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This research aims to examine whether shopping orientation (experiential vs task-focused) influences how consumers react toward nonmonetary and monetary promotions. It was predicted that promotions are more effective if the promotional benefits are congruent with consumers’ shopping orientation. Moreover, consumers’ financial budget was assumed to moderate the influence of shopping orientation on promotion effectiveness.

The hypotheses were tested in three experiments. Study 1 used a measure of shopping orientation as a consumer disposition and examined its influence on promotion attractiveness. Two further studies used an experimental manipulation of shopping orientation and examined its influence on promotions attractiveness and retailer choice.

The results supported the hypotheses. Task-focused shoppers evaluated monetary promotions as more attractive than nonmonetary promotions. Experiential shoppers evaluated both types of promotions as comparably attractive. Furthermore, experiential shoppers were more likely than task-focused shoppers to choose a retailer offering a nonmonetary promotion over a retailer offering a monetary promotion. Low financial budget, however, reduced the influence of shopping orientation on retailer choice.

To effectively use promotions as a tool, marketers and retailers need to know when and how to use them, as well as understand which type of promotion is the most effective. This research implies that retailers will benefit from customizing promotions to fit consumers’ shopping orientations. Furthermore, the findings show that the advantage of such a tailored approach is reduced if consumers’ financial budget is limited.

The Environment Agency estimates that one in six homes in England (approximately 5.2m properties) are at risk from flooding and 185,000 commercial properties are located in flood-prone areas. Further, an estimate of 10,000 new homes are built on flood plains yearly. The UK has witnessed a significant increase in flood events over the past 10 years. During this period, there has been growing research attention into measures to mitigate the effects of flooding, including the benefits of deploying sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDs) in new developments or as a retrofit. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a cost-benefit analysis model for the retrofit of SuDs focusing on the potential for improved flood risk mitigation in the context of commercial properties.

A synthesis of flood risk management and SuDs literature is used to inform the development of a conceptual cost-benefit analysis model for the retrofit of SuDs and focusing on the potential for improved flood risk mitigation in the context of commercial properties.

SuDs have been applied successfully in different parts of the world; however, the uptake of SuDs, in particular, the retrofit of SuDs, has been restricted by a number of issues including a lack of experience and trust in their performance and a lack of understanding in their true benefits. In particular, there is the limited experience of retrofitting SuDs and there are no well-established procedures for evaluating the feasibility, value or cost effectiveness of doing this.

This offers the potential to support the UK government’s flood risk management policy by helping to increase the resilience of properties, whilst offering other benefits to communities such as improvements in air quality and biodiversity and also presenting a clearer understanding of the monetary and non-monetary implication to owners of commercial properties for a more informed and acceptable uptake of SuDs retrofit.

The proposed model will allow a more comprehensive understanding of the costs and associated benefits associated with SuDs retrofit, highlighting the flood risk mitigation benefits that might accrue over a period of time for commercial property.

The purpose of this paper is to identify which loyalty programme (LP) benefits are most likely to create consumer gratitude and increase loyalty towards the brand for consumer goods and services loyalty schemes.

French-speaking Quebecer (Canada) members of retail LPs answered an online survey. The S-O-R framework was used to investigate the effects of LP benefits on customer loyalty to the brand through the mediating mechanism of gratitude. Data analysis was performed by means of partial least square structural equation modelling.

Three benefits (entertainment, recognition and social) out of five were identified to significantly enhance customer gratitude towards the brand. Neither monetary nor exploration benefits had a direct effect on gratitude or loyalty. In addition, gratitude was positively and strongly related to loyalty and fully mediated the effects of entertainment and recognition benefits on loyalty. As for social benefits, gratitude complementarily mediated their relationship to loyalty.

The findings are of utmost interest to LP managers. They offer valuable insights to maintain or modify LPs to enhance customer true loyalty. First, they highlight the strategic role of gratitude, which strongly determines customer loyalty. Second, this study's findings indicate which LP benefits should be prioritised to enhance customer gratitude and loyalty.

This research is the first empirical attempt to study the effects of LP perceived benefits on customer gratitude. It addresses the paucity of research on customer gratitude and enhances its importance in retail and relationship literature.

This paper aims to explore not only the utilitarian but also the hedonic persuasive effects of promotional techniques like 99-ending prices and the influence of consumers’ decision style when evaluating these appeals. Evidence suggests that retailers use 99-ending prices as a promotional technique, based mostly on its savings appeal.

Three complementary studies were performed. A first field study among 317 shoppers allows to test the hypotheses for two groups of decision-makers (intuitive and analytical) using structural equation modeling based on the partial least squares algorithm. Then, a laboratory experiment assigned to 123 respondents manipulates the decision-making style and, in turn, tests more precisely the proposed hypotheses. Finally, the third study replicates the laboratory experiment with 104 respondents without manipulating decision-making; rather it is measured, which allows to test the effect of internal-based versus contextual-based decision style.

