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The policy of strategic diagnostics in the modern economy of Russia's regions is built in a contradiction. The expected growth of the share of material production in GRP was not confirmed. Analysis of economic indicators allows stating the expected tendency in dynamics of development of tertiary spheres. A dominating element of structural changes of economy is consumer market.

Several methodological approaches to defining the category “consumer market” are distinguished: marketing, institutional, reproduction, and economic.

For formation of methodological foundations of evaluation of consumer market, several methodologies are systematized. A methodology including two stages of evaluation of development of consumer market is offered: diagnostics (first stage) and forecasting (second stage) of the region's consumer market.

According to evaluations obtained by the authors, a strategic factor of structural changes in Russia's economy is regions' consumer market. Its well-balanced development ensures acceleration of progressive structural changes in economy. A dominating factor in the structure of consumer market is trading sphere, and a tool of structural changes is trading the goods of local and domestic manufacturers.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the usefulness and efficiency of customer-based measures such as customer satisfaction (CSI) and perceived loyalty for monitoring and enhancing the financial performance in corporations.

General financial data for the empirical modeling is compiled from national and international databases (Alla Bolag, IMF/IFS, Bloomberg, Eurostat, etc.) and company-specific data from the studied corporation. Customer perception data (like CSI and loyalty) are taken from the Extended Performance Satisfaction Index-initiative database (annual observations for the period 2001-2014 and quarterly for 2008-2014). A hierarchy of structural models is devised on a combined time-series and cross-section (panel and multi-level) approach. The results are based on models estimated by Arellano–Bond procedures (Arellano and Bond, 1991).

The core findings are two. First, there is a strong positive relationship between customer-based measures and financial performance. Second, it is effective to regularly monitor CSI as a forward- looking indicator for understanding future financial performance.

Customer-based measures are highly useful as leading indicators of companies’ future performance and should be incorporated even more into corporate decisions.

According to this survey of contemporary research, very little is academically documented for the full-circle from corporate to branch level. Thus, the prevailing study should be of potential value for companies in general.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction measured as Extended Performance Satisfaction Index (EPSI) and the financial performance of the banking sector for seven European countries over the period 2004–2014.

Using panel models, this study finds a significant positive influence of EPSI on banking financial performance at the country level.

Findings suggest that the value of the customer satisfaction index is important in explaining the financial performance of the banking industry at the aggregative country level. The customer satisfaction index measured as EPSI has a strong positive influence on the financial performance of the banking industry for the various North European countries studied. It was shown that EPSI has a positive influence on both total assets and total equity, with a higher relative influence and stronger significance on the total assets of the banking sector than on total equity.

The study contributes to understanding the importance of measuring and maintaining customer satisfaction as a profitability driver in the banking industry, providing new cross-country evidence. It also contributes to the literature focussing on a group of countries that have not previously been studied.

It is often said that we live in a time of crisis for social democracy. Many of the West European centre-left parties that seemed the natural parties of government in the second half of the twentieth century are in decline. The most common long-term explanations centre on a shrinking working class, a widening gap between the party elite and their core voters, and the challenges from new populist parties and/or greens. Short-term policy factors include the failure to address the recent financial and refugee crises. None of these factors carry much explanatory weight for developments in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the three decades since the transition from communism. We find that much of the explanation for the rise and the fall of the five social democratic parties in these countries lies in the dynamics of party competition and party system change. All parties face dilemmas of policy, electoral appeal and coalition-building. The Central European cases suggest that it is how social democrats handle such challenges and make difficult choices about strategy and tactics that ultimately shapes their long-term fate. Centre-left parties are stronger masters of their fortunes than much of the literature on the decline of social democracy suggests. Consequently, seeking a common structural explanation for the rise and decline of social democratic parties might be a double fallacy: both empirically misleading and a poor base for policy advice.

This chapter investigates the effect of customer orientation and CRM organization on hotel financial performance. A model of enhancing hotel financial performance through customer satisfaction practices was tested. Customer satisfaction was hypothesized to be a mediator in the relationships between customer orientation and CRM organization and the result being financial performance. The sample consisted of 54 hotels that was made up of three 5-star, fifteen 4-star, and thirty-six 3-star hotels in Ghana. A quantitative deductive approach was employed to gather data using cross-sectional survey, which was analyzed using PLS-SEM to check the validity, reliability and factor loading of the data. The findings revealed that, CRM organization enhances customer satisfaction and financial performance of hotels. Also, customer orientation showed significant positively related to customer satisfaction in the hotels. Surprisingly, the effects of CRM organization and customer orientation on financial performance through customer satisfaction were insignificant. Thus, customer satisfaction failed to mediate the effect of CRM organization and customer orientation on the financial performance of hotels. This suggests that though an effective CRM organization enhances customer satisfaction, it directly affects the financial performance of hotels. The outcomes have useful implications for CRM implementation on hotel financial performance in Ghana.

The basic purpose of this study is to increase the installation rate of mobile games and their life cycle. Little research has been conducted into the competitive market of mobile games and word-of-mouth (WOM), advertisement and quality simultaneously. In this paper, the authors aim to assist developers with a better understanding of how to invest in the game industry.

The primitive modeling has been made based on the Bass diffusion model and its extensions using features related to the game industry. Modeling and simulation have been performed using the system dynamics method.

The results show that if game developers only focus on advertising at the introduction of the game to the market, and neglect quality features, uninstall rate of adopters increases and the game life cycle decreases. And if developers only focus on the quality improvement of the game, and ignore advertisement, they couldn't create enough WOM and thus game installation wouldn't grow enough to create revenue. Furthermore, as long as the pleasure of the game is high for its adopters, developers shouldn't give up on investing in advertising to create even higher WOM. And also in communities with higher levels of variety-seeking among game players, quality is important at the start and advertisement is vital in the following steps of the game life cycle. And if the contact rate among people is high, developers could focus on quality more than the advertisement.

