Impact of Customer‐Based Corporate Reputation on Non‐Monetary and Monetary Outcomes: The Roles of Commitment and Service Context Risk

A firm's reputation is an important intangible asset, because of its potential for value creation. The authors explore non-monetary and monetary outcomes of customer-based corporate reputation (CBR) and hypothesize that commitment serves as a partial mediator, while service context risk is a moderator, of these relationships. Using a large sample of service customers who evaluated the reputation of service firms in four service categories, the results show that (1) commitment partially mediates the relationship between CBR and most of the outcome variables, and (2) service provider selection risk moderates these relationships, such that reputation has a stronger effect on several non-monetary outcomes for higher-risk services and commitment has a stronger effect for lower-risk services, consistent with a dual-processing framework explanation. The authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications.

[1]  Marko Sarstedt,et al.  Art for the Sake of the Corporation , 2010, Journal of Advertising Research.

[2]  R. Staelin,et al.  A Model of Perceived Risk and Intended Risk-handling Activity , 1994 .

[3]  C. Fombrun,et al.  Opportunity Platforms and Safety Nets: Corporate Citizenship and Reputational Risk , 2024, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[4]  Gianfranco Walsh,et al.  Customer-based corporate reputation of a service firm: scale development and validation , 2007 .

[5]  J. Steenkamp,et al.  Assessing Measurement Invariance in Cross-National Consumer Research , 1998 .

[6]  Y. Lii,et al.  Doing Right Leads to Doing Well: When the Type of CSR and Reputation Interact to Affect Consumer Evaluations of the Firm , 2012 .

[7]  Gianfranco Walsh,et al.  The customer-based corporate reputation scale: replication and short form , 2009 .

[8]  M. Lähdesmäki,et al.  Towards a Variety of Meanings – Multiple Representations of Reputation in the Small Business Context , 2010 .

[9]  R. Eccles,et al.  Reputation and its risks. , 2007, Harvard business review.

[10]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[11]  Esther de Quevedo-Puente,et al.  The Impact of Corporate Reputation on Firm Risk: A Panel Data Analysis of Spanish Quoted Firms , 2013 .

[12]  Susan M. Broniarczyk,et al.  Integrating Multiple Opinions: The Role of Aspiration Level on Consumer Response to Critic Consensus , 1998 .

[13]  S. Hunt,et al.  The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing , 1994 .

[14]  Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp,et al.  The Effects of Trust and Interdependence on Relationship Commitment , 1996 .

[15]  Bob D. Cutler,et al.  Analysis of print ad features: services versus products , 1993 .

[16]  C. Fombrun,et al.  What's in a Name? Reputation Building and Corporate Strategy , 1990 .

[17]  Alexander Jöndell,et al.  The loyalty effect , 2015 .

[18]  Manfred Schwaiger,et al.  Corporate reputation: disentangling the effects on financial performance , 2005 .

[19]  Stan Xiao Li,et al.  Reputation, Diversification and Organizational Explanations of Performance in Professional Service Firms , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[20]  Seymour Epstein,et al.  Some basic issues regarding dual-process theories from the perspective of cognitive–experiential self-theory. , 1999 .

[21]  Shirley Taylor,et al.  Commitment to a friend, a service provider, or a service company—are they distinctions worth making? , 2008 .

[22]  G. Walsh,et al.  Culture and age as moderators in the corporate reputation and loyalty relationship , 2011 .

[23]  A. Caruana,et al.  How corporate reputation, quality, and value influence online loyalty , 2010 .

[24]  Terry S. Overton,et al.  Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys , 1977 .

[25]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  J. Louviere,et al.  The impact of brand credibility on consumer price sensitivity , 2002 .

[27]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm , 1996 .

[28]  Hans Georg.  Perceived risk and information search. A systematic meta-analysis of the empirical evidence , 1985 .

[29]  James H. Davenport,et al.  British Academy of Management , 2013 .

[30]  V. Mitchell.  Consumer perceived risk: conceptualisations and models , 1999 .

[31]  Youjae Yi,et al.  If employees “go the extra mile,” do customers reciprocate with similar behavior? , 2008 .

[32]  D. Mishra.  The Conceptualization and Measurement of Suppliers' Reputation Display in Asymmetric Marketing Relationships , 1998 .

[33]  Charles r. Taylor,et al.  Audi, BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler, Montblanc, Siemens, and Volkswagen Help Explore the Effect of Sponsorship on Corporate Reputations , 2010 .

[34]  J. Edwards,et al.  Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: a general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. , 2007, Psychological methods.

