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Demand for long-term care services increases with population aging. This study aims to develop a conceptual model of elderly customers’ health-care experiences to explore the antecedents, mechanisms and outcomes of social participation in long-term care service organizations.

Using a two-phase data collection approach, this study collects data from 238 elderly customers in a long-term care service organization. The final data are analyzed through structural equation modeling.

The results show that care management efforts (i.e. customer education, perceived organization support, role modeling, perceived other customer support and diversity of activity) influence elderly customers’ psychological states (i.e. self-efficacy and sense of community), leading to increased social participation. In addition, high levels of social participation evoke positive service satisfaction and quality of life, both of which alleviate switching intention.

This study is one of the first conclusive service studies focused on the role of elderly customers’ social participation in their long-term care experience. The findings contribute to health-care service marketing and transformative service research, and expand understanding of elderly customers’ health-care experience, especially in long-term care service settings.

Using retail banking as a setting and focusing specifically on elderly customers (i.e. individuals aged 60 or more), this study aims to deepen the current understanding of how the physical context and the need for human interaction influence elderly customers' attitudes toward self-service technologies (SSTs) and their behavior.

Using face-to-face questionnaires, a sample of 505 elderly bank customers was collected. Data were analyzed using a multi-method approach, combining a moderated mediation analysis with a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

The findings suggest that a pleasant retail space may result in a positive attitude toward SSTs, which increases their co-creation intention. It also highlights that need for interaction of elderly customers with employees has detrimental effects on their attitude toward SSTs.

The current analysis was carried out among Italian elderly banks' customers. Thus, the results are highly dependent on the context of the analysis. In addition, it does not consider the different degrees of knowledge and experience the elderly may have with technology.

This study suggests that providing access and support for using technology may be essential for banks to facilitate SSTs adoption in elderly customers.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to examine the influence of the physical context on elderly customers' attitudes toward SSTs and their consequent behavioral intentions. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of the human touch for these particular customers.

This study seeks to examine the impact of mobile service experience on trust of elderly consumers in their financial institution and assess whether age (55–64 years vs 65+ years) exerts a moderating influence.

A self-administered questionnaire was completed online by 390 panelists (aged 55 years or more) who use their mobile devices to conduct banking activities. A multigroup analysis was conducted to assess the moderating role of age.

Results confirm the presence of links between four out of five dimensions of the mobile banking service experience (cognitive, positive affective/sensory, negative affective and social) and trust. Findings further point to age-specific variation in the impact of mobile service experience dimensions on trust, thus supporting the notion that the elderly represents a clientele with different experiential needs. More specifically, whereas the social dimension has a greater influence on trust in individuals 65 years of age and over (seniors), the positive affective/sensory dimension exerts a deeper marked impact on trust in individuals 55–64 years of age (pre-retirees).

Although generations and chronological age are powerful segmentation variables, it might be interesting to consider perceived age. Redoing the study in a post-COVID context would also be an interesting avenue of research.

The ageing market is important for banks. This study highlights, in an m-banking context, which dimension of experience to focus on in order to improve trust in banks for pre-retirees (emotional/sensory dimension) and seniors (social dimension).

This study is the first to consider mobile service experience of elderly individuals as well as the impact of each of the experience dimensions on an important relational variable, namely trust. By considering the age of individuals as a moderating variable, this study also provides an in-depth examination of age-related links and presents a number of relevant recommendations for financial institutions.

This study aims to increase knowledge of the ability of nutrition labels to guide consumer choices in real-life environments.

Food consumption and plate waste data were collected from two self-service restaurants (SSR) with different customer groups over six observation days: three control and three intervention (with nutrition labelling) periods. Study Group 1 consisted of vocational school students, mostly late adolescents (N = 1,710), and Group 2 consisted of spa hotel customers, mostly elderly (N = 1,807). In the experimental restaurants, the same food was served to the buffets during the control and intervention periods.

The nutrition label in the lunch buffet guides customers to eat fewer main foods and salads and to select healthier choices. Increased consumption of taste enhancers (salt and ketchup) was observed in the study restaurants after nutritional labelling. Nutrition labelling was associated with a reduction in plate waste among the elderly, whereas the opposite was observed among adolescents.

The results provide public policymakers and marketers with a better understanding of the effects of nutrition labelling on consumer behaviour. Future studies should further evaluate the effects of nutrition labelling on the overall quality of customer diets and the complex environmental, social, and psychological factors affecting food choices and plate waste accumulation in various study groups.

The purpose of this summary is to provide excerpts of selected Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulatory notices and disciplinary actions issued in September, October, and November 2009 and a sample of disciplinary actions during that period.

The paper provides excerpts from FINRA Regulatory Notice 09‐57, September 2009, Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE); Regulatory Notice 09‐58, October 2009, Best Execution and Interpositioning; and Regulatory Notice 09‐66, November 2009, FINRA BrokerCheck. It also summarizes three disciplinary actions.

(09‐57) Effective March 1, 2010, firms must begin reporting transactions in Agency Debt Securities and primary market transactions and otherwise comply with all other requirements in the TRACE Rules, as amended, and amended FINRA Rule 7730. (09‐58) NASD Rule 2320(a) requires firms and their associated persons to use reasonable diligence to ascertain the best market for a security when handling transactions for or with a customer or a customer of another broker‐dealer. The amendments delete the requirement that, if a firm interposes a third party, the total costs and proceeds of the transaction must be better than the prevailing market and replace it with a specific obligation to apply the factors enumerated in Rule 2320(a) when a firm interjects a third party between the firm and the best available market. (09‐66) The primary purpose of BrokerCheck is to help investors make informed choices about the individuals and firms with which they do business.

