Werner H. Kunz

How to Transform Consumers into Fans of Your Brand

Purpose – Brand fan pages on social networks have become very popular online services. However, empirical research on fan pages is still in its infancy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of fan pages on the customer-brand relationship and what motivates users to participate.Design/methodology/approach – For this a framework was developed based on classical concepts of use and gratification theory, customer engagement, and involvement theory. The model is tested using a multi-step approach of qualitative and quantitative methods.Findings – The paper can show a significant influence from online service usage behavior on the fan page on the customer-brand relationship. Furthermore, the paper identifies different values such as functional and hedonic content as drivers of fan-page participation.Research limitations/implications – The results are limited by the used data set, which is not representative for all industries and is cross-sectional. Further research could build up a database over a longitudinal time frame in different industries. The results are interesting for theory and practice. They confirm the positive effect of integration and engagement in general and show that fan pages are more than just tools to connect brand fans. They are also instruments for gaining new fans. Originality/value – The present study is the first study that not only shows the effect of fan pages on customer behavior, but also analyses the motives for participation and the crucial constructs to manage them successfully.

Consumer Trust in Service Companies: A Multiple Mediating Analysis

The concept of “trust” has gained considerable importance in the field of marketing during the last decades and is seen as a key mediator of customer relationship marketing. But upon a closer look at the literature, the construct “trust” is conceptualized and measured very differently. Based on a literature review and theoretical work, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of consumer trust in a service company, which distinguishes two fundamental dimensions. Using these dimensions, it is possible to detect different mediating effects of trust in the customer relationship to the service company. Antecedents and consequences of trust are studied in a business-to-consumer services context in the banking industry. To test hypotheses, empirical data are collected from a sample of 232 retail bank customers with checking accounts. By means of a LISREL approach, two rivaling measurement models of trust are compared and show various mediating effects. The empirical data support the two-dimensional model of trust. Further, the two dimensions of trust are mediating the effect of customer satisfaction (CS) differently. In particular, it is shown that “benevolence” has a significantly greater influence on customer loyalty than “credibility.” Finally, beside CS, the customer’s propensity to trust also influences trust.

Value fusion: The blending of consumer and firm value in the distinct context of mobile technologies and social media

Purpose: In this article, we introduce the concept of Value Fusion to describe how value can emerge from the use of mobile, networked technology by consumers, firms, and entities such as non-consumers, a firm’s competitors, and others simultaneously.Design/methodology/approach: We discuss the combination of characteristics of mobile devices that enable Value Fusion. We discuss specific value and benefits to consumers and firms of being mobile and networked. We introduce and define Value Fusion and set it apart from related, other conceptualizations of value. We provide examples of Value Fusion and discuss the necessary conditions for Value Fusion to occur. We discuss under which conditions the use of mobile, networked technology by consumers and firms may lead to Value Confusion instead of Value Fusion. We end with several research questions, proposed to further enhance the understanding and management of Value Fusion.Findings: The combination of portable, personal, networked, textual/visual and converged characteristics of mobile devices enables firms and consumers to interact and communicate, produce and consume benefits, and create value in new ways that have not been captured by popular conceptualizations of value. These traditional conceptualizations include customer value, experiential value, customer lifetime value, and customer engagement value. Value Fusion is defined as value that can be achieved for the entire network of consumers and firms simultaneously, just by being on the mobile network. Value Fusion results from producers and consumers (i) individually or collectively, (ii) actively and passively, (iii) concurrently, (iv) interactively or in aggregation contributing to a mobile network (v) in real time and (vi) just-in-time.Implications: Mobile devices have revolutionized the way we live, and there is widespread expectation that they will have “game- changing” implications for marketing in the near future (MSI, 2012). Therefore, research is needed to help us understand how mobile technologies are likely to change conventional wisdom about how customers and firms connect, interact and do business, and finally culminate in mutual, synergetic value; a phenomenon which we label Value Fusion.Originality: This paper synthesizes insights from the extant value literature that by and large has focused on either the customer’s or the firm’s perspective, but rarely blended the two. The contribution of this paper is that the Value Fusion concept achieves such a blending in the distinct context of mobile technologies and social media. Value should be considered more holistically, and value to the consumer and firm should be jointly optimized (i.e., Value Fusion) rather than managed in isolation. In addition, both active and passive participation should be valued. This paper calls for a more holistic approach to conceptualize value and identifies unanswered questions about value in the distinct context of mobile technology and social media.

Managing overall service quality in customer care centers

Purpose – This paper aims to clarify the interdependencies among three main stakeholder groups and to show how to manage overall service quality in customer care centers.Design/methodology/approach – A framework of the relations among the target groups of a customer care center was developed. A survey methodology with a 360° approach that encompasses top management, employees and final customers as three main target groups was conducted. The sample incorporates 58 customer care centers and seven industries in Germany and Austria. Besides the management interviews, we received 1,580 completed questionnaires by employees, and 2,010 completed questionnaires by customers. Multiple regression analysis was applied on multi‐item measurement scales of the three different levels.Findings – We were able to show that employee satisfaction is the main factor for driving customer orientation. Further management efforts resulting in employee orientation will facilitate the job of employees and increase employee loyalty...

