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In the era of technological advancements such as artificial intelligence and robotics, the working environment of service employees is changing, and the need to self-regulate their learning efforts has reached a pinnacle. The purpose of this study is to investigate how supportive resources (organizational investments in social capital, supervisor support and favorable customer feedback) facilitate service employees' self-regulated learning competencies (SRLCs) and how individual factors (self-efficacy and goal orientation) regulate service employee performance outcomes (commitment to service quality and job performance).

Drawing on the social cognitive theory and social capital perspectives, a quantitative survey was implemented with 516 service employees of a corporation operating in Turkey in various service sectors (i.e. retailing, health and technology). The data are analyzed through a covariance-based structural equation model.

Results showed that organizational, supervisory and customer-level supportive resources improved SRLCs and subsequently performance outcomes. Service employees' goal orientation and self-efficacy attenuate the relationship between supportive resources and SRLCs.

This paper enhances the current literature by investigating SRLCs of frontline service employees who need more dynamic and adaptive self-managed self-regulated learning rather than passive training activities. Moreover, the unexpected negative effect of regulatory mechanisms (goal orientation and self-efficacy) on the relationship between supportive resources and SRLCs opens new avenues for managers.

This paper aims to explore consumer perceptions of product design awards (PDAs) and their impact on consumer product evaluation and attitude formation about the award-winning product, the award-winning organization and the award-granting organization.

Based on the grounded theory approach, an exploratory qualitative study is conducted, using 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Turkish consumers through discussions on real-world examples.

Results show that consumers develop emotional responses to PDAs (e.g. interest, curiosity and confusion), hypothesize reasons for products receiving awards and cite rewards as confirmation of their existing judgments about products. PDAs are perceived as extrinsic cues signaling quality and price, and their impact is increased when consumers feel that the award is based on functional feature superiority. Consumer responses to PDAs are also influenced by the perceived expertise of the award-granting organization and beliefs about the award-granting process. Finally, PDAs can lead to positive brand-perception outcomes, influencing consumer perceptions of the product company as resourceful, competent and prominent.

This study shows that it is critical for companies to inform consumers about the specific features that resulted in a given product receiving a design award, as well as to provide information about the PDA itself.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore consumer perceptions of and reactions to PDAs, with significant implications for both the marketing managers of PDA-winning products and award-granting organizations.

This study aims to examine diversity and inclusivity in sports from a sexual orientation perspective. A literature review summarizes known findings on attitudes and perceptions of and towards nonbinary individuals in sports. Adopting Herek’s (2007) Sexual Stigma perspective, an experiment is conducted exploring the differences in fan attitudes and behavioral intentions towards nonbinary athletes in both women’s and men’s sports.

A systematic review of extant literature identified 24 peer-reviewed primary studies examining nonbinary individuals in sports. A 2 (Sport: Women’s vs. Men’s Basketball) × 2 (Nonbinary Indicator: Indicator vs. No-Indicator) experimental study was then designed to further explore fan attitudes towards nonbinary athletes.

The study revealed that, among sports fans, there was no perceived performance difference in women’s or men’s basketball linked to athletes’ nonbinary status (as measured by athletic ability, future performance, sportsmanship, talent and quickness). However, measures of fan support (sport engagement, intention to buy team merchandise and team fanship) were lower when the athlete was perceived as nonbinary. For women’s basketball, team fanship and intention to buy team merchandise were significantly lower, while the difference was not significant in men’s basketball.

Along with an inclusive review of prior literature, this is the first empirical study to examine the differences in fans’ attitudes towards nonbinary athletes in both women’s and men’s sports at the same time via an experimental design.

Previous research indicates that dissatisfied consumers in other countries react differently as compared to those in the USA, due to their cultural orientation. These studies, however, have not recognized that retail policies (regarding returns and exchanges) in the USA are much more liberal and “consumer friendly” than in other parts of the world, and thus it is possible that their conclusions are flawed. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine the extent to which cross-national differences in complaint behavior are due to cultural vs situational factors.

To examine this issue, a two-part study was conducted. Study 1 compared consumers living in China, India and Mexico to cohorts who immigrated to the USA. Study 2 compared individuals from those same countries to subjects who are native to the USA.

