Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

senses from experiences. It is a basis for evaluating and integrating new experiences andinformation. As such, all knowledge is personal.We argue that there are three dimensions of knowledge: explicit, implicit and tacit. Explicitknowledge results from a specific intention to acquire facts or other information that can bearticulated or codified. This knowledge can be expressed explicitly.Implicit knowledge comes from the passive acquisition of information and knowledge is attainedwithout awareness or intention. The implicit knowledge that results from this non-consciousprocessing is almost entirely stimulus driven (Whittlesea and Wright 1989). While individualsmay not be able to recall how or where they may have acquired this knowledge, nevertheless theyknow and may be able to express it. ―Implicit knowledge results from the induction of an abstractrepresentation of the structure that the stimulus environment displays, and this knowledge isacquired in the absence of conscious, reflective strategies to learn‖ (Reber 1989, p. 219).Tacit knowledge comes from a deeper level of learning by ―doing,‖ that is, through experience.This knowledge is acquired through a person‘s active participation but may not be the objectiveof that action. Tacit knowledge, therefore, may result from explicit or implicit learning.We contend that instead of being a trichotomy, knowledge can be characterized by these threedimensions in that there is an explicit aspect of the knowledge that individuals can explicate.There is the implicit dimension that individuals may know but do not remember how they knowor how it has been acquired. This knowledge can be articulated with effort. The tacit dimension ofknowledge, however, cannot be articulated. The individual ―knows‖ how to do certain things ormake certain judgments but cannot expressly impart that knowledge to another. Tacit knowledgeis most often transferred by apprenticeship, as in ―showing‖ someone how something is done.The person may have the tacit knowledge of liking something but does not know why (Field2000). It is also the dimension of knowledge that allows for gut feelings and conviction. The tacitdimension of knowledge is the least studied but it is essential in understanding how to buildconsumer knowledge. The more tacit the knowledge, the more deeply rooted it is and the moredifficult it is to be dislodged by other pieces of information (Mlodinow 2012).THE ROLE OF MARKETING CHANNELSBuyers obtain product and service experience most directly from marketing channels which havebeen defined as ―an organized network of agencies and institutions (that) perform … functions(linking) producers with end customers to accomplish the marketing task" (Frazier, AMAdefinition). Yet the role of marketing channels as "gatekeepers between a seller and its buyers"(Coughlan et al. 2006) and as important bi-directional information conduits between sellers andbuyers has been largely ignored by researchers. In addition to providing delivery, productassortment, financial transactions and other logistical functions, as the customer ―touch-points‖,or the retail settings in the case of consumer goods, marketing channels furnish the direct prepurchaseexperiences from which buyers obtain first-hand information of the product in question.Buyers form product and brand associations when they interact with the product. Primarily,previous marketing and consumer research has focused on buyers‘ post-purchase experiences,such as various forms of satisfaction and re-purchase intentions research. Yet, positive prepurchaseexperiences provide powerful motivation for instant purchases, future purchases and/orconvincing word-of-mouth communications. By providing opportunities for buyers to learn andacquire pre-purchase experiential knowledge about products, marketing channels can provide theopportunities for customers to develop a deeper level of tacit knowledge as compared to eitherexplicit or implicit knowledge. The more that customers‘ product knowledge comes from