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The purpose of this paper is to capture the richness of customer perceived value by determining its benefit and cost dimensions in a complex service setting. Perceived value is argued as equivalent to value-in-use; that is value that emerges for or is created by the customer.

A series of in-depth interviews was conducted with a diverse group of clients of financial planning services as well as with financial planners in Australia.

Six benefit and four cost dimensions of complex service are identified, namely expertise, education, motivation, support, relationship and convenience benefits, as well as monetary, time and effort, emotional and lifestyle costs. The results also indicate proposed outcomes of these dimensions, along with relevant moderators, leading to a broad conceptual framework for future empirical validation.

This study contributes to the sparse conceptual development of value perceptions, or value-in-use, in a complex service context. In particular, the authors identify the benefit and cost dimensions, specifically addressing aspects of value that are linked to the long-term relationship between provider and customer. The authors also develop a conceptual model of value, including both outcomes and situational moderators of the various value dimensions. Finally, the conceptualization of perceived value is discussed with respect to the value co-creation literature.

This paper aims to advance research and practice on value, and more specifically value-in-use, by enhancing knowledge of not only positive but also negative value-in-use facets in a complex relational context, developing a psychometrically sound measure of these facets and evaluating their effect on various outcome measures across different customer segments.

A three-stage study was undertaken in the professional service context of financial planning. Following a qualitative stage identifying positive and negative facets of value-in-use, a measurement scale was developed and tested, and extended analysis was undertaken through two quantitative stages.

The findings provide converging evidence that clients in the study context realise value-in-use, defined in this study at a benefit rather than outcome level, through nine core facets, four positive (expertise, education, motivation, convenience) and five negative (monetary, time and effort, lifestyle, emotional [financial planner], emotional [situation]). While all nine facets impact on at least one of the investigated outcomes, results show that, overall, positive value-in-use facets outweigh the negative ones, with the impact of facets varying depending on client factors (such as customer participation and time to retirement).

The primary contributions of this paper lie in the conceptualisation and measurement of both positive and negative value-in-use facets and their interplay in generating customer outcomes, as well as in the development of a psychometrically sound measure of this construct. Negative value-in-use facets have not been explored to date, despite consumers being sometimes more concerned with risks than gains. Furthermore, the research offers novel insight into the impact of both positive and negative value-in-use on relevant outcomes, while also offering evidence as to the importance of segmentation dimensions in this context.

To maintain road systems in the USA, state departments of transportation (DOTs) generally use in-house workers or private contractors. Limited studies have calculated the cost savings of hiring private contractors; however, most of them have not calculated cost savings based on life-cycle costs (LCCs). The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the LCC of chip seal and stripping maintenance activities performed by in-house workers are cheaper than those performed by private contractors.

The paper collected the hard cost data of chip seal and stripping maintenance activities performed by state DOT in-house workers, as well as private contractors, from 2003 to 2016 from the Nevada DOT Maintenance and Asset Management division. Statistical tests were conducted to test the research hypothesis that the LCC of chip seal and stripping activities performed by in-house workers are significantly less than those performed by private contractors.

The study results showed that the cost per unit and LCC of chip seal and striping work performed by in-house workers were significantly less than those performed by private contractors in Nevada.

The study only collected data from Nevada DOT, so readers should use caution in generalizing the findings of this study. Additionally, factors affecting the cost of these maintenance activities for private contractors are significantly different compared to in-house contractors. Therefore, these differences may be some of the potential reasons for cost difference between these two methods.

The practical implications of this study are that state DOT engineers need to plan for outsourcing chip seal and stripping maintenance activities only to private contractors that are cost effective, based on life-cycle cost.

The LCC analysis framework developed in this study will help state DOT engineers to determine cost savings by using in-house workers for road maintenance works.

Routine general practice (GP) care is rarely comprehensively described in clinical trials. This paper examines routine GP care within the lifestyle approach to managing panic (LAMP) study. The aim of this paper is to describe/discuss routine GP care for panic disorder (PD) patients within both study arms in the LAMP study. An unblinded pragmatic randomised controlled trial in 15 East of England GP practices (2 primary care trusts). Participants met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria for PD with/without agoraphobia. Follow-up measures recorded at 20 weeks/10 months following randomisation. Control arm, unrestricted routine GP care (practice appointments, referrals and prescriptions). Trial arm, occupational therapy-led lifestyle treatment comprising lifestyle review of fluid intake, diet pattern, exercise, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine. Primary outcome measure: beck anxiety inventory. At baseline, participants attended 2-3 times more GP appointments than population average, reducing at 10 months to 1.6 times population average for routine GP care and 0.97 population average for lifestyle arm. At 10 months, 33% fewer referrals (6 referrals; 0 mental health) than at baseline (9 referrals; 2 mental health) were made for lifestyle arm patients compared with 42% increase (from 12 referrals; 8 mental health at baseline to 17 referrals; 7 mental health) in GP care arm. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were prescribed most often. Benzodiazepines and beta-blockers were prescribed more often than tricyclic against current clinical guidelines. In conclusion, we found that PD patients at baseline were high healthcare resource users. Treatment in both study arms reduced resource use. Routine GP care requires further review for this patient group.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the inter-relationship of dimensions for consumer-based brand equity and brand loyalty with customer satisfaction as a mediator for oral care segment with special reference to Delhi and connecting areas.

