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ABSTRACT
How can services create more engaged customers? Recent efforts to identify service research priorities have affirmed the need to examine this question. It can be argued that advocacy, or the promotion or defense of a company, product, or brand by a customer to another, is one of the most important outcomes of building customer engagement. Communication has been positioned as one of the most effective firm strategies in building relationships, while the level of trust customers ascribe to the firm also can potentially influence relational outcomes, such as advocacy. Most studies only consider the direct or mediating effect that trust plays in relationships though some literature points to the appropriateness of trust as a moderator. We expect that trust in the retailer will moderate the relationship between the perceived quality of retailer communication and a customer's advocacy, such that increasing communication quality will be strongly related to advocacy behavior for customers who trust the retailer. We examine the direct effect of communication quality on advocacy as well as both mediating and moderating effects of trust on the communication quality-advocacy relationship. The hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression analysis using survey data from 1068 customers of a regional coffee house chain. Results support the predictions of moderation. Findings hold implications for future research as well as for managerial practice.
INTRODUCTION
How can service providers create more engaged customers? This question is highly relevant in the context of ever blurring commercial and psychological boundaries as organizations and customers co-create experiences. The need for theory and research related to this question has been affirmed and expanded on in a recent effort to identify service research priorities (Ostrom, Bitner, Brown, Burhard, Goul, Smith-Daniels, Demirkan, and Rabinovich 2010). It can be argued that advocacy, or the promotion or defense of a company, product, or brand by a customer to another, is one of the most important outcomes of building customer engagement (Christopher, Payne, and Ballantyne 1991). Cheung, Antisal, and Antisal (2007) point to the need for marketer proactivity in managing the positive word-ofmouth (WOM) process, a concept similar to advocacy. This notion is further developed by Jaffe (2010) who proposes that marketers are wasting valuable funds trying to acquire new customers through traditional marketing methods, when instead...