First, the 99-ends are not strictly associated to utilitarian benefits (savings, quality or convenience) but also to hedonic benefits fulfilling consumer’s needs for exploration, value expression and entertainment. Second, a better understanding of the moderating role of the decision-making style is obtained: consumers in an intuitive decision mode give importance only to hedonic benefits; and there are differences in the analytical decision mode: when the decision-making style is internal (measured as a personal trait), consumers give importance to both utilitarian and hedonic benefits; however, when the decision-making style is contextual (manipulated), consumers focus only on utilitarian benefits.

It is necessary to check the robustness of the results depending on other marketing variables (e.g. product category knowledge, purchase frequency) and individual consumers’ differences in price-sensitivity (e.g. price consciousness).

The findings help to better understand the image effect of 99-ends underlying both consumers’ individual differences and contextual effects. Findings also help retailers and pricing managers in their use of 99-ends as a promotional technique.

This research contributes to a better understanding of the persuasive promotional effect associated to 99-ends. The study demonstrates that utilitarian benefits cannot fully explain consumers’ responses to 99-ends, as 99-end prices can also provide stimulation, entertainment and help fulfill consumers’ needs for information, exploration and self-esteem. The authors further examine the moderating role of the decision-making style between promotional benefits and proneness to buy 99-ends products. The intuitive mode, either internal or contextual, activates hedonic benefits, whereas the analytical mode activates both utilitarian and hedonic benefits when the mode of processing is internal and only utilitarian benefits when the mode of processing is contextual.

The question over who “owns” and controls consumer data on the internet is emerging as an important issue as individuals increasingly share more of their personal information with marketers in return for services and benefits. This paper aims to examine how compensating consumers for their personal information affects their expectations for data ownership and privacy control.

The authors conduct two online scenario-based experiments with a sample of adult consumers. The results were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analysis of variance.

The findings show that receiving compensation, especially when it is a monetary reward, reduces consumer expectations for privacy protection. These effects depend on whether the information provided to marketers is perceived to be sensitive in nature.

While a number of privacy studies have investigated the effects of compensation on encouraging self-disclosure on the internet, there is a lack of research that examines the effect of compensation on privacy expectations. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to test empirically the construct of information ownership in the context of privacy exchanges.

The costs and benefits of patient/public involvement in health, social and political settings are important determinants of whether people and organisations participate. However, actual costs and benefits of public participation are rarely measured other than as proxies or as only “measuring the measurable”. This paper aims to examine whether economic analysis poses a threat or an opportunity for future public participation.

This inquiry is based on original research by INVOLVE (literature review of participation costs/benefits; qualitative interviews with “think tanks”, participants and managers of participation projects) that examined the options for measuring monetary costs and benefits of public participation.

The case against measuring includes: mainstream economic theory is unable to explain participation; mainstream economic models are unsuitable for appropriately assessing participation costs and benefits; participation benefits are beyond economic value; and, economic values of participation may be misinterpreted and misused. Conversely, the case for measuring includes: economic measurement is necessary because public participation constitutes investments of public resources; there is a need to improve the evidence base on which participation decisions are made; the lack of economic information about participation causes problems; and neo‐classical economics is not the only available option for measuring participation costs/benefits.

The limitations and implications for granting bodies, researchers/health economists, evaluators/administrators, and donor‐commissioned evaluations are discussed.

There is a need for innovative indicators that capture the costs and benefits of public participation, as well as appropriate resources for the economic analysis of such initiatives.

The goal of this paper is to empirically investigate the effects of an loyalty program (LP) introduction and termination, accounting for simultaneous effects of LP designs, cross-customer effects and competition effects. Despite firms across the globe spend billions of dollars on LPs, it is not clear: whether these programs enhance customer loyalty, what happens if a program is terminated and which LP design elements enhance effectiveness of LPs.

The authors empirically investigate to what extent the effects of introducing and terminating a LP depend on: its monetary and non-monetary design elements, customer characteristics and competition. The empirical evidence is based on a bivariate hierarchical linear model, using a large-scale dataset involving 9,783 consumers rating 24 different LPs across eight industries.

While the characteristics of LP are more important in influencing customer behavior when they join the LP, the competitive environment and the duration of membership in an LP are the primary drivers of customer reactions to LP termination. Non-monetary discrimination between members and non-members is a more powerful tool in creating customer loyalty than offering higher discounts or saving points. The effect of discrimination on loyalty sustains when an LP is terminated.

