Drawing on brand and innovation management literature, this article presents the development and testing of a theory about the way strong brands shape innovation orientationunder conditions of ...institutional uncertainty. Using a unique database of sixty-two large Latin American multinationals (multilatinas), we illustrate that the strong brands of emerging multinationals interact with institutional uncertainty in the host market to shape the firms’ innovation orientation. We confirm the robustness of the results, by using secondary data on foreign direct investments, advertising, and R&D investments. The implications of our findings for managers of multinational companies are clear: While strong brands enhance the innovation orientation of emerging multinationals, conditions of institutional uncertainty in host markets weaken this relationship.
Purpose
Grounded in Transformative Service Research, the purpose of this paper is to explore the mechanisms by which bank information transparency influences consumer’s financial well-being (FWB). ...The authors propose that customer attitudes toward the brand and the subjectively perceived ability of individuals to deal with the financial challenges explain the enhancement of FWB driven by bank information transparency.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. In total, 400 bank customers of five commercial banks in Colombia were approached and asked to fill out a pen and paper questionnaire. Serial mediation analysis was applied to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This research shows that bank information transparency can uplift the FWB of customers. Furthermore, the positive effect of bank information transparency on the FWB occurs because the shared information improves the positive attitudes toward banks and the perceived financial self-efficacy of customers.
Research limitations/implications
This paper heeds the call of current literature for improved explanations of the relationship between attempts to inform consumers about financial services and their FWB.
Practical implications
This research shows that managers who embrace the challenging task of improving the FWB of their customers should design strategies for more transparent information sharing with their customers. However, these strategies should be designed not only to deliver information to customers but also to increase the perceived disclosure, accuracy and clarity of shared information.
Originality/value
This pioneering study aims to explain the effects of bank information transparency on the FWB of consumers by drawing on interdisciplinary literature. This research is important as many banks aim to increase their information transparency without a clear understanding of the effects of these actions on consumers and therefore in many instances their efforts fail. A key contribution of this study is identifying concrete mechanisms (i.e. brand attitudes and self-efficacy) that help managers to improve customers’ FWB via information transparency. Accordingly, the authors offer suggestions for better information transparency strategy implementation.
Despite the substantial budgets spent on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), customers' reactions toward companies' socially responsible strategies are not always in line with companies' goals. ...This is mainly due to the rising CSR-related-hypocrisy occurring as a customer response to a common concern that companies are investing in symbolic CSR. These perceptions not only limit the sought-after outcomes of CSR but could result in a worsening of reputation and financial loss for services. As such, the key research question in this paper is: 'From a customers' perspective, what factors can help reduce the perception of CSR-related-hypocrisy within banking services?'. In addressing this question, this paper adopts a transdisciplinary approach bridging the gap between CSR and Transformative Service Research (TSR) literature. Findings suggest that when CSR-related-activities positively affect the wellbeing of customers, it is less likely that they judge a firm CSR activity as a hypocrite. In the retail banking sector, this paper shows higher perceived bank information transparency results in lower levels of perceived CSR-related-hypocrisy, especially when CSR activities improve the financial self-efficacy of customers. By bridging TSR and CSR lenses, this paper posits CSR activities offer service companies a unique opportunity for creating 'uplifting changes' in the life of customers.
