Service Business

, Volume 11, Issue 2, pp 345–373 | Cite as

Contingent effects of firm and employee reputations on professional advice adoption

Empirical article
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Abstract

Applying resource-based theory and signaling theory, we argue that firm and employee reputations affect consumer adoption of advice offered by professional service providers, and these effects are contingent on contextual variables. Our study on brokerage reports in Singapore supports our arguments. We show that reliance on firm (employee) reputation when adopting advice is higher (lower) if the evaluation of an entity is an initial rather than a repeated one. Also, reliance on employee reputation increases with stronger recommendation or when the entity has a business relationship with the advice-giving firm. These findings have implications for advice-giving firms and policy makers.

Keywords

Professional service Firm reputation Employee reputation Resource-based theory Signaling theory 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Nanyang Technological University under Grant RCC7/2008/NBS.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Strategy, Management and Organization Division, Nanyang Business SchoolNanyang Technological UniversitySingaporeSingapore
  2. 2.Institute on Asian Consumer Insight and Marketing and International Business Division, Nanyang Business SchoolNanyang Technological UniversitySingaporeSingapore

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