Ramendra Thakur

The impact of high-quality firm achievements on shareholder value: Focus on Malcolm Baldrige and J. D. Power and associates awards

Marketing managers face increasing pressure to justify any strategic action with financial metrics that facilitate comparative evaluations with alternative options. Using event study method, the authors focus attention on the impact of high-profile quality achievement awards on the stock prices of the award-winning firms. Two types of awards are investigated: the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and J. D. Power and Associates Awards (JDPAA). Previous event studies found no major impact of MBNQA announcements on the stock price of MBNQA winners; in contrast, this study’s results show that these awards generate significant shareholder value for MBNQA winners. With respect to the JDPAA, the authors— analyses did notfind any such impact in the Automotive, Travel, and Finance categories. Multiple regression analyses suggest that firms with higher amounts of intangible assets are more likely to create shareholder value. Implications of the results for different decision horizon perspectives are derived.

A Parsimonious Model of the Antecedents and Consequence of Online Trust: An Uncertainty Perspective

ABSTRACT Online trust is an important issue in e-commerce. Recent research has indicated that online trust, or the absence of online trust, is a key inhibitor in an individual consumers acceptance of e-commerce. In an uncertain and complex environment such as e-commerce, online trust is an important mechanism for consumers to reduce uncertainty. Uncertainty inhibits these individuals from making online purchases and becoming loyal customers of e-commerce organizations. We developed and tested a model of online trust that addresses the major sources of e-commerce uncertainty and consumer loyalty. We found that website usability, expected product performance, security, and privacy collectively explained 70% of the variance in online trust. The strongest predictors were consecutively security, website usability, expected product performance, and privacy. We also found that online trust and privacy explain 50% variance in consumer loyalty.

WHAT MOTIVATES CONSUMERS TO PARTAKE IN CYBER SHILLING

The prevalence of online reviews has grown in recent years as more customer-firm interactions occur on the internet. Included in this progression is cyber shilling (users writing false reviews, either positive or negative; endorsements about products/services for profit without using or buying them; and/or users utilizing false identities to promote the products/services of a company for profit). Factors that motivate individuals to partake in cyber shilling were tested in this study using a survey of 1,752 United States (U.S.) consumers. Results indicated that: (1) perceived betrayal increased desire for revenge and reduced brand love; however, it did not lead to involvement in cyber shilling; (2) desire for revenge was negatively related to brand love; (3) both desire for revenge and brand love had an impact on cyber shilling behavior; and (4) willingness to be involved in cyber shilling increased when some sort of reward was received.