Service-dominant logic established that for the success of service industries, it is vital to acknowledge the customer as an active agent in the commercial ecosystem. To carry it out, the consumer ...must participate in value creation. The resource integration theory exposes the importance of recognizing the customer as an agent capable of improving the company’s competitive advantage. It is only necessary for the participants to perceive benefits to make their resources available and integrate them into the co-creation process. This study aims to find the key customer-based factors that influence the brand value co-creation (VCC) process in the banking sector, analyzing the dynamics in different customers across national cultures and idiosyncrasies. In this paper, we analyze the potential heterogeneous idiosyncrasy of customers and how it leads to becoming more engaged in the co-creation process. Quantitative research was performed in five countries, obtaining a total of 2,029 valid questionnaires where latent profile analyses and ANOVAs were performed to identify and describe the latent profiles (LPA) of consumer co-creators of brand value. Afterward, a PLS-SEM was performed to test the research model in each segment. The results show four different profiles of customer co-creators of brand value, from non-co-creators (detractors), skeptical and neutral, to customers committed to co-creating brand value with their banks. The results indicate that detractor customers lack the motivations and resources to carry out co-creation behaviors. On the other hand, creativity and connectedness were crucial for customers co-creators of value. To the authors’ understanding, no studies have used latent segmentation to find the profiles of customer co-creators of brand value.
PurposeThe authors seek (1) to identify the profiles of subjective financial well-being (SFWB) of bank customers before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, (2) to analyze the ...transition to profiles of lower SFWB during the pandemic and (3) to identify the factors driving such transitions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors surveyed five countries during 2019 and 2020 to measure SFWB. The authors applied latent class analysis (LCA) to identify profiles of bank customers according to a mix of SFWB indicators in pre-pandemic times (Study 1). The authors validated the profiles during the pandemic and identified the SFWB dimensions that deteriorated during the crisis (Study 2). Finally, the authors applied latent transition analysis (LTA) to explore transitions to profiles of lower SFWB and identify the drivers.FindingsThe authors identified three profiles of customers in pre- and post-pandemic periods for four dimensions of SFWB: control over finances, capacity to absorb financial shocks, ability to track financial goals and financial freedom. Gender, age, trust in banks and bank-supporting policies were related to transitions across profiles of SFWB during the pandemic. These relationships are contingent upon contextual country-related variables.Research limitations/implicationsBanks and policymakers should reduce customers' exposure to the pandemic's long-lasting adverse effects on SFWB and should identify and control the multiplier role that contextual variables play.Originality/valueExtant literature has not fully identified the dimensions of SFWB that changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors narrow this gap by identifying three SFWB profiles of customers, analyzing the patterns of SFWB change and connecting these changes to individual, provider and contextual factors.
Purpose
How does emerging market multinational enterprises’ (EM MNEs) resource vulnerability to domestic institutional weakness influence the escapist outward foreign direct investment (OFDI)? This ...study aims to focus on how varying qualities of technological resources make EM MNEs vulnerable to institutional weakness at home and when such a vulnerability triggers escapist OFDI.
Design/methodology/approach
A mix of primary and secondary data is used to study evidence of escapist OFDI in the case of multilatinas. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regressions were applied to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Domestic institutional weakness triggers escapist OFDI only when EM MNEs’ resources are vulnerable to institutional pressures. Technological leadership increases the vulnerability of EM MNEs to the pressure of institutional weaknesses at home, which, in turn, motivates escapist OFDI.
Originality/value
In discussing the role of firm resources and their vulnerability to institutional weakness, a mechanism is proposed to shed light on how EM MNEs transform the general country framework of the institutional environment into the specific decision to escape via OFDI.
Purpose
This study aims to introduce transformative place management – TPM – (defined as the deliberate efforts of place managers in commercial settings to provide a pool of restorative resources to ...improve the consumers’ emotional well-being) by merging the REPLACE framework and transformative service research. Additionally, this research analyzes the direct and indirect impacts of restorative resources as a form of TPM on consumers’ emotional well-being and place attachment, considering the moderating role of employee emotional labor.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 240 customers were surveyed in an experience-based store in a developing country by using a questionnaire. Then, a moderated mediation model was applied to analyze the moderating role of employee emotional labor in the relationship between TPM and place attachment through consumers’ well-being.
Findings
TPM that provides restorative resources to consumers influences place attachment by improving consumer well-being. However, surface acting by employees reduces the ability of TPM to increase place attachment through the improvement of consumers’ emotional well-being. Deep acting, on the other hand, does not enhance the effect of TPM on place attachment through consumers’ emotional well-being.
