Sridhar N. Ramaswami

Consumers’ Responses to Negative Word-of-Mouth Communication: An Attribution Theory Perspective

Research on negative word-of-mouth communication (WOMC) in general, and the process by which negative WOMC affects consumers’ brand evaluations in particular, has been limited. This study uses attribution theory to explain consumers’ responses to negative WOMC. Experimental results suggest that (a) causal attributions mediate the negative WOMC-brand evaluation relation, (b) receivers’ attributions depend on the manner in which the negative WOMC is conveyed, and (c) brand name affects attributions. Results also suggest that when receivers attribute the negativity of the WOMC message to the brand, brand evaluations decrease; however, if receivers attribute the negativity to the communicator, brand evaluations increase.

Marketing Controls and Dysfunctional Employee Behaviors: A Test of Traditional and Contingency Theory Postulates

The author examines two different theories—traditional and contingency—of negative employee responses to marketing control systems. Traditional control theory draws on the humanistic perspective to...

Antecedents and Consequences of Merit Pay Fairness for Industrial Salespeople

How do salespeople make judgments of merit pay fairness? By what mechanisms do fairness judgments influence the performance and commitment of salespeople? Using equity and social exchange theories, the authors examine these questions for industrial salespeople who work in a Fortune 500 firm and provide four key findings. First, of the three dimensions of fairness judgments, they find the interactional fairness dimension to be relatively more important than procedural or distributive fairness in influencing job outcomes of salespeople. Second, supervisory behaviors have significant influence in shaping salespeoples fairness judgments, particularly judgments of distributive and interactional fairness. Third, the results underscore the contrasting mediating role of trust in supervisor and job satisfaction. Although trust in the supervisor is important in reducing salespeoples opportunistic behaviors, the authors find job satisfaction to be important in enhancing their loyalty to the organization. Fourth, salespeoples job performance is influenced directly by extrinsic factors such as fairness of current rewards and potential for rewards. In addition, the authors outline implications for theory and practice.

Perceived network externalities and communication technology acceptance

Electronic mail (e-mail) and instant messaging (IM) systems represent two communication technologies that are potentially substitutable. A unique feature of e-mail and IM is that their value to an individual user increases as the number of other people adopting the system grows. This is referred to as a positive network externality. This externality makes it difficult for consumers to switch to other systems because of the potential loss of connectivity with network members. Further, as this externality grows, it has unintended negative consequences in the form of spim and spam. Including these three network externality effects – positive, cross-impact, and negative – the present study investigates the determinants of electronic communication system use based on an extended Technology Acceptance Model. The study findings suggest that user perceptions regarding network externalities have a positive impact on use of electronic communication systems while perceptions of problems associated with unsolicited messages and perceived usefulness of alternative systems do not significantly affect system use. This study contributes to our understanding of the factors that affect use of existing and newer alternative communication technologies.

Reconciling diverse measures of performance: A conceptual framework and test of a methodology

Abstract This paper examines the multidimensional aspects of performance measures specifically studying variables related to “marketing effectiveness.” A measurement model for assessing the validity and reliability of performance measures is developed. The framework provides a conceptual platform from which further empirical and theoretical development may proceed. This is illustrated through an empirical analysis which addresses the issues associated with resolving conflicts among performance measures. The empirical results show the importance of carefully assessing the performance measures chosen. The results confirm earlier findings that the dimensions of performance can be mutually exclusive, leading to confusion as to the appropriate means of resolving tradeoffs. Data Envelopment Analysis based on the performance measures allows the creation of a performance frontier which inherently recognizes the tradeoffs. This method is used to further validate the characteristics of the performance measures chosen. The model incorporating profitability, market growth and adaptability was the most consistent in both predictive and concurrent validity checks.

The value of seller trustworthiness in C2C online markets

Trust has value in online markets, and individual and company actions can improve or impair how trustworthy they are perceived in these markets.

Work Alienation of Marketing Employees: Influence of Task, Supervisory, and Organizational Structure Factors:

This study presents an integrated work alienation model that includes a number of relevant exogenous antecedents from the task, supervisory, and organizational structure domains. The study hypothesizes that these antecedents influence work alienation of marketing employees both directly and indirectly because of the effects they have on employees’ role stress and commitment to the organization. Simultaneous inclusion of relevant antecedents enables the study to establish the relative importance of each antecedent for work alienation of employees. The study also includes a comparative evaluation of the applicability of the proposed model for subgroups of employees stratified by gender.

Marketing controls and employee responses: The moderating role of task characteristics

A key concern in implementing organizational controls is that little is known about when controls lead to “negative” employee responses. Previous research has suggested that lower levels of negative responses will be observed only if the controls that are being employed “fit” the characteristics of the tasks being controlled. The two task characteristics usually referred to include performance (outcome) documentation and procedural (cause-effect) knowledge. Unlike previous studies, however, this study assumes that the two task characteristics should have a joint, rather than independent, influence on employee responses to controls. The reason is that knowledge of how well one is doing is not sufficient for expecting lower levels of negative responses if information on procedures that may lead to better performance is not available. Knowledge of procedures, likewise, is not sufficient for lower levels of negative responses if performance documentation is not available. Results of an empirical study provide general support for the above line of reasoning.

An exploratory study of portfolio objectives and asset holdings

This study examines the relationship between asset holdings and portfolio objectives. It demonstrates that asset holdings across a wide variety of investment alternatives (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, life insurance, home, pension plans and tax products) vary systematically as a function of the relative importance placed on multiple objectives (current income, capital appreciation, retirement, family education, etc.) and investor characteristics such as the stage of the family life cycle, income, wealth, education and level of risk aversion. The portfolio of objectives, in turn, are related to the stage of the family lifecycle as well as wealth and attitude toward risk (risk aversion). Both the direct and indirect (via portfolio objectives) effects of investor characteristics on asset holdings are examined. The results provide insights into investor motivations and life cycle savings behavior.

Affective Organizational Committment of Salespeople: An Expanded Model

Affective organizational commitment of salespeople has been widely recognized as being influenced by task-, role-, supervisory behavior-, and organizational structure-related factors. While previous empirical studies have examined the effect of one or more of these factors, this study provides a simultaneous test of the importance of these factors for a salespersons affective organizational commitment. The model formulated in this study also decomposes the importance of each factor into direct and indirect (through role stress factors) influences that the factors have on affective organizational commitment. The results provide useful and interesting implications for enhancing affective organizational commitment of salespeople.