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In spite of regular occurrence of product returns, research into determinants of returns services in retail businesses is still limited. To fill the gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate critical determinants of customer to business type product returns services in the retail industry.

The authors develop a framework of product returns services that consists of three major service categories and 16 returns service determinants. The criticality of the determinants of product returns management are assessed employing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based multi-criteria decision-making approach. Under AHP set up the authors interview retail operations managers of major retail firms in Australia to identify critical determinants of product returns services.

Results indicate that the most important returns services dimensions are the way in which returns services are handled through interaction, and the outcome of service delivery. The top five critical service determinants of product returns are related to: communication support service for customer, money back for any type of returns, customer support access, user-friendly interaction, and product replacement.

The findings of the study can be considered by senior managers of retail firms as a reference guide for designing efficient and effective returns service systems and developing strategies for competitive advantage through product returns, namely, customer retention.

The purpose of this study is to identify the structural determinants of e-returns service interactions, examine their impact on online shoppers' loyalty and propose returns service interventions from an interactive marketing perspective to facilitate consumer interaction and repeat purchase intentions with e-retailers.

This study empirically tests the research hypotheses based on cross-sectional survey data collected from Chinese online consumers who experienced interactions during the product returns process.

E-return service interaction includes three determinants: access support, friendly interaction and communication support. These interactions positively impact ease of return, returns satisfaction and customer loyalty. Returns satisfaction is a key mediator in the relationship between return service interaction and loyalty. Access support and friendly interaction have both direct and indirect effects on loyalty, while communication support has only an indirect effect.

This study contributes to understanding e-returns service interaction by analyzing its structural determinants, providing a robust scale foundation and analytical framework for future empirical research. Additionally, this study explores the driving role of e-returns service interaction in forming e-customer loyalty, offering a theoretical basis for the service recovery function of e-returns service interaction. It enriches the application of service recovery theory and relationship marketing theory in the field of interactive marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise customer-oriented product returns service (COPRS) performance, and develop and validate its measure.

This study uses qualitative consumer interviews and a quantitative survey to conceptualise, operationalise and validate the measure of COPRS performance.

The findings indicate 12 components with 46 measurable items for COPRS performance, including assurance, compensation, convenience, empathy, employee empowerment, explanation, feedback, information availability, reliability, responsiveness, tangibles and timeliness.

The measure could facilitate future empirical studies in the product returns service area. Future research could apply the COPRS performance measure across industries or in different settings such as cross-cultural or other retailing contexts.

Managers could evaluate their existing returns service performance in different key aspects based on the COPRS performance metrics and then improve their returns offerings accordingly. It also alerts practitioners to pay more attention to functional integration in designing returns service strategies to enhance customer satisfaction.

The study is one of the first to develop a new measure that substantiates the notion of an integrated marketing and reverse logistics interface, which is an underrepresented body of knowledge in the marketing and operations management disciplines.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

E‐service operations that attract and influence customers to buy products and/or services from specific sites is a complex process involving service design, marketing, and delivery, and encompass a number of essential determinants. Determinants that integrate all the three service processes form the basic framework on which a survey was conducted involving e‐service companies, and their views were ascertained on those determinants affecting e‐service operations. The aim of this paper is to provide a specific solution that isolates the critical determinants for e‐service operations. This paper demonstrated the usability of optimisation technique in isolating critical determinants based on companies’ responses. It was found that optimisation technique works well and is able to isolate optimum number of key determinants that are critical to e‐service operations. Pareto analysis and statistical significance test were also used to explore the relative importance of the determinants; however, it was found that they failed to identify specific and optimum number of critical determinants. The rationale and limitations of each technique and their applicability were also critically assessed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the most significant determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms in India and to investigate whether the capital structure models derived from foreign research provide convincing explanations for capital structure decisions of Indian firms by using multiple regression model.

Different conditional theories of capital structure like trade off theory, pecking order theory and agency theory are reviewed to formulate testable propositions concerning determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms. Multiple regression model and correlation matrix have been used as statistical tools to investigate the most significant determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms in India with the help of SPSS Software for a sample of top 100 manufacturing firms listed in BSE.

The results suggest that variables like asset composition, business risk and return on assets are positively related to debt ratio whereas firm size and debt service capacity are negatively related to debt ratio. The asset composition, business risk and return on assets appear to be significant determinants of capital structure, while firm size and debt service capacity are insignificant determinants.

The findings of this study are consistent with predictions of trade off, pecking order and agency theory of finance which helps in understanding financing behaviour of firms in India.

This study has laid some ground work to explore the determinants of capital structure of Indian firms upon which a more detailed evaluation could be based. Furthermore, empirical findings should help corporate managers to make optimal capital structure decisions.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that explores the most significant determinants of capital structure of manufacturing firms in India by using the most recent data. Moreover, this study also confirms that same factors affect the capital structure decisions of firms in developing countries as identified for firms in developed economies.

The rapid growth of the Internet has provided tremendous opportunities for service companies to offer quality services. The prime drivers and motivations for offering such services through the Net are to reduce transaction costs and to provide efficient and effective service to customers. But what are the determinants essential for building a successful electronic service (e‐service) operation? This paper addresses this specific issue by isolating the essential determinants from the available literature, and assessing them individually to obtain better insights and understanding. This could help companies to design and develop robust foundations on which to build successful e‐service operations. The boundaries between e‐service, e‐business and e‐commerce are blurred and sometimes confusing. This paper aims to clarify some of these ambiguities.

This research explores the expectation gap between tax clients’ motivations to hire tax preparers versus tax preparers’ perceptions of those client motivations. The study builds on limited previous research by examining preparers primarily from local firms rather than focusing solely on large international firms. The Gaps Model of Service Quality provides the theoretical lens for the paper. We employ the recently developed Taxpayer Motivation Scale (TMS) to measure four client motivations to hire a preparer: (1) saving money, (2) saving time, (3) legal compliance, and (4) protection from the IRS. We measure expectation gaps for those four motivations using matched tax preparer–tax client dyads.

We employ statistical sub-group analyses to investigate the effects of both clients’ and preparers’ demographic characteristics that influence tax-expectation gaps. Results suggest client gender plays a noteworthy role in predicting many of the gaps. In addition, complexity of tax returns, children in the home, and client perceptions of tax-preparer advocacy help explain gaps. Finally, female preparers appear to be relatively more sensitive to client needs. We conclude that tax preparers need to (1) better understand their clients’ motivations for hiring them and (2) reexamine marketing efforts to educate clients about preparer credentials and potential strategy options for tax preparation.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.