Role Of Familiarity Research Articles

“Yes, I know you”: the role of source familiarity in the relationship between service adaptive behavior and customer satisfaction

PurposeThis study investigates the role of source familiarity in moderating the effect of service adaptive behavior (SAB) on customer satisfaction. Applying the accessibility–diagnosticity framework and situated cognition theory as the theoretical basis, this research hypothesizes that when customers are familiar with the source that provides the service (i.e. brand familiarity for Study 1 and personal familiarity for Study 2), customer satisfaction responses to SAB would be more moderate than when customers are not familiar with the source. Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses.Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments manipulating SAB and the brand name familiarity (Study 1) and personal familiarity with the service staff (Study 2) as the source familiarity were conducted. Customer satisfaction as a function of source familiarity was measured to test the hypothesis that source familiarity moderates the relationship between SAB and customer satisfaction.FindingsCompared to unfamiliar sources, familiar sources generated a more moderate response in customer satisfaction as a function of SAB. High familiarity with the brand and service staff induced top-down, memory-based processing that overrides external stimuli as the basis of satisfaction judgment; bottom-up, stimulus-based processing relying on SAB for judgment kicked in only when the source familiarity is low.Practical implicationsFrom a practical point of view, this study indicates the importance of SAB, especially for brands with low awareness, and alludes to the comparative importance of relationship building in service delivery processes.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by validating the role of contextual factors in influencing the impact of SAB on customer satisfaction.

Stimulating Tourist Inspiration by Tourist Experience: The Moderating Role of Destination Familiarity.

The tourist experience is a core indicator of destination management for the comprehensive evaluation of destination value. Tourist experience and tourist inspiration are important concepts in the stream of research on destination marketing and management. However, these relationships remained under-explored in the extant literature. This study examined the impact of tourist experience on tourist inspiration under the moderating impact of destination familiarity. To achieve the objective of this study, data were collected online from 622 Chinese tourists. We employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to statistically analyze the gathered data. Findings show that four types of tourist experiences, namely education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism, significantly and positively influenced the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration, which further influenced the inspired-to-state of tourist inspiration. Destination familiarity exerted a significantly negative moderating impact on the relationship between education experience and inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. Sensitivity analysis presents that education experience was the strongest predictor of the inspired-by state followed by aesthetics, escapism, and entertainment facets of the tourist experience. Findings contribute to the theory and practice of tourism management with a robust interpretation of tourist experience, tourist inspiration, and destination familiarity to solidify the effective management of tourist destinations. Limitations and future research directions are noted.

Effects of Familiarity and Dialect Experience on the Description of Tonal Variant.

This study investigates the tonal variant description of the official dialect in China (Putonghua) as a factor in the coevolution of dialects. Three sociophonetic factors, target tone familiarity, tonal variant familiarity, and tonal inventory size, are included in order to raise interesting theoretical questions concerning the role of familiarity and dialect experience in sound change. Standard Putonghua tones are manipulated in height and shape in order to create systematically varying stimuli. Speakers from three Chinese dialect groups, Beijing Mandarin, Shanghai Wu, and Guangzhou Cantonese, are invited to rate the applicability of a description of pitch contour and height to the stimuli. The three dialects have different tonal inventory size, and their native speakers have different levels of familiarity with Putonghua tone or Putonghua tonal variants. The above three sociophonetic factors make different predictions about listeners' performances. The findings of the experimental analysis of data confirm the role of tonal variant familiarity in predicting participants' descriptive decisions on tone height variants. Tonal variant familiarity is also combined with tone inventory size to explain the assignment of descriptions of tone shape variations. This suggests that when variations still follow the phonetic pattern of the tone distribution of the Putonghua tonal system, listeners give phonetic patterns the primary role in acoustic decisions but still benefit from their dialect experiences in making more precise acoustic decisions. It also suggests that when variations violate the phonetic features of the target tonal system, they may depend on familiarity with the individual variant. This study applies an innovative sociophonetic method by conducting a perception experiment online with a self-paced procedure. The findings here are crucial for examining the relationship between sociophonetic factors and listeners' acoustic decisions and the cultural coevolution of cross-dialect tonal variation. The findings here also give support to the validity of the current web-based crowd perception experiment design and are also needed to facilitate research under restricted conditions, such as a pandemic situation.

