Although physician appearance has been a topic of discussion in the medical literature for many years, less research has been performed on this topic from a service marketing point of view by considering patients as “consumers” and physicians as their “service providers”. The present study extends existing literature to a Middle Eastern context and focuses on investigating the possible effects of cultural artifacts on patient preferences in Iran. Research was conducted in the waiting room of a private medical laboratory located in the north center of Tehran and data collected using a patient-completed survey. Five hundred patients viewed photographs of either a young or old doctor in a variety of outfits before responding. Results indicate preference for formal attire, with the majority of respondents choosing professional dress consisting of a white coat with necktie. The paper closes with discussion of the results, managerial implications, and directions for further research. 

Blogs have incredible potential as persuasion tools and their persuasive function is of great importance as they have a great influence over public opinion (Xifra & Huertas, 2008). Individuals are increasingly referring to online product review blogs for gaining advice and receiving recommendations concerning the quality of the product of their choice. As a result, some marketers have made an effort to control or manipulate the online reputation of their products by compensating individuals to review products favorably in various online forums and product review blogs (Jensen, 2011). In return, as of late 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has mandated product review bloggers to provide disclosures in their reviews when they receive compensation (payment or free products), or whenever there may be hidden interests or unspoken biases related to recommendations (FTC, 2009).

Since the start of the new millennium blogs have existed but they are not yet considered as a standard public relations tool. However, obviously in recent years public relations professionals have realised that the blogging phenomena have shifted from personal self-expression websites to strong word-of-mouth communication channels. Literature shows that public relations practitioners are not actually taking full advantage of the potential of the blogs or they hesitate to employ them in their communications strategies; most probably because they are still contemplating to what extent blog readers perceive blogs as a credible source. To shed some light on this uncertainty, from a public relations perspective this paper principally focuses on validating a source credibility scale that was taken from the traditional concept of source credibility. A survey measuring online consumers’ perception of the source credibility of product review blogs among 169 Australians confirmed the validity of the scale in the blogging context. The results show that the source credibility of blogs is unrelated to both gender and level of education, but it appears that younger individuals have more faith in product review blogs as a credible source. The findings suggest that consumers’ level of blog usage have an influence on how they perceive product review blogs as a credible source. This article discusses some managerial implications for Public Relations Professionals and suggests future research possibilities.

Online blogs that offer reviews of products, services and technologies increasingly attract interest among public relations practitioners, as well as academic scholars. This paper reports on blog readers’ perceptions of the personal and social benefits offered by these specialized blogs as a new communication medium. The study surveyed 169 Australian online consumers. A personal and social benefits (PSB) multi-item scale, traditionally employed in an advertising research context, is adapted and validated to gauge consumer perceptions and offer strategic directions across demographic segments. The findings suggest that the adapted PSB scale to measure perceptions towards blogging exhibits sufficient internal consistency as well as evidence of convergent and content validity. Factor analysis suggests that the construct in this instance is uni-dimensional, therefore the 10 items can be summed to provide an overall reflection of the PSB dimension of consumer beliefs toward blogs. While the findings cannot be generalized to an international context, the PSB scale adapted from an advertising context can be used as a survey tool to gauge perceptions of the personal and social benefits towards blogs in general and within a specific target audience. This study enables managers to focus communication methods to a range of customer groupings in diverse and appropriate ways. This study confirmed that while gender and education do not necessarily have an influence on PSB, it is inversely related to age. The study suggests that blogs would be appropriate for communicating with younger consumers while older consumers may be better reached through more traditional media, such as product reviews in newspapers and magazines.

With the introduction of Web 2.0 blogging has established its place in the PR lexicon. Especially blogs that offer reviews of products, services and technologies, have become essential to practitioners of public relations in their dialogue with the market place. However, PR literature shows that blogs are not yet considered as a standard public relations tool. Some researchers have noted that practitioners are not actually taking full advantage of the potential of the blogs but instead they are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward blogs. This may be because they are still contemplating to what extent blog readers believe in blogs or how skeptical they are towards them. Perhaps most PR professionals are still buzzing about to what extent blog readers perceive blogs as a cognitive authority. From a public relations perspective, it is essential to investigate whether blog readers perceive blogs as a credible and trustworthy source, and examine how credible and trustworthy they are to regular blog readers. To shed some light on this uncertainty, from a public relations perspective this dissertation principally focuses on validating scales to measure the key persuasion attributes such as source credibility, source trustworthiness, consumers’ skepticism and beliefs toward blogs that review products, services and technologies. This thesis also explores the effect of compensation or sponsorship disclosure and the level of certainty expressed in product review blogs on persuasion. The findings show that these scales seem to possess robust psychometric properties and in general they can be used as a measurement tool to gauge these constructs towards blogs. Also, the findings confirmed that the incongruity between compensation disclosure and source certainty could create a more effective message and enhance greater persuasion. In addition, the studies in this dissertation empower PR managers to perform improved environmental scanning with the aim of customer groupings and target segmentation. Overall, theses studies provide PR specialists with some insight on how blogs are being interpreted among different demographics. This dissertation discusses certain managerial implications for public relations professionals; it provides a commentary on the limitations and suggests future research possibilities.

With the introduction of Web 2.0, online blogging has established its place in the lexicon of public relations management. Especially blogs that offer reviews of products, services and technologies, have become essential to practitioners of public relations in their dialogue with the market place. From a public relations perspective, this paper addresses the source trustworthiness of product review blogs among online consumers, and whether consumer demographics have a significant impact on their level of trust. This paper reports the adaptation of a scale to measure the construct of source trustworthiness in the context of blogs. The results of a survey among 169 Australian online consumers confirmed the validity of the scale in the blogging context. Findings suggest that while source trustworthiness does not appear to be strongly related to either gender or level of education, younger consumers exhibit higher levels of source trustworthiness. Managerial implications are drawn from these findings and avenues for future research are identified.

Purpose: The publication of papers in scholarly journals is an important channel for the dissemination of academic knowledge. Analyzing academic content provides useful insights into how services marketing evolves over a selected time frame. The purpose of this paper is to determine key trends published in the Journal of Services Marketing during the recent 11-year period from 1998 to 2008. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a content analysis of the papers published in the Journal of Services Marketing during the period 1998-2008. A total of 417 papers, excluding book reviews, were analyzed. Descriptive statistics provide an overview of the research contributions. Findings: The main finding is that most of the papers published in the Journal of Services Marketing during the recent 11-year period are researchbased papers. Other findings include a trend towards co-authorship, the use of surveys and empirical data, adults as research subjects, factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and analysis of variance as the most popular statistical techniques. Based on a keyword analysis most papers are related to service quality and customer service. Practical implications: Researchers who wish to publish in this journal can use the findings as a guideline in preparing for their submission. The study gives an overview of the types of papers published in this journal. The analysis also shows that there is no preference for a particular topic for publication which stimulates new and varied contribution from researchers. Originality/value: This is the first content analysis conducted of the scholarly contribution to this journal that shows the trends in services research topics

Online blogs, specifically those that offer reviews of products, services and technologies, increasingly attract interest among practitioners of public relations as well as academic scholars. While the literature has addressed the significance of blogs as a public relations tool, limited research has been devoted to the responses of blog readers. This paper focuses on the extent to which online consumers exhibit scepticism towards these blogs. We validated a scepticism scale traditionally employed in advertising research to understand consumer scepticism towards blogs. The survey amongst Australian online consumers confirmed the relationship between selected demographics and blog reader scepticism.