Gaetano “Nino” Miceli

How relationship age moderates loyalty formation: The increasing effect of relational equity on customer loyalty.

In this article, the authors focus on the concept of relational equity, that is, the customer perception of distributive justice within a continuous customer-provider relationship. The authors investigate the influences of relational equity on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. Moreover, they test the hypothesis that relationship age moderates the impact of relational equity on loyalty, adopting a cross-sectional design and data from a sample of Italian customers of mobile phone services (N = 461). Relational equity is recognized as a significant determinant of customer loyalty over and above satisfaction and trust effects, and its influence increases along with relationship age. From a managerial point of view, results suggest that loyalty programs should be tailored according to the age of the relationship. Moreover, particular care should be devoted to monitoring perceived relational equity, especially in longer-term relationships.

When does customer-oriented leadership pay off? an investigation of frontstage and backstage service teams

The service literature highlights the importance of organizational leaders in creating an organization-wide customer orientation (CO). Yet, some open questions remain regarding this relationship: Are organizational leaders from different hierarchical levels equally effective in creating a CO? Does the functional role of employees affect the importance of certain leaders? More generally, when does customer-oriented leadership really pay off? To address these questions, we investigate how senior managers’ and direct supervisors’ CO affects the CO climate and effectiveness of both frontstage and backstage service teams. Analyzing multisource data from 575 employees and their supervisors from 110 teams in a retail bank, we find that the effect of perceived senior manager CO on team CO climate and team effectiveness is stronger in backstage teams while perceived direct supervisor CO has a greater influence on frontstage teams. Moreover, team CO climate consensus moderates the effect of team CO climate on team effectiveness. These results suggest that, contrary to past theorizing, customer-oriented leadership does not per se increase team CO climate and team effectiveness; rather, the correct coupling of leadership source and degree of customer contact needs to be achieved. Service managers should use these findings and appoint the correct leader to implement CO to make the organization-wide CO diffusion more efficient and effective.

Self o mass branding? La relazione tra personalizzazione e marca

L’articolo analizza la relazione tra personalizzazione e marca, distinguendo la Combination-based Customization (CbC), che e la combinazione di moduli di prodotto forniti dall’impresa, e la Integration-based Customization (IbC), che e la personalizzazione del prodotto basata su segni e simboli forniti dal cliente, e proponendo che le reazioni del cliente ai due modelli di personalizzazione dipendono dalla presenza/assenza del brand logo sul prodotto. I risultati dimostrano che la presenza di un mass brand logo genera atteggiamento e disposizioni del cliente piu alti per la CbC rispetto alla IbC. In assenza di un mass brand logo, si verifica il pattern opposto. Il vantaggio della CbC rispetto alla IbC per i prodotti di marca, tuttavia, scompare quando c’e un’elevata congruenza tra il se del consumatore e la marca e quando si considerano marche creative.

Breaking through complexity. Gli effetti di complessità visiva e concettuale sulla valutazione dei loghi

La complessita degli stimoli visivi riguarda sia aspetti percettivi che concettuali, il cui effetto congiunto sulle reazioni del consumatore non e ancora chiaro. L’articolo analizza l’interazione tra complessita visiva e concettuale nell’ambito della valutazioni dei loghi. In particolare, sulla base dell’ipotesi di discrepanza-attribuzione, l’articolo propone che le due forme di complessita generino diversi effetti sull’atteggiamento a una esposizione. Inoltre, l’articolo mostra che, con esposizioni multiple, le due forme di complessita influenzano l’atteggiamento seguendo pattern opposti determinati dai meccanismi di fluency e di potenziale di apprendimento. I risultati di due studi supportano le ipotesi e offrono spunti per la teoria sulla complessita del design e la gestione del brand.