Aesthetics of musical timing: Culture and expertise affect preferences for isochrony but not synchrony

Expressive communication in the arts often involves deviations from stylistic norms, which can increase the aesthetic evaluation of an artwork or performance. The detection and appreciation of such expressive deviations may be amplified by cultural familiarity and expertise of the observer. One form of expressive communication in music is playing “out of time,” including asynchrony (deviations from synchrony between different instruments) and non-isochrony (deviations from equal spacing between subsequent note onsets or metric units). As previous research has provided somewhat conflicting perspectives on the degree to which deviations from synchrony and isochrony are aesthetically relevant, we aimed to shed new light on this topic by accounting for the effects of listeners' cultural familiarity and expertise. We manipulated (a)synchrony and (non-)isochrony separately in excerpts from three groove-based musical styles (jazz, candombe, and jembe), using timings from real performances. We recruited musician and non-musician participants (N = 176) from three countries (UK, Uruguay, and Mali), selected to vary in their prior experience of hearing and performing these three styles. Participants completed both an aesthetic preference rating task and a perceptual discrimination task for the stimuli. Our results indicate an overall preference toward synchrony in these styles, but culturally contingent, expertise-dependent preferences for deviations from isochrony. This suggests that temporal processing relies on mechanisms that vary in their dependence on low-level and high-level perception, and emphasizes the role of cultural familiarity and expertise in shaping aesthetic preferences.

Stigma toward mental illness and substance use disorders in faith communities: The roles of familiarity and causal attributions.

Stigma toward mental illness and substance use disorders in faith communities: The roles of familiarity and causal attributions.

The role of familiarity with the experimenter on cognitive performance, metacognition, pro-social behaviors, and the well-being of adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities.

Few studies have evaluated the explanatory factors of poor performance and the effects of context in adults with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this study is to assess the role of a familiar experimenter on their cognitive performance, well-being, metacognitive experiences, and social behaviors. Participants with moderate to severe intellectual disability were recruited into two groups, one with a familiar and one with an unfamiliar experimenter. They carried out a categorization task. Before and after they reported their metacognitive experiences and level of well-being. The experimenter observed their pro-social behavior. Performance and some social behaviors were better when the participant knew the experimenter. However, he did not affect the level of well-being. The participants' metacognitive experiences were poor, whether or not they knew the experimenter. The familiarity of the experimenter plays a determining role, both on the participants' performance, and on their compliance with certain pro-social behavior.

The power of Facebook friends: An investigation of young adolescents’ processing of social advertising on social networking sites

Abstract This study investigates the underlying mechanisms of how young adolescents process social advertising (i. e., advertising on social networking sites which shows how many and which of the user’s friends have ‘liked’ the brand’s page). Particularly, two experiments examined the role of brand trust in adolescents’ attitude formation and how brand trust is predicted by theories of social proof and persuasion knowledge. In addition, the moderating role of brand familiarity and brand value is investigated. The first experiment (N = 142) showed that higher brand trust was induced for social advertising for unfamiliar but not for familiar brands through the principle of social proof. This means that friends’ likes may reduce uncertainty and increase trust in unfamiliar brands through social advertising, something which enhances brand attitudes. Persuasion knowledge could not explain the effects of social advertising. The second experiment (N = 72) showed that social advertisements are more effective for brands that are symbolic (versus non-symbolic). Managerial and policy implications regarding social advertising targeting adolescents are discussed.

