Cristiane Pizzutti dos Santos

Antecedents and consequences of consumer trust in the context of service recovery

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of consumer trust after complaint handling episodes about services. A cross-sectional study was carried out with complainers of banks and airline companies. The respondents were approached at an International Airport in Brazil. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses developed. The building of consumer trust was sensitive to perceptions of justice regarding the way complaints were handled by the company. More specifically, the perception of interactional fairness strongly impacted consumer trust in the employees which, in turn, revealed a high impact on trust in the company. Insofar as satisfaction with complaint handling does not mediate the relationship between the dimensions of fairness and trust, following a conflict it loses part of its importance. Finally, both repurchase intention and word-of-mouth communication were influenced by trust in the company, satisfaction with complaint handling and perceived value. The company should attentively observe the interactional aspect in terms of developing relationships with customers. Appropriate complaint handling and the consequent trust created between the parties is an efficient form of developing and maintaining solid relationships with customers.

A recuperação de serviços como ferramenta de relacionamento e seu impacto na confiança e lealdade dos clientes

The main goal of this paper is to examine service recovery under a strategic perspective, as a relationship tool. A theoretical model has been proposed and tested, with focus on interrelationships among specifi c evaluations of complaint process, trust, switching costs, perceived value, and loyalty. The fi ndings indicate that customer trust and loyalty are affected by the way complaints are resolved. Perceptions of justice affected satisfaction with complaint management. Consumer trust is strongly infl uenced by post-complaint satisfaction. Finally, both intentions of repurchase and word-of-mouth communication were infl uenced by trust, satisfaction and perceived value. Switching costs did not moderate the relationships between satisfaction, trust and loyalty, and demonstrated to have low infl uence on intentions of repurchase. Therefore, the creation of mechanisms that inhibit customers’ exit is not enough keep them, and an adequate complaint management may be an effi cient tool to develop long-termed relationships.

How Family Resources Affect Materialism and Compulsive Buying: A Cross-Country Life Course Perspective

We test a theoretical model that explains the development of materialistic beliefs and compulsive buying. The model uses the life course framework, a paradigm that has recently been given attention in the marketing literature. To address the calls of prior consumer researchers, we investigate how these consumption orientations develop in 3 country contexts: the United States, France, and Brazil. We assess the level of measurement invariance and evaluate the model. Findings support family resources playing a mediating role between childhood family disruptions and young adulthood consumption orientations; they are relatively consistent across countries and suggest that some life course explanation of the two consumption orientations may be similar across diverse cultural settings.

Orientação empreendedora: um estudo sobre as conseqüências do empreendedorismo nas organizações

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of entrepreneurship in business performance. A theoretical model has been developed and tested, focused on the inter-relationships that exist between orientation and organizational culture - entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and organizational learning - and their respective impact on innovation success and business performance. Based on a sample of 157 organizations, the results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation exerts a strong and direct impact on business performance. The effects of entrepreneurial orientation on performance are greater than those of market orientation, which have a stronger influence over innovation success. Both orientations seem to be complementary, and their joint effect generates results that are consistent with corporate activities. The moderating role of the size of the organization on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance was not confirmed.

Perceptions of justice after recovery efforts in internet purchasing : the impact on consumer trust and loyalty toward retailing sites and online shopping in general

The main goal of this paper is to extend the traditional theoretical model of service recovery to the online purchasing environment by investigating the impact of perceptions of justice after recovery efforts toward unsatisfactory Internet purchasing on customer trust and loyalty. The authors develop a theoretical model focusing on interrelationships among complaint handling evaluations, quality of prior experience, familiarity, trust, perceived value and loyalty. To test this model, 3,339 customers from all over Brazil who had been engaged in complaint processes about online purchases within the past 6 months answered an online questionnaire. Findings indicate that interpersonal treatment by the e-retailer improves consumer perceptions of the online recovery process. Consumer trust in the firms website is strongly influenced by satisfaction with complaint handling, familiarity and the quality of prior experiences with the website, while consumer trust in Internet shopping is mainly affected by familiarity and the quality of prior experiences with Internet purchasing. These two dimensions of trust are distinct and represent discrete facets, as they do not impact each other. Moreover, repurchase intentions and word-of-mouth communication are influenced by consumer trust.

