Word of mouth (WOM) communication is a major part of online consumer interactions, particularly within the environment of online communities. Nevertheless, existing (offline) theory may be inappropriate to describe online WOM and its influence on evaluation and purchase. The authors report the results of a two-stage study aimed at investigating online WOM: a set of in-depth qualitative interviews followed by a social network analysis of a single online community. Combined, the results provide strong evidence that individuals behave as if Web sites themselves are primary “actors” in online social networks and that online communities can act as a social proxy for individual identification. The authors offer a conceptualization of online social networks which takes the Web site into account as an actor, an initial exploration of the concept of a consumer–Web site relationship, and a conceptual model of the online interaction and information evaluation process.

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Outlines the essential elements of a role theoretical perspective and explores its potential importance to service performance in people‐based service encounters. Drawing on Biddle, and on Solomon et al.’s interpretations, how role theory enhances our marketing exchange understanding by focusing on the interactive features within successful service encounters is demonstrated. Outlines how role management offers a framework to evaluate the degree of interactivity sought in relationship approaches. Role theory, it is argued, can enable organizations to identify role development needs for service personnel within interactive service formats and permits organizations to monitor processual elements of service performance. A managerial framework, which identifies specific role management tasks in client encounters, is developed. This, it is proposed, may operate in two domains, internally within the service process and externally within the service encounter with clients. The contribution of role to the service life cycle, as a factor in service performance, and as a means to encourage customer retention is discussed: its application in different services contexts is briefly outlined.

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International audiencePurpose A customer’s visit to a retail website is a critical “moment of truth” during which contemporary retailers attempt to simultaneously, during a single web navigation, capture customers’ attention, build rapport, and prompt them to act. By showing how to capture customer commitment over the course of a single website visit, the concept of customer website engagement, defined as “the process of developing cognitive, affective and behavioural commitment to an active relationship with the website”, addresses strategic concerns. Drawing from literature on engagement, the purpose of this paper is to consider how retail websites can engage customers during the course of a website navigation. A conceptual model of website customer engagement underpinned by relationship marketing and communication knowledge, shows how perceptions of the website’s exploration and sense-making potential can activate consumer engagement, and is then empirically tested. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data, measures of the four dimensions of engagement (interaction engagement, activity engagement, behavioural engagement, and communication engagement) and of three drivers are developed and validated. The model is tested empirically (n=301) using structural equation modelling. Findings The results support the process conceptualisation of engagement, which identifies organismic as well as conative stages, and show the distinct roles played by perceptions of informational exploration, experiential exploration and sense-making in activating engagement. Practical implications The study provides online retailing practice with an organising framework enabling online retailing managers to consider how, depending on their product category and their size, they might (re)design their website to optimally produce customer engagement. Originality/value The study contributes to online marketing and retailing knowledge by showing the relevance of the concept of engagement as it pertains to customers’ single navigations on retail websites, and by empirically showing, through a parsimonious model, how engagement can be activated and unfol

While there has been a sustained interest in ethnic migrants developing composite cultural identities in emerged multi-cultural contexts, considerations of identity transitions among mainstream consumers (i.e., the non-migrant, locally born majority in a given marketplace) have been so far limited to the local-global culture dichotomy. This paper argues that, in multi-cultural marketplaces, mainstream consumers are exposed to a diverse range of local, global and foreign cultural meanings and may deploy these meanings for identity construal in a more complex manner. The paper offers a conceptual framework of consumer multiculturation that a) includes foreign cultures as other discrete influences in multi-cultural marketplaces; b) constructs a more coherent conception of how, through interaction with foreign, global and local cultures, mainstream consumers' identities may diversify beyond local/global/glocal alternatives; and c) considers the impact of these transitions on consumers' perceptions, expectations of and behavioral responses to culturebased brand meanings.

One of the key challenges of the Internet as a service delivery channel is how service firms can manage service quality as these remote formats bring significant change in customer interaction and behaviour. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of service quality and adapting these to particularly reflect the remote delivery format of the Internet, this study proposes and tests a service quality model of Internet banking. The research uses participant observation and narrative analysis of a UK Internet banking Web site community to explore how Internet banking customers perceive and interpret the elements of the model. Findings show that the level and nature of customer participation had the greatest impact on the quality of the service experience and issues such as customers’ zone of tolerance, the degree of role understanding by customers and emotional response potentially determined, expected and perceived service quality.