Neural correlates of familiar and unfamiliar action in infancy

Behavioral evidence shows that experience with an action shapes action perception. Neural mirroring has been suggested as a mechanism underlying this behavioral phenomenon. Suppression of electroencephalogram (EEG) power in the mu frequency band, an index of motor activation, typically reflects neural mirroring. However, contradictory findings exist regarding the association between mu suppression and motor familiarity in infant EEG studies. In this study, we investigated the neural underpinnings reflecting the role of familiarity in action perception. We measured neural processing of familiar (grasp) and novel (tool-use) actions in 9- and 12-month-old infants. Specifically, we measured infants’ distinct motor/visual activity and explored functional connectivity associated with these processes. Mu suppression was stronger for grasping than for tool use, whereas significant mu and occipital alpha (indexing visual activity) suppression were evident for both actions. Interestingly, selective motor–visual functional connectivity was found during observation of familiar action, a pattern not observed for novel action. Thus, the neural correlates of perception of familiar actions may be best understood in terms of a functional neural network rather than isolated regional activity. Our findings provide novel insights on analytic approaches for identifying motor-specific neural activity while also considering neural networks involved in observing motorically familiar versus unfamiliar actions.

League of Legends or World of Warcraft? The effect of political ideology on consumers game choice

PurposeThe majority of research to date has focused on how to leverage the effectiveness of in-game marketing campaigns. However, the author’s understanding of how to segment consumers for game consumption is limited. This research aims to focus on how consumers’ political ideology could influence consumers’ game choices.Design/methodology/approachThis study used one state-level Google trend data and two experiments to show the effect of political ideology on consumers’ game choice.FindingsThis study found that liberals prefer non-persistent world games and conservatives prefer persistent world games. These effects occur because consumers’ political ideology alters their motivation to search for new opportunities, and this motivation, in turn, determines their choices. Finally, this study demonstrates the moderating role of brand familiarity in the effect of political ideology on game choice.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers a new angle for game and marketing research about how consumers’ beliefs such as political ideology can change consumers' thoughts and preferences about games.Practical implicationsThis study offers new insight into the gaming industry and marketers. They can use political ideology as a new and effective way to segment consumers.Social implicationsThese findings offer important insights into the ubiquitous nature of games in consumers’ everyday lives by detailing how political ideology influences game choice.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to study how an important industry such as gaming can be effectively segmented through an important factor such as political ideology.

Tourism destination brand equity, brand authenticity and revisit intention: the mediating role of tourist satisfaction and the moderating role of destination familiarity

Valor de marca de destino turístico, autenticidad de marca y voluntad de volver a visitar：El papel mediador de la satisfacción del turista y el papel moderador de la familiaridad con el destinoResumenPropósitoeste estudio tiene como objetivo explorar las relaciones entre el valor de la marca de destino, la autenticidad de la marca y la intención de volver a visitar. También se investiga el papel mediador de la satisfacción del turista y el papel moderador de la familiaridad con el destino en estas relaciones.Diseño/metodología/enfoquecon base en la teoría Estímulo-Organismo-Respuesta, se construye un modelo de ecuación estructural para probar las relaciones entre las variables de investigación. Los datos originales se obtienen mediante el método de encuesta por cuestionario de turistas nacionales que han viajado a Guilin en China.Hallazgoslos hallazgos revelaron que el valor y la autenticidad de la marca no solo afectan positiva y directamente la intención de volver a visitar, sino que también tienen una influencia indirecta en la intención de volver a visitar a través del papel mediador de la satisfacción del turista. La familiaridad con el destino modera positivamente la influencia directa del valor de la marca en la intención de volver a visitar. Además, la autenticidad de la marca afecta de manera significativa y positiva al valor de la marca.Originalidad/valoreste documento revela el camino del impacto del valor de marca y la autenticidad de la marca en la intención de volver a visitar, compensando la falta de atención al mecanismo de impacto entre ellos. Este trabajo demuestra el efecto de la autenticidad de la marca en el valor de la marca del destino, que compensa las deficiencias que ignoran los posibles antecedentes que afectan el valor de la marca del destino y el impacto de la autenticidad de la marca en el valor de la marca en el contexto del destino turístico. Este estudio también confirma las dimensiones específicas del valor de marca y la autenticidad de la marca en el contexto del destino turístico chino, respondiendo a la controversia actual.Implicaciones practiceslos hallazgos de este documento proporcionan cierta iluminación para el marketing de marca y la gestión de destinos turísticos.

