The moderating role of consumer entitlement on the relationship of value with customer satisfaction

This research provides an extension of Oliver's (1980) expectancy disconfirmation model of satisfaction by examining the moderating role of consumer entitlement in the relationships between service quality and perceived value with customer satisfaction. Using a sample of season ticket holders of the National Hockey League franchise in the southeastern USA (n = 234), we found that consumer entitlement moderates the relationship of value with satisfaction, such that the impact of consumer‐perceived service value on satisfaction is mitigated for highly entitled consumers. That is, the positive value–satisfaction relationship is stronger for individuals low in consumer entitlement. This finding suggests that highly entitled consumers' satisfaction judgments are dominated by expectations, while less entitled consumers rely more on disconfirmation assessments. Strengths, limitations, suggestions for future research, and practical implications are offered. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Further investigation on the mnemonic effect of gestures: Their meaning matters

Three experiments are reported that examine the nature of knowledge underlying performance in the invariant learning task. Previous research (Bright & Burton, 1994; McGeorge & Burton, 1990) has supported an account of performance based on the implicit abstraction and application of a rule pertaining to the invariant feature. In contrast, we found effects in both the digit and clock invariant tasks that are difficult to explain solely in terms of subjects acquiring the experimenters' rule. In all three experiments, manipulation of test item properties that are independent of the invariant feature led to a detriment in performance that is not predicted by an account based on the experimenters' rules. Furthermore, the use of an on-line measure of awareness (confidence ratings) provided some evidence that performance is mediated by low confidence explicit knowledge.     

Salesperson ambidexterity and customer satisfaction: examining the role of customer demandingness,adaptive selling,and role conflict

This research investigates the effects of sales-service ambidexterity on salesperson role perceptions, behaviors, and customer satisfaction. Using a business-to-business, salesperson-customer sample, we build and test a model which highlights both the positive and negative consequences of this simultaneous goal pursuit. Specifically, while sales-service ambidexterity positively impacts adaptive selling behaviors, it also increases perceptions of role conflict among salespeople. Customer demandingness moderates these relationships. Taken together, the results provide insights for firms on how to manage their sales force to optimize both sales and service outcomes based on characteristics of their salespeople and customers.     

Finding meaning in us: The role of meaning in life in romantic relationships

The present research tested a model of relationship functioning that incorporates meaning in life (MIL), proposing that MIL plays an important role in individuals’ motivations and perceived quality of romantic relationships. Study 1 employed a weekly diary methodology (N = 121 individuals in romantic relationships) and found that both within- and between-person relationship MIL are associated with internalized motivational states (i.e. intrinsic motivation, harmonious passion) and relationship quality (i.e. satisfaction, commitment). Study 2 was a dyadic study that examined both members of romantic couples (N = 238 dyads). Results found that both one’s own and one’s partner’s MIL predict motivation and relationship quality. Further, we also found evidence of a hierarchical model of MIL, such that relationship-specific experiences of MIL mediate associations between general MIL and relationship motivation and quality. Taken together, this research provides consistent and compelling evidence regarding the importance of MIL in romantic relationships.     

Understanding the meaning of words and sentences: The role of non-linguistic processes

This special issue on linguistic and non-linguistic processes in the comprehending of words and sentences represents the outcome of a three-day workshop at the University of Tübingen, Germany. The workshop focused on the contribution of non-linguistic processes in language comprehension and hence brought together researchers from the domains of linguistic and non-linguistic cognition.     

Dichoptic reading: The role of meaning in binocular rivalry

These experiments sought to determine whether meaning influences the predominance of one eye during binocular rivalry. In Experiment 1, observers tried to read meaningful text under conditions in which different text streams were viewed by the two eyes, a situation mimicking the classic dichotic listening paradigm. Dichoptic reading proved impossible even when the text streams were printed in different fonts or when one eye received a 5-sec advantage. Under non-rivalry conditions, the observers were able to read text presented at twice the rate used for dichoptic testing, indicating that cognitive overload does not limit performance under conditions of rivalry. In Experiment 2, observers were required to detect repeated presentations of a probe target within a string of characters presented to one eye. Although this task was easily performed under monocular viewing conditions, it proved difficult when the two eyes received dissimilar character strings. This was true regardless of whether the probed eye viewed nonsense strings, real words, or meaningful text. In a condition designed to encourage semantic processing of one eye’s view, the observers were required to detect animal names as well as to detect the probe target. Performance remained inferior to that measured under monocular conditions. Even the observer’s own name proved insufficient to influence the predominance of one eye under conditions of dichoptic stimulation. When two text strings were physically superimposed and viewed monocularly, essentially no probes were detected, indicating that the failure to see some probes during rivalry reflects a limitation unique to dichoptic viewing. These results contradict theories attributing binocular rivalry to an attentional process that operates on monocular inputs that have received refined analysis. This conclusion may be limited to rival stimuli whose meaning is defined linguistically, not structurally.     

