@article{ab15c6a33db44125be8ef15c8b3f5d4a,
title = "Service with emoticons: How customers interpret employee use of emoticons in online service encounters",
abstract = "Virtually no research has examined the role of emoticons in commercial relationships, and research outside the marketing domain reports mixed findings. This article aims to resolve these mixed findings by considering that emoticon senders are often simultaneously evaluated on two fundamental dimensions, warmth and competence, and the accessibility of one dimension over the other is critically contingent on salient relationship norms (communal vs. exchange norms) in customers{\textquoteright} minds due to individual and situational factors. Through laboratory and field experiments, the current research shows that customers perceive service employees who use emoticons as higher in warmth but lower in competence compared to those who do not (study 1). We further demonstrate that when a service employee uses emoticons, communal-oriented (exchange-oriented) customers are more likely to infer higher warmth (lower competence) and thus to be more (less) satisfied with the service (study 2). We also examine two practically important service situations that can make a certain type of relationship norm more salient: unsatisfactory services (study 3) and employees{\textquoteright} extra-role services (study 4). We speculate on possible mechanisms underlying these effects and discuss theoretical and practical implications along with opportunities for future research.",
keywords = "Competence, Emoticons, Extra-role services, Relationship norm orientation, Unsatisfactory services, Warmth",
author = "Xueni Li and Chan, {Kimmy Wa} and Sara Kim",
note = "Funding Information: This research is supported by grants from the Hong Kong SAR Research Grants Council, awarded to the second (HKBU590613) and the third authors (HKU17500715). Funding Information: Xueni (Shirley) Li (
[email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Renfrew Road, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. Kimmy Wa Chan (
[email protected]) is a professor of marketing in the Department of Marketing, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Renfrew Road, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. Sara Kim (
[email protected]) is an associate professor of marketing at the Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. This research is based on the first author{\textquoteright}s doctoral dissertation. The last two authors contributed equally. This research is supported by grants from the Hong Kong SAR Research Grants Council, awarded to the second (HKBU590613) and the third authors (HKU17500715). The authors would like to thank Ann L. McGill for her insightful and valuable comments on an earlier version of this article. The authors also thank the editor, associate editor, and three reviewers for their constructive feedback. Please address correspondence to Sara Kim. Supplementary materials are included in the web appendix accompanying the online version of this article.",
year = "2019",
month = feb,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1093/jcr/ucy016",
language = "English",
volume = "45",
pages = "973--987",
journal = "Journal of Consumer Research",
issn = "0093-5301",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "5",
}