Does The Classic of Mountains and Seas Knowledge Promote Educational Tourism to Mountain Destinations? Critical Role of Place Familiarity and Attractiveness

This study investigated the relationship between knowledge of the Classic of Mountains and Seas (or Shan Hai Jing), and educational tourism to mountain destinations, and explored the moderating effects of place familiarity and attractiveness on this relationship. The sample consisted of 309 students from Beijing and Shanghai, China, and PLS-SEM was used for analysis. The study found that knowledge of Shan Hai Jing significantly affected educational tourism to mountain destinations, supporting the first hypothesis. This suggests that promoting knowledge of Shan Hai Jing can be an effective strategy for encouraging educational tourism to mountain destinations. Additionally, the study found that place attractiveness significantly moderated the relationship between knowledge of Shan Hai Jing and educational tourism to mountain destinations, supporting the second hypothesis. This highlights the importance of destination attractiveness in promoting educational tourism and suggests that destination marketers should focus on highlighting the attractiveness of mountain destinations. However, the third hypothesis, which proposed that place familiarity would significantly moderate the relationship between knowledge of Shan Hai Jing and educational tourism, was not supported. This suggests that familiarity with the destination may not be a key factor in influencing educational tourism. Overall, the findings suggest that promoting knowledge of Shan Hai Jing and emphasizing the attractiveness of mountain destinations can be effective strategies for encouraging educational tourism. This has important implications for tourism marketing and management and highlights the need to consider destination attributes when promoting educational tourism.

Seeds of demand-side legitimacy: when do existing companies procure from B2B startups?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate potential lenders of legitimacy for business-to-business (B2B) startups as reflected in the willingness of potential customers to do business with startup firms. This study theorizes the role of familiarity with B2B startups, their founding teams and their product offerings in influencing perceptions about legitimacy among potential customers. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected from key decision-makers involved in B2B procurements in large Indian companies and analyzed using conjoint analysis. Findings Results suggest that familiarity with product/service offerings from B2B startups is the most salient factor in forming favorable assessments for the venture, followed by the awareness of the startups and their founding teams, in that order. Practical implications The research makes several contributions to understanding the legitimacy of B2B startups from the customers’ perspective. The study provides a nuanced view of the factors impinging on legitimacy. The conceptualization of legitimacy as a reflection of willingness to buy (in other words, willingness to do business with) provides a useful lens with which to study the interactions between B2B startups and potential customers. Originality/value The strong empirical support the study finds for the predicted relationships in an international context, specifically India, enhances theory development, providing a solid foundation for future knowledge generation around the demand side legitimacy concept.

Restaurantscapes and its Impact on Customer Patronage: An Empirical Perspectives

There is a considerable signal from empirical studies that many factors influence customer's patronage. The primary purpose of this research is to review the impact of restaurantscapes (space/function, hygiene, and social interaction) on customer patronage and customer emotional response to restaurantscapes in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Customer familiarity is a moderation variable the has been explored in this study. The framework of the present study was developed based on a systematic review of past literature, which has not been tested yet. Three hundred and nine (319) usable responses were obtained. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Based on the importance of the study's variables, the present paper stated a positive result in the relationship between restaurantscapes on customer emotional response and customer patronage and a positive relationship between customer emotional response and customer patronage. However, the study does not support the moderation role of customer familiarity. Thus, restaurantscapes will improve the Saudi restaurant's performance by increasing customer patronage. The paper emphasizes the critical value of restaurantscapes for restaurants owner/managers. Stimulus Organism and Response (S-O-R) theory was used to underlie the conceptual framework. In addition, some implications of this conceptual model for theory and practice are discussed.