The role of meaning and familiarity in mental transformations

Eighty-four participants mentally rotated meaningful and meaningless objects. Within each type of object, half were simple and half were complex; the complexity was the same across the meaningful and meaningless objects. The patterns of errors were examined as a function of the type of stimuli (meaningful vs. meaningless), complexity, and angle of rotation. The data for the meaningful objects showed steeper slopes of rotation for complex objects than that for simple objects. In contrast, the simple and complex meaningless objects showed comparable increases in error rates as a function of angle of rotation. Furthermore, the slopes remained comparable after pretraining that increased familiarity with the objects. The results are discussed in terms of underlying representations of meaningful and meaningless objects and their implications to mental transformations. The data are consistent with a piecemeal rotation of the meaningful stimuli and a holistic rotation of the meaningless stimuli.     

Fitting the world to constructs: The role of activity in meaning making

Abstract

The authors underscore that construing is not simply a matter of passively anticipating events. Meaning making is understood more fully as a dialectic involving anticipation as well as participation, accommodation as well as assimilation. Factors that may obscure this more active view of the meaning-making process are discussed, and illustrations of the role of activity in construing are presented.     

The role of meaning in gastric cancer patients: relationships among meaning structures,coping, and psychological well-being

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Research demonstrates that the experience of cancer invariably violates patients’ meaning structures, prompting them to use coping strategies to alleviate stress and enhance well-being. The current study aimed to examine the mediating effects of coping strategies in the relationship between global and situational meaning and psychological well-being in gastric cancer patients.

Design and Method: One hundred eighty-seven patients (96 women and 91 men) with gastric cancer completed questionnaires measuring meaning in life, changes of beliefs and goals, coping, and psychological well-being. Participants were between 27 and 82 years of age. They were diagnosed with gastric cancer from 1 to 3.2 years ago. Using Structural Equation Modeling, both the direct and indirect associations between meaning structures, coping, and psychological well-being were examined.

Results: Meaning in life exerted significant indirect effects on psychological well-being through three coping strategies: problem-, emotion-, and meaning-focused. The relationship between changes of beliefs and goals and psychological well-being was also mediated by coping.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that coping strategies are mediators in the relationship between global and situational meaning and psychological well-being. They also provide empirical evidence that in severe cancer-related stress conditions both meaning structures and coping strategies influence patients’ psychological well-being.     

Organizational justice and extrarole customer service: The mediating role of well-being at work

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model of extrarole customer service (ERCS). We propose that organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) promotes well-being at work (low burnout and high engagement). Well-being at work, in turn, engenders more effective ERCS. Thus, well-being at work is considered a mediator of the relationships from organizational justice to ERCS. This fully mediated model was compared to an alternative fully direct model. The sample consisted of 317 contact employees who were working in the Spanish service sector. The results of structural equation modelling supported the importance of the mediating role of the positive side of well-being at work (engagement) in the relationship between organizational justice and ERCS. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications.     

Seeing double: the role of meaning in alphanumeric-colour synaesthesia

When PD, an alphanumeric-colour synaesthete, is shown black digits or letters, each grapheme elicits a highly specific colour, called a "photism" (e.g., a 2 induces green, a Z induces brown). Previous experiments showed that photisms interfere with video-colour naming when the photism colour and the video colour are incongruent. Here we used coloured ambiguous graphemes that could be interpreted as either digits or letters depending on context (e.g., an ambiguous grapheme was interpreted as a 2 if presented within a block of digit trials, but as a Z if presented within a block of letter trials). Ambiguous graphemes were presented in video colours that were either congruent or incongruent with PD's photisms. Crucially, what was a congruent trial in one context was an incongruent trial in the other context. PD's pattern of response times indicated that identical graphemes could induce differently coloured photisms depending on their interpretation. This suggests that the meaning of graphemes ultimately determines their synaesthetic colour.     

Adult self-image and well-being after testicular cancer: The role of agency and meaning

Objective: Cancer during young adulthood can limit the extent to which one adopts an adult self-image. However, the relationship of adult self-image to cancer-related adjustment remains unexplored. The current study examines relationships of adult self-image and social/emotional well-being and job-related problems in young testicular cancer survivors. Factors thought to facilitate future-oriented goals (i.e. agency and meaning) are examined as intermediary processes.

