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In the recent climate of consumerism and consumer focused care, health and social care needs to be more responsive than ever before. Consumer needs and preferences can be elicited with accepted validity and reliability only by strict methodological control, customerisation of the questionnaire and skilled interpretation. To construct, conduct, interpret and implement improved service provision, requires a trained work force and infrastructure. This article aims to appraise various aspects of consumer surveys and to assess their value as effective service improvement tools.

The customer is the sole reason organisations exist. Consumer surveys are used worldwide as service and quality of care improvement tools by all types of service providers including health service providers. The article critically appraises the value of consumer surveys as service improvement tools in health services tool and its future applications.

No one type of survey is the best or ideal. The key is the selection of the correct survey methodology, unique and customised for the particular type/aspect of care being evaluated. The method used should reflect the importance of the information required.

Methodological rigor is essential for the effectiveness of consumer surveys as service improvement tools. Unfortunately so far there is no universal consensus on superiority of one particular methodology over another or any benefit of one specific methodology in a given situation. More training and some dedicated resource allocation is required to develop consumer surveys. More research is needed to develop specific survey methodology and evaluation techniques for improved validity and reliability of the surveys as service improvement tools. Measurement of consumer preferences/priorities, evaluation of services and key performance scores, is not easy.

Consumer surveys seem impressive tools as they provide the customer a voice for change or modification. However, from a scientific point‐of‐view their credibility in service improvement in terms of reproducibility, reliability and validity, has remained debatable.

This artcile is a critical appraisal of the value of consumer surveys as a service improvement tool in health services – a lesson which needs to be learnt.

The dominant worldview among marketers is one of technology optimism, which holds that technological advances influence consumers and businesses in positive ways. In direct contrast to this perspective, I advance the thesis that at the organizational frontlines where marketers interact with consumers by observing, informing, persuading, negotiating and co-creating with, and entertaining them, technology commonly produces unforeseen and unexpected effects on consumers with significant negative implications for marketers. The result is Adverse Technology-Consumer Interactions (ATCIs). Marketing practitioners play an instrumental role in producing and exacerbating ATCIs. Yet, I argue they have few incentives to fully investigate the underlying reasons, understand their scope, or find solutions to these potentially troublesome phenomena. Academic researchers, however, are uniquely poised to identify ATCIs, investigate them in depth by considering their industry-wide and society-wide import, develop appropriate theoretical frameworks, and design and test solutions to alleviate their effects. I develop these ideas by considering two ATCIs, falling response rates to customer surveys and customer reactance to frequent price changes. I also point out promising research opportunities for both these phenomena.

Many consumer-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies suggest a positive link between the responsibility demonstrated by a company and consumers’ intention to favor the company in their purchases. Yet an analogous causal effect between corporate social and financial performances is not evident. This chapter conceptualizes how social desirability and cynicism contribute to the discrepancy between consumers’ attitudes and their actual purchase behavior, and analyzes why consumer choices indicated in surveys do not consistently convert into actions.

We develop a conceptual framework based on hybrid choice modeling to estimate the impact of two new variables, Corporate Social Desirability and Corporate Social Cynicism, on CSR research. The model presented synthesizes research findings from the fields of CSR and psychology with a discrete choice methodology that allows inclusion of psychological aspects as latent variables.

The goal of the framework is to bridge the gap between choices stated by consumers in CSR surveys and their actual choices by quantifying and extracting the effects of biases that otherwise threaten the validity of such survey results. As the next step, the practical value of the model must be evaluated through empirical research combining a CSR choice study with social desirability and cynicism measurement.

The framework proposes a novel way of controlling CSR surveys for potential biases created by social desirability and cynicism and enables quantification of this impact, with potential application to other fields where psychological aspects may distort research results. Future empirical evidence based on the framework may also offer new insights into the mechanisms by which the two biases distort findings.

