Chris Pullig

Developing and validating measures of facets of customer-based brand equity

Abstract This article presents four studies that develop measures of “core/primary” facets of customer-based brand equity (CBBE). Drawing from various CBBE frameworks, the facets chosen are perceived quality (PQ), perceived value for the cost (PVC), uniqueness, and the willingness to pay a price premium for a brand. Using numerous advocated scale developmental procedures, the measures of these facets showed evidence of internal consistency and validity over 16 different brands in six product categories. Results also suggest that PQ, PVC, and brand uniqueness are potential direct antecedents of the willingness to pay a price premium for a brand, and that willingness to pay a price premium is a potential direct antecedent of brand purchase behavior.

Conflicts in the Work-Family Interface: Links to Job Stress, Customer Service Employee Performance, and Customer Purchase Intent

Because customer service employees often represent the sole contact a customer has with a firm, it is important to examine job-related factors that affect customer service employee performance and customer evaluations. In two diverse customer settings, the authors capture matched responses from service employees, supervisors, and customers. The authors use the data to examine the potential chain of effects from customer service employee work–family conflict and family–work conflict, to job stress and job performance, to customer purchase intent (CPI). The results show direct (and indirect) effects of work–family conflict and family–work conflict on service employee customer-directed extra-role performance (CDERP). The results also show direct effects of job stress on service employee in-role performance (IRP) and CDERP and on CPI. Furthermore, the findings show that job stress has a more pronounced effect on IRP than on CDERP and that CDERP has a greater effect on CPI than does IRP. The authors conclude with a discussion of managerial and theoretical implications.

The Recycling Cycle: An Empirical Examination of Consumer Waste Recycling and Recycling Shopping Behaviors

The findings of this research indicate that attitude toward recycling has a significant effect on waste recycling and recycling shopping behaviors. In addition, affect, past behavior, and subjective norm explain significant incremental variance in the two types of recycling behaviors. Moderator analyses show that for waste recycling behavior, affect plays a lesser role when the strength of attitude toward recycling is strong, and vice-versa. Finally, the authors find a significant correlation between waste recycling behavior and recycling shopping behavior. The authors discuss managerial and public policy issues based on these findings.

Attitude basis, certainty, and challenge alignment: A case of negative brand publicity

By integrating research from attitude challenge matching and consumer alignment and judgment revision, the authors explore how firms can position brands to insulate them from negative publicity and how consumers evaluate brands in reaction to such publicity. They introduce an important moderator of brand evaluation revision, prior brand attitude certainty, and propose that when negative publicity matches or “aligns” with the basis of a brand attitude, certainty in that attitude interacts with the attitude, determining the affect of the negative publicity on brand evaluations. The results of two experiments suggest that prior brand attitudes held with high certainty tend to “nsulate” brands, even when negative publicity matches or aligns with the bases of brand attitudes, whereas brand attitudes held with low certainty may exacerbate the effects of negative event publicity. The results also show that multiplex positioning (positioning a brand with both performance-and values-based attributes) may insulate brands more effectively from negative publicity.

Salesforce automation systems: an exploratory examination of organizational factors associated with effective implementation and salesforce productivity

Abstract Given the current information-rich competitive environment, firms must seek ways to utilize technology and information to improve firm productivity. Salesforce automation (SFA) systems are one approach to increased productivity due to their ability to gather and synthesize a wealth of customer and competitor information. Experts suggest, however, a majority of SFA system adoptions fail due to implementation failures. Recognizing the implication of a failed implementation, a conceptual model of SFA implementation effectiveness and firm productivity is proposed. The model proposes that an “enabling” climate and shared values that are congruent with the SFA innovation are necessary for successful implementation. To provide insight into the organizational factors needed to effectively implement SFA innovations, interviews were conducted and rank-order data was collected from sales professionals. Results suggest that an appropriate implementation climate includes sufficient training, encouragement, facilitative leadership, and organizational support. Shared values that are necessary include a customer orientation, adaptive cultural norms, information-sharing norms, entrepreneurial values, and trust among organizational members. Results further indicate that an effective implementation may lead to enhanced productivity through better account prospecting, development, and buyer profiling.

Consumer Evaluation of Low Price Guarantees: The Moderating Role of Reference Price and Store Image

This article reports the findings of 2 studies that examined the effects of low price guarantees (LPG) in retail advertisements within the framework of signaling theory. Overall, an LPG in an ad resulted in higher value perceptions and shopping intentions. Findings also suggest that the effect of an LPG is likely to be moderated by other price cues such as reference prices and by the price image of the store. An LPG resulted in higher value perception and shopping intention when reference prices were low or absent, but lowered search intention in the presence of a high reference price. Additional findings suggest that intention to search for a better price was lower, particularly when an LPG was offered by a low price image store. For high price image stores, an LPG increased value perceptions and shopping intentions, while also increasing search intentions, indicating the possibility that LPGs can act as a double-edged sword in certain instances. Managerial and public policy implications are also noted.

Toward Intercultural Competency in Multicultural Marketplaces

Intercultural competency plays a pivotal role in creating a more equitable and just marketplace in which situations of marketplace vulnerability are minimized and resilience is enhanced. Intercultural competency is the ability to understand, adapt, and accommodate anothers culture. In this essay, the authors present a framework of intercultural competency development in multicultural marketplaces. They discuss resilience-building actions for multicultural marketplace actors, specifically, consumers, companies/marketers, community groups and nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers for three phases of intercultural competency development.

Consumer ethnicity three decades after: a TCR agenda

Abstract Research into consumer ethnicity is a vital discipline that has substantially evolved in the past three decades. This conceptual article critically reviews its immense literature and examines the extent to which it has provided extensive contributions not only for the understanding of ethnicity in the marketplace but also for personal/collective well-being. We identify two gaps accounting for scant transformative contributions. First, today social transformations and conceptual sophistications require a revised vocabulary to provide adequate interpretive lenses. Second, extant work has mostly addressed the subjective level of ethnic identity projects but left untended the meso/macro forces affecting ethnicity (de)construction and personal/collective well-being. Our contribution stems from filling both gaps and providing a theory of ethnicity (de)construction that includes migrants as well as non-migrants.

How Gay–Straight Alliance Groups Mitigate the Relationship Between Gay-Bias Victimization and Adolescent Suicide Attempts

OBJECTIVE We examined the relationships between victimization from being bullied, suicide, hopelessness, and the presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) on a school campus. METHOD We analyzed data from the California Healthy Kids Survey from 2005 to 2007 using hierarchical modeling. RESULTS We found that gay-bias (versus non-gay-bias) victimization is meaningfully connected with the inwardly destructive behavior of attempted suicide among adolescents. We also found that hopelessness helps explain associations between gay-bias victimization and suicide attempts and that the presence of a GSA club on a schools campus attenuates significant connections between gay-bias victimization and suicide attempts by reducing hopelessness. CONCLUSION Gay-bias victims are more likely than other victims to attempt suicide while also feeling more hopeless. The presence of a GSA on campus may help to reduce the attempted suicide and hopelessness associated with gay-bias victimization.

Observations on some key psychometric properties of paper-and-pencil measures

In this paper we discuss some key issues involved in developing, validating, and reducing multi-item scales of paper and pencil measures. Specifically, we examine the importance of content validity, dimensionality, coefficient alpha, scale length, and item redundancy with a focus on the inter-relatedness of these psychometric properties. We also examine the viability of reduced-item scales and discuss some recent trends in self-report measures of marketing and consumer behavior-related constructs.