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1 – 10 of 15Hsuan-Hsuan Ku, Po-Hsiang Yang and Chia-Lun Chang
Marketers may proactively give customers personalized notices regarding their progress toward certain rewards as a means to stimulate ongoing behaviors. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Marketers may proactively give customers personalized notices regarding their progress toward certain rewards as a means to stimulate ongoing behaviors. This paper aims to investigate the effect on customer repatronage intention by framed messages concerning either goal-distance or consequences of an action and it also seeks to identify important variables moderating those responses.
Design/methodology/approach
Five between-subjects experiments examined how participants’ repatronage intentions, in response to the framing of goal-distance (Study 1a) and consequences of an action (Study 2a), varied as a function of their level of progress toward goal completion and also tested if the framing effects might be attenuated when relationship benefit was high rather than low (Studies 1b and 2b). They further adopted perceived reciprocity as an underlying mechanism for examining the interplay between these two kinds of framing in stimulating ongoing behavior (Study 3).
Findings
Although messages which emphasized what individuals need to spend more to attain a reward (versus how short they are from earning a reward) or loss following inaction (versus gain following action) were likely to erode intention, such effects were confined to individuals with a moderate level of progress. This intention-eroding effect was further attenuated by attractive reward. The persuasive advantages of short-from-the-end framing of goal-distance over more-to-the-end counterparts were found to be diminished when paired with a loss-framed message concerning consequences of an action. Furthermore, the observed effects on intention were mediated by perceived reciprocity.
Originality/value
The studies add to the current understanding of how the way in which information is presented might enhance loyalty or fail to do so.
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Abdullah Firdaus and Agnes Kanyan
The purpose of this paper is to propos a new measuring instrument for relationship marketing which is uniquely designed for the foodservice industry. In particular, the underlying…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propos a new measuring instrument for relationship marketing which is uniquely designed for the foodservice industry. In particular, the underlying dimensions of relationship marketing as perceived by customers are identified, and strategies for the enhancement of relationship marketing program are put forward.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed 31-item instrument has been empirically tested for unidimensionality, reliability and validity using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis
Findings
A factorial analysis suggests that relationship marketing is a multidimensional construct consisting of four key dimensions namely communication, trust, empathy and commitment.
Practical implications
Communication emphasizes the necessity to communicate in understandable way; trust refers to the ability to inspire confidence; empathy stresses on the importance of exhibiting sympathy and reassurance; and commitment describes the desire to provide excellent service. A subsequent multiple regression analysis reveals that all the dimensions are positively correlated with customer loyalty and trust was the most important dimension.
Originality/value
Building strong relationships with customers to gain competitive advantage and customer loyalty is crucial for survival and success in today's business environment. As competition is becoming more intense, customers are increasingly demanding and price sensitive. Although the relationship marketing discipline is relatively well researched, the measuring instrument is limited and practically non-existent in the foodservice industry.
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Raffaele Filieri, Wenshin Chen and Bidit Lal Dey
China is the world’s largest consumer market for smartphones. Early adopters are highly influential in consumers’ decisions of new technologies. Therefore, understanding Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
China is the world’s largest consumer market for smartphones. Early adopters are highly influential in consumers’ decisions of new technologies. Therefore, understanding Chinese early adopters’ decision making in the smartphone market is of crucial importance to smartphone companies. There is a dearth of in-depth studies on the factors affecting consumers’ repurchase intention for smartphones. The purpose of this paper is to narrow this knowledge gap by developing a new conceptual framework explaining early adopters’ repurchase intention of smartphones.
Design/methodology/approach
Using 30 face-to-face interviews with Chinese early adopters of smartphones, the authors built a new theoretical framework to explain the factors that influence their repurchase intention.
Findings
Repurchase intention of smartphones is determined by aesthetic and utilitarian product-related factors (design appeal, perceived usefulness), socio-cultural factors (subjective norms, mianzi/face considerations), and brand-related factors (brand popularity, brand’s country of origin, perceived brand quality, and brand loyalty). The emerging framework also explores the factors affecting enhancing, maintaining, and saving mianzi/face.
