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Positive gender congruency effects on shopper responses: Field evidence from a gender egalitarian culture
Institute of Retail Economic; University of Agder, School of Business and Law, NOR.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0283-8777
Aarhus University, DEN.
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Karlstad Business School (from 2013).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8520-0006
Toulouse Business School, FRA.
2021 (English)In: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, ISSN 0969-6989, E-ISSN 1873-1384, Vol. 63, article id 102738Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This field study examined how customer-employee interactions are affected by the congruency between an employee's gender and the perceived gender image of the consumption context in one of the most gender equal cultures in the world (Scandinavia). Mystery shoppers had a service encounter with an employee across a set of physical commercial settings that were classified according to their gender image. The mystery shoppers noted the gender of the employee, provided employee evaluations, and indicated word-of-mouth (WOM) ratings. Shoppers who had a gender congruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “feminine” consumption context) reported more favorable employee evaluations and WOM ratings than shoppers who had a gender incongruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “masculine” consumption context), with the impact of gender congruency on WOM ratings mediated by employee evaluations, particularly with respect to competence inferences. These findings highlight the ethical dilemma of a positive gender congruency effect, as it can generate superior consumer responses but also risks resulting in gender occupational segregation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2021. Vol. 63, article id 102738
Keywords [en]
Congruency, Employee evaluations, Femininity, Gender, Gender equality, Gendered marketing, Masculinity, Processing fluency, Stereotypes, Word-of-mouth, cultural identity, cultural influence, feminism, gender relations, masculinization, womens employment, womens status
National Category
Business Administration
Research subject
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-86182DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102738ISI: 000696953300013Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85113298491OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-86182DiVA, id: diva2:1602048
Available from: 2021-10-11 Created: 2021-10-11 Last updated: 2022-11-25Bibliographically approved

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Otterbring, TobiasSamuelsson, Peter

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Citation style
  • apa
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  • apa.csl
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  • de-DE
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  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
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Output format
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