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The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretically sound and empirically tested classification system composed of purchasing strategic categories as a basis for purchasing portfolio models.

An international, cross‐industry survey has been designed to assess the characteristics and corresponding strategies of the purchasing categories.

The paper operationalises the constructs derived from previous scientific contributions related to purchasing portfolio management and transaction cost economics (TCE) to empirically test the purchasing portfolio. In total, four different types of strategic categories have been identified, and distinctive competitive priorities have been found.

Managers might be able to identify different types of purchasing strategic categories, whose characteristics drive specific purchasing strategies. Longitudinal data and more extensive tests of the characteristics of each category might contribute to improving the proposed research framework.

The research overcomes some of the classical limits of purchasing portfolio models, including the absence of a theoretical and empirical basis. In particular, TCE is used to support and expand traditional purchasing portfolio approaches, and a broad empirical base is used to test such an approach.

This study examines the empirical relationship between four broad antecedents of brand equity (branding strategy, brand structure, brand positioning and target market) and two separate dimensions of revenue premium: price premium and volume premium. Our modeling framework aims to explain how different antecedents of brand equity influence the realized velocity and margin of branded product sales, key drivers of operating cash flow. Our generalizable empirical analyses are based on a representative dataset of over 6,500 brands, across 200 consumer-packaged goods categories, spanning three years. We find that only 20% of brands command revenue premiums, for which volume premiums are the critical determinant. Branding strategies and brand structure primarily impact volume premium. In contrast, brand positioning has little effect. Target market substantially affects both premiums. Overall, these four elements account for 73% and 69% of the explained variations in price and volume premiums, respectively. This study provides generalizable, important, and novel insights for the theory and practice of brand management regarding price positioning and extending brands into new categories.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology to use complaints, claims and company innovation as an internal data source of customer needs for product development using the quality function deployment (QFD)-Kano approach instead of an ordinary customer survey.

This paper confirms that the customer complaints and claims and company innovations from the internal data source are equivalent to the Kano model’s product attributes. Data were selected from the company’s documents. To investigate the data category, a Kano questionnaire was designed and tested with 100 random respondents. Based on their answers, categories for the quality characteristics were determined and compared with the initial data categories. A second survey using professional customer respondents was conducted to increase the results’ reliability.

The approach was shown to be effective in employing complaints, claims and innovations as an alternative source of customer needs in the QFD-Kano approach.

It is assumed that companies document their customer complaints and claims, as well as their strategic innovation plans. The complaint and claim data need to be extracted to reveal their quality characteristics. For future research, data extraction using text or data mining may be useful to bridge this gap.

The product development team may ascertain customer needs as duly classified. This voice of the customer is more accurate and requires less time.

The paper may be of value to researchers and practitioners involved in product design and development, since it offers a new source of customer need data obtained internally as an alternative to customer surveys.

The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the characteristics of good hospitality managers and the core causes that lead to developing such characteristics.

Using a qualitative inquiry approach, 93 line-level hospitality employees were surveyed online regarding their experiences about the characteristics of good managers.

The research findings revealed five key themes of good managerial characteristics, including interpersonal skills, communication skills, supervisory skills, leadership skills, and positive personality and professionalism. Additionally, the root causes of these managerial characteristics were also analyzed. The good managerial characteristics were perceived to have developed from having worked under either a great manager or a terrible manager.

This study advanced the literature on managerial characteristics by confirming several existing categories from the viewpoint of hospitality industry employees.

Human resource managers should be considerate of these findings in terms of recruitment, hiring, and training, development, and promotion of employees in their companies.

This is one of the first studies to analyze the perceived reasons behind the development of these characteristics.

Mobile coupons are a new form of marketing that is expected to grow in the near future. The purpose of this paper is to understand mobile coupon adoptions among US consumers. The study identifies adopter categories based on personal innovativeness and further investigates the characteristics that distinguish identified adopter categories.

Based on innovation diffusion theory and technology acceptance model, consumers are clustered to adopter categories. The distinctiveness of adopter categories in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, behavioral intention, and actual use of mobile coupons were investigated. Determinants of adoption decision were compared among adopter categories. A cluster analysis, Kruskal‐Wallis tests, and regression analyses were performed.

An online survey of 611 US consumers confirmed the viability of consumer adopter categories. Perceived usefulness, attitudes and behavioral intentions were significantly different across adopter categories while perceived ease of use was not. Adopter categories have different antecedents that determine mobile coupon adoption.

The current study contributes to the literature of diffusion of innovation and consumer segmentation by identifying four consumer adopter groups with PIIT (Personal Innovativeness in the domain of Information Technology).

