Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to operationalise and measure the effects of negative customer engagement (CE) in conjunction with positive CE. Both valences are explored through affective, cognitive and behaviour dimensions, and, in relation to the antecedent of involvement and outcome of word-of-mouth (WOM). It also explores the moderating influence of service context by examining engagement within a social service versus a social networking site (SNS). Engagement with the dual focal objects of a service brand and a service community are also examined.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modelling is used to analyse 625 survey responses.FindingsInvolvement is a strong driver of positive CE, and positive CE has a strong effect on WOM. These findings are consistent across the “brand” and “community” object, suggesting positive CE is mutually reinforced by different objects in a relationship. Positive CE is also found to operate consistently across the service types. Involvement is a moderately negative driver of negative CE, and negative CE is a positive driver of WOM. These relationships operate differently across the objects and service types. Involvement has a stronger inverse effect on negative CE for the social service, diverging from assumptions that negative CE is reflective of highly involved customers. Interestingly, negative CE has a stronger effect on WOM in the social service, highlighting the active and vocal nature of customers within this service context.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to quantitatively measure positive and negative valences of engagement concurrently, and examine the moderating effect of dual objects across contrasting service types.
Highlights
Today’s service environment is marked by dynamic change
We propose that the interrelationships between involvement, positive customer engagement (CE), negative CE and word of mouth will be positive within both an social networking sites (SNS) and local government service context, but that differences may exist in the salience of these interrelationships
Positive CE has a positive and strong effect on WOM (b = 0.730, p < 0.01, CR 17.27) supporting H3, and negative CE had a positive and moderate effect on WOM (b = 0.359, p < 0.01, CR 12.27) supporting H4. These findings suggest that involvement has a varying effect on the degree to which customers are positively and negatively engaged, yet the effect of either valence of engagement will be positive on WOM
Summary
Today’s service environment is marked by dynamic change. Organisations are faced with increasing pressure to continually transform their practice in response to technological advancement, intensified global competition, and enhanced customer and stakeholder participation in service encounter. Service relationships are no longer simple dyadic exchanges (Vargo and Lusch, 2008) They instead involve an ecosystem of interactions between engagement actors who are involved in a network of value creation (Chandler and Lusch, 2015; Anderson et al, 2013). This expanded network perspective offers service organisations’ the opportunity to engage in a continuous process of value enhancement through interactive exchange (Chandler and Lusch, 2015). It provides organisations with a greater understanding of the focal engagement objects that consumers interact with and the specific way in which these may contribute to a positive or negative service experience (Brodie et al, 2011; Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014; Hollebeek and Chen, 2014)
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