These are direct excerpts designed to provide a useful digest for the reader and an indication of regulatory trends. The FINRA staff are aware of this summary but have neither reviewed nor edited it. For further details as well as other useful information, the reader should visit www.finra.org

Secondary customers often experience secondary vulnerabilities that manifest in family-centred transformative services as other- and self-related customer needs. Yet, a relational perspective on primary and secondary customers’ needs is lacking. The study analyses secondary customers’ needs and their relationship to primary customers’ needs to enhance well-being in customer entities. The service inclusion lens is used to understand customers’ experiences of vulnerability.

The study uses an exploratory approach. The data consists of ethnographic observations and interviews of elderly residents (primary customers), their family members (secondary customers) and nurses in two nursing homes.

Primary and secondary customers’ needs are interrelated (or unrelated) in four ways: they are separate, congruent, intertwined or discrepant. The vulnerability experiences fluctuate in intensity and over time, individually reflecting on these need dimensions.

The study contributes to service research concerning customers’ experiences of vulnerability, secondary customers and their inclusion in services. Primary customers’ service inclusion may increase/decrease secondary customers’ service inclusion and their experience of vulnerability. Moreover, secondary customers’ inclusion is often necessary to foster primary customers’ inclusion and well-being.

Fostering service inclusion and well-being for primary and secondary customers requires balanced inclusion and acknowledging the needs of both groups. Service providers may need to act as moderators within customer entities if discrepant needs occur.

The study addresses the under-researched areas of family members’ customer needs, their relation to primary customers’ needs, experiences of secondary vulnerability and context-related vulnerability.

This paper argues that there are four different ways in which customer value can be created in electronic grocery shopping, but that the chosen business model will set limits to whether – and to what extent – the firm will be able to offer value‐adding services for consumers. The relationship between business models and customer value in online grocery shopping is exemplified, and some practical problems and opportunities in e‐grocering are highlighted by presenting the case of Nettimarket.com, a Finnish Internet grocery business that was founded by an entrepreneur with no previous experience of the industry. His company is a start‐up virtual grocery shop with a business model unattainable by the big industry players. The paper reports on the experiences of the company and the outlook of the entrepreneur after two and three years in business, respectively.

This paper examines the relationships between bank switching and both customer vulnerability and consumer-oriented policies (financial education and disclosure practices).

The analysis employs microdata from the Special Eurobarometer on Financial Products and Services, for 24 European nations. It carries out a probit estimation on the factors explaining propensity of bank switching, focusing on three characteristics associated with customer vulnerability: an advanced age, low educational attainment and residence in a rural or a relatively poor region.

The authors report that the probability of bank switching is significantly lower for three groups of vulnerable customers: the elderly, the less educated and those living in deprived regions. Further the authors identify that national financial education policies and disclosure practices have no significant effects on bank switching.

Based on these results, the authors propose more targeted policies recognising customers' heterogeneity are required to increase bank switching behaviour.

This paper exploits a unique source of information on bank switching behaviour and customer characteristics across European nations. These data are complemented with information about consumer financial education policies and disclosure practices from the World Bank and geographical, market and regulatory factors at the regional and national levels. The paper contributes to two academic areas. First, it presents further evidence on heterogeneity of bank customer switching behaviour, addressed at improving the understanding of customer vulnerability in banking services. Second, it examines the efficacy of consumer-oriented policies (financial literacy and disclosure practices) in encouraging bank switching.

The purpose of this study is to identify grey consumers' perceived service quality at department stores and to examine the relationships between perceived service quality, their satisfaction and loyalty to those stores.

A structured questionnaire was developed to collect the data. Factor analysis was employed to identify dimensions of grey consumers' perceived service quality. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between grey consumers' perceived service quality at department stores and their satisfaction and loyalty behaviors at those stores.

Three service quality dimensions were identified. The results showed that all three service quality dimensions in the study were significantly and positively related to their satisfaction at their favorite department stores and overall loyalty behavior to those stores. Among three service quality dimensions, personal interaction was the strongest predictor of both grey consumers' satisfaction and overall loyalty behavior. Personal interaction was identified as the most significant factor for promoting positive word of mouth and store image for repeat purchase intention.

With this study, department stores' managers would be able to better understand grey consumers and thereby take advantage of the potential purchasing opportunities of this powerful consumer market. This study also may contribute to the department stores' management in allocating their resources to improve service in a more effective way to satisfy grey consumers.

Despite the increasing purchasing potential this powerful market has created, grey consumers' shopping behavior is under‐researched and their needs are still unmet in the market place.

As an alternative to hiring financial specialists or investment consultants, robo-advisors offer financially automated investment services. This study aims to investigate how robo-advisors' service attributes, risk attitude and financial self-efficacy influence customers' choice preferences of adopting robo-advisors.

Two hundred fifty-one online surveys were used to collect data, and choice-based conjoint analysis was conducted.

Results show that increasing annual fees negatively impact customers' choice preferences. Promotion, general investment education and additional human assistance have a positive impact. Furthermore, risk-seeking and risk-averse customers require more human assistance than risk-neutral customer and customers with high levels of financial self-efficacy prefer more general investment education and additional human assistance than those with lower levels. In addition, customers in the older age group prefer promotion, general investment education and additional human assistance, while wealthy customers prefer lower annual fees, higher general investment education and more additional human assistance compared to middle-class and low-income groups.

This study contributes to robo-advisor providers to provide appropriate service attributes for each customer group.