Marketing Working Papers

Encouraging Customer Adoption of Self-Service Technologies: Put a Little Fun in Their Lives

James M. Curran — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:41:29 PST

This research examines the factors that influence a consumer's decision to alter the manner in which they conduct their business to adopt a new technology based means of engaging with the service provider. A there are two key elements in the introduction of self-service technologies (SSTs), one is the use of the technology itself and another is that existing customers must change the manner in which they conduct their business. To better understand the dynamics at play when customers are asked to adopt technologies, a structural model relating attitudes and anticipated outcomes to decisions to change existing behavior is proposed and tested in a banking context. The findings are that people will consider changing when the technology offers greater utility and when it is fun to use.

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Examining Student Reactions to Class Experiences: An Analysis Using Structural Equation Modeling

James M. Curran — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:56:28 PST

This study uses a service marketing framework to develop and test a structural model of seven factors hypothesized to be significant in student evaluations of the classes they take. A series of structural equation models are used to test the validity of the included constructs and then to compare and contrast competing nested models attempting to explain the variation in the data collected. One model is selected as the best and conclusions are drawn from that model and the results it offered.

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Sales Forecast in a Personal Selling Intensive Industry: An Empirical Analysis of the Repeat Purchase Diffusion Model

Alphonso Ogbuehi et al. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:00:26 PST

It is essential for managers in personal selling-intensive industries to find the optimal mix of personal selling and other promotional efforts to forecast sales, meet sales projections and avoid costly marketplace failures. To that end, we develop and test a repeat purchase diffusion model that allows for the impact of personal selling, pricing and other promotional activities (advertising and sampling) on the adoption of a new product. This model recognizes manager-defined segments of prescribers and incorporates a manager's judgments on the distribution of resources among these various segments. Prescribers are categorized as potential new prescribers and repeat prescribers, based upon sales call attractiveness ratings provided by the sales organization. Market potential is then a function of sales call activity. Our results provide the marketing manager in a personal selling-intensive industry more feedback on the impact that variations in marketing activities could have on new product sales than previously available.

Understanding Consumer Attitudes Toward Technologies Used for Service Delivery: An Examination of Influential Factors

James M. Curran — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 06:59:00 PST

Marketing and technology focused literatures are replete with factors that influence the formation and change of people's attitudes toward technlogies and their ussage. With teh proliferation of technologies as touchpoints between firms and their customers, it has never been more important for the firms that choose to utilize technology for customer contact to understand how those customers react to the technologies. In this research the theoretical foundations of consumer adoptions of innovations and technologies are reviewed, a model of attitude formation is developed, and the model is tested on three technologies common to the banking industry. Results show that the salient factors related to attitudes toward specific technologies used in service delivery are not consistent across technologies.

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Intentions to Use Technology-Based Customer Interfaces in Service Delivery

James M. Curran — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 06:24:23 PST

Service research has identified a myriad of factors that influence consumer perceptions, expectations, evaluations, and attitudes toward the services they use. Most of this research has focused on the interpersonal encounter rather than the technology driven encounter where the consumer never actually interacts with service employees. There can be little doubt that the introduction of Technology-Based Customer Interfaces (TBCIs) necessitates further research to better understand customers' attitudes toward service providers and their intentions to use technology-based service delivery systems. In this research, the author proposes and empirically tests three competing structural models that include consumer reactions to both the interpersonal and the technological aspects of the encounter to understand their intentions to use TBCIs. A banking context was used which allowed three separate technologies to be examined. The data provides evidence that consumer choice to utilize TBCIs can be influenced by several separate and distinct attitudes relevant to the service and technologies.

Coming to Terms with Industry-Sponsored Public Policy Research: A Case Study Involving Controversial Issues in Tobacco Advertising

Keith B. Murray — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 06:18:17 PST

Marketing academics have long been critical of research appearing in non-business journals as was the case with Fischer et al. (1991), claiming that the submission review system for that vehicle was not prepared to adequately assess the merits of research. This article proposes that industry-sponsored research that directly addresses business practice and public policy calls, for a variety of reasons, for special reporting, review, and presentation considerations when considered by any academic journal, include those in business generally and marketing specifically. Using a careful analysis a recent article appearing in a pre-eminent marketing journal, it can be demonstrated that new policies are called for that will more effectively preserve the integrity of all parties involved with generation, dissemination, and consumption of public policy related research in marketing.

Reconceptualizing Trust: An Evolutionary Process Model

James M. Curran — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:09:05 PST

Research in marketing has always found trust to be a central component of relationships between and among buyers and sellers. Much of the literature being published today that focuses on ebusiness continues to use the concept of trust in building a successful business with a loyal customer base. So trust continues to play a role even as the business landscape changes. Although trust is acknowledged as important, little has been done to examine how trust develops. In this paper, the literature pertaining to trust is reviewed, a developmental framework for trust as a factor in various stages of relationships is presented and five proposals for future research are discussed

Make Corporate Social Responsibility Make Marketing Management Sense

Keith B. Murray — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 10:55:08 PST

For decades the widespread adoption of corporate social responsibility practices by business decision makers has been hampered by the lack of relevant management models. This article proposes that key marketing paradigms can mutually benefit the firm and society by integrating content and process issues in a strategic manner by making pro-social endeavors a part of the on-going planning and operation of the organization generally.

A Reexamination of the Determinants of Patient Satisfaction with Health Care Service Encounters

James M. Curran — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 10:33:35 PST

Marketing literature contains a great deal of support for established methods of measuring customer satisfaction with a service encounter. There is also evidence that while an instrument such as SERVQUAL does reflect certain determinants of satisfaction it is not a complete measure in all situations. This paper looks at satisfaction in a health care setting by utilizing focus groups comprised of both customers (patients) and employees of the service provider (a health care clinic). Using the same gap model used to develop SERVQUAL, additional determinants are identified and the need for further research is discussed.