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Despite retailers' growing use of lowest‐price refund policies, little is understood about how consumer satisfaction is influenced by them. This paper examines the potential role of market price volatility and store image on consumers' satisfaction of stores offering a lowest‐price refund.

Between‐subject experimental design is used in which subjects are presented with simulated shopping scenarios. In the shopping simulation lowest price refunds are provided to the subjects under different price volatility and store image conditions. Consumer satisfaction is then measured.

Results indicate that when market price volatility is high consumer satisfaction with lowest‐price refunds tends to be significantly higher for stores with a good image than stores with a poor image. As market price volatility increases, consumer perceptions of value increases for stores with a good image, while it declines for stores with a poor image.

The results of the study are limited by the simulated shopping methodology that is used and the absence of field shopping behavior and covariate satisfaction and refund data from retail stores.

Despite receiving the same outcome, different consumers' satisfaction with lowest‐price refunds may be highly influenced by the environment. Generally, both market price volatility and store image influence consumer satisfaction.

By identifying specific market conditions that influence consumer satisfaction with lowest‐price refunds, it may be critical for certain retailers to mobilize their refund programs.

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of actions recommended by researchers for firms to encourage complaint voicing, and test the proposition that complaining by dissatisfied consumers would increase if only firms would make it easier to complain.

An experimental study assessed consumer reactions to scenarios in which a retailer made it easier or harder to complain by varying its refund policy, employee empowerment, access to call center representatives, and in‐store hassles to return merchandise. Consumers in an online panel completed questionnaires measuring perceived effort, likelihood of success, and complaint intentions.

Complaint‐friendly policies produced perceptions of lower anticipated difficulty and increased chances of successful redress. However, only lenient refund policy significantly influenced complaint voicing intentions. While most policies designed to make complaining easier had limited impact on complaint voicing, measured perceptions of complaint difficulty were significant predictors of complaining intentions.

In future studies, researchers should examine these variables in non‐retail settings where getting a refund does not dominate the consumer's decision to voice a complaint.

The results call into question the proposition that complaint voicing would increase if only firms would make complaining easier. Managers should focus on assuring customers of liberal refund policies if they complain.

By focusing on actions that the firm can undertake to improve the probability of consumer complaining, this paper departs from the literature on antecedents of complaining behavior, which has focused on individual difference factors that affect the probability of complaining, variables that lie outside managerial control.

The purposes of this paper is to propose a customer returns model in a dual-channel supply chain where a customer can return the purchased product to the retailer or the manufacturer and obtain an equilibrium of selling prices and refund prices and the optimal profit when considering customer returns in the centralized and decentralized dual-channel supply chain.

This paper mainly uses the game theory technique to analyze the problem. The manufacturer and the retailer are vertically integrated in the traditional channel, and the results of the centralized dual-channel supply chain are obtained. Then, the Stackelberg game was adopted to analyze the decentralized dual-channel supply chain. Finally, the detailed numerical simulation is proposed to obtain straight-forward insights for the industrial managers.

The mathematic analysis used shows that the main findings of this paper are: in the centralized scenario, the retailer and the manufacturer will charge higher selling prices when they offer return policy, and the demand for each channel increases, which results in higher profit; and the price and refund price of the direct channel in the centralized and decentralized dual-channel are the same, respectively.

Most previous literatures highlight that return policy plays an important role in supply chain which considering one channel. But there is no study on the customer return policy in dual-channel supply chain. This paper is a further step to model the effects of customer returns policy on the pricing policy and optimize the profits in a dual-channel supply chain. This paper analyzes the pricing and refund strategies and gets an equilibrium in the centralized and decentralized dual-channel supply chain scenarios.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic plunged global tourism into a huge crisis in 2020. China was confronted with a wave of cancellations by tourism consumers due to COVID-19 and tourist complaints rose dramatically during this period. Although tourism enterprises have quickly introduced measures in response, the effectiveness of targeted policies is expected to be evaluated. Concerned about this phenomenon, this study aims to provide insights into the dim prospects of the tourism industry and to bridge the gap between tourists and enterprises.

The current study adopts a two-step method that combines automatic and manual content analysis to contrastively analyse 647 complaints from the Sina platform and the measures of five online travel agencies (OTAs) taken to deal with COVID-19.

The results reveal that the COVID-19-related information and policies issued by official departments had a promoting effect on tourist complaints. OTAs were the main target of complainers, and three themes of complaints were identified, namely, cancellation barriers, refund barriers and customer relationship management. Although tourism enterprises’ policies covered most dimensions of the three themes, more detailed and mutually beneficial policies need to be formulated in the face of a new round of cancellations.

This research attempts to investigate tourism customer complaint behaviours in the case of COVID-19 and to provide tourism enterprises receiving different complaints with practical insights into crisis management. It contributes to simultaneously minimizing business losses and maintaining customer relationships in the service industry, improving the industry’s performance under potential crises in the future.

