Using customer service scenarios in an online retail context, the current study examines how cognitive and affective trust develop over time and how service failure negatively impacts trust, along with the trust restoration opportunities provided by recovery. Study 1 findings reveal that the relationship between Web site social perception and affective trust is stronger for repeat visitors than for first-time visitors. Study 2 findings indicate that failure timing and recovery duration play important roles in service failure situations. Overall, the results demonstrate that consumer cognitive and affective trust develop through the number of interactions with a retail Web site over time and that increased Web site social perceptions facilitate the trust-building process.
Although the actions of others can influence a consumer's behavior, these actions are often at odds with performance norms. For example, charities can experience relatively low rates of support (resulting in a negative deviation from a performance norm) or relatively high rates of support (resulting in a positive deviation from a performance norm). Previous research provides evidence of the equivocal effects of these deviations, with both positive and negative deviations motivating prosocial behaviors. The current research reconciles these competing findings by introducing construal as a moderator. Across four studies, the authors find that positive deviations from performance norms motivate prosocial behavior for independent donors, whereas negative deviations from performance norms motivate prosocial behavior for interdependent donors. They further show that these effects are driven by a prevention focus associated with interdependent consumers and a promotion focus associated with independent consumers. The article concludes with implications for the marketing of charities and prosocial behaviors.
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