The findings indicate that situational factors (i.e. consumer-oriented vs restrictive refund/return/exchange policies) have a large impact on consumer complaint behavior (i.e. redress, negative-word-of-mouth and exit), and that the effects of culture are minor.

To infer cause-effect, and establish scientific theory, one must rule out alternative hypotheses. Researchers who are investigating cross-cultural complaint behavior must take situational factors into account.

With the emergence of “global consumers” consumer expectations around the world are changing. Astute retailers should institute and promote more liberal return policies, thereby mitigating consumers’ perceived risk.

This study dispels the notion that culture is responsible for differences in cross-national consumer complaint behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore how prior exchange relationships may impact a local firm's decision to participate in a supply chain international joint venture (SC‐IJV).

An exploratory study of the influence of prior working relationships using a sample of 32 US and European‐based SC‐IJVs. First, a cluster method was used to determine the two categories of local firms' motivation to form SC‐IJVs with foreign partners. Next, a discriminant analysis revealed the differences between the two categories in terms of the emphasis put on prior exchange relationships when forming SC‐IJVs.

Results confirm two major types of motivations for a local firm to participate in a SC‐IJV: exploration and exploitation. Moreover, the motivation types are varied in terms of the emphasis placed on a prior working relationship with the SC‐IJV partner. While exploitation‐oriented firms consulted a previous working relationship experience before forming a supply chain IJV, exploration‐oriented firms did not.

This study shows that Eastern European firms can be separated into two categories in terms of SC‐IJV goals: those focused on learning (exploration) and those focused on strategic behavior (exploitation). Second, the study shows that the firms favoring exploitation prefer a past working relationship with the potential partner, while those favoring exploration did not. The study is exploratory in nature, but provides a solid platform on which to base future research.

This paper aims to examine the widespread effects of service actors’ verbal aggression on witness customers’ intentions toward the service organizations through their self-conscious emotions. The moderating roles of the witness customers’ empathic tendencies and the source of aggression are also examined.

In two scenario-based experiments and by adopting a multifoci approach, severity of mistreatment (aggression vs incivility vs no-mistreatment) and source of mistreatment (employee-to-employee and customer-to-customer) were manipulated to test distinctive effects of witnessing aggression on self-conscious emotions and intentions.

This study shows that witnessing aggression during service experiences negatively influences customers’ intentions towards the service organization through self-conscious emotions. Moreover, empathic tendencies of customers make these effects more pronounced. It is also shown that witnessing employee-to-employee aggression has a stronger effect on self-conscious emotions and intentions than customer-to-customer aggression.

This paper uncovers the distinctive effects of aggressive behaviors of service actors on self-conscious emotions from the third-party perspective. It is also shown that empathic tendencies can be detrimental to service organizations in certain conditions.

The results warn service managers against verbal aggression because of its negative effects on witness customers. It is suggested that they should try to clarify the incident and restore justice in front of the witnesses.

This paper is one of the first attempts to investigate the distinctive effects of witnessing aggression during service experiences and the roles of self-conscious emotions and emphatic tendencies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive meta-analytic examination of the relationship between employee age and customer mistreatment. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory and taking the cross-cultural and cross-sectoral differences into account and making the country-level and occupation-level comparisons possible for uncovering when age matters, the role of employee age on decreasing customer mistreatment is examined.

The data comprises of 103 independent samples collected from 48,067 frontline employees. Random effects individual correction meta-analysis procedure is used to aggregate correlation coefficients and correct them for sampling, measurement and range restriction errors. Meta-regression is used for examining the impact of key moderators.

Results consistently show that frontline employee exposure to customer mistreatment is decreased with age. Regarding national differences, negative associations are stronger in low power distance countries. Age has more potential to provide high-quality relations with customers in healthcare, banking, compared to call centers and hospitality sectors.

Healthy customer relations with fewer customer mistreatments come with employee age. However, results warn service managers about cultural and industry-related boundary conditions such as power distance and service orientation expectations.

