Qiuying Zheng

The Impact of Online Social Support on Patients’ Quality of Life and the Moderating Role of Social Exclusion

Social support is critical for improving patients’ health outcomes. People living with chronic diseases are often socially excluded and thus face many challenges in their lives. The type and amount of social support they receive from online health care communities can potentially enhance their quality of life. This research verifies emotional support, informational support, companionship, and relatedness as four categories of online social support pertinent in health care communities. In examining the detailed effects of multidimensional online social support on physical, psychological, and existential quality of life, this research finds that the impact of emotional support on psychological quality of life is most effective. An empirical survey of 349 participants finds that the influential outcomes of online social support on quality of life depend on stigmatized patients’ perceptions of their level of social exclusion. In general, stigmatized patients with high levels of social exclusion seek a variety of online social support and attain a more improved quality of life than those patients with lower levels of social exclusion. This research recommends that the health care sector emphasize patients’ synergies and develop online customer resources to extend the limited medical support available.

Improving customer well-being through two-way online social support

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of online health care communities and the impact of two-way online social support on customers’ well-being and patients’ quality of life, at different social exclusion levels. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey in China’s Anti-Hepatitis B Online Community includes 326 respondents. A combined hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation model test the hypotheses. Findings – Both receiving and giving online social support, as reciprocal altruism behaviors, enhance patients’ well-being. Receiving online social support influences psychological well-being most; giving has the largest impact on existential domains. Social exclusion boosts the benefits of giving online social support but attenuates the benefits of receiving it. Research limitations/implications – This research focusses on the effects of online social support among socially excluded patients. Extensions could rely on objective instead of subjective measures and...

The effect of Country of Brand image on symbolic value: Brand prestige as a mediator

Seeking symbolic value has become one of the most significant motivations that drive the consumers make brand decisions. The study is intended to confirm the relationship between Country of Brand, brand prestige and symbolic value. Symbolic value includes three factors, such as prestige value, self-expressive value, and social expressive value. The survey was conducted in four mobile stores. In contrast to the general notion that there is only interaction between Country of Brand and perceived quality, Country of Brand was found to be positively related to the symbolic value in an international branding context which was mediated by brand prestige except social expressive value. The findings have managerial implications for marketing managers and limitations of the study have also been discussed.

Meta-view of consequence of customer satisfaction

Over recent many years, customer satisfaction logic obtained acceptance in marketing academy because it is believed to affect customer loyalty. Does customer satisfaction, however, really bring customer loyalty? Based on 85 quantitative researches from 1980 to 2011 and by meta method, this paper finds that although customer satisfaction affects composite customer loyalty, the impact of customer satisfaction on behavioral loyalty is not salient as that on attitudinal ones.

Consumers' perception of the internationalism effect on symbolic value: Brand prestige as a mediator

Seeking symbolic value has become one of the most important reasons that drive the consumers choose brands. The study is intended to confirm the relationship between perceived brand internationalism, brand prestige and symbolic value. Symbolic value includes three factors, such as prestige value, self-expressive value, and social expressive value. The survey was conducted in four mobile stores. In contrast to the general notion that there is only interaction between perceived brand internationalism and perceived quality, perceived brand internationalism was found to be positively related to the symbolic value in an international branding context which was mediated by brand prestige except social expressive value. The findings have managerial implications for marketing managers and limitations of the study have also been discussed.

Research on the mechanism of self-determination for online customer participation psychology and behavior

One student sample experiment was designed to test the mechanism of self-determination for online shopping customer participation, and proved that website familiarity (high vs. low), website norm (high vs. low) and online customer participation motivation (autonomous vs. controlled) were the effective factors triggering the mechanism of self-determination and online customer participation. The results showed that in the case of customer-led autonomous participation motivation, the websites with high familiarity help to meet the online customer self-determination demand and promote participation behaviors. Moreover, the implications for marketing theory and website practice are also originated from the results.

Research on the Psychology Mechanism of Consumer Internet Sharing Behavior

This paper examines internet sharing behavior. Sharing is a kind of reciprocal prosocial behavior, which can help consumers to cooperate with each other and reduce the transaction costs during the consumption process. Sharing is a public behavior, which is a powerful tool to combine consumers together and establish stable sensation and bonds among them. With the innovation and development of Internet technology, and also with more and more consumers like to participate in product or service and production with their increasing ability, it becomes much more convenient to share on the Internet, which can radiate to a widen area and gain a larger synergy effect. Therefore, as an instinct behavior of human beings, sharing is a old and hot topic in consumption field, which has a valuable theoretical and practical meaning especially in Internet marketing field. In this study we examine the antecedents and moderators of internet sharing behavoir, we put forwad our hypothesis and research model and then we draw some conclusions and recommendations.

Paradigm Shift of Customer Satisfaction Studies in Service Research: A Meta-analytical Review of the Antecedents of Service Satisfaction

Conceptual literature review and empirical generalization by using meta-analysis method are done to get a whole picture of service satisfaction antecedent studies. It is found that three main paradigms, including expectation disconfirmation, service quality and service value are used to explain the antecedents of customer satisfaction in service research history. A paradigm shift can be seen along these three paradigms, and the domain of service satisfaction antecedents is found to be expanding gradually. However, meta-analysis results show that disconfirmation, the most parsimonious paradigm, achieves the strongest relationship strength with customer satisfaction in service industries. Therefore, disconfirmation paradigm is recommended to measure or monitor customer satisfaction, whereas service quality paradigm and service are recommended when service providers want to improve customer satisfaction since they need to know from which concrete aspects, satisfaction can be enhanced.

Research on the Mechanism of Consumer Generated Media

This paper examines consumer-generated media (CGM). Our research will consider the domestic and global behaviors and findings will be useful for both researchers and marketing practitioners who seek to understand issues relevant to CGM and associated marketing tactics and their ability to accomplish marketing objectives, particularly related to building customer relationships and consumer behavior online. First, we overview the value and CGM aplications; second, we putforwad our hypothesis and research model and last we draw some conclusions and recommendations.

Are Satisfied Customers Always Loyal? - A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of Moderators of Customer Satisfaction-Loyalty Relationship

Customer satisfaction (CS) gains lots of attention since it is believed to bring loyalty. However, are satisfied customers always loyal? Using meta-analytical method and based on 27 studies published from 1980 to 2007, we construct the moderators of CS-loyalty relationship model in four dimensions: cultural context, economic development, industry background and research method; and then put forward the related hypotheses. It is found that the CS-loyalty relationship is stronger in the countries, where individualism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity are higher, as well as in the industry with high involvement. Furthermore, it suggests that the CS-loyalty relationship is stronger when satisfaction is evaluated by single-item measures than multi-item measures.