An Integrative View of Emotion and the Dedication-Constraint Model in the Case of Coffee Chain Retailers

Round  1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for your paper, which I find very interesting.

However, the work can be further improved. In particular, I suggest to explain in more detail why it is important to study coffee chains retailers.

You write:

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Attracting consumers’ attention and enhancing their loyalty behaviors have become very difficult for coffee chain retailers.

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Most works on service management and marketing have focused on identifying the key antecedents of consumers’ brand loyalty and willingness to pay more [6, 7, 8]. In highly competitive service markets such as the coffee chain industry, organizations strive to establish distinctive brand images that differentiate them from competitors with a view to forming favorable emotions toward their brands. A key to the construction and maintenance of healthy customer relationships is consumers’ emotions [7, 8].

Why a study on coffee chain retailers?

I suggest presenting market data in order to highlight that this study is relevant in the coffee chain retailers.

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewers,

Hereby, we would like to submit a revised version of our manuscript, which is now titled “Integrative view of emotion and the dedication-constraint model in the case of coffee chain retailers”.
We would like to thank you for the time and effort you invested in reviewing the original manuscript. Your comments have helped us to further improve our work. In this letter, we explain on a point-by-point basis how we have dealt with each reviewer comment in the revision of the manuscript.

We agree with the comments and make a more clear this argument on introduction and conclusion part by adding a sentence like ‘Especially, the coffee industry not only provides high quality coffee, but also proposes a culture-oriented industry. And unlike manufacturing industry, coffee industry provide the intangible asset as an emotion or humans feelings. These in the coffee industry has pushed the coffee chain retailers to focus more on the perceived values like favorable feelings and emotions over their brands and thus develop its sustainability strategy to establish long-term relationships with consumers to inspire brand loyalty, form positive emotions, and induce customers to pay more.’ in the introduction part, and ‘previous service management and marketing works on finding vital factors of consumers’ brand loyalty and willingness to pay more have missed the coffee chain settings. The findings of this study might fill the gap of the coffee industry that heavily depend on human feelings and experience research and practical areas, and thus help the coffee chain retailers to develop a sustainability strategy establishing brand loyalty and increasing wiliness to pay for the service.’ in the conclusion part. Thanks.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper provides valuable insights into coffee chain retailers and explores the mechanisms through which emotions and the dedication-constraint model lead to brand loyalty and willingness to pay more to certain coffee chain retailers but its relation to sustainability in economic/social/environmental terms is not clearly demonstrated.

The Authors should make it explicit in the introduction section why it is relevant to study coffee chain retailers and how the concept of the study is related to overall sustainability. At present it remains unclear what are the sustainability related research gaps they try to fill in?

Consequently, the discussion and conclusion section should be revised to include aspects related to sustainability. The Authors should clearly justify what are the implication of their findings for research and practice in terms of sustainability.

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewers,

Hereby, we would like to submit a revised version of our manuscript, which is now titled “Integrative view of emotion and the dedication-constraint model in the case of coffee chain retailers”.
We would like to thank you for the time and effort you invested in reviewing the original manuscript. Your comments have helped us to further improve our work. In this letter, we explain on a point-by-point basis how we have dealt with each reviewer comment in the revision of the manuscript.

1. The paper provides valuable insights into coffee chain retailers and explores the mechanisms through which emotions and the dedication-constraint model lead to brand loyalty and willingness to pay more to certain coffee chain retailers but its relation to sustainability in economic/social/environmental terms is not clearly demonstrated. 

AUTHORS' RESPONSE:
We would like to thank the reviewer for this compliment.

2. The Authors should make it explicit in the introduction section why it is relevant to study coffee chain retailers and how the concept of the study is related to overall sustainability.

AUTHORS' RESPONSE:
We have provided three sentences to support our argument in the introduction section. We highlighted them.

3. Consequently, the discussion and conclusion section should be revised to include aspects related to sustainability. The Authors should clearly justify what are the implication of their findings for research and practice in terms of sustainability. 

AUTHORS' RESPONSE:
We have added our discussion of sustainability more concise in implications section. We highlighted them.