Originality/value
In contrast to existing technology-driven models, the study’s emerging framework shows how aesthetic, socio-cultural, and brand-related factors can offer new insights in understanding repurchase intention in a rapidly developing market. As these factors are rarely examined in the information technology and/or marketing literatures, potential knowledge contribution can be highly expected.
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Paula Rayman, Lotte Bailyn, Jillian Dickert, Françoise Carré, Maureen Harvey, Robert Krim and Robert Read
In September 1996, Fleet Financial Group and the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute undertook a one‐year pilot project addressing a “dual agenda” – reexamining work processes to…
Abstract
In September 1996, Fleet Financial Group and the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute undertook a one‐year pilot project addressing a “dual agenda” – reexamining work processes to achieve positive business outcomes while also helping employees better integrate work responsibilities with life outside of work. The chosen sites for the experiments were a retail/small business banking unit and a portfolio management unit. Radcliffe‐Fleet Project researchers employed two key methods: dual context and action research. Using this methodology, interventions and measures of success of the interventions were developed collaboratively with management and employees. Even in these competitive, deadline‐driven work environments, quantitative measures and qualitative assessments at each site showed a positive relationship between business outcomes and quality of life outcomes. The researchers develop guidelines for companies interested in replication of this project. Several principles are also identified for sustaining the success of effective work‐life integration interventions and institutionalizing the “dual agenda” in the workplace.
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Karin Newman, Alan Cowling and Susan Leigh
Features a case study of a major bank which aimed to achieve corporate transformation and a dramatic improvement in service quality. The links between service quality, customer…
Abstract
Features a case study of a major bank which aimed to achieve corporate transformation and a dramatic improvement in service quality. The links between service quality, customer satisfaction and corporate profitability in UK banking are outlined in order to set in context the many quality improvement initiatives undertaken by UK retail banks in recent years. Business process re‐engineering has proved to be the most popular of service quality initiatives but most have been limited to single processes rather than corporate transformation as portrayed in the case study. The five‐year corporate transformation programme focuses on employee communications, the redesign of work, recruitment and reward processes and the introduction of consumer research‐based national quality standards. The bank was rewarded for its efforts, coming top for three consecutive years in the Which? service quality surveys and, according to its own data, which contributed to a rise in customer satisfaction and customer retention at a time of declining employee satisfaction. Future developments in service quality segmentation and a working definition of service quality are proposed.
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Yousef Keshavarz and Dariyoush Jamshidi
Loyalty has become the most important strategic aim in the hotel industry. The purpose of this paper is to obtain an empirical understanding of loyalty in the Kuala Lumpur hotel…
Abstract
Purpose
Loyalty has become the most important strategic aim in the hotel industry. The purpose of this paper is to obtain an empirical understanding of loyalty in the Kuala Lumpur hotel sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The dimensions of service quality as perceived by hotel customers were identified through the literature review. Hypotheses were formulated and tested to: examine the effects of process quality and outcome quality on perceived value, tourist satisfaction, and tourist loyalty; and to determine if perceived value and tourist satisfaction play a mediating role in the effect of process quality and outcome quality on tourist loyalty. In this study, the sample was 417 respondents from the international tourists who stay at least one night in four- or five stars hotels in Kuala Lumpur. Collected data were analyzed by structural equation modeling.
Findings
The statistical findings supported a relationship between process quality and outcome quality with perceived value and tourist satisfaction, and tourist loyalty with perceived value and tourist satisfaction. The results also indicated that process quality and outcome quality did not have a direct effect on tourist loyalty. Perceived value and tourist satisfaction mediated the relationship between process quality and outcome quality with tourist loyalty.
Originality/value
The finding of this study proposed that the hoteliers targeting international tourists with service quality including process and outcome quality should focus more on these factors to build loyalty. For instance, the tangible, responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance, and convenience as the dimensions of process quality and valence, waiting time, and sociability as the dimensions of outcome quality should meet the needs of the international tourists, therefore increasing tourist loyalty through perceived value and tourist satisfaction.
