Larry D. Compeau

The Role of Interpersonal Liking in Building Trust in Long-Term Channel Relationships

This article explores the important role of liking in the development of the buyer’s trust in the sales rep. The authors argue that liking’s role is richer and qualitatively different from that of the more cognitive antecedents of trust. They posit that many cognitive antecedents of trust operate mainly through liking. They argue that as the buyer-sales rep relationship matures, liking plays an even more important role in influencing trust. The authors empirically test a model delineating the mediating role of liking in developing trust. They find that when the relationship between the buyer and the sales rep is young, liking partially mediates the effect of similarity of business values and fully mediates the influence of frequency of personal interaction on trust. Moreover, as the buyer’s relationship with the rep ages, liking takes the foreground in trust development, while more cognitive antecedents recede into the background.

Role of Prior Affect and Sensory Cues on Consumers' Affective and Cognitive Responses and Overall Perceptions of Quality

Abstract Product quality has been examined primarily by focusing on the cognitive evaluations of various intrinsic product characteristics (e.g., quality of raw materials, tolerances) or extrinsic quality signals (e.g., price, warranty). Thus, quality is considered to be an integration of assessments of such factors as reliability, durability, and workmanship. We develop and empirically test a model that integrates affective responses with the cognitive dimension of consumer product evaluations. The thesis of the model is that consumers’ affective responses to product sensory cues (e.g., color, aroma, flavor) in addition to their cognitive responses, can also influence quality perceptions via three modes of processing. This model also considers the influence of prior affect for the sensory cue on the cognitive and affective responses. Three experiments (using a combined sample of 167 university students) provide general support for the model.

Evolving pricing practices: the role of new business models

Purpose – In this brief paper, the aim is to highlight three important pricing areas: the business strategies and pricing models that have evolved over the past 20 years of research, the customers that have been targeted, and the role of the internet on pricing. The advent of social media, mobile marketing and display technologies are likely to encourage researchers to pursue additional research on these topics.Design/methodology/approach – The current paper is an essay aimed at stimulating pricing research in three major domains.Findings – The authors review illustrative current practices and research findings pertaining to emerging pricing business models, customer target marketing and price dispersion on the web.Research limitations/implications – The paper highlights areas that need empirical investigation.Practical implications – Managers need to explicitly understand the role of these emerging technologies (e.g. social media, mobile media, and web‐application) and appropriately incorporate them into...

Consumers' Perceptions of Nonprofit Solicitations: Some Preliminary Evidence on Framing and Price Effects

This article presents the findings of a study examining the way in which nonprofit organizations raise funds through promotional product offerings. Prospect theory is used as a framework for describing two alternative framing scenarios: a product purchase verses a product gift in return for a donation. The experiment seeks to determine which framing scenario produces a greater likelihood that consumers will engage in a transaction with the organization across different transaction amounts. A significant interaction suggests the presence of a threshold effect. That is, a threshold, or monetary transaction amount, exists where all amounts below this threshold are considered so trivial that the frame of the transaction has no significant effect. The results suggest that for more trivial amounts, nonprofit organizations should frame the solicitation as a donation, but for higher requests consumers may be more likely to engage in the transaction when it is framed as a purchase.

The Effects of Framing and Price on Consumers’ Perceptions of Nonprofit Solicitations

This paper presents the findings of an experiment investigating ways in which nonprofit organizations raise funds through product offerings. Prospect theory is used as a framework for describing two alternative framing scenarios: a product purchase versus a product gift in return for a donation. The study investigates which framing scenario produces a greater likelihood of consumers to engage in a transaction with the organization across different price levels. The findings suggest that price has a greater impact when an exchange is framed as a donation than when it is framed as a purchase.