4.5.1. Affect-based spillover theories
Affect-based spillover theories are theories that can help explain the transfer of different characteristics (affects, beliefs, behaviours, skills and values) from one area to the next. The initial idea of spillover theories can be attributed to the work of Sieber (1974), which was then extended by the work of Crouter (1984) which analysed the relationship between participative work behaviours and personal development and found that when a person is more included in work activities, their non-work activities also improved. Several studies use different theories to explain the impact of effect on customers, but a better understanding of spillover theories is required.
Sirgy, Efraty, Siegel and Lee (2001) frame spillover theories in terms of quality of work-life, suggesting two types of spillover mechanisms. The first is termed horizontal spillover, explained as the influence that one domain of a person’s life has on a neighbouring domain. For example, consider the two domains work and education. A negative spillover may occur when there is less
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satisfaction being found at work, making the education domain also less satisfying.
The second type of spillover is known as a vertical spillover. To understand this type better, imagine each domain as being in a hierarchy. The example is given of satisfaction, as a domain, where at the top of the hierarchy is “life satisfaction”. Spillover would occur when satisfaction of the upper domain spills over into a lower domain (or vice versa).
Several different theories have been developed which assist in the explanation of why and how the transfer of affects occurs. What follows is a partial list of such theories, with a brief discussion of each, focusing on how they explain the transfer of affect.
Excitation-transfer theory: This theory attempts to explain the transfer of
stimuli from one emotion to the next. Prior research has used this theory to explain the benefits of non-smoking adverts before a movie (Pechmann & Shih, 1999) or the differences in aggression levels of a person who has been playing video games (Puri, 2011).
Attribution theory: Swan and Nolan (1985) explain that “attribution theory
seeks to understand how people come to believe that a cause and effect
relationship exists” (p. 43). Miao and Evans (2014, p. 1235) add that attribution theory is especially important for those events bearing important consequences to the individual. There are two types of attributions: the first is external while the second is interpersonal. Focussing on interpersonal attribution, for example, when another person questions one’s actions or motives, justification needs to be presented, which would be biased towards a positive perspective. For example, when someone is caught cheating in an exam, they may try to shift blame to the exam for being too hard.
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Politeness Theory: Politeness theory explains how people receive and deal
with social affronts. Since the initial work of P. Brown and Levinson (1987), much attention has been given to understanding politeness. Westbrook (2007) utilised politeness theory in understanding the interactions between
participants of a chat room, and suggested that people would engage and alter the use of polite measures based on the content of the conversation.
Social impact theory: The underlying premise of this theory is to provide a
framework for modelling the influence of beliefs, behaviours or attributes of one individual on another. After the initial work (Latane, 1981), the theory has been substantially used over the years. Recently, there has been an increased usage of this theory to explain relationships in the online context (Kwahk & Ge, 2012; H. S. Lee & Lee, 2014).
The above theories are presented as some relevant examples of affect-based spillover theories, and is by no means a complete list. Understanding the
essence of why and how affects from one person can be transferred to another is important. Interestingly, the above theories suggest that although there are several different ways to perceive the transfer of affect, they are mostly positive. For example, Szymanski and Henard (2001) attempt to understand customer satisfaction better by employing a meta-analytic perspective. They comment specifically on attribution theory saying there is “a positive relationship between affect and satisfaction” (p. 17).
4.5.2. Homophily theory
Homophily theory suggests that the “similarity of two individuals leads to mutual attraction, trust and consequently new tie formation” (Vissa, 2011, p. 7). Homophily theory provides reasons for people wanting to be similar to each
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other. It has been used to explain why women remain in certain social networks (Suitor & Keeton, 1997) and the congruence between marketing efforts and audiences (Whittler, 1991), to name just two.
Homophily theory is also known as the “birds of a feather flock together” theory, implicitly suggesting the theory has ignored the converse. Homophily theory does not address incongruence or dissimilarity, which is noted as a caveat to the theory. The current research applies the essence of homophily to the constructs of personality and organisational culture, arguing personality and organisational culture congruence is important and can affect the
relationship quality.
4.5.3. Conclusion
The above theories are presented as a means to link the constructs of personality and organisational culture with the outcome variables of
relationship quality, sales and word-of-mouth. The next section will explain the research questions and propositions of this study.