危机信息、沟通策略和客户投诉行为:以COVID-19为例

2020年, 新冠肺炎大流行的爆发使全球旅游业陷入巨大危机。由于新冠肺炎疫情, 中国面临了旅游消费者的退订浪潮, 期间游客投诉大幅上升。虽然旅游企业迅速采取了应对措施, 但预期将评估有针对性的政策的有效性。考虑到这一现象, 本研究旨在为旅游业的暗淡前景提供见解, 并弥合游客和企业之间的差距。

本研究采用自动内容分析和人工手动编码相结合的两步方法, 对来自新浪平台的647起游客投诉和5家在线旅行社应对COVID-19的措施进行对比分析。

结果显示, 官方部门发布的新冠肺炎相关信息和政策对旅游投诉的数量起到了刺激作用。在线旅行社是投诉者的主要目标, 并确定了游客投诉的三个主题:取消障碍、退款障碍和客户关系管理。虽然旅游企业政策涵盖了这三个主题的大部分层面, 但面对新一轮的取消, 还需要制定更详细和互利的政策。

本研究试图调查COVID-19情况下的旅游客户投诉行为, 为收到不同投诉的旅游企业提供危机管理的实用见解。它有助于在服务行业同时减少业务损失和维护客户关系, 提高行业在未来潜在危机下的绩效。

Información de crisis, estrategias de comunicación y medidas adoptadas ante las reclamaciones de los clientes: el caso de COVID-19

El presente estudio adopta un método en dos fases que combina el análisis de contenido automático y manual para analizar de forma contrastiva 647 reclamaciones de la plataforma Sina y las medidas de cinco agencias de viajes online (OTA) adoptadas para hacer frente a la COVID-19.

El estallido de la pandemia COVID-19 sumió al turismo mundial en una enorme crisis en 2020. China tuvo que hacer frente a una oleada de cancelaciones por parte de los consumidores turísticos debido a la COVID-19, y las quejas de los turistas aumentaron drásticamente durante este periodo. Aunque las empresas turísticas introdujeron rápidamente medidas de respuesta, se espera que se evalúe la eficacia de dichas políticas. Preocupado por este fenómeno, el presente estudio pretende aportar información sobre las sombrías perspectivas de la industria turística y tender un puente entre los turistas y las empresas.

Los resultados revelan que la información y las políticas relacionadas con el COVID-19 emitidas por los departamentos oficiales tuvieron un efecto promotor de las quejas de los turistas. Las OTAs fueron el principal objetivo de los reclamantes, y se identificaron tres temas de reclamaciones: barreras de cancelación, barreras de reembolso y gestión de la relación con el cliente. Aunque las políticas de las empresas turísticas cubrían la mayoría de las dimensiones de los tres temas, es necesario formular políticas más detalladas y mutuamente beneficiosas ante una nueva oleada de cancelaciones.

Esta investigación trata de investigar el comportamiento de las reclamaciones de los clientes turísticos en el caso de COVID-19 y de proporcionar a las empresas turísticas que reciben diferentes reclamaciones una visión práctica de la gestión de crisis. Contribuye a minimizar simultáneamente las pérdidas comerciales y a mantener las relaciones con los clientes en el sector de los servicios, mejorando el rendimiento de la industria ante posibles crisis en el futuro.

The purpose of this paper is to optimally operate a Smart Microgrid which is interconnected to the main grid so as to minimize expenditures associated with CO₂ emissions. Microgrids could come into play to aid the network through CO₂ emission reduction while increasing their efficiency through local generation. For this purpose, a Smart Microgrid incorporating Distributed Energy Resources (DER), especially Renewable Energy Sources (RES), is operated optimally while keeping the CO₂ emissions in check in order to minimize the financial burden from emissions stemming from the carbon tax. Since the network is assumed to be interconnected with the main grid, there is a consideration of the expected emissions associated with the imported energy.

An economic/environmental dispatch problem is mathematically formulated using an objective function and the constraints that it is subject to. The methodology is applied on a typical 17-bus test distribution network, representing a Hellenic LV network. Various carbon tax rates and their impact on the system marginal price are examined, in terms of their effect on distributed generation (DG) and as a second step, the effect of imposing lower carbon tax rates for micro-sources with the goal of benefitting from their more eco-friendly generation capabilities. In order to assess that benefit, hourly grid emissions coefficients are derived based on actual grid data.

The CO₂ tax refund policy towards the DG owners can lead to optimal coverage of consumers, optimal financial result both for the DG owners and the operator and greater DG integration within the smart grid.

Greater DG integration within the smart grid by using a CO₂ tax refund policy.

Previous research indicates that dissatisfied consumers in other countries react differently as compared to those in the USA, due to their cultural orientation. These studies, however, have not recognized that retail policies (regarding returns and exchanges) in the USA are much more liberal and “consumer friendly” than in other parts of the world, and thus it is possible that their conclusions are flawed. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine the extent to which cross-national differences in complaint behavior are due to cultural vs situational factors.

