Managing the Bright and Dark Sides of Status Endowment in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs

A. Eggert, L. Steinhoff, I. Garnefeld, Journal of Service Research 18 (2015) 210–228.

Download
No fulltext has been uploaded.
Journal Article | Published | English
Author
Eggert, Andreas; Steinhoff, Lena; Garnefeld, Ina
Abstract
<jats:p> In service industries, hierarchical loyalty programs are common relationship marketing instruments that award elevated status to customers who exceed a certain spending level (e.g., gold membership). In practice, service companies offer elevated status to some customers who do not meet the required spending level, in an attempt to profit from the profound allure of status. Relying on social psychology research and a mixed-method approach, this study analyzes the loyalty impact of status endowments, defined as awards of elevated status to customers who are not entitled to it. An exploratory qualitative study identifies customer gratitude and customer skepticism as positive and negative mediators, respectively, of customers’ attitudinal responses to endowed status. Quantitative studies—two experimental and one survey—substantiate these bright and dark sides of endowed status. The efficacy of status endowment is contingent on the context. To alleviate the dark-side effect, managers can allow target customers to actively choose whether to be endowed, especially those who are close to achieving the status already, and provide valuable preferential treatment to customers elevated by either endowment or achievement. These insights offer guidelines for whether and how to use status endowment in hierarchical loyalty programs. </jats:p>
Publishing Year
Journal Title
Journal of Service Research
Volume
18
Issue
2
Page
210-228
LibreCat-ID

Cite this

Eggert A, Steinhoff L, Garnefeld I. Managing the Bright and Dark Sides of Status Endowment in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs. Journal of Service Research. 2015;18(2):210-228. doi:10.1177/1094670514566797
Eggert, A., Steinhoff, L., & Garnefeld, I. (2015). Managing the Bright and Dark Sides of Status Endowment in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs. Journal of Service Research, 18(2), 210–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670514566797
@article{Eggert_Steinhoff_Garnefeld_2015, title={Managing the Bright and Dark Sides of Status Endowment in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs}, volume={18}, DOI={10.1177/1094670514566797}, number={2}, journal={Journal of Service Research}, publisher={SAGE Publications}, author={Eggert, Andreas and Steinhoff, Lena and Garnefeld, Ina}, year={2015}, pages={210–228} }
Eggert, Andreas, Lena Steinhoff, and Ina Garnefeld. “Managing the Bright and Dark Sides of Status Endowment in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs.” Journal of Service Research 18, no. 2 (2015): 210–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670514566797.
A. Eggert, L. Steinhoff, and I. Garnefeld, “Managing the Bright and Dark Sides of Status Endowment in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs,” Journal of Service Research, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 210–228, 2015, doi: 10.1177/1094670514566797.
Eggert, Andreas, et al. “Managing the Bright and Dark Sides of Status Endowment in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs.” Journal of Service Research, vol. 18, no. 2, SAGE Publications, 2015, pp. 210–28, doi:10.1177/1094670514566797.

Export

Marked Publications

Open Data LibreCat

Search this title in

Google Scholar