Edward Ramirez

Some antecedents of price sensitivity

Consumer price sensitivity is important to marketing theory and practice because of its impact on profitability. This paper presents a model containing four important antecedents of price sensitivity. Previous studies show that enduring product involvement, consumer innovativeness, perceived brand parity, and attitudinal brand loyalty separately influence price sensitivity. This paper presents a model showing how these four antecedents interact. The model fits data from two separate samples of U.S. consumers (n= 156 and 305) and accounts for a substantial proportion of the variance in price sensitivity. Price sensitivity is positively related to perceived brand parity and negatively related to involvement, innovativeness, and loyalty. Innovativeness, brand parity, and brand loyalty appear to mediate the influence of involvement on price sensitivity, thereby partially explaining the psychological linkages between these distinct concepts.

An Integrated Perspective of Service Recovery: A Sociotechnical Systems Approach

This study examines service recovery from an internal, operations-oriented perspective. Specifically, a model grounded in sociotechnical systems (STS) theory is developed and tested to investigate the relationships between service recovery systems, recovery climates, employee abilities and actions, and recovery performance. A sample of 221 general service employees is used to empirically test the proposed model. Results support the STS perspective and suggest that an integrated recovery system is essential in establishing a recovery climate, which in turn enables employee efficacy and reduces avoidance behaviors. Additionally, employee efficacy has a positive effect on performance, while avoidance leads to ineffective failure correction. The results presented herein highlight the need for service practitioners to consider designing and implementing integrated recovery systems in order to enhance the abilities of employees, while heightening the likelihood of failure correction. Furthermore, this study provides an initial step in moving the recovery literature into a more theory-driven direction.

Community-Based Initiatives and Poverty Alleviation in Subsistence Marketplaces

Despite the success of recent poverty alleviation efforts, millions remain entrapped by abject poverty. While many of these efforts have resulted in vastly improved lives for individuals and their close relations, the benefits for the community, as a whole, are less clear. This research draws on Resource-Advantage Theory to investigate the potential of community-based initiatives as a route to poverty alleviation in subsistence marketplaces. In particular, the viability of a collaborative, community-based solution is demonstrated through a case study detailing the outcome of reforestation measures in Mexico and Haiti. The findings suggest that the success of community-based initiatives in poverty alleviation efforts is predicated on combining market-oriented goals and a communal philosophy.

The contingent nature of service recovery system structures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent the factors of the operating environment influence the structural dimensions and subsequent performance of a firms recovery system.Design/methodology/approach – Using contingency theory and a sample of 158 service firms, this research tests for structural differences in service recovery systems based on Schmenners widely‐cited taxonomy, the service process matrix. To conduct the analysis, both multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) models were tested to assess overall system differences and to detect individual dimensional differences.Findings – The results indicate that differences in the structure of service recovery systems do exist across divergent operating environments. Additionally, differences in performance measures were found only in capability improvements, while customer‐oriented performance did not vary across operating environments.Originality/value – The paper is believed to be the first to e...

Religious affiliation: buffering negative reactions to service failures

Purpose – This research aims to examine the buffering effect of a firms religious association on customer reactions to a service failure. Design/methodology/approach – Two scenario-driven studies containing religious and non-religious reasons for a store closing were conducted. Findings – The results from Study 1 suggest that a religious affiliation safeguards against negative reactions to failures related to store policies (see Hoffman et al., 2003). Customers are more likely to forgive transgressing firms when service failures are associated with religion, regardless of attitudes toward the religious group. A follow up study supports the first, even when no specific religion was identified in the scenario, the service failure involved a firm that closed weekly, and a non-student sample was used. Research limitations/implications – While the results provide support for the buffering effects of a religious affiliation against a particular type of service failure – temporary service interruptions due to t...

Concrete and abstract goals associated with the consumption of environmentally sustainable products

Purpose – This paper aims to identify and classify consumers’ goals associated with the consumption of environmentally sustainable products. The applicability of such goals to the positioning of environmental products is also tested. Design/methodology/approach – Study 1 used 62 laddering interviews to identify a hierarchical map of adoption related goals. Study 2 used a survey design (N = 152 students) to test the effects of construal-goal fit on evaluations of environmental product attributes of a hybrid car. Study 3 involved an online experiment (N = 125 consumer panellists) to test the effects of construal-goal fit on consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium (WTPP) for energy-efficient light bulbs. Findings – A hierarchical goal map displays consumption goals attainable through environmentally sustainable products. Consumers with a chronic, high-level construal placed more importance on product attributes associated with abstract goals than those with chronic, low-level construal. This effect was...

The Effects of Neoliberalism and Trade Liberalization on China’s Environment Over Time A Macromarketing Perspective

Drawing on Kilbourne’s expanded macromarketing model, this research tests the effects of neoliberalism and trade liberalization on a set of environmental outcomes, shedding light on the relationships between importing and exporting, national, non-national, and foreign investment, and environmental stringency on major polluting accidents, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and wind energy deployment in China. The results from a moderated, fixed-effects regression model of longitudinal province-level data indicate that neoliberal policies impact environmental performance, while being region specific, sensitive to ownership type, and bidirectional. Additionally, non-national investment and innovation level were positively related with a reduction in major polluting accidents, whereas national investment were positively associated with reducing SO2 emissions and increasing wind energy deployment. China’s environmental policies, however, were found to catalyze pollution production in the landlocked central and underdeveloped western provinces. As such, policymakers and practitioners should adopt a stakeholder orientation, institute strict environmental regulations, and place community welfare and environmental stewardship above profits when encouraging economic growth.

The Effects of Proenvironmental Demarketing on Consumer Attitudes and Actual Consumption

Leveraging Bagozzi’s (1992) appraisal framework, this research contributes to our understanding of the effects of demarketing. In particular, it examines the impact of a proenvironmental demarketing effort which calls attention to potential electricity saving ideas, on perceptions, and consumption. A pair of cross-validated studies indicates that proenvironmental demarketing may enhance consumers’ perceptions of the firm and subsequently affect consumption behavior. Specifically, study one suggests that proenvironmental demarketing leads to enhanced perception of an organization’s trustworthiness, market orientation, and environmental-sensitivity, while study two indicates that proenvironmental demarketing may lead to a reduction in electricity consumption.

USER-GENERATED CONTENT AS WORD-OF-MOUTH

The objective of this research is to identify two harvestable word-of-mouth (WOM) proxies and test their construct validity. Bivariate measures of association of user-generated content (UGC) data compiled from Facebook.com on sixty-one firms across nine markets suggest the WOM proxies were positively correlated, maintaining varying relationships with firms’ stock market performance. Study two uses time-series analysis to demonstrate that these WOM proxies change in tandem with stock prices, implying that they are sensitive to firm behaviors and that UGC is a leading indicator of stock market performance. As such, the findings provide managers with a tool to more accurately assess impressions of the firm.

Scale Development Incorporating Cluster Heat Maps: An Abstract

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) has long been used to identify factors for construct development. EFA mainly relies on factor loadings, average variance extracted, and item-to-total correlations to build constructs. Unidimensionality, or the existence of a single trait, is the main issue for new scale development. However, the evaluation of unidimensionality is not intuitive when the number of items increases. In addition, no validation has been provided to confirm the dimensions of the factors. As the number of items increases, visualizing different factors to further reveal hidden relationship among items and factors gives researchers a better way to develop constructs. By employing cluster heat maps, this study is one of the first to systematically combine this method with EFA.