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The purpose of this paper is to identify and compare different groups of customers’ perceptions (i.e. stayers, switchers, and heavy switchers) of several loyalty antecedents such as satisfaction, trust, service quality, switching costs, marketing communication, and loyalty itself.

This study was carried out based on data collected through a questionnaire from 353 telecommunication services users in Portugal and using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and analysis of variance.

The three types of customers – stayers, switchers, and heavy switchers – clearly differ among themselves. Stayers differ from switchers regarding their communication efforts perceptions, and from heavy switchers in their loyalty, satisfaction, and trust levels. Switchers differ from heavy switchers in their loyalty levels.

Future research should examine differences between customers taking into account the impact of their personality, price sensitiveness, and orientation toward the adoption of new technologies.

As there are several differences among stayers, switchers, and heavy switchers, companies should not only recognize the heterogeneity of their customer base, but also target their marketing efforts accordingly.

This study is one of the few identifying groups of customers perception’s toward service providers. It also complements previous research by splitting them intro three different groups and by analyzing their behaviors across a set of previously unexamined marketing variables.

This paper outlines the research agenda of the food deserts in British Cities project, and reports findings from a set of qualitative focus group studies conducted following a major retail provision intervention in a low‐income, deprived area of Leeds. It explores the impacts of the transformation of physical access to full‐range retailing in the area, and assesses the views of the residents who had switched their main food source as a result of the intervention compared to those who had not. Finally, it interrogates residents’ perceptions of the impact (if any) of the intervention on their food consumption habits and their potential to eat a more healthy diet.

This article analyses in what way Swiss academic institutions have had a favourable or unfavourable influence on changing research practices by following developments in four scientific areas – Bose-Einstein Condensates, Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Large-Scale Assessments in education research and Computerised Corpus Linguistics. Based on empirical evidence, we argue that overall a number of institutional conditions have had a positive influence on the decisions of scientists to dare a switch to a new scientific field. One finds, however, also differences in the working of these institutional conditions leading to quicker or slower developments of the four selected scientific areas.

Agent technology has been applied to design new services simplifying product and merchant brokering in several customer industries. The term “shopbots” is now generally used to characterize these services. Proposes that shopbots will make customers more rational and less loyal and that loyalty will be adversely affected. Proposes that different forms of loyalty are affected by shopbot access and that the effect of shopbots on loyalty may differ among customer groups. These propositions were tested in an experimental study of customers choosing a financial service provider. The findings suggest that cognitive loyalty is the loyalty form most affected by shopbot access and that the loyalty effects of shopbots depend upon customers’ past switching behavior. However, no effects of shopbots on stronger forms of loyalty were found. Even though this research is exploratory, it suggests that financial service providers may not fear the effects of shopbots on the behavior of their affective and conative loyal customers. It also suggests that to avoid the threat of shopbots, strong forms of loyalty should be developed in long‐term relationships between providers and customers.

Prior research provides evidence that firms make accounting choices to avoid violation of debt covenant provisions and the resulting costs of technical default. We extend this research by asking why some firms refrain from making accounting policy changes when faced with costs of technical default. We considered two possible explanations. First, we hypothesise that these defaulting firms may lack the flexibility to make accounting changes. Second, we hypothesise that these defaulting firms may lack incentive to change accounting methods. Results confirm prior research and indicate that defaulting firms make more accounting changes than non‐defaulting firms. The decision by defaulting firms to change or not change accounting methods during the three years ending in the year of a technical default of debt covenants can be explained in part by the ability of the firm and by the incentives of the firm to make a change.

The purpose of this paper is to study the internationalization of family firms, exploring specifically if the transition from family control to non-family control (losing family managerial influence) affects a firm’s export activity.

Based on panel data for Spanish firms from 2006 to 2012, a random effect tobit and probit regression and a propensity score matching were run on a sample of 225 firms moving from family to non-family control (switchers) matched with 4,213 firms remaining under family control (non-switchers).

Although from a static viewpoint family controlled firms export less than their non-family counterparts, from a dynamic perspective family firms remaining under family control (non-switchers) are associated with a fall in export activity in comparison with family firms transitioning to non-family control (switchers). Both findings are related back to the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective.

The findings of this study shed light on the trade-offs that family firms experience in order to balance their desire to increase their internationalization (and the risk associated with it) and their wish to maintain SEW.