To examine this issue, a two-part study was conducted. Study 1 compared consumers living in China, India and Mexico to cohorts who immigrated to the USA. Study 2 compared individuals from those same countries to subjects who are native to the USA.

The findings indicate that situational factors (i.e. consumer-oriented vs restrictive refund/return/exchange policies) have a large impact on consumer complaint behavior (i.e. redress, negative-word-of-mouth and exit), and that the effects of culture are minor.

To infer cause-effect, and establish scientific theory, one must rule out alternative hypotheses. Researchers who are investigating cross-cultural complaint behavior must take situational factors into account.

With the emergence of “global consumers” consumer expectations around the world are changing. Astute retailers should institute and promote more liberal return policies, thereby mitigating consumers’ perceived risk.

This study dispels the notion that culture is responsible for differences in cross-national consumer complaint behavior.

The purpose of this study is to describe in detail a recent eBay fraud and to provide a related framework of teaching tools for courses in business law and ethics. The case describes an eBay transaction involving return fraud. This study highlights the problem of fraudulent purchase tactics by an eBay buyer who exploited the eBay feedback mechanism and administrative procedures in attempt to obtain a price reduction or to receive the item for free as a concession.

The work is a case study providing the details and background information on an original eBay return fraud. The case itself provides the source documentation and some background on the eBay platform and its rules. The Appendix provides a set of teaching instructions and discussion questions with model answers related to the specifics of the case.

The eBay resolution of the matter is provided in the Epilogue section of the Appendix. All negative feedback by the buyer against the seller in an attempt to get the item for free was removed by eBay, and the buyer further relinquished all selling privileges on eBay.

This study is unique because it provides the original eBay listing and screenshots of eBay correspondence and the eBay resolution of the matter. The specific type of return fraud is also unusual, as it was directed by the eBay buyer against the seller which appears to be an evolving problem for online retail.

This paper examines the role of professional associations, governmental agencies, and international accounting and auditing bodies in promulgating standards to deter and detect fraud, domestically and abroad. Specifically, it focuses on the role played by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), and other national and foreign professional associations, in promulgating auditing standards and procedures to prevent fraud in financial statements and other white‐collar crimes. It also examines several fraud cases and the impact of management and employee fraud on the various business sectors such as insurance, banking, health care, and manufacturing, as well as the role of management, the boards of directors, the audit committees, auditors, and fraud examiners and their liability in the fraud prevention and investigation.

The internet provides a mechanism by which buyers and sellers meet in order to exchange goods and services online with the utmost convenience. However, there are many risks associated with the internet which, if left unattended, could continue deterring the adoption of e-commerce. These risks ultimately diminish online consumer trust in e-commerce. Web assurance models have been designed in an attempt to encourage online consumer trust through assurance. Unfortunately, many of these models have been inadequate in certain areas and this research aims to improve on them.

It presents a comprehensive empirical survey on trustworthiness issues and e-commerce assurance models and proposes a new compliance-based e-commerce assurance model that integrates adaptive legislation, adaptive e-commerce-related standards and cooperative rating. The intelligent cooperative rating is based on the analytic hierarchy process and page-ranking techniques.

Some findings of this research study influence the thinking that some of the untrustworthy sites are posing as trustworthy sites because they display web seals. The findings can be used as a reference guide to understand e-commerce assurance models, as well as the effectiveness of ensuring the trustworthiness of these models.

The research presents deployment analysis on the use of the proposed compliance model through real life scenarios categorized as trustworthy and untrustworthy e-commerce web sites.

This research is relevant to information management and computer security in e-commerce as a development of a newly proposed e-commerce assurance model for trustworthiness safety inspections and knowledge generation as a reference guide to understand e-commerce trustworthiness in general and e-commerce assurance models in particular detail.

This study conducts a systematic literature review of e-tail product returns research. E-tail product returns are essentially acquisition of products that have been sold through purely online or brick-and-click channels and then returned by consumer to business.

Using a systematic literature review protocol, we identified 75 peer-reviewed articles on e-tail product returns, conducted bibliometric analysis and content analysis of the articles and summarised our findings.

The findings reveal that the subject of e-tail returns is a new research area; academics have started to investigate several aspects of e-tail returns through different research methodologies and theoretical foundations. Further research is required in leading e-commerce countries and on key areas such as omni-channel returns management, customer satisfaction and service, the impact of resources such as people skills, the benefits of technology and IT systems in managing e-tail returns.

The study offers a summative account of current e-tail knowledge areas, which can serve as a reference guide for e-tailers to develop strategies for more efficient and competitive product returns.

This study contributes theoretically by developing clusters of key themes or knowledge areas about e-tail returns. It also provides a conceptual framework for e-tail returns management, which can be used as a springboard for further empirical research.