This is the first research to empirically investigate the effect of an LP termination, accounting for simultaneous effects of LP designs and competition effects. The authors measured behavioral intentions in a hypothetical case of LP termination. Future research could assess the effects of LP termination and the moderating role of both monetary and non-monetary design elements on other behavioral loyalty variables based on, e.g. household panel data, when such data on LP terminations across industries becomes available.

When a firm considers the introduction of an LP or changing an existing one, non-monetary discrimination between members and non-members seems to be the most effective tool in building sustainable customer loyalty. Further, offering a relatively low saving rate is a viable way to keep costs down because the savings percentage does not significantly affect loyalty. For the same reason, firms can also consider reducing or eliminating LP-based discounts. The competitive environment and the duration of membership in an LP are the primary drivers of customer reactions to LP termination.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, the potential effects of LP termination have not been addressed in the current literature. The authors empirically assess the effects of LP termination and effects of those programs at the introduction. Understanding the factors that moderate the potential negative impact of terminating an LP is of crucial importance to managers and researchers alike. The paper is of great value for firms that consider introducing, modifying or terminating an LP.

Equipment performance helps the manufacturing sector achieve operational and financial improvements despite process variations. However, the literature lacks a clear index or metric to quantify the monetary advantages of enhanced equipment performance. Thus, the paper presents two innovative monetary performance measures to estimate the financial advantages of enhancing equipment performance by isolating the effect of manufacturing fluctuations such as product mix price, direct and indirect characteristics, and cost changes.

The research provides two measures, ISB (Improvement Saving Benefits) and IEB (Improvement Earning Benefits), to assess equipment performance improvements. The effectiveness of the metrics is validated through a three stages approach, namely (1) experts' binary opinion, (2) sample, and (3) actual cases. The relevant data may be collected through accounting systems, purpose-built software, or electronic spreadsheets.

The findings suggest that both measures provide an effective cost–benefit analysis of equipment performance enhancement. The measure ISB indicates savings from performance increases when equipment capacity is greater than product demand. IEB is utilised when equipment capacity is less than product demand. Both measurements may replace the unitary cost variation, which is subject to manufacturing changes.

Manufacturing businesses may utilise the ISB and IEB metrics to conduct a systematic analysis of equipment performance and to appreciate the financial savings perspective in order to emphasise profitability in the short and long term.

The study introduces two novel financial equipment performance improvement indicators that distinguish the effects of manufacturing variations. Manufacturing variations cause cost advantages from operational improvements to be misrepresented. There is currently no approach for manufacturing organisations to calculate the financial advantages of enhancing equipment performance while isolating production irregularities.

The drug benefit reform implemented in Russia in 2005 allowed benefit groups to choose between the fixed monetary compensation or the in‐kind benefits. This paper seeks to study the efficiency of the in‐kind drug benefit system before and after the reform by comparing mandated groups of monetary savings within each of the schemes.

Pair‐wise correlation analysis using the Federal Social Insurance Fund benefit groups database (85 regions in 2005‐2006) and two representative consumer expenditure surveys: the National Assessment of Population Welfare and Participation in Social Programs – NOBUS (47 regions, over 40,000 households, 2003) and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – RLMS (32 regions, over 4,000 households, 2003).

The paper finds that giving the mandated population a choice between the two schemes led to an increase in demand for drugs and adverse selection within the in‐kind drug provision system.

The Federal Social Insurance Fund aggregated data allow one to make post‐reform estimations only for an average representative of a certain benefit group. Employing micro data on both pre‐ and post‐reform consumer behavior would become a tool for more precise econometric analysis.

The results of the correlation analysis demonstrate an imbalance in the solidarity principle and the need for introducing health and drug insurance mechanisms in the Russian drug benefit programme.

The paper represents an attempt to use a large sample statistical analysis along with the Federal Social Insurance Fund data in order to assess drug benefit groups of behavior in Russian regions before and after the drug benefit reform.

Asymmetric information between producer and consumer of health care gives rise to a principal‐agent relationship between these two parties. If the consumer of care can credibly assume that producers are motivated by factors other than selfish gain obvious benefits in terms of process utility will accrue and the delivery of care will be facilitated. Examination of earnings equations using a UK data set, where monetary and non‐monetary employer‐provided benefits have been controlled for reveals that in the UK health‐service workers earn less than employees with comparable skills generally. Employee‐generated externalities associated with pursuance of personal goals, it is contended, explain these differences. When such factors are controlled for, returns to health‐service workers are seen to be comparable with those of workers generally. It is concluded that health‐service workers are “different” from workers generally – though not uniquely – in as much as they make reference to arguments in their objective functions to a greater extent than do workers generally. These arguments could, with justification, be termed philanthropic motives. This, we contend, questions the validity of standard neoclassical theory as it relates to this group of workers and demands more thoughtful policy responses in devising incentives in this sector.