The findings should encourage family owners and managers to take long-term strategic decisions leading to internationalization which, although risky, will prevent subsequent loss of SEW in terms of family control.

This work provides evidence concerning family firms’ willingness to undertake risky activities, such as internationalization, considering the threats to their wealth.

This paper aims to examine the factors associated with a household business entrepreneur’s decisions to formalise the firm at a multidimensions level.

The data set is a panel of 2,336 SMEs and household businesses from Vietnamese SME surveys during the 2005–2015 period.

This study elucidates how firm-level resources, entrepreneur characteristics and costs of doing business influence an entrepreneur’s decision to enter, the speed and the degree of formality.

This study provides insight into the origins of an entrepreneur’s decisions to the multidimensions of business formality through the lenses of the resource-based view, entrepreneurship and institution theories.

This paper aims to investigate the dynamics of a coordinate monopoly with established, risk-neutral firms; how these firms compete by adjusting prices; and when new competition(s) might enter the market with expectations of making more profits than any of the incumbents.

All results are established on the intuition of systems research and the concept of Nash equilibria of game theory.

Established results include how in a developed marketplace, risk neutrality would lead to stagnation in profits and irrational decision on pricing, and a sufficient and necessary condition under which new competition(s) would enter, although the market is coordinately monopolized.

Conclusions presented are initial results in the direction of research. More real-life-like, asymmetrical conditions need to be considered to see what variations of similar results could hold true.

Presented are an operational aspect on how to compete although the consequent level of profits might not change much or any at all and how some of the key issues on market entry timing are theoretically resolved.

This work indicates that for the minimum objective of business survival, existing firms, no matter how established, have to without any choice participate in market competition and look for new market opportunities.

Other than the established thought-provoking results, this work is the first of its kind. It organically combines recent achievements of systems research with game theory to explore issues of marketing, market entry timing and the dynamics of business firms’ behaviors.

The purpose of this paper was to better understand motivations for CSA participation with an emphasis on membership retention. Food-related and community-related motivations for participation were examined.

Current and former CSA members across Wisconsin completed an online survey. Participants were grouped based on their CSA membership status. The four groups were as follows: Keepers (current members planning to renew their membership with their current farm); Switchers (current members planning to switch their membership to a new farm); Stoppers (current members planning to stop purchasing a CSA share from any farm) and Formers (former CSA members). The groups were compared through ANOVA.

Keepers had stronger community-related motivations, and they had more favorable perceptions about communication with their CSA farm. Food-related motivations were reduced among Stoppers but were similar among Keepers and Switchers.

This study used online purposive sampling; thus, generalizability of results is limited. Switchers were identified as a distinct group that trends younger and appears more willing to change CSA farms but is committed to CSA because of food-related motivations.

Investment by CSA farmers in community building may improve member retention. They may achieve this, in part, through communication with members that taps into factors related to community, such as offering support and making emotional connections. Offering exemplary product is broadly important to keep individuals committed to CSA, but it does not uniquely keep individuals invested in a particular CSA farm the way community-related motivations may.

This is the first analysis to highlight differences between individuals who plan to renew their membership with their current CSA farm, those who plan to switch CSA farms and those who plan to stop purchasing CSA.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the low placement participation rate among international students compared with UK students, by examining the impact of individual factors such as gender and domicile and academic achievement such as prior academic qualification, prior academic results and subsequent academic results on students’ choices of degree programmes as well as their graduation status.

This study adopts a quantitative approach by using 268 accounting and finance students in a UK university.

The analyses show that UK students on entry are 35 per cent more likely than international students to choose a degree programme with a placement module after controlling for individual and academic differences. Among females, international students who switch to a degree without placement following entry significantly and statistically underperformed their UK counterparts who complete a degree with placement from the first year onwards. This trend is not observable among male students. Instead, male students who select and graduate with a degree without placement are the worst performers, regardless of their nationalities.

The quantitative data used here are collected in a UK institution so the results reported here may lack generalisability.

International students need to know more about the benefits of undertaking placements on their academic performance and the development of generic skills before entry. Moreover, UK universities need to provide more assistance to international students, especially females about how to secure placements and how to widen their search for potential placements.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explain the low participation rate among international students in UK higher education.