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Though the Pacific‐rim countries like China, Hong Kong and ASEAN countries will soon constitute an economic power comparable to that of North America and Europe, most of the empirical work on food labelling is related to the US and UK consumers. Research into nutrition label usage in a Chinese socio‐cultural context is not found. To redress this imbalance, this study attempts to appreciate the use of nutrition information labels by Chinese consumers in Hong Kong. The research results reveal that the frequent label users are label‐oriented, nutrition‐prone, advertising lovers, in the age group 35‐50, and they read both English and Chinese, whereas the non‐frequent label users are home‐oriented and can read only Chinese.

Analysis of British consumers′ actual usage of nutrition labels raises critical questions regarding public policy decisions to provide consumers with nutrition information. Multiple Discriminant Analysis reveals that consumers vary significantly in their use of nutrition labels in food choice. On the basis of psychographic and sociodemographic characteristics, three district consumer segments (i.e. heavy users, light users and non‐users) were identified. The results indicate that 55 per cent of British consumers are likely to be non‐users of nutrition labels. Non‐users are less educated, have lower family incomes and can be either younger or older than users. They are oriented to price and bargain rather than quality and nutrition. The implications of these findings for public policy are discussed.

The main purpose of this paper is to study the effect of consumer expertise on mortgage loan prices. We argue that consumer expertise should affect price due to two reasons: (1) loan mortgage prices in non-price-regulated settings are usually the result of a bank-customer negotiation process; and (2) a mortgage loan is a complex product.

Data on mortgage loan prices were used for a sample of 1,055 households for 2005 (Bank of Spain Survey of Household Finances, EFF-2005).

The regression results indicate that consumer expertise-related metrics are highly significant as predictors of mortgage loan prices. Findings also indicate that cost-related variables and a measure of risk with low discrimination power (i.e. having a permanent employment contract, which accounts for 70 per cent of contracts in Spain) affect price. Surprisingly, more sophisticated measures of credit risk do not have such a significant impact on mortgage prices.

Empirical results refer to the credit conditions prior to the financial crisis and could shed some light on the factors that led to it.

Findings seem to indicate that, in the period under study, bank managers prioritized capturing new business in the short-term against normative prescriptions, which suggest that price should be credit-risk adjusted (financial literature) and long-term consumer potential adjusted (marketing literature). The post-2008 difficult economic situation of Spanish banks (linked to an excessive portfolio of mortgage loans granted at very low prices) shows that these strategies were wrong.

An uncommon perspective was adopted. The importance of consumer expertise-related variables on price has been underemphasized by prior research. The effect of consumer expertise is assessed by using a large and comprehensive database.

This article aims to help bankers and managers of financial institutions to understand the importance of customer service. It shows that poor customer service is a cancer and that service quality is now more important than the “4Ps” of the marketing mix. Four steps of a customer service strategy are outlined: establish commitment to the key components of customer service; identify relative importance of service components to customers; identify market segments by service requirements; design customer service policies.

Since the publication of Van Raaij and Verhallen’s seminal work in European Journal of Marketing in 1994, identifying the domain-specific market segmentation approach as one of the most feasible for segmenting markets, there has been surprisingly limited development in this field, with the food domain as the only exception. This study aims to develop a methodological approach using latent class mixture modelling as contribution in the domain-specific market segmentation field.

This study captures the AIO lifestyle perspective using a domain-specific 80-item algorithm which has the wine (product) domain as its focus. A sample size of 811 consumers is used from data collected by means of the CATI approach.

The authors use four criteria for model selection: comparison of the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) statistic, comparison of classification error, verification of the interpretation of the derived segments and, finally, use of the conditional bootstrap procedure to test whether the selected model provides a significant improvement over the previous model. The five-segment model option yields a minimum BIC, the classification error measure is minimal and is easier to interpret than the other models. Segment descriptions for the five identified lifestyle-based segments are developed.

Segmentation by traditional k-means clustering has proven to be less useful than the more innovative alternative of mixture regression modelling; therefore, the authors identify segments in the market on the basis of individuals’ domain-specific lifestyle characteristics using a latent class mixture modelling approach.

Following the attainment of a clear and robust market segmentation structure, the simultaneous analysis of the lifestyles, demographics and behaviours of consumers as nexus of the domain-specific segmentation approach, provides rich and valid information accurately informing the market segment descriptions.

The authors make a substantive contribution by developing a methodological approach using latent class mixture modelling; the first of its kind in the area of domain-specific segmentation. Next, they use the discriminant and/or predictive validity of the 80-scale items to predict cluster membership using the WRL algorithm. Finally, the authors describe the identified market segments in detail and outline the practical implications.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Customer satisfaction continues to be an important topic in the financial services industry. However, there is an increasing awareness that customer satisfaction as such is not enough. Distinguishes between overall satisfied customers and latently dissatisfied customers; the latter being those customers who, although reporting satisfaction in a survey, have other characteristics (i.e. satisfaction with specific service items and/or socio‐demographic characteristics) that resemble dissatisfied customers. The identification of these latently dissatisfied customers may function as an early warning signal. Indeed, their probability to defect is relatively high and can be compared to that of dissatisfied customers. Proposes a data mining technique called “characteristic rules” to identify latently dissatisfied customers of a Belgian bank. Appropriate marketing actions (dissatisfaction management) may help to avoid these customers leaving. Therefore, the objective of this study is to provide scholars and business managers with theoretical, methodological and managerial insights into identifying latently dissatisfied customers.

A slowed rate of market growth, industrial over‐capacity, increased competition: these are just three “trend drivers” towards relationship marketing. Philip Kotler, one of the world’s leading marketing thinkers, has brought the philosophy of relationship marketing to bear on a key issue for marketing strategies, that of customer retention.

The purpose of this paper is to develop, measure and empirically validate a scale that captures the full dimensionality of selection attributes considered by customers when choosing a bank.

Focus group interviews were conducted and a well-structured questionnaire was designed. The validity of this scale was tested in accordance with the psychometric scale development procedure.

Contrary to some assertions in past literature, the results suggested service delivery and cost/price as among the most important determinants of the bank selection decisions of consumers.

The practical implications drawn from this study involve the seven constructs which could be adopted by the bank managers, advertising executives and marketing experts in providing good quality services resulting in overall higher levels of customer satisfaction. These decision makers can apply the constructs from the study to identify factors most appealing to both potential and existing customers and build up effective marketing strategies to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

This research paper signifies the leading studies for advancing a validated tool to measure the customers’ selection decisions for banks. As a result, this valid and reliable scale would bring standardization to research conducted in the field of bank selection attributes.

The present study predicts attitude towards entrepreneurship among the students of Thailand through the entrepreneurial attitude orientation (EAO) model.

A quantitative approach is used, based on cross-sectional data from public sector universities of Thailand. The respondents are bachelor's and master's students who are acquiring entrepreneurship education. A random sampling technique was used to approach students to participate in the survey. A total of 392 useable questionnaires were returned, providing data for analysis.

Using structural equation modeling, the results show a positive and significant impact of achievement, personal control and innovation on attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Self-esteem, however, has a non-significant impact on attitudes towards entrepreneurship.

This study may be helpful for university policymakers wishing to know more about students' entrepreneurial attitudes, as there is a strong need to divert more students towards entrepreneurship. This study may contribute to the entrepreneurship literature and the EAO scale, particularly in developing and Asian contexts.

This study offers evidence of the development of entrepreneurial attitudes among the students of Thailand, which ensures the further validation of the EAO scale in a developing country.