The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is especially relevant in the context of Indonesian Airline companies. Therefore, many airline customers in Indonesia are still in doubt about it, or even do not use it. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for e-services adoption and empirically examines the factors influencing the airlines customers in Indonesia in using e-services offered by the Indonesian airline companies. Taking six Indonesian airline companies as a case example, the study investigated the antecedents of e-services usage of Indonesian airlines. This study further examined the impacts of motivation on customers in using e-services in the Indonesian context. Another important aim of this study was to investigate how ages, experiences and geographical areas moderate effects of e-services usage.

The study adopts a positivist research paradigm with a two-phase sequential mixed method design involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. An initial research model was first developed based on an extensive literature review, by combining acceptance and use of information technology theories, expectancy theory and the inter-organizational system motivation models. A qualitative field study via semi-structured interviews was then conducted to explore the present state among 15 respondents. The results of the interviews were analysed using content analysis yielding the final model of e-services usage. Eighteen antecedent factors hypotheses and three moderating factors hypotheses and 52-item questionnaire were developed. A focus group discussion of five respondents and a pilot study of 59 respondents resulted in final version of the questionnaire.

In the second phase, the main survey was conducted nationally to collect the research data among Indonesian airline customers who had already used Indonesian airline e-services. A total of 819 valid questionnaires were obtained. The data was then analysed using a partial least square (PLS) based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to produce the contributions of links in the e-services model (22% of all the variances in e-services usage, 37.8% in intention to use, 46.6% in motivation, 39.2% in outcome expectancy, and 37.7% in effort expectancy). Meanwhile, path coefficients and t-values demonstrated various different influences of antecedent factors towards e-services usage. Additionally, a multi-group analysis based on PLS is employed with mixed results. In the final findings, 14 hypotheses were supported and 7 hypotheses were not supported.

The major findings of this study have confirmed that motivation has the strongest contribution in e-services usage. In addition, motivation affects e-services usage both directly and indirectly through intention-to-use. This study provides contributions to the existing knowledge of e-services models, and practical applications of IT usage. Most importantly, an understanding of antecedents of e-services adoption will provide guidelines for stakeholders in developing better e-services and strategies in order to promote and encourage more customers to use e-services. Finally, the accomplishment of this study can be expanded through possible adaptations in other industries and other geographical contexts.

The aim of this article is to consolidate the theory relating to longitudinal attitude surveys, and supplement it with knowledge gained from the execution of an annual attitude survey of consumers.

First, the article presents a distillation of current knowledge concerning longitudinal research; attitudes and behaviour; measurement of attitudes; and conduct of attitude surveys. Following that, a case study is carried out to survey consumer attitudes. This survey, which is intended to predict future behaviour and monitor changes in consumers' attitudes in response to socio‐political and economic changes in the food and agricultural market environment, is then discussed.

The findings of a series of annual surveys of consumers' attitudes first conducted in 1997 and continued annually to 2004 include: British farmers are viewed as “good food producers”; farms are businesses, which whilst forming the financial backbone of the rural community are at present members of a struggling industry; and there is agreement that the Government does not care for the countryside.

The survey on which the findings and the best practices are based upon relates to the consumers' attitudes in response to changes in the food and agricultural market environment. Further research would be required to verify the findings in respect of other market sections.

The article presents a checklist of eight good practices relating to the conduct of longitudinal attitude survey work.

Attitude surveys are a popular means of gathering market research data. Much has been written about attitudes and the conduct of ad hoc attitude surveys. However, much less has been published concerning longitudinal attitude surveys. The study reports empirical findings in an important context, that is: changes in consumers' attitudes in response to changes in the food and agricultural market environment.

The consumer input to corporate marketing decisions is provided by relatively few types of consumer survey. These survey types, however, are given comparatively little attention in research and teaching in marketing. Courses are concerned mainly with data collection and analysis and not the links, via these consumer surveys, to management. decision. To provide a focus for academic research and teaching, this paper makes a classification of the main types of consumer survey in three main dimensions – corporate project management phase, consumer product use stage and consumer decision level allied to level of marketing strategy, This typology provides an exhaustive and mutually exclusive classification that highlights the connections between studies as well as the links to marketing theory such as segmentation. It suggests a more systematic approach to the design of corporate consumer research programmes as well as to research skills training and a metrics of marketing.