[35]  P. Parker,et al.  Marketing universals: Consumers' use of brand name, price, physical appearance, and retailer , 1994 .

[36]  Norizan M. Kassim,et al.  The effect of corporate branding dimensions on consumers' product evaluation: A cross‐cultural analysis , 2006 .

[37]  V. Kumar,et al.  Expanding the Role of Marketing: From Customer Equity to Market Capitalization , 2009 .

[38]  Michael A. Kamins,et al.  Reputation gaps and the performance of service organizations , 2009 .

[39]  Norbert Schwarz,et al.  How Much Will I Spend? Factors Affecting Consumers’ Estimates of Future Expense , 1997 .

[40]  C. Fombrun,et al.  The Reputation QuotientSM: A multi-stakeholder measure of corporate reputation , 2000 .

[41]  John C. Haughey.  The Loyalty Effect , 1997, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[42]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  A cross-country construct validation of cognitive age , 2006 .

[43]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[44]  Praveen R. Nayyar,et al.  Information asymmetries: a source of competitive advantage for diversified service firms , 1990 .

[45]  Hean Tat Keh,et al.  Corporate reputation and customer behavioral intentions: The roles of trust, identification and commitment ☆ , 2009 .

[46]  F. Mavondo,et al.  Corporate image in the leisure services sector , 2011 .

[47]  D. Ariely,et al.  In Search of Homo Economicus: Cognitive Noise and the Role of Emotion in Preference Consistency , 2009 .

[48]  Jack M. Feldman,et al.  Self-generated validity and other effects of measurement on belief, attitude, intention, and behavior. , 1988 .

[49]  Timothy L. Keiningham,et al.  The Impact of Customer Satisfaction on Share-of-Wallet in a Business-to-Business Environment , 2003 .

[50]  MARY A. SMITH,et al.  REPUTATION , 1913, Encyclopedia of Database Systems.

[51]  Meng Su,et al.  Recommendation and repurchase intention thresholds: A joint heterogeneity response estimation , 2009 .

[52]  Eve D. Rosenzweig,et al.  A Tale of Two Countries’ Conservatism, Service Quality, and Feedback on Customer Satisfaction , 2004 .

[53]  Gianfranco Walsh,et al.  Investigating mediators between corporate reputation and customer citizenship behaviors , 2011 .

[54]  T. Andreassen,et al.  Customer loyalty and complex services: The impact of corporate image on quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty for customers with varying degrees of service expertise , 1998 .

[55]  Uriel G. Foa,et al.  Interpersonal and Economic Resources , 1971, Science.

[56]  Yehoshua Liebermann,et al.  Message strategy by product-class type: A matching model , 1996 .

[57]  Tammo H. A. Bijmolt,et al.  Do Loyalty Programs Really Enhance Behavioral Loyalty? An Empirical Analysis Accounting for Self-Selecting Members , 2006 .

[58]  Benjamin Schneider,et al.  Service Attribute Boundary Conditions of the Service Climate–Customer Satisfaction Link , 2009 .

[59]  Antoaneta P. Petkova,et al.  Being good or being known: An empirical examination of the dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of organizational reputation , 2005 .

[60]  Hans Georg Gemünden,et al.  Perceived risk and information search. A systematic meta-analysis of the empirical evidence , 1985 .

[61]  Peter A. Dacin,et al.  The Company and the Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses , 1997 .

[62]  K. Reynolds,et al.  Hedonic shopping motivations , 2003 .

[63]  C. Bebko.  Service intangibility and its impact on consumer expectations of service quality , 2000 .

[64]  R. Batra,et al.  When Corporate Image Affects Product Evaluations: The Moderating Role of Perceived Risk , 2004 .

[65]  Gordon L. Fullerton.  When Does Commitment Lead to Loyalty? , 2003 .

[66]  T. Hennig-Thurau,et al.  The impact of customer satisfaction and relationship quality on customer retention: A critical reassessment and model development , 1997 .

[67]  Michel Laroche,et al.  Exploring How Intangibility Affects Perceived Risk , 2004 .

[68]  Bernd Hempelmann,et al.  Impacts of Reputation for Quality on Perceptions of Company Responsibility and Product-related Dangers in times of Product-recall and Public Complaints Crises: Results from an Empirical Investigation , 2010 .

[69]  Alison Dean,et al.  The Impact of the Customer Orientation of Call Center Employees on Customers' Affective Commitment and Loyalty , 2007 .

[70]  Arch G. Woodside,et al.  Updating Heider's balance theory in consumer behavior: A Jewish couple buys a German car and additional buying–consuming transformation stories , 2001 .

