We would like to invite you to participate in Management Engineering (ME) Seminar.

1. When: March 14th (Thursday), 16:00 ~ 17:30
2. Where: Building 9, 3th #9303
3. Speaker: Prof. Sara Kim (THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG)
4. Topic: When Natural Talent (vs. Dedicated Effort) Evokes Quid Pro Quo: Influence of Service Employee Performance Attribution on Relationship Expectation
5. Research field: Marketing
* Lecture will be delivered in Korean.

Abstract:
When marketers communicate information about service employees’ positive performance, they often attribute that performance either to dedicated effort or natural talent. The current research shows that message cues that increase the salience of dedicated effort (vs. natural talent) as the primary source of a service employee’s positive performance lead consumers to expect a more communal and less exchange relationship, because effort (vs. talent) attribution makes consumers less likely to perceive an employee as a functional instrument (i.e., mechanistic dehumanization). Moreover, to enhance practical implications, the authors use eye-tracking technology and show that talent (vs. effort) attribution induces consumers to gaze more at job- than at person-oriented information about the service employee. The authors further use a real firm to demonstrate that effort (vs. talent) attribution makes consumers more likely to engage in customer discretionary behaviors (e.g., generating new product ideas). The findings advance the theoretical understanding of how consumers respond to performance attribution information, and offer practical guidance on how firms can use information on service employee performance to evoke an intended relationship expectation.