Increasing consumer interest in nutrition has led to an increased interest in nutrition labelling. Finds that over half (58 per cent) of the sample surveyed read nutrition labels. Nutrition labelling was found to have an impact on consumer purchase decisions. Of those consumers who read nutritional labels, 81 per cent use them in their evaluation of food products. Consumers have to deduce information from nutrition labels in their current format. Survey findings reinforce previous work carried out in this area, particularly in the context of consumer categorization of food products as “good” or “bad”. For example, consumer avoidance of “negative” nutrients is apparent throughout the survey. The majority of respondents, who read labels, indicated that they search out information on nutrients they wish to avoid. In general, since time allocated to shopping for food products is limited, the format of nutritional labelling needs further consideration and improvement. The concept of nutrition should be incorporated into food companies’ marketing strategy.

This paper shows that the University of Michigan’s ”Survey of Consumers“ can be useful in predicting the direction of change in five U.S. dollar exchange rates. The explanatory power, however, is contingent on the particular survey question employed and the forecast horizon under consideration. The study finds that the survey question regarding car purchases does especially well in predicting the future direction of exchange rate movements. Furthermore, the results generally indicate that the survey is more useful when making distant (i.e., 12‐month ahead) currency forecast than for making near term (i.e., 3‐month and 6‐month ahead) predictions.

This study investigates the relation of bank loan delinquencies to Fed Survey delinquency data from 2003 to 2017. Bank-generated loans have lower delinquencies than all Fed Survey loan types. Survey mortgage and auto loan delinquencies are positively related to bank loan delinquencies indicating complimentary delinquency decisions for borrowers. Conversely, student loans delinquencies are negatively related to bank loans, consistent with borrowers substituting student loan payments for bank debt for the entire sample period. Student loan delinquencies are negatively related to per-capita bankruptcy, and all other types of debt have a positive relation. The relation between Fed Survey loan delinquencies and bank-generated loan delinquencies is time varying and changed after the financial crisis in 2008.

Seemingly Unrelated Regression is used to study delinquencies for three bank loan types and whether or not they are related to Fed Survey loan delinquencies. The sample is split into pre-financial crisis before 2008 and post-crisis after 2008.

Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) results show that bank delinquencies for second mortgages and “Other” loan types are consistently complementary to Fed Survey mortgage loan delinquencies. Fed Survey auto loans delinquencies are also consistent with a complimentary relation, and these results are largely driven by the relation after the financial crisis of 2008 since pre-crisis regression results are not significant for every dependent variable. Credit card loan delinquencies have a negative and substitute relation with bank-generated first mortgage loan delinquencies prior to the crisis in 2008, and with bank-generated second mortgages after the crisis. Conversely, student loan delinquencies from the Fed Survey are negatively and significantly related to bank mortgages for the entire sample period, but only with bank-generated first mortgages after 2008. The student loan delinquency results are consistent with income smoothing, on average, although this is not explicitly tested at the micro level since this study uses macro-level data and not borrower-specific data. These findings are also consistent with conventional wisdom that student loans provide “financial slack” and borrower flexibility.

A limiting factor is this study uses macro-level data and not borrower-specific data.

Empirical findings are consistent with prior research that student loans provide income smoothing and “financial slack,” and borrowers with payment challenges will pay other debt before student loans.

Borrowers in financial trouble tend to be delinquent for all debt, and more so for student debt.

To investigate whether Fed Survey delinquencies of auto loans, first mortgages, student loans and credit card loans from all sources have complementary or substitution effects with bank debt at a macro level. The study investigates whether bank debt follows “market trends” as a complementary effect, or if bank debt has a negative relation to other debt indicating a substitution effect.