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Consumer suggestion sharing: helpful, pragmatic and conditional

Thomas A. Burnham (Department of Marketing, College of Business, University of Nevada, Reno, USA)
Garret Ridinger (Department of Management, College of Business, University of Nevada, Reno, USA)
Anne Carpenter (Department of Economics and Department of Finance, College of Business, University of Nevada, Reno, USA)
Laee Choi (Department of Marketing, Hasan School of Business, Colorado State University-Pueblo, Colorado, USA)

European Journal of Marketing

ISSN: 0309-0566

Article publication date: 30 November 2020

Issue publication date: 26 February 2021

707

Abstract

Purpose

Consumers who share their suggestions with firms contribute valuable knowledge and both exhibit and reinforce positive customer engagement. Yet, the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm customer suggestion sharing remain understudied. This study aims to investigate how potential self, other customer and firm benefits motivate consumer suggestion sharing.

Design/methodology/approach

A critical incident pretest explores the domain and establishes ecological validity. Two scenario-based experimental studies test the proposed relationships in distinct service contexts.

Findings

Results support a prosocial (helpful) view of suggestion sharing – potential benefits to other customers motivate suggestion sharing. Potential benefits for the firm play two roles, namely, they indirectly motivate suggestion sharing by increasing consumers’ perceived outcome expectancy, illustrating a pragmatic mechanism, and they directly motivate suggestion sharing when service quality is high, illustrating a conditional, reciprocity-driven mechanism. When service quality is low, consumers are less likely to share firm-benefitting suggestions and more likely to share non-beneficial suggestions, highlighting a potential low service quality “trap” in which firms can become stuck.

Research limitations/implications

Future research is needed to study the antecedents of attitude toward suggestion sharing and the effect of relationship strength on suggestion sharing.

Practical implications

Managerially, multiple paths are identified by which firms can motivate suggestion sharing. The low-service quality “trap” indicates that low-service quality firms should not rely on, and should perhaps even ignore, customer suggestions as a tool for improving their offerings.

Originality/value

By experimentally investigating the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing, this paper fills a gap in extant research and provides a foundation upon which future suggestion sharing research can build.

Keywords

Citation

Burnham, T.A., Ridinger, G., Carpenter, A. and Choi, L. (2021), "Consumer suggestion sharing: helpful, pragmatic and conditional", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55 No. 3, pp. 726-762. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-10-2019-0806

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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