A socialização de consumo e a formação do materialismo entre os adolescentes

As experiencias na adolescencia sao de grande importância na construcao de padroes de comportamento, inclusive na fase adulta. Utilizando-se da teoria da socializacao e de estudos sobre materialismo, o proposito deste trabalho e examinar a formacao do comportamento materialista entre adolescentes, investigando as variaveis antecedentes desse comportamento. Para tanto, um modelo teorico, baseado em duas importantes correntes de pesquisa - teoria da socializacao e da estrutura sociofamiliar - foi desenvolvido e testado, atraves de dois estudos descritivos de corte transversal, o primeiro com 460 adolescentes e o segundo com 190 recem-adultos. O modelo foi testado pela tecnica estatistica de Analise Fatorial Confirmatoria a partir de equacoes estruturais. Os resultados do primeiro estudo trouxeram um impacto significativo das seguintes variaveis no comportamento materialista dos adolescentes: 1. grau de interacao com os pais; 2. nivel de contato com os amigos; 3. grau de contato com a televisao; 4. sexo; 5. renda familiar; e 6. situacao dos pais. Jovens do sexo feminino, com pais separados, alta renda familiar, maior contato com os amigos e com a televisao indicaram maior grau de materialismo; enquanto aqueles com maior interacao com os pais apresentaram menor grau de materialismo. Ao se comparar os resultados obtidos na primeira amostra com aqueles obtidos na segunda - composta por jovens adultos -, observa-se que a influencia do sexo, da renda e, principalmente, da televisao no comportamento materialista obteve queda expressiva. Por outro lado, a influencia da separacao dos pais na epoca da adolescencia mantem-se elevada e a influencia da interacao com os amigos tambem nessa epoca tem forte aumento. De forma geral, os resultados sustentam o impacto da socializacao durante a adolescencia na formacao do materialismo e a influencia da interacao com amigos tanto entre adolescentes quanto entre individuos no inicio da fase adulta. Em relacao a televisao, o impacto e mais imediato, ficando restrito ao comportamento materialista durante a adolescencia. A separacao dos pais, o sexo e a renda familiar tambem tiveram influencia relevante. Nao houve diferenca nos niveis de materialismo entre as duas amostras. Um estudo qualitativo com 11 adolescentes foi realizado para sedimentar os achados, no qual a influencia do grupo foi ressaltada.Experiences in adolescence are of major importance in building patterns of behavior, including in the adult phase. Drawing from socialization theory and studies on materialism, this study aims to investigate the formation of materialistic behavior among adolescents, researching the antecedent variables of this behavior. In order to do that, a theoretical framework, based on two important research streams - socialization theory and socio-familiar structure -, was developed and tested through two surveys, the first one with 460 adolescents and the second with 190 just-adults. The model was tested by the statistical technique of Confirmatory Factorial Analysis with structural equations. The findings of the first study bring a significant impact of the following variables in the materialistic behavior among adolescents: 1. level of interaction with their parents; 2. level of contact with their peers; 3. level of contact with television; 4. gender; 5. family income; and 6. situation of their parents. Female teenagers, with divorced parents, high family income, higher contact with their peers and with television indicated higher degree of materialism; while those adolescents with higher interaction with their parents presented lower degree of materialism. Comparing these findings with those from the second study - composed by just-adults -, we observe that the influence of gender, income and, mainly, television on the materialistic behavior has decreased significantly. On the other hand, the impact of the situation of the parents in the adolescence is still high and the influence of the level of interaction with their friends during teenager years increased. Overall, the results support the impact of socialization during adolescence in the formation of materialism and the influence of the interaction with peers on the sample composed by adolescents as well as by individuals in the beginning of their adult phase. Regarding television, the impact is more immediate, being restricted to materialistic behaviors during adolescence. The separation of parents, gender, and familiar income also exert relevant influence. There was no difference in levels of materialism between the two samples. A qualitative study with 11 adolescents was carried out to sediment findings, in which the group influence was salient.

