Madeline Johnson

Differences Between Product and Services Television Commercials

Reports on content‐analysis research of television commercials for products, services and retail outlets attempting to discover whether the objectives or strategies used differ. Uses three frameworks for evaluation of the product and service advertisements. Finds that services, product and retail marketers are using different advertising strategies. Notes that many of the differences seem to be concerned with the heterogeneity, simultaneity and intangibility of services and discusses implications for managers of these findings.

Emotional Responses to a Professional Service Encounter

Considers the interaction between customer and provider in professional service encounters, where extended person‐to‐person discussions frequently take place. Describes an experiment in which subjects read and reacted to stories describing such encounters, which included three service variables – competency, outcome and courtesy. Reports on the emotional responses of the subjects, finding that courtesy was responsible for most of the variation in response. Discusses the managerial implications resulting from the study, notably the importance of courtesy in professional service encounters.

The impact of outcome, competency and affect on service referral

Proposes a model to explain consumers’ willingness to recommend a service provider. The model considers four predictors of this phenomenon: affect, outcome, competency and courtesy. In a laboratory setting, subjects read and responded to a scenario describing a service encounter of a fictitious individual with a dry cleaner and/or an attorney. The subjects were later asked how likely they were to recommend this service provider to a friend experiencing a similar problem. Separate path analyses were performed to analyze each type of service encounter; and in both scenarios, outcome, competency, courtesy, joy and disgust were found to influence the likelihood that the consumer would recommend a particular service provider. The proposed model accounts for more than 72 percent of the variation in the subjects’ decision to recommend.

A fuzzy approach for selecting project membership to achieve cognitive style goals

Decision makers select employees for a project to match a particular set of goals pertaining to the multiple criteria mix of skills and competencies needed. Cognitive style influences how a person gathers and evaluates information and consequently, provides skills and competencies toward problem solving. The proposed fuzzy set-based model facilitates the managers selection of employees who meet the project goal(s) for the preferred cognitive style. The paper presents background information on cognitive styles and fuzzy logic with an algorithm developed based on belief in the fuzzy probability of a cognitive style fitting a defined goal. An application is presented with analysis and conclusions stated.

Defining and Measuring Company Image

Some terms are so basic to a discipline that it is difficult to define them using only other terminology from within a discipline. The concept of corporate image is one such foundational term. The purpose of this paper is to review the various definitions of corporate image which have been proposed over the years and to attempt to develop a synthesis. A model is developed to differentiate among the concepts of corporate personality, corporate identity and company image. A special emphasis is placed on identifying the dimensions which underlie corporate image. Recommendations are made for measuring this important concept, depending upon the stakeholder group of interest to the researcher.

Legal Considerations When Using Parodies in Advertising

Abstract Using parodies in an advertising campaign presents legal risks to the parodists. This article examines how copyright and trademark infringement laws limit the use of parodies in advertising. Under some circumstances, an unauthorized parody of anothers work in an advertisement can be legal as a fair use exception under copyright law. If a parodied trademark is involved, then the issue is whether the parodied mark is likely to be confused with the original mark. Following a discussion of the statutory and case law, guidelines for the development of legally successful parodies are offered.

Simulation as a pedagogical tool for managerial decision-making in a transition economy

Eastern European countries are undergoing a transition from centralized economic planning to more open economic systems. A team of Bulgarian and US researchers collaborated to study this problem, using a Bulgarian winery as the focus of their research. The study resulted in development of a business simulation of the winery, with the purpose of generating a pedagogical tool for knowledge acquisition by winery management as well as Bulgarian business students. This paper discusses the concept of simulation as a pedagogical tool, outlines the purposes of this simulation, reviews the development of this model using soft systems approaches, and suggests its applicability for any pedagogical learning situation but more specifically to the general operations of the firm at the microeconomic level of decision-making.

Cyber-Libel: Policy Trade-Offs

The laws that limit the publication of false but harmful statements about goods, services, or the companies that produce them do not extend to Internet service providers in the same way they do to older media. Companies therefore are vulnerable to negative communication from sources whose anonymity provides the heart of a legal dilemma: freedom of expression and privacy versus the right to damages when libeled. This dilemma leads the authors to suggest public policy and corporate policy remedies.

Attorney advertising and changes in the demand for wills

Abstract Removing the ban on attorney advertising in 1977 was expected to improve consumer access to legal services. To test that proposition, we collected data on the ratio of estates probated without a will to estates probated with a will for the period 1974–1989 in one metropolitan area. It was expected that during the advertising period (August 1977 to December 1989) the time series would exhibit a downward trend statistically different from any trend component in the series prior to the advent of advertising and that the systematic behavior of the series would also change after the introduction of advertising. The intervention analysis of the ratio time series revealed that the behavior of the time series did change in 1977, consistent with the hypothesized effects of advertising on the demand for wills.

An Examination of the Relationship Between a Firm's Offerings and Different Customer Loyalty Segments

Purpose: Loyalty reflects the highest state in the buyer–seller relationship and occurs when repeat patronage and commitment are both high. One generally accepted model of segmenting the customers by degree of loyalty includes 4 categories of loyalty: no loyalty, latent loyalty, spurious loyalty, and loyalty. This study examines the relationship between these 4 customer segments and their evaluation of the firms offerings. Methodology/approach: This study uses self-reported purchase behaviors and attitude toward the seller for segmentation. Buyers report the importance of and satisfaction with 15 different offerings or processes. The mean scores for the 4 different groups are compared and tested for statistical significance. Findings: The loyalty segments differed in the importance placed on customized products. The loyalty and spurious loyalty groups placed a higher importance on receiving customized products from the seller. The loyalty segments also differed in their levels of satisfaction, but these differences did not fully explain repeat patronage behavior. The latent loyalty group, despite their higher levels of satisfaction with standardized offerings, purchased less than the spurious loyalty group. Originality/value/contribution: The implication for managers is that, if properly identified and managed, understanding these differences could lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. Managers can build loyalty by applying specific tactics tailored to the customer segment.