This study is the first meta-analysis on the relationship between two contemporary challenges in organizational frontlines: the aging workforce and customer mistreatment. By conducting comprehensive data collection and analyses, this study concludes that older employees, especially in low power distance cultures, bring wisdom to service environments.

By drawing on theories of social identity, attraction, social comparison and consumer identification, this research seeks to examine how consumers' perceptions of other customers of an organisation (the other customer effect) may have an influence on corporate image and consumer‐company identification. This study aims to test a model integrating these constructs in two contexts, i.e. products and services. It also seeks to investigate the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of a favourable corporate image in order to provide more insights to the argument that a corporate marketing approach helps to enhance marketing performance.

A survey of a convenience sample of 383 adult consumers is conducted. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is employed in order to test the proposed model. An alternative model is examined both in products and in services contexts.

The results indicate that perceptions about other customers influence customers' affective and behavioural reactions towards a company for both products and services. This finding suggests that corporate‐level marketing activities aiming to increase interaction among consumers lead to favourable corporate image and higher consumer‐company identification and hence desirable marketing outcomes. Furthermore, results show that for services the other customer effect is more prominent than for product offerings.

This study extends the concept of other customer effect to the context of corporate image and consumer‐company identification studies. It provides evidence that shifting towards corporate‐level marketing gives organisations another avenue for gaining a distinct position in the minds of consumers. Furthermore, by addressing both service and product contexts, it shows that other customer effect may exist beyond services studies.

This study aims to develop a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) management, by revisiting three older services marketing models: the servuction model, the services marketing triangle and the services marketing pyramid.

Noting the lack of theoretical frameworks of CCI management, this study adopts a problematization approach to identify foundational services marketing models, question their underlying assumptions, develop an alternative conceptual framework and evaluate its adequacy for CCI management, on the basis of a systematic literature review and content analyses.

By revisiting the assumptions underlying three relevant models in the light of the present-day, technology-infused service environment, this study proposes a four-triangle CCI management framework encompassing four specific modes of CCI management: managerial decisions by the firm; frontline employees; the design of the physical environment; and technology. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the triadic relationships involving the focal customer, other customers and the four modes of CCI management. Building on these findings, this study concludes with an extensive research agenda.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first scholarly effort in services marketing literature to provide a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of CCI management. With its basis in foundational models, the new framework is well-suited to address future challenges to service marketplaces too.

This study aims to evaluate the significance of the corporate website favorability notion and examines its factors in developing competitive advantage in the context of retail and service settings in the UK and Russia.

Based on the attribution, social identity and signaling theories, this study adopted the qualitative exploratory approach by conducting 14 interviews with retail experts and eight focus groups with retail users in the UK and Russia, combined with experts in website design, communication and marketing.

The study findings indicated that it is crucial to build and maintain a favorable corporate website that reveals the corporate identity as part of the overall company strategy. The study suggests that navigation, visual, information, usability, customization, security, availability, website credibility, customer service, perceived corporate social responsibility and perceived corporate culture are the factors of corporate website favorability that contribute to the company’s competitive advantage. The findings show that consumers from Russia as well as from the UK found the significance of a favorable corporate website (i.e. corporate website favorability), as well as the factors affecting corporate website favorability. However, consumers in the UK are more critical and demanding in the level of expectation of the website overall and put more weight than consumers from Russia on the perceived corporate social responsibility, perceived corporate culture, customer service and website credibility.

Corporate website favorability should be adopted by the companies, as part of the overall corporate identity management. Furthermore, it is advised to take into consideration the variations in the level of importance of the factors of corporate website favorability in different countries. The findings of this study suggest that this investigation will make a considerable managerial contribution to the understanding of a company’s decision-makers, communication professionals and website specialists about the building of a favorable corporate website in line with corporate identity strategy of the company.

There has been little systematic study of the effect of corporate websites on consumer evaluations of the websites; also, there is a lack of research with regard to the factors that contribute to the development of a favorable corporate website (i.e. corporate website favorability). This is the first study of its kind to find the effect of corporate website favorability in Russia, representing a non-western country, and the UK, representing a western country. Therefore, it contributes to the corporate visual identity literature by presenting the corporate website favorability construct and demonstrating the factors that influence corporate website favorability.