The Impact of Service Recovery Processes on Consumer Trust and Loyalty in Car Repair Services

ABSTRACT Although researchers and managers are increasingly paying attention to customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and service recovery, not much is known about how these constructs interrelate with one another. Previous research has examined the interrelationships among subsets of these constructs. The authors extend this previous research by developing and testing a conceptual framework, considering all of these constructs (complaint encounter-specific evaluations and relational constructs) within a business/consumer environment. The findings show that distributive and interactional justice perceptions of the service recovery impact the satisfaction with the way the complaint is handled, which, in turn, influences the consumers level of trust. Finally, consumer loyalty is affected by satisfaction, trust and perceived value. RESUMEN. A pesar del creciente interés demostrado por los investigadores y gerentes en la satisfacción, confianza lealtad y recuperación del servicio del cliente, es poco lo que se conoce sobre cómo estas condiciones se interrelacionan entre sí. Investigaciones anteriores examinaron la interrelación entre los subgrupos de estos elementos. Los autores ampliaron la investigación anterior, desarrollando y poniendo a prueba un marco conceptual, considerando todos estos elementos (las quejas tienen evaluaciones específicas y elementos relacionales) dentro del entorno negocio - consumidor. Los hallazgos muestras que las percepciones de la justicia distributiva e interreaccional de la recuperación del servicio, impactan la satisfacción debido a la forma en que se manipula la queja que, a su vez, influye sobre el nivel de confiabilidad del consumidor. Finalmente, la lealtad del consumidor también se ven afectados por el grado de satisfacción, confianza y el valor que ellos le atribuyen. RESUMO. Embora pesquisadores e gerentes venham prestando cada vez mais atenção à satisfação, confiança e fidelidade dos clientes e à recuperação de serviço (Service Recovery), pouco se sabe sobre como esses construtos se inter-relacionam. Pesquisas anteriores examinaram as inter-relações entre subconjuntos desses construtos. Os autores estendem essas pesquisas anteriores, desenvolvendo e testando uma estrutura conceitual, considerando todos esses construtos (avaliações de reclamações específicas aos encontros e construtos relacionais) dentro de um ambiente empresa/consumidor. As descobertas mostram que as percepções da justiça distributiva e interacional da recuperação de serviço impactam a satisfação com a forma como a reclamação é manuseada, o que, por sua vez, influencia o nível de confiança do consumidor. Finalmente, a fidelidade dos consumidores é afetada pela satisfação, confiança e valor percebido.

Structural, textural and morphological characteristics of tannins from Acacia mearnsii encapsulated using sol-gel methods: Applications as antimicrobial agents

Tannins from Acacia mearnsii were encapsulated using four different sol-gel methods acid (SGAR), basic (SGBR), silicate (SGSR) and non-hydrolytic (SGNHR) routes. The hybrid materials were analyzed using a set of techniques to characterize their structure, texture and morphology. The antimicrobial performance of the encapsulated materials was evaluated against different microorganisms (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger and Candida sp.). The data showed that the encapsulation route significantly affects the characteristics of the resulting hybrid materials. Better functional performances were obtained using the silicate route, which produced mesoporous materials with a small surface area (0.96m2g-1) and small particle size (<1nm). These characteristics promoted the gradual release of tannins in an aqueous medium and improved their interactions with microorganisms. Furthermore, the process demonstrated the preservation of tannins after synthesis and increased antimicrobial activity (via a controlled tannin release), as demonstrated by the moderate activity against filamentous fungi and yeast.

Consumer trust in high‐consequence decisions: a study of medical services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of affect (as opposed to cognition) on patient trust in high‐consequence exchanges. The authors also investigate the mediators role of trust in the relationship between affect and cognition, and behavioural intentions.Design/methodology/approach – Using undergraduate students from a large North American university, three between‐subjects experiments were performed.Findings – Study 1 findings demonstrate that affect and cognition elements equally influence trust in high‐consequence decisions. Also, trust is an important mediator between affect and cognition and the intention to continue the relationship and to seek a second opinion. Study 2 reinforces the importance of trust for the patients evaluations, showing that when trust is low, the second opinion influences patient satisfaction. However, when patient trust is high, the second opinion (the same or different, compared with the first diagnosis) does not affect patient satisfaction. Study 3...

A Perceived-Control Based Model to Understanding the Effects of Co-Production on Satisfaction

Abstract This article represents an initial effort to analyze the complex linkages among co-production, perceived control and satisfaction. Co-production refers to the consumer participation in production activities and is here considered a proxy for behavioral control as it allows consumers to have some control over the process of the desired product or service. Considering the increase of co-production in consumption activities, understanding the linkage between the control from the co-production process and the satisfaction toward the related consumption may be quite useful to firms interested in adopting such a managerial tool. Two experimental studies – one in a service setting and the other in a product setting – show that co-production positively affects customer’s satisfaction through the mediating effect of perceived control. Information gain and refund choice, representing cognitive and decisional controls respectively, also enhance customers’ perceived control.