Mark J. Arnold

Hedonic shopping motivations

Abstract Given the increasing importance of entertainment as a retailing strategy, this study identifies a comprehensive inventory of consumers’ hedonic shopping motivations. Based on exploratory qualitative and quantitative studies, a six-factor scale is developed that consists of adventure, gratification, role, value, social, and idea shopping motivations. Using the six-factor hedonic shopping motivation profiles, a cluster analysis of adult consumers reveals five shopper segments, called here the Minimalists, the Gatherers, the Providers, the Enthusiasts, and the Traditionalists. The utility of the proposed scale is discussed both for future research and retail strategy.

Executive Insights: Exploring the Practical Effects of Country of Origin, Animosity, and Price–Quality Issues: Two Case Studies of Taiwan and Acer in China

The authors review relevant literature and present two new case studies—one of Taiwans country image campaign and the other of Acers entry into global markets—to gain a further understanding of two related constructs, country of origin (from the field of international marketing) and animosity (from the field of consumer behavior). The authors formulate four research propositions and discuss them in reference to the two case studies. They show how the Taiwanese government has used various marketing and advertising strategies to create a positive country image and how Acer has mitigated negative country-of-origin effects and animosity in world markets, especially in China.

Transformational Relationship Events

Exchange events are fundamental building blocks of business relationships and essential to relationship development. However, some events contribute to incremental relationship development, as predicted by life cycle theories, whereas others spark “turning points” with dramatic impacts on the relationship. Such transformational relationship events are encounters between exchange partners that significantly disconfirm relational expectations (positively or negatively); they result in dramatic, discontinuous change to the relationships trajectory and often reformulate the relationship itself. With a three-study, multimethod design, the authors (1) establish a foundation for differentiating dramatic and incremental exchange events on the basis of relational versus product expectations and disconfirmations, thus revealing that strong relationships benefit product disconfirmations but harm relational disconfirmations, and (2) conceptualize, define, and differentiate transformational relationship events from other types of disconfirming events and then link them to exchange performance.

Direct marketing in non‐profit services: investigating the case of the arts industry

Direct marketing is seeing growing acceptance among non‐profit services as a means to reach audiences, raise revenues, and foster long‐term relationships with customers. However, academic research has lagged in investigating the influences on the extent to which these organizations implement direct marketing, and subsequent effects on performance outcomes associated with such marketing activities. This research investigates the case of non‐profit arts organizations. The results show that organizational formalization, external integration, total marketing effort, and managerial self‐confidence influence the direct marketing techniques implemented by the firm. The model also shows that sales and fund‐raising revenues are driven primarily by total marketing effort, while the percentage of total revenue derived from season‐ticket subscriptions is driven by the breadth and uniqueness of the direct marketing techniques implemented by the organization.

The influence of regulatory focus on global consumption orientation and preference for global versus local consumer culture positioning

Firms increasingly employ global and local consumer culture positioning strategies (GCCP/LCCP), but understanding of the drivers that underlie consumer responses to such strategies is limited, leaving firms with little guidance on when to choose one strategy over another. To shed light on consumer preference for GCCP versus LCCP, the authors examine the effects of regulatory focus (promotion and prevention orientation) and global consumption orientation (GCO) on preference for GCCP/LCCP. They report the results of three studies: the first is based on a survey with samples drawn from the United States and China, and the second and third are behavioral designs manipulating situational promotion and prevention regulatory focus. The findings suggest that promotion focus is positively related to GCO and prevention focus is negatively related to GCO. Furthermore, the authors find that GCO is positively related to a preference for GCCP. Thus, this research offers a unique perspective by introducing regulatory focus to the GCCP literature, identifying GCO as an important mediator, and demonstrating that regulatory focus can be situationally activated.

Exploring consumers’ attitude towards relationship marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore consumers’ overall attitude toward relationship marketing and to determine the influence of consumers’ overall attitude on consumers’ intentions and behaviors. Many services companies practice relationship marketing and customer relationship management. Although the benefits and drawbacks of relationship marketing for consumers have been established, little is known about whether consumers have a relatively positive or negative attitude toward relationship marketing practices. Design/methodology/approach – This research investigates consumers’ attitudes toward relationship marketing using a national survey of 245 consumers and a survey of 417 consumers living in the southern region of the USA. Findings – Although approximately 70 per cent of our national consumer sample had a somewhat positive attitude toward relationship marketing, about 30 per cent had a somewhat negative or neutral attitude. Furthermore, approximately 39 per cent of consumers in the stu...

Consumer Choice Between Hedonic and Utilitarian Recovery Options in Service Failures: A Mood Regulation Perspective

The need for affect regulation can be explained by the hedonic principle which states that people are motivated to approach pleasure and avoid pain. Mood maintenance theories (e.g., Isen and Means 1983) indicate that a positive mood is more likely to trigger immediate affect regulation compared to a negative mood. In contrast, mood repair theories (e.g., Tice, Bratslavsky, and Baumeister 2001) argue that people who feel upset (vs. happy) are more likely to regulate immediate affect in order to repair their mood. Building on the motivational hierarchy perspective of the 3M Model (Mowen 2000), we propose that individuals’ need to improve their mood as prompted by their regulatory focus may determine their tendency to engage in immediate affect regulation. In particular, our framework suggests that the difference in the need for mood repair experienced by promotion- and prevention-focused consumers may influence their choice between a hedonic and a utilitarian service recovery alternative. The regulatory fit state arising from these choices is then predicted to enhance loyalty behavior toward the service provider.