The role of perspective-talking in the understanding of cooperation and relationship marketing

Relationship marketing has established itself as one of the main pursuits in marketing. Various viewpoints have been proposed seeking to explicate relationship marketing. This paper focuses on the role of perspective-taking as an overlooked aspect of relationship marketing. It suggests that cooperation in relationship marketing requires the marketer to undertake a process that involves understanding the perspective of partners by realistically imagining their point of view. Grounded in aptitude theory a perspective-taking approach that incorporates both a perspective-taking ability and a perspective-taking propensity is tested in a model that also considers the impact of trust and commitment on cooperation. Data is collected from a sample of managers of manufacturing firms. Results supporting the role of perspective-taking are reported. Conclusions are drawn, limitations are noted and opportunities for further research are indicated.peer-reviewe

Perspective-taking and cooperation in customer–supplier relationships

PurposePerspective-taking is an overlooked relational competence that matters to interaction, problem-solving and cooperation in inter-organizational buyer–seller relationships. This paper aims to distinguish perspective-taking from empathy with which it has often been associated. It uses aptitude theory to propose a conceptualization of perspective-taking consisting of perspective-taking ability and motivation components that are used to explore the scope of perspective-taking in customer–supplier relationships.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment and survey, are conducted among customer managers to apply and test measures to capture the ability and motivation components of the perspective-taking aptitude. The two perspective-taking components are used to propose a 2 × 2 matrix that provides a four-type typology, labelled: “talented”, “ineffectual”, “fervent” and “indifferent”. Data are collected from a sample of senior managers of manufacturing firms responsible for the dyadic relationship with a business support agency.FindingsThe data supports the presence and distribution of the four typologies among customers in business relationships and regression analysis confirms the impact of the proposed perspective-taking typology types on customer–supplier cooperation. The different combinations of the perspective-taking dimensions of ability and motivation that make up the perspective-taking aptitude type result in different dispositions to cooperate. “Talented” and “ineffectual” members with high and low perspective-taking ability and motivation scores, respectively, provide the highest and lowest cooperation dispositions. “Fervent” and “indifferent” members occupy an intermediate perspective-taking aptitude on the typology, with the former impacting cooperation moderately and the latter not found to be significant.Practical implicationsUnderstanding counterparts, inferring their motives and anticipating reactions, is a critical capacity for mutual dyadic adjustments in customer–supplier relationships in business markets. Such an understanding of perspective-taking can prove useful to effective interaction, solution development and relationship building, as interacting managers belonging to different typology types exhibit different levels of cooperation. In addition, an understanding of perspective-taking can prove useful to identify the right talent that can foster effective interaction and solution development in customer–supplier relationships. It also raises the issue as to how best sellers can interact to influence the perspective-taking of buyers in their quest to achieve better solutions and cooperation.Originality/valueProvides a useful supplement to theory by bringing perspective-taking, grounded in aptitude theory, as an essential relational competence in business marketing that can provide an additional explanation to cooperation and joint problem-solving in inter-organizational business relationships. The paper develops and proposes a typology of perspective-taking that brings together ability and motivation dimensions, operationalizes and assessed their measures and tests the impact of the proposed perspective-taking typology types on cooperation in customer–supplier interaction.</jats:sec

Theoretical and practical considerations for online privacy research: CONSENT as a case-study

CONSENT, a three-year project co-financed by the European Union (EU), investigated whether recent changes to consumer and commercial practices have resulted in users of the Internet giving up their fundamental right to privacy. As part of this project a large-scale online survey was carried out to determine the attitudes and associated behaviours relating to privacy of users of social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Google+, and user-generated content websites (UGCs) such as YouTube and Wikipedia. The CONSENT online questionnaire was developed within a coherent theoretical framework and included psychometrically sound measures drawn from the literature. The measures focused on beliefs about technology and about privacy together with personal characteristics and privacy related behaviour. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed that the measures used have good psychometric properties. This chapter also describes the approaches adopted by an interdisciplinary research team in implementing the CONSENT survey in 21 languages across the EU

Corporate greed: its effect on customer satisfaction, corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation among bank customers

Corporate greed has received increasing attention in recent years with various stories hitting the headlines, particularly after the global financial crisis and the ensuing negative attitudes toward banks. Customer satisfaction and corporate social responsibility are known to have a positive effect on corporate reputation among customers, but perceived corporate greed is likely to impede their effect. Corporate greed, customer satisfaction, corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation are considered, and a research model is proposed. Results indicate that the effect of corporate greed is stronger on corporate social responsibility than on customer satisfaction, implying that corporate social responsibility activities may be futile if the company is perceived to be acting greedily by its customers. Thus, perceptions of corporate greed need to be dealt with swiftly, to enable management to enhance the corporate reputation of the firm