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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/02652329110144460. When citing the article, please cite: Jean Harvey, Pierre Filiatrault, (1991), “Service Delivery Processes: New Technology and Design”, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 9 Iss: 1, pp. 25 - 31.

Competitive pressures as well as the search for fee‐based incomes, mainly derived from cross‐selling, have forced commercial financial institutions to redefine their marketing strategies and to focus on “relationship marketing”. Identifies the major problems raised by the implementation of an effective relationship approach. From this critical analysis, concludes that relationship banking is a major corporate issue, not the sole responsibility of front‐line people (account managers) – marketing and strategic issues are merging.

Since consumers feel that time is becoming an increasingly scarcer resource, service organizations are also becoming increasingly sensitive to the economical and psychological costs which they impose on their clients in waiting lines. Reports a study aimed at examining the relations between two variables which are controllable by banks (i.e. service interruption and clients′ participation in the service process) upon the perceived time spent in waiting lines, clients′ mood and perceived service quality. Results show that individuals who find the waiting time “unacceptable” have a very significantly lower mood and perceived the service as being of lower quality. Concludes that perceived waiting time can be modified through managerially controllable variables which also influence strategically important variables such as client mood and perceived service quality.

The search for service quality and the division of work between front office employees and backroom workers as the core of service design are examined. Discussion centres on whether the server′s task should encompass more backroom work to avoid duplication and delay or be more limited to reduce turnaround time. Alternative service delivery designs are explored and the impact of technology examined. It is concluded that the task at hand is not merely to select the best design but a technological migration path allowing the bank to maintain or improve its competitive position in what has been described as “bare‐knuckle banking”.

While several studies have examined the roles of husbands and wives in making decisions about products, few have examined the impact of children. This article reports the results of a 1985 study of the influence of children on families. The study examines children's influence in each of four stages of the purchase decision, for 25 products, and by age of the children. For child‐centered (e.g., toys, children's clothing, food) and child‐used products or services (e.g., vacations, restaurant choices, outside entertainment), the study shows that children are perceived as influential by most households. Older children are perceived as more influential than younger children for nearly all the products studied. The study concludes that “family” decision making is quite different from “husband‐wife” decision making.

Explores the segmentation by service marketers of the consumer market on the basis of service quality expectations. Measures consumer expectations and various quality dimensions for three commonly purchased professional and three non‐professional services. Evaluates the effect of various consumers′ demographic characteristics on service quality expectations. Concludes with a discussion of research and managerial implications.

This paper aims to explore conflict and its resolution strategies adopted by Tunisian spouses in the purchase of furniture. This paper also seeks to examine the determinants of the variation in resolution strategies adopted by the couples.

Following an exploratory study and two focus group discussions, a number of conflict resolution strategies compatible with the Tunisian cultural context are generated and submitted for examination through a survey of 129 couples (N=258 individuals).

The findings suggest that conflicts are more marked with regard to the non aesthetic aspects of the furniture. The findings also show that the variations in strategies of conflict resolution used by spouses depend on the gender role orientation, the family life cycle and the socio‐demographic characteristics.

The paper provides insights on the conflict occurring in purchase of furniture and the strategies used by spouses to reach a decision. However, the findings need to be validated on other samples and other products to better apprehend Muslim family interactions.

For marketers, the findings point to the importance of being aware of the extent of conflict and the used strategies to resolve it. Such knowledge may better refocus marketing efforts towards solving conflicts and help couples reach a purchase decision.

This paper focuses on the decisional dynamics in Tunisian Islamic context.

The purpose of this research is to understand the importance of value orientation on conspicuous consumption in the youth market segment in Southeast Asia. In particular, the focus is to understand three different types of value orientation (specifically cultural values, material values and religious values) and its effects on conspicuous consumption behaviour.

An integrative theoretical model is proposed based on Hofstede's cultural dimension, the materialism value scale and religious commitments to predict the relationship for the value orientations of Generation Y's (Gen Y's) conspicuous consumption behaviour. The data was collected from undergraduate students enrolled in general education courses in three universities in Malaysia. Using cross-sectional data, 262 sets of valid questionnaires were used to perform the statistical analysis for the measurement and structural model using partial least squares equation modelling (PLS-SEM) path modelling.

We position our study by raising the pertinent question of “Seriously, Conspicuous Consumption?” to establish a clear understanding of whether Malaysian Gen Y individuals are conspicuous consumers and, if they are, which of the three values matter the most. In order to answer the question of whether Malaysian Gen Y engages in conspicuous consumption, we arrive at an understanding that, given multi-value orientations, conspicuous behaviour can be motivated and impacted by one value orientation and constrained by others. Hence, value orientation offers an insightful explanation of one specific type of consumer behaviour in the context of Asia as an emerging global market. Thus, our study provides two key theoretically significant findings. In general, our findings provide insights into how the multi-value orientations (i.e. cultural, material and religious orientations) contribute to several bodies of literature—namely, conspicuous consumption, international marketing and transcultural marketing. The results revealed that collectivism and materialism were positively and significantly related to conspicuous consumption. Uncertainty avoidance, although significant, had a negative relationship with conspicuous consumption. The other values (masculinity, power distance and religious values) were not significantly related to conspicuous consumption.

Purchasing luxury goods is becoming an emergent phenomenon in Asia, particularly among young consumers. This paper provides marketing managers, particularly brand owners, with practical and realisable examples of how to plan and execute their marketing plans. A more profound understanding of this relationship may also serve to aid marketing managers in devising more focused marketing strategies and thus allocate marketing resources more efficiently. Hence, marketers could develop an effective communication strategy so that the target consumers will be aware of their goods because the purchase of luxury goods is likely to be motivated by social, cultural and personal factors.

This article examines the impact of value orientations on conspicuous consumption behaviour in Malaysian Gen Y consumers. The model proposed in this study is useful in predicting conspicuous consumption among Gen Y. By identifying the factors influencing this emergent type of consumer behaviour, global retailers will be informed about this particular market segmentation in terms of its preferences and desires. The article discusses the research findings and concludes with managerial implications and limitations.

The problem of waiting is important in service activities, when customers are passive, often standing in a queue. This paper reviews 18 published empirical studies to identify groups of factors and their influence on customers. Some groups of factors reveal significant effects, such as real waiting time or expectation; others such as environmental factors are disappointing. These results alter our vision of the phenomenon, and lead to new directions for further practical or theoretical investigations, for example reintegrating the non‐linear effects of time in the study of waiting, exploring the expectation phenomenon and its variations, classifying customers and situations in order to manage critical waiting circumstances better.