For achieving the objective of this study, the theoretical model was tested through structural equation modelling. Research scales from the literature were modified for suitability. Data were collected from 250 respondents.

The results indicate that for the oral care segment, customer satisfaction is significantly related to the perceived quality, brand trust, perceived value of cost and lifestyle congruence. Moreover, customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship of perceived quality and perceived value of cost with brand loyalty, whereas it fully mediates the relationship of lifestyle congruence and brand trust with brand loyalty. Thus, even for low-involvement products, consumer purchases are based on the attributes of the brand rather than being merely habitual.

The literature supports the direct influence of brand equity on brand loyalty. However, no other study has investigated the mediating role of customer satisfaction on the relationship between brand equity and brand loyalty for low-involvement products.

Both financial and non-financial functions are imbedded in the life-cycle management activities of building assets. These functions provide relevant information for the establishment of operational and maintenance strategies and for decision-making processes related with the timing of major repairs, replacements and rehabilitations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on improving the alignment of financial and non-financial functions related to the recognition that the service potential of buildings should be appropriately funded as it is consumed over its life cycle.

Authors undertake an analysis of depreciation rates used to accommodate a systematic allocation of the depreciable amount of building assets over its useful life. Different depreciation approaches and calculation methods are explored. A case study of a school building portfolio is used to debate situations of misalignment of financial and non-financial depreciation rates. Data mining methods including decision tree and clustering are used to predict equivalent functional depreciation rates of buildings system and subsystems and promote an enhanced alignment with regulated financial depreciation rates toward an optimized life-cycle management of the school building portfolio.

Historical data show the relevance of considering technical and functional characteristics of the building system and their subsystems (landscaping; structure; external elevations and roofs; interior divisions; and services and equipment) when determining depreciation rates for the building assets The case study showed a misalignment of equivalent functional and financial depreciation rates used in the life-cycle management activities of the school building portfolio ranging between 1/1.26 for external elevations and roofs and 1/5.21 for landscaping.

Buildings initial technical and functional attributes are affected with its wear, aging or decay, causing loss of value until they reach end-of-life. This paper demonstrates the impact of the different interpretations of the concept of useful life and the subsequent misalignment that it generates between financial functions based on financial depreciation rates and non-financial functions based on historical data and the functional equivalent (technical and functional) depreciation rates. Economic data of 158 public school buildings constructed in Portugal since the 1940s, that sound life-cycle thinking enhances the alignment of both financial and non-financial functions.

Overall, public and private interactive networks could be a more powerful force for change than the computer, the railway, or the small electric motor, forming a “teleeconomy”, under a set of rules that form “electronic capitalism”. In this second of two articles (for the first see foresight, Vol 2, No 1, February 2000) consequences of the emerging economic behaviours laid out in the first article are examined. First, the new rules are explored in detail. They describe the dynamo of electronic trading and the characteristics of a specific form of capitalism. The article then considers impacts of the tele‐economy on sectoral balances, economic power and wealth distribution. Lastly, the new players – the electronic tiger – and the safeguards required are examined. The hub of the dynamo will be in the developing economies where some four billion new global consumers await economic enfranchisement via personal investment, as well as access to new consumer markets and electronic work channels.

As large organisations grow and evolve, they face the challenge of accommodating change in a manner that contains costs while strengthening the firm’s competitive position in the marketplace. Invariably, not only initial capital and long‐term operating costs, but the effect of the real estate decision on the firm’s ability to attract and retain staff, and their ability to work productively, must be considered. To compound an already complex decision, the factors influencing such decisions are often highly uncertain and there are limited data on the impact of such decisions on human resource factors. Yet such decisions must be and are made. This paper describes the Cornell Balanced Real Estate Assessment model (COBRA©), a prototype tool which addresses these issues.

The purpose of this study is to investigate non-pecuniary motivations and benefits of involvement in the wine business. Combining these motives with winery owners’ characteristics, attitudes and implemented strategies, the aim is to identify different winery owners’ styles in small-medium family-run firms.

The applied method is a qualitative explorative study involving in-depth interviews with Tuscan winery owners. They have hands-on involvement in the winemaking process, own a family business and supervise all of the production phases, from grape growing to bottling.

The study highlights the key role of non-economic motivations for winery owners. Passion, independence and a desire to live close to nature are predominant compared to pecuniary motivations, such as profit maximization. Therefore, the “lifestyle-oriented” style, characterized especially by the achievement of non-pecuniary benefits, represents the prevailing style amongst the interviewed winery owners, in contrast to the “business-oriented” style, which features typical producers described by mainstream economic theory.

The findings of this study are pivotal because they can facilitate a better understanding of how family-run wineries make decisions related to, e.g. firm size, staff management, product quality, exports and sustainability.