An empirical investigation of customer intentions influenced by service quality using the mediation of emotional and cognitive responses

Investigating the relationships between MOOC consumers' perceived quality, emotional experiences, and intention to recommend: an NLP-based approach

Purpose

The paper aims to explore and examine the factors that influence the post-consumption behavioral intentions of education consumers with the help of online reviews from a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform in the knowledge payment context.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopted a novel mixed-method approach based on natural language processing (NLP) techniques. Variables were identified using topic modeling drawing upon 14,585 online reviews from a global commercial MOOC platform (Udemy.com). The relationships among identified factors, such as perceived quality dimensions, consumption emotions, and intention to recommend, were then tested from a cognition-affect-behavior (CAB) perspective using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

Results indicate that course content quality, instructor quality, and platform quality are strong predictors of consumers' emotions and intention to recommend. Interestingly, course content quality displays a positive effect on invoking negative emotions in the MOOC context. Additionally, positive emotions mediate the relationships between three perceived qualities and the intention to recommend.

Originality/value

Limited research has been conducted regarding MOOC consumers' post-consumption intentions in the knowledge payment context. Findings of this study address the limited literature on MOOC qualities and consumer post-consumption behaviors, which contribute to a comprehensive understanding of MOOC learners' experiences at a meso-level for future paid-MOOC creators.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2021-0482/

Sustainable customer retention through social media marketing activities using hybrid SEM-neural network approach

Social media has changed the marketing phenomenon, as firms use social media to inform, impress, and retain the existing consumers. Social media marketing empowers business firms to generate perceived brand equity activities and build the notion among consumers to continue using the firms' products and services. The current exploratory study aimed to examine the effects of social media marketing activities on brand equity (brand awareness and brand image) and repurchase intention of high-tech products among Chinese consumers. The study used a cross-sectional design, and the final analysis was performed on 477 valid responses that were collected through an online survey. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis were performed. The obtained results revealed positive and significant effects of trendiness, interaction, and word of mouth on brand awareness. Customisation, trendiness, interaction, and word of mouth were found to positively affect brand image. Brand awareness and brand image were found to affect repurchase intention. The results of multilayer ANN analysis suggested trendiness as the most notable factor in developing brand awareness and brand image. Brand awareness was found to be an influential factor that nurtures repurchase intention. The study's results confirmed the relevance of social media marketing activities in predicting brand equity and brand loyalty by repurchase intention. Marketing professionals need to concentrate on entertainment and customisation aspects of social media marketing that can help to achieve brand awareness and image. The limitations of study and future research opportunities are presented at the end of this article.

Understanding mobile users' information adoption behaviour: an extension of the information adoption model

Purpose

Mobile messaging applications (MMAs) have surpassed top social media platforms. Recent and rapid use of MMAs has made it extremely difficult to ignore the existence of customer-to-customer (C2C) mobile information. This study, therefore, aims to expand the knowledge of customers' adoption behaviour of such information.

Design/methodology/approach

Through applying and utilizing social support theory (SST) and the information adoption model (IAM), this study introduces a holistic theoretical model, explaining customers' adoption of information derived from MMAs and exploring the antecedents of IAM. Based on the data collected from 305 UK MMA users, this study empirically tests the research model using structural equation modelling estimation.

Findings

The results of this study reveal that social support is a key antecedent of information quality and credibility and support IAM in terms of its ability to explain MMAs' information adoption.

Practical implications

The insights are valuable for businesses and marketers to understand customers' mobile communications and be socially support-oriented while developing marketing communication strategies.

Originality/value

The study integrates SST and IAM to improve the understanding of customers' information adoption behaviour. It is the first attempt that establishes that social support is a key antecedent of IAM.

How narrative transportation in movies affects audiences' positive word-of-mouth: The mediating role of emotion

On the basis of the cognitive–affective–behavioral model, this study investigated the effects of narrative transportation in movies on audience emotion and positive word-of-mouth (PWOM). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the effects of the multidimensionality of narrative transportation on the multidimensionality of emotion. In this study, narrative transportation was divided into dimensions of empathy, immersion, and belief revision, and emotion was divided into pleasure and arousal. To explore the relationship between narrative transportation, emotions, and PWOM, the participants, comprising individuals with movie watching experience, completed a questionnaire on the movie that had left the deepest impression on them. The responses were analyzed through structural equation modeling. Empathy, immersion, and belief revision were significantly and positively associated with pleasure and arousal, which positively correlated with PWOM. The relationship between empathy or immersion and PWOM was partially mediated by pleasure and arousal, whereas pleasure and arousal fully mediated the association between belief revision and PWOM. Practical suggestions for filmmakers were derived from the present findings.

Determining the role of service quality, trust and commitment to customer loyalty for telecom service users: a PLS-SEM approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the role of service quality (SQ), trust and commitment to customer loyalty (CL) for telecom service users. Further, the moderating role of gender, marital status and connection type within the model was tested.

Design/methodology/approach

A measurement model was created based on valid 615 responses from Indian TSUs for SQ, trust, commitment and loyalty with the help of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Multi-group analysis (MGA) was conducted to understand the moderating effect of marital status, gender and connection type within the model.

Findings

The results suggest that, out of five dimensions of SQ, only responsiveness, assurance and empathy have a significant positive relationship with both commitment and trust. Tangibility has a significant positive relationship with trust only. Both commitment and trust have a significant impact on loyalty. It was noticed that both commitment and trust act as mediators between three SQ dimensions (assurance, empathy and responsiveness) and CL. MGA revealed that empathy and responsiveness positively induce trust in telecom users who are single. Whereas, assurance increases commitment toward telecom service providers in married users. Assurance and empathy significantly contribute toward commitment and trust, respectively, in male users as compared to females. Empathy was found important for postpaid users for trust-building, whereas trust was found to be more important for prepaid users to stay loyal to the service provider.

Originality/value

This article contributes toward understanding the role of SQ, trust and commitment to CL moderated by marital status, gender and connection type in an integrated model concerning telecom service.

Disclosing the bright side of SNs in the workplace

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to document that employees’ use of social networks (SNs) does not necessarily bring negative consequences and can indirectly benefit organizations and second, to compare the roles of public SNs and enterprise social networks (ESNs) in bringing benefits to organizations. Consequently, this study, on the basis of stimulus‒organism‒response theory, directly investigated and compared the roles of public SNs and ESNs in promoting employees’ organizational commitment from affective, normative, and continuance dimensions with regard to the mediating role of job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

For this purpose, 240 employees of Asia-Tech Company, one of the high-speed internet service providers in Iran, who had joined Skype for Business ESN, were included in this study. Partial least squares (PLS) method was used to examine the validity of the measurement and structural models. To this end, Warp-PLS software (version 5.0) was employed.

Findings

The results of the study suggested that public SNs have a positive impact on affective and normative commitment; however, no significant impact was observed for continuance commitment. ESNs directly affect none of the dimensions of organizational commitment. Although both types of SNs have impacts on job satisfaction, the greater impact was found for the public SNs. Job satisfaction also has a positive effect on all three dimensions of organizational commitment.

Originality/value

To the best of authors’ knowledge, no study has directly investigated and compared the roles of ESNs and public SNs in promoting organizational commitment from affective, continuance and normative dimensions with regard to the mediating role of job satisfaction. The most important theoretical contribution of the present research was to document that the employees’ use of SNs does not necessarily entail the waste of resources and has various advantages, such as strengthening organizational commitment (in affective, normative and continuance dimensions) and job satisfaction. In fact, this study disclosed the bright side of SNs in the workplace.