This study proposes an integrated framework explaining loyalty responses in high-involvement, high-service luxury product markets. The model is rooted in the traditional (attribute satisfaction)-(overall satisfaction)-(loyalty) chain but explicitly incorporates facility versus interactive service quality, trust, specific asset investment (SAI), and product-market expertise. The authors focus on disentangling the direct versus indirect effects of model constructs on attitudinal versus behavioral loyalty responses. The results support the traditional chain but also show loyalty can be increased by building a trustworthy image and creating exchange-specific assets. The authors found that overall satisfaction is the precursor both to loyalty and to building SAI. Finally, consumers have different costs in reducing adverse selection problems with information, and thus the negative effect of product-market expertise on behavioral loyalty needs to be controlled if the direct versus indirect effects of model constructs on loyalty are to be disentangled.

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Piracy is the greatest threat facing the music industry worldwide today. This study developed and empirically tested a model examining the antecedents of consumer attitude and behavioral intention toward music piracy behavior. Two types of music piracy behavior, unauthorized duplication/download and pirated music product purchasing, were examined. Based on a field survey in Taiwan, the results showed that attributive satisfaction, perceived prosecution risk, magnitude of consequence, and social consensus are very important in influencing customers' attitude and behavioral intention toward two types of music piracy behavior. In addition, singer/band idolization can affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. Perceived proximity was found to affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. However, it only influenced behavioral intention in the case of unauthorized duplication/download.

The authors first propose and test a cognitive-affectiveconative baseline model: Perceived service quality (both tangible company-related and employee-related factors) is modeled antecedent to satisfaction and trust, which in turn are antecedents to customer loyalty responses (word of mouth and traditional loyalty). These relationships are then hypothesized to be moderated by high versus low knowledge, a moderation based on central versus peripheral processing. The results show that employee service quality has a greater impact than company service quality on trust and on satisfaction in both knowledge groups. The relationship of trust to word of mouth is both direct and indirect through satisfaction for both knowledge groups, but the relationship of trust to loyalty is both direct and indirect through satisfaction only for the high-knowledge group; for the low-knowledge group, the relationship of trust to loyalty is indirect only, through satisfaction.

Consumers increasingly rely on the Internet to obtain product information and advice from other consumers. However, since the information available on the Internet is easily manipulated, they have to seek cues for the trustworthiness of the online information. The present study proposes and tests the effects on perceived trust of online information and subsequent attitude of (1) perceived strong vs. weak social relationships among net pals and (2) positive vs. negative messages. The moderating effects of credence vs. experience goods are also examined in the research. Results show that, for experience goods, either positive or negative online messages will be perceived as credible as long as the messages are posted by those perceived to have close social relationships. On the other hand, for credence goods, negative online messages are perceived to be more credible than positive online messages when the messages are posted by those perceived to have close social relationships. Results also show the main effect of positive/negative messages on credibility of information, as well as that the effect of credibility of information on product attitude is weaker in the credence goods group than in the experience goods group.

This study developed and empirically tested a model examining the antecedents of franchisees’ overall satisfaction and intention to remain in a franchise system. Based on a sample from a convenient store franchise system in Taiwan, the results showed that communication is very important in reinforcing franchisees’ trust and overall satisfaction with the franchise system. The results also showed that competitive advantage of a franchise system is the basis for a franchisee's overall satisfaction and intention to remain in a franchise system. However, satisfaction of a franchisor's service assistance did not have direct impact on a franchisee's overall satisfaction toward the franchise system.

This study examined the impact of messages on a discussion forum regarding a consumer's brand evaluation and attitude toward the Web owner. Four hypotheses were developed based on consumer behavior theories. An experiment using a 2×3×2 between participants factorial design was conducted to test the hypotheses. The results showed that message favorableness and message number on an Internet discussion forum can influence a consumer's brand evaluation and attitude toward the Web owner. However, the effects are different under different levels of preexisting brand image. Negative messages hurt mainly low-image brands, whereas message repetition helps only high-image brands.

Among college students in the United States, Taiwan, and Argentina, the author examined the strength of 4 cultural patterns (horizontal collectivism, vertical collectivism, horizontal individualism, vertical individualism; H. C. Triandis, 1995). A 3-group confirmatory factor analysis established the measurement equivalence among the 3 samples before the comparison. The Taiwanese and the Argentine samples were more vertically collectivist than the U.S. sample. The U.S. and the Taiwanese samples were more vertically individualistic than the Argentine sample. The U.S. sample was more horizontally individualistic than the Argentine sample, which, in turn, was more horizontally individualistic than the Taiwanese sample.