Design: Testicular cancer survivors (N = 171) between the ages of 18 and 29 completed questionnaire measures of adult self-image, agency, sense of meaning and indicators of adjustment.

Main Outcome Measures: Social and emotional well-being were measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General. Job problems were assessed using the EORTC’s testicular cancer supplement (EORTC QLQ-TC26).

Results: Path model results revealed direct associations of survivors’ adult self-image with social (β = .20, p < .05), but not emotional well-being (β = .14, p < .01). Both agency and meaning mediated the relationship of adult self-image and well-being indicators. Finally, the relationship between adult self-image and job problems was only significant for those who were employed or in school (β = ?.19, p < .05).

Outcomes: Assessment of adult self-image might be useful in identifying risk for poor adjustment. Interventions that target agency and meaning might facilitate developmental goals.     

The impact of customer engagement on customer happiness

Previous studies have found relationships between variables that predict happiness and engagement. While this suggests that engagement is a basis for generating customer happiness, the literature does not provide sufficient confirmatory evidence. Thus, the effects of different engagement intensities remain unclear. Focusing on conditions related to the Starbucks brand, this study analyzed how (1) passive and active engagement impacted customer happiness and (2) happiness impacted word of mouth (WOM) and purchase intention. Data were collected through an online survey among 802 Peruvian customers, all of whom were recruited via non-probabilistic sampling. Because two exogenous variables were considered formative (i.e., customer engagement and customer happiness), a partial least-squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used for the analysis. In sum, engagement (both passive and active) significantly and positively impacted customer happiness, which then positively impacted WOM and purchase intention. Given that engagement is associated with variables that are broadly related to happiness, this study makes new contributions by (i) clarifying how customer engagement can generate customer happiness, (ii) identifying differences between active and passive engagement, and (iii) adding evidence for use in the debate on the purpose of marketing and traditional practices such as engagement. As discussed in the paper, these findings have theoretical and practical implications for brand managers.     

The role of meaning in contextual cueing: Evidence from chess expertise

In contextual cueing, the position of a search target is learned over repeated exposures to a visual display. The strength of this effect varies across stimulus types. For example, real-world scene contexts give rise to larger search benefits than contexts composed of letters or shapes. We investigated whether such differences in learning can be at least partially explained by the degree of semantic meaning associated with a context independently of the nature of the visual information available (which also varies across stimulus types). Chess boards served as the learning context as their meaningfulness depends on the observer's knowledge of the game. In Experiment 1, boards depicted actual game play, and search benefits for repeated boards were 4 times greater for experts than for novices. In Experiment 2, search benefits among experts were halved when less meaningful randomly generated boards were used. Thus, stimulus meaningfulness independently contributes to learning context–target associations.     

The role of meaning in contextual cueing: evidence from chess expertise

In contextual cueing, the position of a search target is learned over repeated exposures to a visual display. The strength of this effect varies across stimulus types. For example, real-world scene contexts give rise to larger search benefits than contexts composed of letters or shapes. We investigated whether such differences in learning can be at least partially explained by the degree of semantic meaning associated with a context independently of the nature of the visual information available (which also varies across stimulus types). Chess boards served as the learning context as their meaningfulness depends on the observer's knowledge of the game. In Experiment 1, boards depicted actual game play, and search benefits for repeated boards were 4 times greater for experts than for novices. In Experiment 2, search benefits among experts were halved when less meaningful randomly generated boards were used. Thus, stimulus meaningfulness independently contributes to learning context-target associations.     

The consequences of encoding information on the maintenance of internally generated images and thoughts: the role of meaning complexes

Three experiments investigated the hypothesis that internally generated images and thoughts were driven by meaning complexes, a construct which reflects a synthesis of semantic meaning and personal salience (Klinger, 1999). Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted the mutual inhibition between encoding words and non-words on: (i) the frequency that thoughts and images unrelated to the task (task unrelated thought, TUT) were experienced (Experiment 1) and (ii) on the intensity of images generated from long-term memory and maintained under dual task conditions, which whilst familiar were not of particular personal salience (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 examined the physiological arousal associated with the experience of TUT in a semantic encoding task. Evidence suggested that, in general, internally generated images and thoughts, irrespective of the personal salience, were suppressed by the co-ordination of information in working memory. In addition, only the experience of spontaneous images and thoughts of personal salience (TUT, Experiments 1 and 3) interfered reliably with the encoding/retrieval of semantic information from memory. Finally, in Experiment 3, physiological arousal, as indexed by mean heart rate, was associated with a high frequency of TUT. The results of all three experiments support the notion that the maintenance of spontaneously occurring images and thoughts is simultaneously influenced by both the semantic content and the personal salience of the information held in working memory.