Mark S. Rosenbaum

When Customers Receive Support From Other Customers: Exploring the Influence of Intercustomer Social Support on Customer Voluntary Performance:

Service establishments would relish the opportunity to have their customers display customer voluntary performance (CVP) behaviors, which refer to helpful, discretionary customer behaviors that support an organization’s service performance and quality. This article draws on resource exchange theory to offer an explanation as to why some customers display CVP in the form of customer citizenship and customer care behaviors. The data reveal that customers who receive social-emotional support and, to a lesser extent, instrumental support from other customers in a service establishment reciprocate by exhibiting CVP toward the establishment and to customers in the establishment. This article demonstrates that socially supportive service environments are beneficial for customers’ health and for organizational profitability.

An expanded servicescape perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to put forth an expanded servicescape framework that shows that a perceived servicescape comprises physical, social, socially symbolic, and natural environmental dimensions.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper offers an in‐depth literature review on servicescape topics from a variety of disciplines, both inside and outside marketing, to advance a logical framework built on Bitners seminal article (1992).Findings – A servicescape comprises not only objective, measureable, and managerially controllable stimuli but also subjective, immeasurable, and often managerially uncontrollable social, symbolic, and natural stimuli, which all influence customer approach/avoidance decisions and social interaction behaviors. Furthermore, customer responses to social, symbolic, and natural stimuli are often the drivers of profound person‐place attachments.Research limitations/implications – The framework supports a servicescape paradigm that links marketing, environmen...

A Cup of Coffee With a Dash of Love An Investigation of Commercial Social Support and Third-Place Attachment

This study introduces theory about how deficits in social support motivate consumers to replace lost social resources by forming relationships with customers and employees in commercial “third places.” The authors demonstrate support for a multiple-indicator, multiple-cause model that illustrates how six common events that destroy or erode a persons social support can cause the person to obtain emotional support and companionship in a third place. The model supports the linkage between commercial social support and a consumers sense of attachment to a third place that harbors his or her social support network. The authors also propose and test hypotheses that reveal that consumers obtain social support in a third place to the extent to which they lost it outside the place. In essence, third-place patrons match their lost support to their commercial support, thus remedying negative symptoms associated with isolation. The article concludes with a discussion of managerial implications and limitations.

Loyalty programs and a sense of community

Purpose – Previous research has explored the impact of customer participation in organizational‐sponsored loyalty programs on customer loyalty; however, the findings are mixed. Other research, outside the loyalty program literature, reveals that customers who socially interact with other customers, via participation in brand communities, often exhibit an intense loyalty to the sponsoring brands. Proposes to investigate the following questions: “Can loyalty programs be differentiated based on whether or not members perceive a sense of community?”; and “Does a perception of a sense of community impact member loyalty to sponsoring organizations?”Design/methodology/approach – Q‐technique factor analysis is utilized analyzing statements from loyalty program participants. Principal component factor and cluster analyses confirm a two‐tiered classification schema distinguishing loyalty programs based on perceptions of communal benefits. Differences between the two factors are explored. A survey developed from the...

Return on Community for Consumers and Service Establishments

This study introduces the concept of return on community (ROC) to the services marketing domain. The ROC represents the health outcomes to customers and financial outcomes to firms that materialize when customers receive social support from other customers in service establishments. By administering Barreras Arizona Social Support Interview Schedule to teenagers who patronize a video arcade, to members of Golds Gym, and to middle-aged women who exercise at Curves, the author shows that customers can obtain six types of social support from other customers: intimate interaction, social participation, physical assistance, feedback, guidance, and material aid. In terms of health benefits, intercustomer support provides customers with group cohesion and enhanced well-being. Service firms that host supportive customer networks benefit from customer satisfaction, positive intentional behaviors, and the ability to charge higher prices. By using the contingent valuation method, this article also reveals how customers value support from other customers and employees.

Who buys that? Who does what? Analysis of cross-cultural consumption behaviours among tourists in Hawaii:

The purpose of this paper is to investigate planned product and service consumption patterns among US, Canadian, Japanese, Chinese, South Korean and Australian/New Zealand tourists in Hawaii. Using multiple analyses of variance, the first study empirically explores the influence of a tourists residential country of origin on planned product and service consumption. The second study explores the planned consumption differences between, and among, American and Japanese first-time and repeat visitors to Hawaii. The results reveal significant cross-cultural differences in consumption patterns among international tourists to Hawaii.

Beyond hardcore gambling: understanding why mainland Chinese visit casinos in Macau.

Casinos are important travel attractions, but they are often overshadowed by hardcore gambling behaviors. Although gambling has been found as a key tourism driver, it is unclear how casinos, as hospitality service providers, are able to fulfill other travel needs. This article highlights an emerging but under studied phenomenon in tourism and hospitality research: casino tourism. Based on empirical data collected in the world gaming capital, Macau, the results reveal that tourists’ casino excursions are primarily motivated by five factors: entertainment and novelty seeking, leisure activity, escape from pressure, casino sightseeing, and socialization. The findings suggest that although gambling is part of the casino experience tourists seek, mainland Chinese tourists are looking for assorted travel and leisure experiences. These experiences can further be classified into two segments: entertainment-for-socialization seekers and sightseeing-for-relaxation seekers. Demographic differences in addition to two- and three-way interactions of the motivational factors are also discussed.

Restorative servicescapes: restoring directed attention in third places

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce restorative servicescapes. The work demonstrates that younger‐aged consumers may remedy symptoms associated with directed attention fatigue, including adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), by patronizing third places, such as video arcades and coffee shops.Design/methodology/approach – This paper evaluates a servicescapes restorative potential by drawing on established measures. Attention restoration theory (ART) has been explored in natural and environmental psychology, rather than marketing. The first study uses survey methodology to explore whether teenagers who patronize a video arcade sense its restorative potential. The second study uses survey methodology to explore the relationship between patronizing a restorative third place and being at risk for ADHD.Findings – Study 1 reveals that video arcade patrons sense the arcades restorative potential. Therefore, commercial servicescapes may possess restorative qualities. Study 2 reve...

An Exploration of Spending Behaviors among Japanese Tourists

This article provides a two-part, exploratory analysis of planned spending on shopping, dining, and other recreational activities among Japanese tourists in Hawaii. The empirical findings from the first study reveal that Japanese tourists primarily plan to engage in duty-free shopping during their stay in Hawaii. In contrast, American tourists plan to engage in cultural activities and fine dining opportunities during their Hawaiian vacation. A second study was used to explore the propensity of Japanese tourists in Hawaii to shop at both high-end boutiques and discounted retail outlets. The results of a two-step cluster analysis reveal that Japanese tourists may be classified into two exclusive groups, shopping enthusiasts and nonshoppers. The data support the conclusion that shopping enthusiasts plan to patronize three types of retail outlets in Hawaii: duty-free stores, factory outlets, and designer boutiques. Managerial implications and directives for future theoretical development are provided.

Exploring commercial friendships from employees' perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate which types of service employees provide their customers with social support and to understand why they do so.Design/methodology/approach – The article employs a network‐based inventory method to evaluate a customers commercial‐based social support network and grounded theory to develop a framework illustrating the interdependence between service providers and their customers regarding the exchange of intrinsic support and extrinsic financial incentives and gifts.Findings – Indirect service employees who do not directly receive tips from customers emerge as key providers of social support. Also, commercial friendships are not marketplace niceties. Service providers and customers engage in a mutually beneficial exchange of social support, gifts, and tips under the guise of commercial friendships.Research limitations/implications – The article is based upon service provider and customer relationships in an American diner. Researchers may want to apply t...