[71]  P. Bansal,et al.  Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Corporate Reputation: The Context of Airline Companies , 2007 .

[72]  James C. Anderson,et al.  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH , 1988 .

[73]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  Common Method Variance in IS Research: A Comparison of Alternative Approaches and a Reanalysis of Past Research , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[74]  S. Helm.  Designing a Formative Measure for Corporate Reputation , 2005 .

[75]  Margaret C. Campbell,et al.  The Moderating Effect of Perceived Risk on Consumers’ Evaluations of Product Incongruity: Preference for the Norm , 2001 .

[76]  Peter A. Dacin,et al.  Identity, intended image, construed image, and gnreputation: An interdisciplinary framework and suggested terminology , 2006 .

[77]  J. Scott Armstrong,et al.  Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. , 1977 .

[78]  M. Evans.  A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis , 1985 .

[79]  T. Keiningham,et al.  A Longitudinal Analysis of Customer Satisfaction and Share of Wallet: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics , 2007 .

[80]  S. Epstein.  Integration of the cognitive and the psychodynamic unconscious. , 1994, The American psychologist.

[81]  Seymour Epstein,et al.  The interaction of three facets of concrete thinking in a game of chance , 1999 .

[82]  Charles J. Fombrun,et al.  RepTrak™ Pulse: Conceptualizing and Validating a Short-Form Measure of Corporate Reputation , 2011 .

[83]  F. Heider.  Attitudes and cognitive organization. , 1946, The Journal of psychology.

[84]  K. B. Murray,et al.  The impact of services versus goods on consumers’ assessment of perceived risk and variability , 1990 .

[85]  Anthony D. Cox,et al.  Communicating the Consequences of Early Detection: The Role of Evidence and Framing , 2001 .

[86]  William D. Perreault,et al.  Is Retail Category Management Worth the Effort (and Does a Category Captain Help or Hinder)? , 2011 .

[87]  David M. Woisetschläger,et al.  The effects of country of origin and corporate reputation on initial trust: An experimental evaluation of the perception of Polish consumers , 2008 .

[88]  Judy K. Frels,et al.  Consumer switching costs: A typology, antecedents, and consequences , 2003 .

[89]  Markus Groth.  Customers as Good Soldiers: Examining Citizenship Behaviors in Internet Service Deliveries , 2005 .

[90]  Lance A. Bettencourt,et al.  Customer voluntary performance: Customers as partners in service delivery , 1997 .

[91]  P. Jackson,et al.  Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of Corporate Reputation: A Customer Perspective , 2009 .

[92]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Process Analysis , 1981 .

[93]  G. Mcdougall,et al.  The Intangibility of Services: Measurement and Competitive Perspectives , 1990 .

[94]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  The Behavioral Consequences of Service Quality , 1996 .

[95]  Donald Lange,et al.  Organizational Reputation: A Review , 2011 .

[96]  Jochen Wirtz,et al.  How Effective Are Loyalty Reward Programs in Driving Share of Wallet? , 2007 .

[97]  D. Ketchen,et al.  New Frontiers of the Reputation—Performance Relationship: Insights From Multiple Theories , 2010 .

[98]  G. Dowling,et al.  Corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance , 2002 .

[99]  C. Camarero,et al.  Consumer Reactions to Firm Signals in Asymmetric Relationships , 2005 .

[100]  Manfred Schwaiger.  Components and Parameters of Corporate Reputation — An Empirical Study , 2004 .

[101]  M. Lindell,et al.  Climate quality and climate consensus as mediators of the relationship between organizational antecedents and outcomes. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[102]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Data analysis in social psychology. , 1998 .

[103]  C. Osgood,et al.  The principle of congruity in the prediction of attitude change. , 1955, Psychological review.

[104]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models , 2008, Behavior research methods.

[105]  Tom J. Brown,et al.  The Company and the Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses: , 1997 .

[106]  M. Lindell,et al.  Accounting for common method variance in cross-sectional research designs. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[107]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Working memory: theories, models, and controversies. , 2012, Annual review of psychology.

[108]  Gary L. Frazier,et al.  Distributor Sharing of Strategic Information with Suppliers , 2009 .

[109]  Chung-Yu Wang,et al.  Service quality, perceived value, corporate image, and customer loyalty in the context of varying levels of switching costs , 2010 .

[110]  Dominique M. Hanssens,et al.  Marketing and Firm Value: Metrics, Methods, Findings, and Future Directions , 2008 .

[111]  J. S. Long,et al.  Tests for Structural Equation Models , 1992 .

[112]  Paul Resnick,et al.  The value of reputation on eBay: A controlled experiment , 2002 .