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Using the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) framework, this study investigates the role of trust (organism) in influencing the behavioural intentions (response) of emerging market retail banking customers, based on the banks' selected customer-focused efforts (stimuli) to influence behavioural intentions. The study also looks at the moderating effects of customers' perceived value and the duration of their support on these relationships.

The data analysed were collected from 599 retail banking customers in an emerging market via a self-administered questionnaire.

Customer-focused efforts, except for expertise, significantly and positively influence trust. Trust partially mediates the relationships between the remaining customer-focused efforts and behavioural intentions. Furthermore, perceived value moderates the relationships between these stimuli and trust, excluding information sharing. The duration of customer support for the bank also moderates the relationships between these stimuli and trust, bar customer orientation.

The study augments the understanding of trust's role as the organism from an S–O–R framework perspective.

The study assists banks in emerging markets in understanding trust's role in influencing customers' behavioural intentions, given the application of selected customer-focused efforts. It highlights the significance of perceived value and duration of customer support in the relationships between these customer-focused efforts and trust.

Using a single S–O–R framework, the role of trust in mediating the relationships between retail banks' selected customer-focused efforts and customers' behavioural intentions is uncovered.

Examines the associations between ten integrated quality management constructs and the resulting product quality. Analyzes responses from plant managers of 449 auto‐parts firms using stepwise regression. Notes three primary predictors (customer focus, empowerment, and supplier quality management) explaining 26 per cent of variation in product quality. Examines the role of top management commitment in TQM implementation by splitting the sample into firms with high and low top management commitment based on the mean score on this construct. Concludes, first, that firms with high top management commitment produce high quality products despite variations in individual constructs, and, second, that in firms with low top management commitment, four other constructs, i.e. customer focus, supplier quality management, empowerment, and internal quality information usage are primary predictors of product quality.

The author details nine pitfalls that sabotage efforts to execute a quality improvement strategy and insists that management must take a more active role in promoting the importance of customer‐focused quality.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of customer-focus on small medium enterprise (SME) performance from the perspective of a resource-based view (RBV).

This research study implemented a survey strategy to gather data from 255 respondents on the registered list of Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA) in the eastern region of Ghana. Scales used to gather data were operationalized from previous research studies. A structural equation modeling (SEM) path analysis was used to estimate the impact of customer-focus on the performance of SMEs.

The outcomes of this study indicate that customer-focus has a significant positive impact on SME performance, hence backing the current demand for investigating the distinct influence of customer-focus on SME performance. The results show that customer-focus has a positive and significant relationship with financial performance, customer performance, internal business process performance and learning and growth performance, thus supporting the literature on the positive impact of customer-focus on SME performance. Therefore, customer-focus determinants used in this study, including co-creation, networking ties, customer insight and artificial intelligence marketing (AIM), are critical to the optimization of SME performance.

Notwithstanding the importance of this research study mentioned earlier, the study has limitations. Notably, the sample size of this study can be increased to capture SME respondents in other geographical zones that were not included in this study. Future research studies may address how business environment conditions moderate the relationship between customer focus and performance, and also the cause-effect of the relationship between customer focus and business environment conditions on SME performance.

The practical implications consist of two main items. First, this study empowers SME owners and managers to develop a customer focus technique as a central strategic goal in their quest for SME performance optimization. Second, SME owners and managers should progressively exploit the four determinants of customer focus which include co-creation, networking ties, customer insight and (AIM in order to accrue important resources for effective utilization of their customer focus competences as a way to enhance their performance.

This study is targeted at the sound development of SMEs to bring about poverty alleviation and employment. Poverty, unemployment and poor living standards are recognized as vital social challenges in most emerging economies. The establishment of customer focus as an important strategic capability provides opportunities for SME survival, profitability and growth.

Generally, the findings of this research study provide a strong backing to RBV perspective and the proposition that customer-focus and its determinants (i.e. co-creation, networking ties, customer insight and AIM) should be acknowledged as a vital strategic resource for optimizing the performance of SMEs. This research study also provides new knowledge contribution to the present body of knowledge on customer-focus orientation and management literature, particularly in the context of an emerging economy.

