and negative behavior. Similarly, satisfaction, negative emotion and positive emotion all influence negative behavior but distributive justice has no effect.

Māori knowledge and consumer tribes

This paper explores an agenda for consumer behaviour research as it relates to tribal consumerism. It is argued that while the international consumer behaviour research field is inspired by Indigenous knowledges, the quality of research will be relatively poor and unconvincing unless Indigenous researchers and voices make their way into those conversations. We argue for greater plurality through Indigenous participation in consumer behaviour research, and we challenge business schools to realise their accountability.

Examining how context change foster service innovation

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of context in service innovation by developing a conceptual framework that illuminates the key elements and trends in context change.,The paper adopts a service ecosystem lens for understanding how elements and trends in context foster service innovation. A conceptual framework identifying the role of context change in fostering service innovation is developed and justified through illustrations across industry settings of health, retailing, banking and education.,Context change is conceptualized by three trends – speed, granularity and liquification – that provide an analytical foundation for understanding how changes in the elements of context – space, resources and institutional arrangements – can foster service innovation. The analysis indicates emerging patterns across industries that allow exploring scenarios, grounded in emerging trends and developments in service innovation toward 2050.,Managers are offered a framework to guide service innovation and help them prepare for the future. The paper also suggests areas for further research.,The paper contributes with a new conceptualization of context change to identify and explain service innovation opportunities. Managers are offered a framework to guide service innovation and help them prepare for 2050. The paper also suggests areas for further service innovation research, zooming in on contextual changes to prepare for 2050.

The Role of Transitional Servicescapes in Maintaining Attachment to Place: An Abstract

Previous research has extended scholars’ focus on place attachment and the servicescape as the physical service setting. However, very little attention has been paid to exploring the temporal dimension in connection with attachment and servicescapes. In particular, how place attachment is maintained during the transition phase between the removal of, or disruption to, one permanent servicescape and the reestablishment of its replacement. For example, the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, suffered two major earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011 causing significant damage to and the subsequent removal of large parts of the city’s retail, commercial and residential precincts. Six years on Christchurch is still undergoing an extensive rebuilding process. Because of the magnitude of destruction, especially in the CBD, and the logistics of clearing damaged buildings, designing, planning and funding new works have meant that only now a new permanent city is emerging. This rebuilding process created numerous blocks of vacant land on which entrepreneurs set up businesses either as individual temporary servicescapes or part of larger precinct-based transitional servicescapes that contained a collection of individual businesses, events and/or installations. This post-earthquake scenario provides a suitable study environment in regard to the time perspective of servicescapes and how residents maintain, build or rebuild their attachment to place during this temporary or transitional period. Aligned with such an extensive rebuilding programme is the notion that attachment occurs at differing levels of servicescape, whether this is at the individual retail or service store level or the greater precinct or city level. In these transitional phases, place attachment at one level may leverage or be leveraged by the servicescapes of another level. Scholars in environmental psychology have attempted to conceptualise, understand and measure place attachment to interpret the individual–individual, individual–community and individual–place bonding for a specific place scale (e.g., Kyle et al. 2005). The majority of such research focuses on a medium-range place scale such as neighbourhood or community. In this paper we review the literature on servicescapes and place attachment and apply it to the transitional and reconstructed city of Christchurch in order to derive an understanding of the ability of temporary or transitional spaces to maintain place attachment even when the original servicescapes have been destroyed.

Would you forgive Kristen Stewart or Tiger Woods or maybe Lance Armstrong? Exploring consumers’ forgiveness of celebrities’ transgressions

ABSTRACT Employing a qualitative approach, within the context of Generation Y consumers, this research investigates the internal justification processes used by consumers contemplating to forgive a celebrity who has transgressed society’s norms of acceptable behaviour. A thematic analysis of data from in-depth interviews identified nine emergent categories, grouped into four themes or core drivers: celebrity-related drivers, consumer-related drivers, context-related drivers and time-related drivers. The findings show that although there is generally no personal relationship between consumers and celebrities, consumers tend to bond with celebrities in para-social relationships. Many consumers see these relationships as similar to how they connect with friends thus leading them to show forgiveness tendencies towards a celebrity comparable to forgiving friends. The paper presents a conceptual framework highlighting the consumer’s forgiveness justification process.

The Tribal Consumer: A Comparison of Traditional Māori and Modern-Day Tribal Social Systems

Over the last 30 plus years a vast body of literature has been built around the concept of consumption communities, as a way of understanding consumer interactions and behaviour beyond the firm/customer interface. Considering the ubiquity of the internet and hence consumers’ ability to connect with users of any product or service well beyond their immediate location, knowledge of consumption communities has never been more pressing. The ability for customers to interconnect without traditional geographic constraints or even the influence of the firm has major implications relating to customer-to-customer co-creation, re-configuration of value propositions to allow for individualisation, and at times co-destruction of value. Despite the many terms used to describe consumption communities they all appear to be based on the premise that groups of consumers interact to share enthusiasm for and develop knowledge of a particular consumption related activity. One term that appears to have prevailed in the literature over recent years and has been applied to a variety of contexts it that of the tribe.