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  • Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of the service provider in determining customer satisfaction in sharing economy services. The authors sought to examine how the intrinsic and extrinsic cues along with their interactions influence customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a mixed-methods design to test the hypotheses. Study 1 uses secondary data from Inside Airbnb. Study 2 uses a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject experimental design. Findings Both studies support the confirmation bias perspective over the expectancy-confirmation perspective in explaining the interplay among different cues in determining customer satisfaction. In the context of Airbnb, in the absence of a Superhost badge, if hosts adopt a reactive communication style, physical presence has a greater impact on customer satisfaction compared to virtual presence. Originality/value This study extends the services marketing literature and cue utilization theory by investigating the dynamic interactions among multiple intrinsic and extrinsic service cues. It shed new light on how a combination of these cues may become additive or redundant in determining customer satisfaction. This study contributes to the services marketing literature by addressing the interactive nature of sharing economy services and the neglected role of service providers.

  • Social media platforms have become more polarizing with the emergence of polarizing influencers. This research investigates how polarizing influencers can improve the effectiveness of brand-posts with the help of three experiments and field-data from Instagram. The results of the first experiment suggest that the polarizing nature of the communication source triggers defensive motivated reasoning among fans, even when the message being communicated is non-polarizing. This, in turn, has downstream consequences on post engagement and purchase intention. Analysis of 779 brandposts of Instagram influencers suggests that the polarization effect on post engagement is stronger for mega (vs. macro) influencers. By exploring the role of motivated reasoning, this research expands our understanding of the factors that drive consumers to engage with brand content on social media. The findings suggest that marketers can take advantage of the existing polarization among online users regarding polarizing influencers to enhance the effectiveness of their brand communication.

  • Today's retailers face significant competition due to the proliferation of both retail formats and channels. It is crucial for retailers to understand how to develop a loyal customer base for competitive advantage. To this end, we conducted a meta-analysis of 1,908 effect sizes from 319 studies on retailer loyalty over the last 50 years, to examine the impact of cognitive, affective, and social retail experience on customer loyalty toward a retailer. Our analysis shows that affective experience became more important over time and had the highest impact on retailer loyalty, 24% more than that of social drivers and 50% more than cognitive drivers. Affective experience is particularly impactful online and for retailers of hedonic or low-involvement products. Social drivers increased significantly in impact over time too. Its effect was particularly strong on attitudinal loyalty, for studies with a higher proportion of females, and surprisingly, in utilitarian rather than hedonic retail contexts. Taken together, our findings suggest that traditional cognitive differentiators such as price and product assortment are no longer sufficient for maintaining customer loyalty to a retailer. Positive affective and/or social experience represent a more defensible path toward customer loyalty.

Last update from database: 3/13/26, 4:15 PM (UTC)

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