Originality/value
This paper proposes new developments in the transformative service research (TSR) paradigm by introducing TPM. By showing how the place of consumption increases the well-being of customers, this paper helps TSR researchers to accomplish the purpose of transforming the lives of consumers through relevant research. Although marketing researchers and environmental psychologists have theoretically anticipated the positive effects on well-being from consumption settings, this paper explains how commercial places promote customer well-being through the provision of restorative resources. Also, this paper shows how the place of consumption transforms consumers’' lives and identifies some of the boundary conditions at which such a transformation occurs.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the effects of interpersonal conflicts in the social workplace on various rationalized, knowledge-hiding behaviors in service organizations. This research also ...examines employee well-being as a mediator to explain the effects of interpersonal conflicts at work on knowledge-hiding behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
First, relevant literature provided the theoretical basis for the conceptual model that links the core constructs of this research. A quantitative study collected data from 395 employees of a global consulting firm with a branch located in a developing country. Finally, an analysis of the structural equation modeling with MPlus 7 software tested the measurement and the structural model.
Findings
The results of this study suggest that interpersonal conflict at work influences knowledge-hiding and that employee’s well-being mediates this relationship. In other words, employees strategically choose what knowledge-hiding behaviors to use – such as evasion or “playing dumb” – to cope with the lack of well-being caused by high interpersonal conflicts in the workplace.
Originality/value
Although contextual and individual factors may trigger knowledge-hiding behavior at work, the current literature has overlooked the combined effects of such factors, especially in service settings. Knowledge hiding in service organizations is a weakness that can lead to significant economic losses, especially in firms that are intensively knowledge-based. Thus, it is necessary to identify the antecedents of knowledge-hiding behavior to deter low performance in these organizations.
The need for the banking sector to digitize its services to improve the efficiency of its processes has motivated a wave of research among academics and professionals. One of the most important ...themes emerging in e-service adoption research is the customer experience. The customer experience has been explored from different angles, being explained from personal elements, interactions between peers, and in terms of the tools provided by companies to improve the experience. However, one of the key elements for improving the customer experience understood from the perspective of service-dominant logic is the co-creation of value. This research explores the personal elements that lead customers to co-create value and how this impacts the customer experience of digital banking channels. We present a cross-sectional quantitative investigation, carried out through a structured questionnaire applied to 406 financial consumers in Colombia. The results indicate that perceived brand knowledge, creativity, and connectivity are antecedents of value co-creation that have a direct effect on the customer experience. The value of the co-creation process allows banks to offer personalized products to their clients without making significant financial and time investments to understand what the client wants, thus improving customer experience with the brand.
How to create a realistic customer journey map Rosenbaum, Mark S.; Otalora, Mauricio Losada; Ramírez, Germán Contreras
Business horizons,
January-February 2017, 2017-01-00, Letnik:
60, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Although many articles discuss customer journey mapping (CJM), both academics and practitioners still question the best ways to model the consumer decision journey. We contend that most customer ...journey maps are critically flawed. They assume all customers of a particular organization experience the same organizational touchpoints and view these touchpoints as equally important. Furthermore, management lacks an understanding of how to use CJM as a cross-functional, strategic tool that promotes service innovation. This article proposes a solution to the unwieldy complexity of CJM by linking customer research to the CJM process and by showing managers how to develop a customer journey map that improves a customer's experience at each touchpoint. Using the case of an actual retail mall, we show that common CJM assumptions about the equal importance of all touchpoints are fundamentally wrong, and how easy it is for retail managers and strategic planners to make incorrect judgements about customer experience. This article demonstrates through a case study how customer research helped a mall's strategic management team understand which touchpoints were more or less critical to customer experience. It also shows key strategic initiatives at each touchpoint, resulting in cross-functional input aimed to advance service innovation at the mall.
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