Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses
Firms often attribute their service employees’ competent performance to either dedicated effort or natural talent. However, it is unclear how such practices affect customer evaluations of service employees and customer outcomes. Moreover, prior work has primarily examined attributions of one’s own p...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153624 |
| _version_ | 1811686040288624640 |
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| author | Leung, Fine F. Kim, Sara Tse, Caleb H. |
| author2 | Nanyang Business School |
| author_facet | Nanyang Business School Leung, Fine F. Kim, Sara Tse, Caleb H. |
| author_sort | Leung, Fine F. |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Firms often attribute their service employees’ competent performance to either dedicated effort or natural talent. However, it is unclear how such practices affect customer evaluations of service employees and customer outcomes. Moreover, prior work has primarily examined attributions of one’s own performance, providing little insight on the impact of attributions of others’ performance. Drawing on research regarding the warmth–competence framework and performance attributions, the current research proposes and finds that consumers expect a more communal-oriented and less exchange-oriented relationship when a service employee’s competent performance is attributed to dedicated effort rather than natural talent, as effort (vs. talent) attribution leads consumers to perceive the employee as warmer. The authors further propose customer helping behaviors as downstream consequences of relationship expectations, finding that effort (vs. talent) attribution is more likely to induce customers’ word-of-mouth and idea provision behaviors. The findings enrich existing literature by identifying performance attributions as a managerially meaningful antecedent of relationship expectations and offer practical guidance on how marketers can influence consumers’ relationship expectations and helping behaviors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:54:05Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/153624 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:54:05Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1536242023-05-19T07:31:16Z Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses Leung, Fine F. Kim, Sara Tse, Caleb H. Nanyang Business School Business::Management Attribution Theory Communal and Exchange Relationships Firms often attribute their service employees’ competent performance to either dedicated effort or natural talent. However, it is unclear how such practices affect customer evaluations of service employees and customer outcomes. Moreover, prior work has primarily examined attributions of one’s own performance, providing little insight on the impact of attributions of others’ performance. Drawing on research regarding the warmth–competence framework and performance attributions, the current research proposes and finds that consumers expect a more communal-oriented and less exchange-oriented relationship when a service employee’s competent performance is attributed to dedicated effort rather than natural talent, as effort (vs. talent) attribution leads consumers to perceive the employee as warmer. The authors further propose customer helping behaviors as downstream consequences of relationship expectations, finding that effort (vs. talent) attribution is more likely to induce customers’ word-of-mouth and idea provision behaviors. The findings enrich existing literature by identifying performance attributions as a managerially meaningful antecedent of relationship expectations and offer practical guidance on how marketers can influence consumers’ relationship expectations and helping behaviors. 2021-12-07T07:15:27Z 2021-12-07T07:15:27Z 2020 Journal Article Leung, F. F., Kim, S. & Tse, C. H. (2020). Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses. Journal of Marketing, 84(3), 106-121. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022242920902722 0022-2429 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153624 10.1177/0022242920902722 2-s2.0-85081975632 3 84 106 121 en Journal of Marketing © 2020 American Marketing Association. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Business::Management Attribution Theory Communal and Exchange Relationships Leung, Fine F. Kim, Sara Tse, Caleb H. Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses |
| title | Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses |
| title_full | Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses |
| title_fullStr | Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses |
| title_full_unstemmed | Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses |
| title_short | Highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance : customer attributions and responses |
| title_sort | highlighting effort versus talent in service employee performance customer attributions and responses |
| topic | Business::Management Attribution Theory Communal and Exchange Relationships |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153624 |
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