IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v170y2024ics0148296323006604.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The social influence of employee groups: Understanding the impact of employee groups on customer intentions through intimidation

Author

Listed:
  • Myles Landers, V.
  • Esmark Jones, Carol L.
  • Barney, Christian

Abstract

It is not uncommon to see a group of employees congregating in a retail setting, but what effect does the grouping of sales associates have on customer behavior? Drawing from social impact theory, we use a series of three studies, including a natural field study, to show that consumers feel more intimidated by groups of employees than individual employees. These feelings of intimidation lead to lower intentions to approach employees, and, through this, lower purchase intentions. This effect is particularly prominent in customers who identify as female and in customers with a lower degree of social anxiety. This research provides the first step in understanding intimidation in a retail context. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Myles Landers, V. & Esmark Jones, Carol L. & Barney, Christian, 2024. "The social influence of employee groups: Understanding the impact of employee groups on customer intentions through intimidation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:170:y:2024:i:c:s0148296323006604
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323006604
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114301?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer J. Argo & Darren W. Dahl & Rajesh V. Manchanda, 2005. "The Influence of a Mere Social Presence in a Retail Context," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(2), pages 207-212, September.
    2. Cheng, Yi-Hsiu & Ho, Hui-Yi, 2015. "Social influence's impact on reader perceptions of online reviews," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 883-887.
    3. Kirkpatrick,David L. I., 2021. "How Important are Superior Numbers?," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108977876, October.
    4. McColl-Kennedy, Janet R. & Patterson, Paul G. & Smith, Amy K. & Brady, Michael K., 2009. "Customer Rage Episodes: Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 222-237.
    5. Tuncay, Linda & Otnes, Cele C., 2008. "The Use of Persuasion Management Strategies by Identity-Vulnerable Consumers: The Case of Urban Heterosexual Male Shoppers," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(4), pages 487-499.
    6. Carol L. Esmark & Stephanie M. Noble, 2018. "Retail space invaders: when employees’ invasion of customer space increases purchase intentions," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 477-496, May.
    7. Sharma, Arun, 2001. "Consumer decision-making, salespeople's adaptive selling and retail performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 125-129, November.
    8. Barney, Christian & Jones, Carol L. Esmark & Farmer, Adam, 2020. "Approacher be-wear? Increasing shopper approach intentions through employee apparel," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 401-416.
    9. Mathis Wackernagel & Laurel Hanscom & Priyangi Jayasinghe & David Lin & Adeline Murthy & Evan Neill & Peter Raven, 2021. "The importance of resource security for poverty eradication," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 731-738, August.
    10. Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter, 1994. "The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 1-31, June.
    11. Dahl, Darren W & Manchanda, Rajesh V & Argo, Jennifer J, 2001. "Embarrassment in Consumer Purchase: The Roles of Social Presence and Purchase Familiarity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 473-481, December.
    12. El Hedhli, Kamel & Chebat, Jean-Charles & Sirgy, M. Joseph, 2013. "Shopping well-being at the mall: Construct, antecedents, and consequences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 856-863.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pang, Hua & Ruan, Yang & Zhang, Kaige, 2024. "Deciphering technological contributions of visibility and interactivity to website atmospheric and customer stickiness in AI-driven websites: The pivotal function of online flow state," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Argo, Jennifer J. & Dahl, Darren W., 2020. "Social Influence in the Retail Context: A Contemporary Review of the Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 25-39.
    2. Tombs, Alastair G. & McColl-Kennedy, Janet R., 2010. "Social and spatial influence of customers on other customers in the social-servicescape," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 120-131.
    3. Hess, Nicole J. & Kelley, Corinne M. & Scott, Maura L. & Mende, Martin & Schumann, Jan H., 2020. "Getting Personal in Public!? How Consumers Respond to Public Personalized Advertising in Retail Stores," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 344-361.
    4. Román, Sergio & Riquelme, Isabel P. & Iacobucci, Dawn, 2023. "Fake or credible? Antecedents and consequences of perceived credibility in exaggerated online reviews," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    5. Hwang, YooHee & Shin, Joongwon & Mattila, Anna S., 2018. "So private, yet so public: The impact of spatial distance, other diners, and power on solo dining experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 36-47.
    6. Jana Holthöwer & Jenny Doorn, 2023. "Robots do not judge: service robots can alleviate embarrassment in service encounters," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 767-784, July.
    7. Kohei Kawaguchi & Kosuke Uetake & Yasutora Watanabe, 2019. "Effectiveness of Product Recommendations Under Time and Crowd Pressures," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 253-273, March.
    8. Zhang, Mingyue & Zhao, Haichuan & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2022. "How much is a picture worth? Online review picture background and its impact on purchase intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 134-144.
    9. Roshni Raveendhran & Nathanael J. Fast, 2024. "When and why consumers prefer human-free behavior tracking products," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 395-408, September.
    10. He, Yi & Chen, Qimei & Alden, Dana L., 2012. "Consumption in the public eye: The influence of social presence on service experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 302-310.
    11. Valérie Guillard & Eva Delacroix, 2012. ""J'espère que ce commerçant ne me parlera pas !" : l'effet de l'anxiété sociale et du degré d'intimité de la conversation sur l'intention de revenir dans le point de vente," Post-Print hal-01630516, HAL.
    12. Jia Gao & Ying Rong & Xin Tian & Yuliang Yao, 2024. "Improving Convenience or Saving Face? An Empirical Analysis of the Use of Facial Recognition Payment Technology in Retail," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 16-27, March.
    13. Söderlund, Magnus, 2011. "Other customers in the retail environment and their impact on the customer’s evaluations of the retailer," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 174-182.
    14. Pyle, Martin A. & Smith, Andrew N. & Chevtchouk, Yanina, 2021. "In eWOM we trust: Using naïve theories to understand consumer trust in a complex eWOM marketspace," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 145-158.
    15. Sungwoo Choi & Anna S. Mattila, 2018. "The Effect of Experience Congruity on Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Public Commitment," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(2), pages 124-138, June.
    16. Ni Huang & Lingli Wang & Yili Hong & Lihui Lin & Xunhua Guo & Guoqing Chen, 2024. "When the Clock Strikes: A Multimethod Investigation of On-the-Hour Effects in Online Learning," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 766-782, June.
    17. Otterbring, Tobias, 2021. "Peer presence promotes popular choices: A “Spicy†field study on social influence and brand choice," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    18. Brown, James R. & Dant, Rajiv P., 2009. "The Theoretical Domains of Retailing Research: A Retrospective," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 113-128.
    19. Fan Alei (Aileen) & Van Hoof Hubert B. & Loyola Sandra Pesantez & Lituma Sebastián Calle & Granda Marlene Jaramillo, 2016. "The impact of other customers and gender on consumer complaint behaviour in the Ecuadorian restaurant setting," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 21-29, May.
    20. Park, Yookyung & Yi, Youjae, 2022. "Is a gift on sale “heart-discounted†? Givers’ misprediction on the value of discounted gifts and the influence of service robots," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:170:y:2024:i:c:s0148296323006604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.