Even though WOM in mobile game installation is crucial, fewer studies have been done in this area and they only address the problem using qualitative or statistical methods. The quantitative system dynamics approach based on the Bass diffusion model, used in this research, fixes the shortcomings of the previous studies. Moreover, due to serious competition in the mobile game industry, only those developers can remain in the market who can predict the future trend of the game market. Furthermore, game development is a creative process and its key factors include engaging the gamers and monetizing.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of financial leverage impact on customer satisfaction and marketing costs including research and development (R&D) and advertisement costs. Furthermore, the authors aim to investigate whether customer satisfaction as well as financial distress moderates the effect of financial leverage impact on customer satisfaction and marketing costs including R&D and advertisement costs.

The statistical population of this study consists of listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange manually obtained from different industries in 2017. Multivariate regression based on data compilation methodology is used to test research hypotheses.

The results indicate that financial leverage is negatively and significantly associated with customer satisfaction and this negative relationship is more pronounced in companies with lower sale growth. Furthermore, the authors' results suggest that customer satisfaction negatively (positively) and significantly affects firm value in companies with lower (higher)-financial leverage. The authors also demonstrate that there is no significant relationship between financial leverage caused by financial flexibility and firm value caused by customer's satisfaction (CS). The authors' findings also suggest that financial distress significantly affects the relationship between financial leverage and customer satisfaction. Finally, the authors' find that financial leverage significantly affects firms' R&D and advertisement costs.

Since the fundamental institutional assumptions underpinning the Western and even East Asia financial models are not valid in the institutional environment of Iran, the authors' findings could provide substantial implications for the authors' understanding of the relationship between finance and R&D costs and contribute substantially to customer satisfaction and firm value literature as well. The sample country of the present paper has recently experienced a spate of financial collapses that somewhat contributes, indirectly, to financial distress incurred by the Iranian firms. Moreover, R&D costs are growing among the Iranian quoted firms.

Since the fundamental institutional assumptions underpinning the Western and even East Asia financial models are not valid in the institutional environment of Iran, the authors' findings could provide substantial implications for our understanding of the relationship between finance and R&D costs and contribute substantially to customer satisfaction and firm value literature as well. The sample country of the present paper has recently experienced a spate of financial collapses that somewhat contributes, indirectly, to financial distress incurred by the Iranian firms. Moreover, R&D costs are growing among the Iranian quoted firms.

The study aims to examine the difference of financial-based brand equity of Sharia-compliant and non-Sharia-compliant companies listed in the stock market.

The five-year data were collected from 561 companies listed in the Indonesian stock market (349 Sharia-compliant firms and 212 non-Sharia-compliant firms).

Based on five years of observations, the study shows that Sharia-compliant companies have much higher brand equity than companies that are not Sharia-compliant. However, the study did not find consistent results when the study examined the differences between brand equity in newly listed Sharia-compliant firms in the short run (two-quarters of the observations). In other words, Sharia-compliant status positively impacted a company’s brand equity only in the long run.

The study examines only the brand equity of Sharia- and non-Sharia-compliant companies in the Indonesian stock market.

The study suggests that companies should list their equity in the Islamic stock market as the empirical evidence shows that the companies listed in the Sharia index have much higher brand equity than companies listed in the non-Sharia index, although this impact can only be seen in the long run.

The study integrates finance and marketing perspectives, which are often disconnected in daily business. In addition, the study provides a piece of empirical evidence on the effect of financial decision to be listed in the Islamic stock market on the establishment of brand equity, which represents the long-term intangible assets of the firm in the eyes of the customers.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework for considering the interplay between local (national) and global (world-based) identities and consumption practices with attention to various conceptualizations and measurements of consumer cultural identity.

This is a conceptual paper reviewing major works on consumer cultural identities and offering a framework for future considerations of the interplay between global and local identities.

The framework identifies two dimensions which underlie consumer cultural identity conceptualizations and measurements: first, consumer engagement with globalization–localization discourses, and second, more general identity beliefs vs consumption-based identity beliefs. Clustering and categorical measure approaches (vs a compensatory approach) are preferred for identifying and exploring global/local/glocal and unengaged consumer cultural identity segments. Research foci should guide use of global and/or local general identity vs consumption-based identity beliefs as predictors of marketplace outcomes or as segmentation variables.

The conceptualization of consumer cultural identity is based on Berry et al.’s (1986) early work on acculturation and Arnett’s (2002) bicultural identity theorizing, and thus the authors acknowledge four consumer segments, those with: stronger global (weaker local) identity, stronger local (weaker global) identity, strong global and local identities and those unengaged with global–local discourses. The authors review measurement approaches to examine consumer cultural identity and determine that categorical and clustering (vs compensatory) approaches are consistent with the conceptualization of consumer cultural identity segments.

International marketers can gain insights into major conceptualizations and measurements of consumer cultural identity, and understand the advantages and limitations of different measurement approaches. The authors highlight two important dimensions underlying cultural identity that demand managers’ attention and consideration for strategic decisions. Social implications – this paper brings attention to various conceptualizations and measures of consumer cultural identity, highlighting the need to further examine differences between various cultural identity segments, specifically the unengaged consumers and glocally engaged consumers.

The paper provides a broadened lens to understanding conceptualizations and measurements of consumer cultural identity, identifying two dimensions underlying consumer cultural identity: consumer engagement with globalization–localization discourses, and more general identity beliefs vs consumption-based identity beliefs.