The study presented a snapshot of mobile coupon usage in the USA. By distinguishing the adopter categories and their characteristics, the study provides important practical implications for mobile marketers to tailor mobile marketing strategies to different adopter categories.

The current study fill the gap in the literature by investigating the current status of mobile coupon adoption in the USA, identifying adopter categories, and comparing the behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes related to mobile coupon adoption across the adopter categories.

The purpose of this study is to determine which categories and indicators of quality are best suited to evaluating associate degree culinary arts programs (ADCAP).

The researchers surveyed a national sample of culinary educators and industry chefs in the USA. The instrument asked the participants to rate the importance levels of 50 potential quality indicators for ADCAP. The data were analyzed to determine the most important indicators as well as categories of indicators.

Data analysis revealed the five most important indicators of quality, based on mean scores, to be: sanitation of kitchen laboratories; industry experience of faculty; subject experience of faculty; required internship; and job placement rates. From these data, the researchers developed a list of 20 suggested quality indicators. The indicators were originally divided into eight categories. The majority of the suggested indicators came from the faculty, organization and administration, and facilities categories. However, factor analysis revealed that the list of indicators could more appropriately be divided into 13 categories.

The members of the American Culinary Federation surveyed may not be representative of all chefs in the USA.

The results provide a basis for educators, students, employers and other stakeholders of ADCAP to evaluate these programs and suggest future research to further evaluate ADCAP quality.

This paper applies multiple theories of evaluating quality in higher education to a type of program that has been under‐researched in the academic literature.

Recent innovations in payment instruments have fundamentally changed the ways we pay. These innovations, such as mobile/SMS payments and online banking, contain features that are likely to influence how people choose to pay. The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that impact payers’ choice of payment instruments.

Through in-depth interviews using the repertory grid technique, the authors explored 15 payers’ perceptions of six payment instruments, including coins, banknotes, debit cards, credit cards, mobile payments, and online banking. The approach draws heavily on organizational systematics to better understand payers’ choice of payment instruments.

A four-category taxonomy of payments was developed. The authors refer to the taxonomy as the 4Ps: the purchase, the payer, the payment instrument, and the physical technology. The taxonomy comprises 16 payment characteristics consisting 76 payment features that influence payers’ instrument choice. One characteristic not known in prior research was identified – that is, “cancellation” – a characteristic more frequently associated with digital payment instruments than with cash or checks.

The findings suggest that payers view payment instruments in a much broader sense, including context, control, or cultural beliefs. Consequently, the authors suggest that researchers try to understand the essence of an innovation before assuming any economic rationalism in human or organizational behavior. The authors also urge researchers to understand the underlying meaning behind constructs of interest; as this study has shown that concepts like context and convenience have many different interpretations.

According to McKinsey (2014) there are over 12,000 startups in the payment arena. For them, the taxonomy can function as a template for the design of payment instruments, as well as understanding the various factors that influence payer choice of payment instruments.

The main contribution of this paper is the 4Ps taxonomy of payments. The taxonomy builds on and extends the work by Hirschman (1982). Since this work, and despite recent trends in payments, there has not been a comprehensive investigation that takes into account more recent innovations in payment instruments.

This study aims to increase understanding of the factors that affect retail pharmacy performance. This paper investigates how various product-, store-, customer- and competitor characteristics affect over-the-counter (OTC) drug sales and thus store performance.

This paper specifies and estimates a hierarchical model comprising scanner-based information, as well as individual-level data from a customer survey.

Results indicate that the drivers of retail pharmacy performance in OTC categories are different from those identified in traditional retailing research.

This is the first study that determines which factors impact the sales of OTC drugs in pharmacies.

The purpose of this paper is to offer insights into the development of eLearning systems and the perceptions of key players in the management of eLearning systems in three large universities in Saudi Arabia. It establishes the relative importance of different factors and compares these findings with studies conducted elsewhere in the world.

Desk research was conducted to gather a profile of the eLearning initiatives in the participating universities. Structured interviews were conducted with senior managers with responsibility for implementing and promoting eLearning in their universities. The interview protocol prompted discussion of the importance of the following sets of factors in the success and acceptance of eLearning: student characteristics, instructor characteristics, learning environment, instructional design, and support. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

Supported by the Saudi Government, the three universities in this study have been developing their eLearning services. The two most important groups of critical success factors in this process were regarded as those related to student and instructor characteristics. Further analysis within each group of factors suggested that participants regarded instructor knowledge with learning technologies and student knowledge of computer systems, and technical infrastructure as important facilitators of success. Amongst instructional design factors, clarity of learning objectives and content quality were regarded as important. Insights are offered as to the reasons for these selections.

This study furthers earlier research on eLearning managers’ views and contributes to understanding of eLearning and its management in the Middle East.