When sports sponsorship incurs brand risk: the roles of team performance, brand familiarity and team identification

PurposeThis study investigated the potential negative effects of a sponsored team's losing performance on audiences' trust and purchase intention toward the sponsoring brand. Shedding light on the moderating role of sponsoring brand familiarity among audiences and audience team identification regarding such negative effects, the study establishes when sports sponsorship may incur risk to a sponsoring brand.Design/methodology/approachThree experimental designs (audience as stimulus of a team's losing vs control condition) were used to indicate whether and when losing performance influences participants' trust and purchase intention toward the sponsoring brand.FindingsThe participants in the losing condition report lower brand trust and purchase intention. Brand trust mediates the relationship between losing results and decreased purchase intention. The negative effects of losing on brand trust and purchase intention only appear when the sponsoring brand has low familiarity among audiences and only for audiences with low identification.Practical implicationsThe strategy of a brand with low familiarity sponsoring a team that frequently loses has risks and is not worth advocating. However, if an unknown brand has already sponsored a team that often loses, the efforts to cultivate audiences' identification with the team can reduce the potential risks.Originality/valueThe affirmed negative effects of losing performance on brand trust and purchase intention have value for firm sponsorship decisions. This study contributes to the sponsorship literature by revealing two boundary conditions (sponsoring brand familiarity and audiences' team identification) for those negative effects.

Supplemental Material for Stigma Toward Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders in Faith Communities: The Roles of Familiarity and Causal Attributions

Supplemental Material for Stigma Toward Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders in Faith Communities: The Roles of Familiarity and Causal Attributions

Unitization improves associative memory: The role of familiarity and recollection processes

Unitization improves associative memory: The role of familiarity and recollection processes

The role of text familiarity in Chinese word segmentation and Chinese vocabulary recognition

The role of text familiarity in Chinese word segmentation and Chinese vocabulary recognition

103 Unpicking the Mechanisms Used in Simulation-Based Education that Support Undergraduate Students’ Development of their Collaborative Practice Skills

Annually, approximately 80 undergraduate physiotherapy and occupational therapy students participate in simulation-based learning, as part of a second-year module. The experience provides opportunities for students to achieve core module outcomes, such as developing communication skills, inter-professional practice and clinical reasoning. The simulation is supported by a small team of academic faculty and a professional actor, all trained in simulation and debriefing. The students are required to assess an older person at home as part of an emergency response team. They work in groups of up to eight students, are pre-briefed and given a profession-specific written brief of their role in the scenario. A two-pronged approach to debriefing is used; the origami approach, utilizes pauses to capture teachable moments The aim of the study was to identify the mechanisms used in simulation-based education that support development of collaborative practice skills of undergraduate students.The simulation-based learning scenario was iteratively developed, delivered and evaluated over 3 years. Staff reflection and content analysis of 3 years of feedback from anonymous evaluation questionnaires, and a sample of student assignments, were used to identify aspects of simulation delivery that supported students’ development of collaborative practice.Although students consistently report anxiety about participating in the simulation, they also identify it as one of the most intense but helpful learning experiences of their on-campus degree programme. The use of trained, experienced actors, indistinguishable from service users maximizes student engagement. Effective pre-briefing reduces student anxiety and provides an opportunity to add complexity via the written brief. The student roles as observers and/or participants (in a familiar role) improve students’ experience and support students with diverse needs. Assigning clear staff roles improves delivery and cost-effectiveness. Combining the two approaches to debriefing students was necessary to allow reflection-in-action and -on-action. Thorough debriefing is essential, challenging and requires planning and practice.Simulation is an effective pre-qualifying education tool. Adequate pre-briefing, effective debriefing styles, and clear assignment of staff roles aid in effective delivery. Simulation scenarios need to be carefully constructed and delivered to ensure that all students remain within their optimal learning zone and to support students with diverse needs.