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Oscar Espinoza, Luis González, Luis Sandoval, Noel McGinn, Javier Loyola and Dante Castillo
The purpose of this paper is to improve future teacher training by assessment of university graduates’ satisfaction with their preparation in Basic Education teaching.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve future teacher training by assessment of university graduates’ satisfaction with their preparation in Basic Education teaching.
Design/methodology/approach
This descriptive study employed a self-administered survey questionnaire to a representative sample of 235 graduates between 2014 and 2016 from three universities in Chile. The questionnaire generated information about the graduates’ background (age, gender, parents’ education and prestige of secondary school attended); an evaluation of three dimensions of their degree program (instructional quality, infrastructure and employability), and experiences in the labor market (including salary). Analysis of variance was used to assess relationships between satisfaction, and other variables.
Findings
In general, graduates were satisfied with all aspects of their training. Satisfaction levels were higher from those assumed to have lower expectations. Contrary to this hypothesis, university prestige is not directly related to satisfaction. Instead, expectations and employability moderate the effect of prestige.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is not representative of the 59 universities in Chile nor of the many other degree programs offered in those universities.
Practical implications
Program directors concerned about improving the public reputation or prestige of their program will benefit from efforts to improve the quality of the program and its infrastructure, and relevance for entrance into the world of work.
Originality/value
This study provides information not previously available about graduate satisfaction in teaching degree programs in Chile.
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Nobu Kuniya and Cary L. Cooper
The potential for improving the quality of working life through increased shopfloor involvement in decision‐making, work redesign experiments, etc., is greater in Japan than in…
Abstract
The potential for improving the quality of working life through increased shopfloor involvement in decision‐making, work redesign experiments, etc., is greater in Japan than in many Western countries because of various historical and cultural factors. Japan has many more examples of worker participation and work humanisation projects than most Western observers realise. The lack of widespread information about these developments is due to the few examples that are reported outside of Japan (in English) and to the difficulties of translating many of the Japanese publications into English. Due to the paucity of literature available in the West we thought it might be useful to examine a sample of the voluminous activities taking place in Japan in the quality of working life field.
This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings…
Abstract
This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Business Strategy; Personnel and Training; Marketing and Customer Service; Logistics and Distribution; Financial Management; Information Technology.
Mojca Indihar Štemberger, Brina Buh, Ljubica Milanović Glavan and Jan Mendling
The paper investigates differences in the success of business process management (BPM) initiatives and their connection with organizational culture. The purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper investigates differences in the success of business process management (BPM) initiatives and their connection with organizational culture. The purpose of this paper is to identify propositions on characteristics of BPM initiative that are favorable for its success according to dominant organizational culture. Therefore, the authors’ aim was to identify connections of organizational commitment to BPM and dimensions of business process orientation (BPO) with dominant organizational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
As a research design, the authors used a questionnaire to collect data on the BPM adoption practices of organizations in Austria, Croatia and Slovenia with more than 50 employees. BPM adoption was measured with BPO and organizational culture with Competing Values Framework (CVF). Non-parametric tests have been applied for the analysis. On this survey data, the authors conducted statistical tests to identify those factors that discriminate successful from unsuccessful BPM initiatives.
Findings
The study revealed empirical insights about characteristics of successful BPM initiatives in different organizational cultures. There are several statistically significant differences with respect to the success of BPM adoption. The chance of success appears to be higher: when the BPM initiative is rolled out in the entire organization if the organization has Clan, Market or Hierarchy culture; when the BPM is run on a continuous basis in Hierarchy culture and repeatedly in Adhocracy culture; when a top-down approach is used in organizations with Market or Hierarchy dominant culture; when the BPM initiative has a strategic role and formal responsibilities are defined in Clan and Hierarchy cultures.
Originality/value
The authors’ empirical findings provide the basis for the formulation of detailed propositions on the interaction of various factors and their impact on BPM adoption in connection to organizational culture. In this way, the authors’ contribution is situated in the inductive research cycle and informs theory building for BPM adoption.
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