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The purpose of this paper is to adapt the market performance indicator (MPI), used by the European Commission to evaluate market conditions, over time, to show that the MPI explains actual switching behavior better than stated intent and satisfaction. While research on service provider switching has focused on the outcomes of service transactions and the benefits of switching, there is little research on how consumers view market conditions as being favorable or not for switching.

The authors used a mixed methodology of focus groups and longitudinal survey research of cell phone consumers to evaluate the effect of the MPI on satisfaction, perceptions of value, switching intentions and behavior.

The MPI was found to influence perceptions of satisfaction and value, and was found to contribute strongly to actual switching behavior. The results also showed that an improvement in the MPI or market conditions lead to a much greater relationship between it and actual switching behavior, suggesting that there may well be important threshold level, upon which greater switching behavior occurs.

The MPI provides marketers and policy-makers with benchmarks to compare the consumer welfare of different markets in different countries. Switching studies with MPI figures can be more easily generalized to different contexts.

This article examines the relationship among participation in decision‐making, employee’s perceptions of procedural justice and employee citizenship behavior. An employee’s perceptions of procedural justice is proposed to mediate the relationship between participation in decisionmaking and employee citizenship behavior. Data from 266 employees from 12 Kuwait business organizations indicate that: (1) participation in decision‐making is positively related to procedural justice perceptions, and (2) procedural justice perceptions mediate the relationship between participation in decision‐making and one of two organizational citizenship behavior dimensions.

Many aspects of organisational change are examined, including the cost of change, change for change′s sake and for stability′s sake, and the manager′s dilemma in having a foot in each camp, both disciplined and informal. It is concluded that stability and change must coexist and resilience is needed to balance the two, so that neither becomes overemphasised.

Develops a model of the service delivery process in the business‐to‐business context which extends the well‐known Gaps Model and accounts for major differences between the provider/consumer model and business‐to‐business relationships. Describes ongoing efforts to measure service quality in different business‐to‐business settings and contrasts them with the SERVQUAL approach. Also describes a new approach for creating business‐to‐business relationships as well as implications for managers given the task of creating a competitive advantage through a service quality initiative.

The paper presents important measurement approaches in the field of costumer satisfaction with services and applies those empirically for service bundles at the level of the tourism destination. After working out the most prominent characteristics of existing satisfaction concepts according to the American and the Scandinavian school of thought, the latter will be critically evaluated for its potential practical use in measuring guest satisfaction. Based on this preparatory work, the Importance‐Performance Analysis, the Implicit Importance Analysis and the Penalty‐Reward‐Contrast Analysis are implemented and show that differing satisfaction models will lead to varying results and hence, ambiguous implications for destination management. However, due to its model parsimony and methodical stringency the Penalty‐Reward‐Contrast Analysis will be retained as the most valuable instrument for measuring tourist satisfaction. The paper concludes with implications for the management of destinations and a brief outlook for further research.

Given the importance of relationship benefits in creating customer satisfaction, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of relationship benefits (special treatment benefits and confidence benefits) on relationship quality and word of mouth (WOM) for online retailers. The conditional mediating role of relationship quality between customer satisfaction and WOM is also examined.

A sample of 700 MBA students from two universities in Punjab (North India) has been used to collect data. Structural equation modelling and PROCESS Macro (Hayes (2017) have been used for data analysis (mod mod mediation).

When customers perceive high confidence benefits, special treatment benefits moderate the mediational role of relationship quality between customer satisfaction and WOM. Specific conditions under which use of confidence benefits and special treatment benefits are successful for online retailers have also been identified.

Tailored use of special treatment benefits with confidence benefits in appropriate combinations will help the online retailers in segmenting the customers and differentiating amongst them according to the customers’ receptivity towards these benefits. Marketers can devise communication strategies, create customer segments and position their services using the results obtained in the study.

The present study is the first of its kind which clarifies as to why the previous literature considered special treatment benefits as less relevant to customers. It also establishes the situations in which these benefits successfully moderate the effect of customer satisfaction in developing relationship quality and eliciting positive WOM in the Indian internet retailing context.

The purpose of this study is to present a comprehensive approach to studying organizational culture using “soft measures” to facilitate sustainable quality development in organizations. The purpose is also to present, discuss and compare the results from a survey designed to measure a company’s value base.

A number of different methods were used to collect soft data to study and measure organizational culture and at the same time influence the culture and the leadership within three organizations. One method, the survey, was used on two different occasions to obtain an overview of the culture within an organization and to investigate if the activities had influenced the culture and the leadership.

The application of soft measures used by leaders to study and develop organizational culture resulted in statistically significant positive changes in organizational work culture, according to a pre-post survey after a short period of one year.

The approach can be used by leaders in different types of organizations as the challenge of changing the organizational culture through the leadership seems to be a common challenge regardless of line of business.

The study shows the benefits of using a comprehensive approach to assess an organization’s culture based on qualitative measures and analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the implementation of the service profit chain as an entrepreneurial marketing initiative within a defined franchise system. An objective is also to evaluate these initiatives against service quality dimensions. Despite recognition of the merits and advantages of service profit chain initiatives of retention, related sales and referrals, little research has empirically addressed the perceptions of franchisees regarding these initiatives.

Methodology includes the empirical analysis of evaluating the effectiveness of service profit chain implementation, primarily based on initiatives of retention, related sales and referrals. Research methodology comprises the survey approach, using electronic media and Surveypro analysis. This is facilitated by descriptive and inferential statistical techniques using SPSS version 11.0 data analysis. Inferential significance tests include the ANOVA Kruskal‐Wallis hypothesis test; and the Cronbach's coefficient alpha.

Hypothesis tests highlight the significance of a positive association between service profit chain initiatives and service quality. All service profit chain initiatives were deemed appropriate. Item analysis highlights specific dominant service profit chain initiatives, linking key relationship marketing and service quality themes.

Findings are indicative of implementation opportunities, including measurement of loyalty within the system, developing customer feedback and complaint systems, and communicating the value of service profit chain enhancement within the franchise system.

Originality includes cognizance of entrepreneurial orientation, relationships and service quality when implementing service profit chain initiatives. Concurrent research opportunities include the implementation of other entrepreneurial marketing initiatives, including relationship marketing and benchmarking for best practice.

Using a sample of 103 Indian supervisor‐pharmaceutical sales representative dyads, this study hypothesized that procedural justice, distributive justice, perceived organizational support, and communication satisfaction with supervisor would have a stronger positive relationship to organizational citizenship behavior than to in‐role behavior. Supportive result was found for one variable, i.e., communication satisfaction with supervisor had a stronger relationship to organizational citizenship behavior.

This study explores the relationship between age and job satisfaction among Kuwaiti women employees in the Kuwaiti public government sector. The analysis is focused on the responses of the female employees to their own jobs as indicated by their level of job satisfaction. This study differs from previous investigations of job satisfaction in two principle ways: in dealing with the public sector (rather than the more common private in studies of the Middle East), in taking into account demographic variable such as age. The major findings of this research indicate that a much broader approach towards increasing satisfaction than focusing on the job itself is required.