Lawrence Feick

The impact of switching costs on the customer satisfaction‐loyalty link: mobile phone service in France

The main objective of customer satisfaction programs is to increase customer retention rates. In explaining the link between customer satisfaction and loyalty, switching costs play an important role and provide useful insight. For example, the presence of switching costs can mean that some seemingly loyal customers are actually dissatisfied but do not defect because of high switching costs. Thus, the level of switching costs moderates the link between satisfaction and loyalty. The purposes of this paper are: to examine the moderating role of switching costs in the customer satisfaction‐loyalty link; and to identify customer segments and then analyze the heterogeneity in the satisfaction‐loyalty link among the different segments. An empirical example based on the mobile phone service market in France indicates support for the moderating role of switching costs. Managerial implications of the results are discussed.

Rethinking the Origins of Involvement and Brand Commitment: Insights from Postsocialist Central Europe

Drawing on our work in two postsocialist countries, Hungary and Romania, we contribute to understanding product involvement and brand commitment. We demonstrate that prominent political-cultural discourses, cultural intermediaries, social influences, and life themes and projects collectively prompt product involvement. We introduce the concept of involvement with branded products and examine its origins within a sociohistorical context. We consider the origins of brand commitment and illustrate that consumers with little interest in either the product category or the idea of branded products may be committed to particular brands. Further, we contribute to understanding the relationships among product involvement, brand commitment, and brand experimentation. Copyright 2003 by the University of Chicago.

The Effects of Preference Heterogeneity and Source Characteristics on Ad Processing and Judgements about Endorsers

Abstract This article examines the influence of experienced and similar sources on consumer attitudes and intentions for services that vary on preference heterogeneity (the extent to which consumer tastes and preferences vary across consumers). Two experiments were conducted: one with 160 subjects set in a testimonial advertising context and one with 120 subjects set in a simulated word-of-mouth context. The results from these studies provide support for the contention that source similarity to the message recipient is an important determinant of the sources ability to shape attitudes and intentions for the higher preference heterogeneity services examined, including night clubs, restaurants, interior decorators and hair salons. On the other hand, the sources experience with a service is an important determinant of the sources ability to shape attitudes and intentions for the lower preference heterogeneity services examined, including plumbers, rug cleaners, auto mechanics and accountants.

The Impact of Self-Construal on Aesthetic Preference for Angular Versus Rounded Shapes

In this article, the authors examine the role of self-construal in aesthetic preference for angular versus rounded shapes. Previous research found an independent self-construal is associated with a confrontation approach to conflict resolution, whereas an interdependent self-construal is associated with compromise. Furthermore, the literature in empirical aesthetics suggests that angular shapes tend to generate confrontational associations, and rounded shapes tend to generate compromise associations. Accordingly, the authors propose individuals with independent self-construals should perceive angular shapes as more attractive, whereas individuals with interdependent self-construals should find rounded shapes more attractive. The authors argue this effect of self-construal should be more pronounced when people expect that their shape preferences will be evaluated by others because culturally consistent responses will be more accessible in this situation. These hypotheses were largely confirmed in a field study that classified logos from a variety of countries and two experiments in which self-construal was experimentally primed.

Changing faces: cosmetics opinion leadership among women in the new Hungary

Research conducted in the early 1990s in Hungary indicated a lack of knowledgeable and influential personal sources in the cosmetics product category. The purpose of this article is to examine women cosmetics opinion leaders in Hungary approximately ten years into the country’s transition to a market economy. Because of the evolution of the cosmetics market over the past decade and Hungarian women’s increased involvement with cosmetics, we expected to see the emergence of opinion leadership in the product category. Survey data from 340 Hungarian women indicate that the incidence of cosmetics opinion leadership and self‐reported product knowledge is lower than what we might expect in more established market economies. Nonetheless, we found the relationships between cosmetics opinion leadership in Hungary and antecedent and consequent variables are similar to what we would expect in more established market economies. We discuss the implications of these results for marketing managers.

How Males and Females Differ in Their Likelihood of Transmitting Negative Word of Mouth

This article shows that the joint effect of tie strength and image-impairment concern on negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) transmission is different for males and females and argues that this effect occurs because of differences in their relative concern for self versus others. For males, there was not a significant interaction between image-impairment concern and tie strength on NWOM transmission likelihood. In contrast, for females the effect of image-impairment concern on NWOM transmission likelihood was stronger for weak ties than for strong ties. The robustness of the findings were tested in two additional studies by directly manipulating relative concern for self versus others and by employing an indirect proxy: interdependent and independent self-construal. Self- versus other-focused thoughts mediated the joint effect on NWOM transmission.

The evolution of consumer knowledge and sources of information: Hungary in transition

The authors’ research in Hungary during the period of transition to a market economy provides an opportunity to examine the evolving relationships between consumer product knowledge and its antecedents, including advertising, personal search, interpersonal sources, and brand experience. Their findings, based on survey data collected in Budapest in 1992 and 1998, indicate that the market information variables explain more variance in consumer knowledge later rather than earlier in the transition. Advertising is an important predictor of consumer knowledge later but not earlier in the transition, personal search is important at both times, and interpersonal sources are not important in either time period; brand experience is negatively related to knowledge earlier in the transition and positively related later in the transition. This study allows one to begin to understand the boundary conditions associated with studies conducted in developed economies. Managerial implications for firms investing in transitional economies are presented.

Consumers in the transition to a market economy: Hungary, 1989‐1992

As Hungary makes the transition from a centrally‐planned to a market‐based economy, its consumer markets are changing rapidly, with a deluge of new brands and products, new stores, variation in prices and the demise of old, familiar brands and stores. Reports on Hungarian consumers′ perceptions of their marketplace and their responses to changes in these markets based on research conducted from autumn 1989 to autumn 1992. Includes personal interviews, observation, focus groups and a survey of 300 female heads of households.