How many times have you been in a bank, shop or restaurant, satisfactorily received what you wanted, only to be treated by the member of staff with utter disdain? If the answer is once only, that is once too often. People are talking about a breakdown in society in terms of morals but all I am talking about are a few good manners. It has never harmed anyone to say please or a thank you, yet it is surprising how many people who are working at the customer interface of a business often find difficulty with this simple task. It is sometimes not what they have said, but the way in which they have said it, and ultimately whether or not they will go back again. Tone of voice is most important to show that a person means what they are saying.

The concept of integrated marketing has been recognized as a key factor in marketing literature. Integrated marketing has changed from being a customer-centric system to a customer-facing process and is the past, present, and future of marketing. This type of marketing helps build brand awareness and equity in order for people to know, trust and ultimately choose your brand over competitors. It ensures that a message is communicated via different platforms according to a specific strategy. Integrated marketing has now become more important than ever before and focusing on the customer and their requirements involve a more integrated view with a big emphasis on digital, traditional and the physical world all working together. If practiced properly, integrated marketing approach is a healthy balance that can yield unlimited results beneficial to the organization’s goals. This approach should be practiced not only for one department but also all departments at hotel companies should be included.With that in mind, hotels have begun applying this notion as part of their everyday outreach. Specifically, marketing methods and strategies will vary from hotel to hotel and some significant factors to analyze and research prior to drafting are: property size, management structure, type of ownership and type of hotel (luxury, business, hi-tech, economy, etc.), area demographics and psychographics, as well as the dynamics of the internal and external environment. The need for studying integrated marketing in the hotel context has been emphasized in this research which revealed that marketing strategies are crucial for hotel companies to raise their brand value and equity. In this respect, it is stressed that strategies can shape a positive hotel brand perception within the customer’s mind.

Quality management has come a long way since the obsession with total quality management of the 1980s. Industry leaders and “management thinkers” have increasingly focused on quality initiatives in terms of customer expectations rather than suppliers’ measures. This has helped to ensure that investment in new products and services is market led, which in turn leads to better overall business performance.

Links the application of benchmarking to the hotel′s ability to achieve continuous quality improvements. Defines both the operating and service subsystems of the hotel and clearly indicates specific methods for quality improvement in each. Places emphasis on the role of upper management in the implementation of the benchmarking process, as well as the process reinforcing and supporting the organization′s strategic planning activities. Throughout, the benchmarking process focuses on the need to meet and exceed the expectations of the customer. Provides recommendations and practical guidelines to assist the hospitality executive in implementing a benchmarking programme which is both consistent with the customer‐oriented strategic plan, while also directly impacting on the hotel′s level of service quality and performance.

Reports on Management Round table′s conference on “Mass customization – at a profit: any variety, any time, anywhere”, which attempted to explain the implications of mass customization and how companies are utilizing it to satisfy customers. Provides a summary of the methods, ideas and conclusions from the conference, giving ideas from Joseph Pine and Stan Davis on responding to the customer; outlines a report from IBM′s senior director of product design, explaining how IBM used creative imagination in engineering to customize PCs for its consumers. Concludes that mass customization will define leading organizations in the next century, along with rapid turnover from customer specification to actual product.

This paper aims to propose a new country-level construct, national customer orientation, to provide a benchmark for global headquartered managers’ decisions and scholars investigating cross-national research.

A conceptual framework and unique propositions are developed that focus on how one macro-economic driver, e.g. the wealth of a country, and one macro-marketing driver, e.g. customer price sensitivity, affect national customer orientation during and after global economic downturns such as recessions and a pandemic.

An agenda setting section proposes distinct theoretical, empirical and managerial themes for future research aimed at testing the propositions at the country and organization levels over time.

Although the new construct offers substantial benefits for scholars and managers, current measures of national customer orientation are limited to data provided by the World Economic Forum or expensive primary survey-based research that restrict the number of countries, respondents and time periods.

The new national-level customer orientation construct and propositions about its drivers over time promise to provide global managers a country-level customer-based benchmark so that they can better understand, set expectations and manage customer orientation across different countries over time.

Research on market and customer orientation is consistently designated a priority by academics and practitioners. However, most previous studies exclusively focus at the micro organizational-level, with less known on how customer orientation varies at the macro country-level and over time.