Learning to interpret novel eHMI: The effect of vehicle kinematics and eHMI familiarity on pedestrian’ crossing behavior

Introduction: In current urban traffic, pedestrians attempting to cross the road at un-signalized locations are thought to mostly use implicit communication, such as deceleration cues, to interpret a vehicle’s intention to yield. There is less reliance on explicit driver- or vehicle-based messages, such as hand/head movements, or flashing lights/beeping horns. With the impending deployment of Automated Vehicles (AV), especially those at SAE Level 4 and 5, where the driver is no longer in control of the vehicle, there has been a surge in interest in the value of new forms of communication for AVs, for example, via different types of external Human Machine Interfaces (eHMIs). However, there is still much to be understood about how quickly a novel eHMI affects pedestrian crossing decisions, and whether it provides any additional aid, above and beyond implicit/kinematic information from the vehicle. The aim of this between-participant study, funded by the H2020 interACT project, was to investigate how the combination of kinematic information from a vehicle (e.g., Speed and Deceleration), and eHMI designs, play a role in assisting the crossing decision of pedestrians in a cave-based pedestrian simulator. Method: Using an existing, well-recognized, message for yielding (Flashing Headlights - FH) as a benchmark, this study also investigated how quickly a novel eHMI (Slow Pulsing Light Band – SPLB) was learned. To investigate the effect of eHMI visibility on crossing decisions, the distance at which each eHMI was perceivable was also measured. Results: Results showed that, compared to SPLB, the FH led to earlier crossings during vehicle deceleration, especially at lower approaching speeds, and smaller time gaps. However, although FH was visible earlier than SPLB, this visibility does not appear to be the only reason for earlier crossings, with message familiarity thought to play a role. Participants were found to learn the meaning conveyed by FH relatively quickly, crossing around 1 second earlier in its presence (compared to the no eHMI condition), across the three blocks of trials. On the other hand, it took participants at least one block of 12 trials for the new SPLB signal to affect crossing, which only accelerated crossing initiations by around 200 ms, compared to the no eHMI condition. The role of comprehension, long-term exposure, and familiarity of novel messages in this context is therefore important, if AVs are to provide safe, trustworthy communication messages, which will enhance traffic flow and efficiency.

Near-shoring versus far-shoring: effects on customer perceived quality and purchase intention

PurposeDriven by the disruptive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing debate about the international location of firms' manufacturing activities has increasingly highlighted the specific benefits and costs of near-shoring versus far-shoring. However, the effects of near-shoring versus far-shoring on customer perceived quality and purchase intention have not been examined. Thus, this study aims to develop a conceptual model and provide new evidence to fill this gap. In particular, the study explores the roles of brand familiarity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to explain the different levels of perceived quality and purchase intention in relation to near-shoring versus far-shoring.Design/methodology/approachThis study includes two analyses of data collected from a sample of Italian customers. The first analysis consists of a 2 (high/low brand familiarity) × 3 (domestic insourcing, near-shoring, far-shoring) factorial design, and data are assessed via analyses of variance (ANOVA). The second analysis evaluates the suggested model in the two scenarios (near-shoring and far-shoring) via partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) multigroup analysis.FindingsResults showed that customer perceived quality and purchase intention were significantly higher for near-shoring than for far-shoring, but only when brand familiarity was low. No significant difference was found for participants with a high level of brand familiarity. In addition, the level of a brand's pre-offshoring perceived CSR was negatively related to perceived quality, and this was conceptually justified by the CSR-washing effect. Again, this effect was found only when brand familiarity was low.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings contribute to advancing the current understanding of the multiple effects of the offshoring decision and clarify that near-shoring and far-shoring have different effects for customers with low brand familiarity. The findings also emphasise that the far-shoring decision can elicit the perception of decoupling between the firm's CSR claims and CSR actions, thus decreasing perceived quality.Practical implicationsThis study provides managers with additional inputs to make more informed decisions regarding offshoring. While the post-pandemic scenario seems to favour near-reshoring over far-shoring due to agility considerations, this study also provides additional evidence of the superiority of near-reshoring from the customer's perspective.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine and prove the differential effects of near-shoring versus far-shoring on the customer's perceptions and behaviours.