Adapting Behavioral Interventions for Social Media Delivery

Patients are increasingly using online social networks (ie, social media) to connect with other patients and health care professionals—a trend called peer-to-peer health care. Because online social networks provide a means for health care professionals to communicate with patients, and for patients to communicate with each other, an opportunity exists to use social media as a modality to deliver behavioral interventions. Social media-delivered behavioral interventions have the potential to reduce the expense of behavioral interventions by eliminating visits, as well as increase our access to patients by becoming embedded in their social media feeds. Trials of online social network-delivered behavioral interventions have shown promise, but much is unknown about intervention development and methodology. In this paper, we discuss the process by which investigators can translate behavioral interventions for social media delivery. We present a model that describes the steps and decision points in this process, including the necessary training and reporting requirements. We also discuss issues pertinent to social media-delivered interventions, including cost, scalability, and privacy. Finally, we identify areas of research that are needed to optimize this emerging behavioral intervention modality.

Creators, multipliers, and lurkers: who contributes and who benefits at online review sites

Purpose: As the Internet has become an increasingly relevant communication and exchange platform, social interactions exist in multiple forms. Our research integrates a multitude of those interactions to understand who contributes and why different types of contributors generate and leverage social capital on online review sites.Design/methodology/approach: Based on the literature about social capital, social exchange theory, and transformative consumer research, we carried out a study of 693 contributors on a hotel review site. Content analysis and a latent profile analysis were used to research the contribution types and the underlying motives for generating and leveraging social capital.Findings: Through the integration of various customer-to-customer interactions, our results reveal a three-class structure of contributors on review sites. These three groups of individuals show distinct patterns in their preferred interaction activities and the underlying motives.Research limitations/implications: We develop the existing literature on transmission of electronic word-of-mouth messages and typologies of contributors. Future research should seek to expand the findings to additional industry and platform contexts and to support our findings through the inclusion of behavioral data.Originality/value: The research contributes to researches and marketers in the field by empirically investigating who and why individuals engage in online social interactions. We expand upon the existing literature by highlighting the importance of social debt in anonymous online environments and by assessing a three-class structure of online contributors.

Customer Engagement in a Big Data World

This paper aims to propose that the literature on customer engagement has emphasized the benefits of customer engagement to the firm and, to a large extent, ignored the customers’ perspective. By drawing upon co-creation and other literature, this paper attempts to alleviate this gap by proposing a strategic framework that aligns both the customer and firm perspectives in successfully creating engagement that generates value for both the customer and the bottom line.,A strategic framework is proposed that includes the necessary firm resources, data, process, timeline and goals for engagement, and captures customers’ motives, situational factors and preferred engagement styles.,The authors argue that sustainability of data-driven customer engagement requires a dynamic and iterative value generation process involving customers recognizing the value of engagement behaviours and firm’s ability to capture and passing value back to customers.,This paper proposes a dynamic strategic value-creation framework that comprehensively captures both the customer and firm perspectives to data-driven customer engagement.

Relationship between Online Retailers’ Reputation and Product Returns

Customer product returns are key cost drivers that eat into online retailers’ profits. However, management research has neglected to examine ways of reducing return rates without causing a concomitant decrease in sales. Drawing from signalling and dissonance theories, we investigate the relationship between online retailers’ reputation and product return rates. Two experiments designed to produce causal conclusions show that reputation reduces return rates (Studies 1 and 2) and that return motivation is a boundary condition for that relationship (Study 2). A field study based on an online consumer panel demonstrates the robustness of the negative impact of online retailer reputation on product returns in a setting that emphasizes external validity (Study 3), in comparison with Studies 1 and 2, which maximize internal validity. Study 3 also examines managerially important contingencies of the causal relationship by considering three variables: purchase frequency; retailer type; and customer gender. Overall findings indicate that an online retailers reputation is a powerful means of reducing product return rates. The findings also show that the strength of the relationship between reputation and product returns is influenced by return motivation and the three variables investigated in the field study.

Does the host match the content? A taxonomical update on online consumption communities

Abstract This article proposes a taxonomy of online consumption communities in order to address this rather ambiguously conceptualised research field. Specifically, intercommunity differences are investigated with regard to how content focus (brand vs activity) and its congruency with the type of host (doubled vs mixed) affect consumers’ posting behaviour. Based on an online survey (n = 888), a series of regressions of various benefits on posting behaviour supports the usability of the proposed taxonomy. In particular, social benefits had the strongest effect on consumers’ posting behaviour across all communities, while the effects of functional, altruistic and sharing benefits varied in significance and direction of influence when accounting for the different community characteristics. These findings help marketing managers to design online communities and motivate consumers to contribute.

The Role of Social Media for Luxury-Brands – Motives for Consumer Engagement andOpportunities for Businesses

Social Media is omnipresent. Many luxury brands today operate brand pages (i.e., fan pages, video channels) on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. However, empirical research on brand pages is still in its infancy. Therefore, this study discuss the potential of social media for luxury brands and shows the effect of brand pages on loyalty and what motivates users to participate.