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The purpose of this paper is to advance a model for identifying the superior customer value proposition that evolves through a process of corporate transformation while simultaneously seeking to align this value proposition with regional expansion and growth of Caribbean financial firms.

The study utilizes a cross-sectional design. Telephone surveys were used to collect data from 80 financial firms and 243 customers across ten Caribbean countries. Structural equations modeling was employed for data analysis.

The main findings are that corporate transformation of financial firms was a significant driver of customer orientation, consumer confidence, quality, flexibility, branding, and firm capability while lower prices (such as interest rates, fees, and charges), consumer confidence, and branding were the key drivers of regional expansion and growth.

The study identified six value-added dimensions along with price as the superior customer value proposition of financial firms. These dimensions should be incorporated in the business model for transformation and growth of these firms.

The study extended the literature through development of a customer value proposition model that was primarily built on Levitt’s (1965) product life cycle conceptualization and augmented by Porter’s generic strategies.

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First is to explore the role of some customer personality traits in explaining customer satisfaction in mobile services. Second is to explore the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty of mobile services customers, mediated by attitude-to-brand considering the fierce competition and the fast industry growth.

The study used a cross-sectional design and a survey of mobile service customers. For the empirical analysis, the structural equation models were applied (partial least squares).

The results suggest that customers who are agreeable, neurotic and open to new experience are more likely to be satisfied with mobile services than other personality types. In addition, the satisfaction-loyalty link is fully mediated by attitude-to-brand. Hence, satisfaction is not a direct driver of loyalty in the mobile services business and loyalty is achieved when service providers simultaneously focussed on the customers’ satisfaction and their attitudes towards brands.

The study identified the personality trait drivers of customer satisfaction and the path to customer loyalty in the mobile services sector. With this information, mobile service providers should be better able to target and retain customers.

The study offers new insights into customer behaviour by using personality traits to identify requirements for achieving customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and attitude-to-brand.

El propósito de este estudio es doble. Primero, explorar el papel de algunos rasgos de personalidad del cliente para explicar su satisfacción en los servicios móviles. Segundo, explorar la relación entre la satisfacción y la lealtad de los clientes de servicios móviles, mediada por la actitud hacia la marca considerando la feroz competencia y el rápido crecimiento de la industria.

El estudio utilizó un diseño transversal y una encuesta de clientes de servicios móviles. Para el análisis empírico se utilizaron modelos de ecuaciones estructurales (PLS)

Los resultados sugieren que los clientes agradables, neuróticos y abiertos a nuevas experiencias tienen más probabilidades de estar satisfechos con los servicios móviles que otros tipos de clientes. Además, el vínculo satisfacción-lealtad está mediado por la actitud hacia la marca. Por lo tanto, la satisfacción no es un precursor directo de la lealtad en servicios móviles. La lealtad se logra cuando el proveedor de servicios se centra simultáneamente en la satisfacción del cliente y cuida la actitud hacia la marca.

El estudio identificó los rasgos de personalidad de los clientes que llevan a la satisfacción y el camino hacia la lealtad del cliente en el sector de los servicios móviles. Con esta información, los proveedores de servicios de telefonía móvil deberían estar mejor capacitados para dirigirse a los clientes y retenerlos.

El estudio ofrece nuevas perspectivas sobre el comportamiento del cliente al utilizar los rasgos de la personalidad para identificar los requisitos que permiten lograr la satisfacción del cliente, su lealtad y mejorar la actitud hacia la marca.

This study aims to analyse the appropriateness of the information content and organization of multinational companies' (MNCs) web sites for Turkish local cultural values with the aim of supporting global brand management decisions.

In order to gather data for the study, 108 MNCs' web sites are analysed by content analysis which is an objective, systematic and quantitative way of conducting information about communication content.

It is seen from the analyses that foreign multinationals could adapt their web sites' information content to local markets appropriately and sufficiently. However, the face (language) and the way (menu) that these data are presented were not adapted as compared to information content on their web sites.

This study has mainly considered the company side of web sites and neglects the consumer side. Future researchers interested in this area could also investigate how consumers perceive adaptation activities of foreign multinationals through web sites in their countries.

One of the major decisions MNCs face in using web sites regards how to organize and present the web site content to fit local needs and values. Although adaptation becomes a major concern, there is no standard for the multicultural content of web sites. There are several cross‐cultural studies in the literature which compare countries by correlating the analysed variables with Hofstede's scores. Rather than comparing home and host countries of foreign multinationals based on certain dimensions, it is found to be more appropriate to assess on what terms and to what degree these companies could adapt or standardize their global communication channels, namely their web sites, in Turkey.

Refers to the value to property companies of tax losses and reliefs. Discusses the position of property investment companies and property trading companies. Deals with mixed activity companies and groups and capital allowances. Concludes that the emphasis is now on seeking to utilize falls in value for tax purposes rather seeking to postpone the taxation effects of increases in value.

There is a growing consciousness of the need for general management training. This article examines some of the reasons for this and suggests how the increased demand for such training should be met. It also highlights some of the problems which need to be overcome before general management courses can become fully effective. This article is based partly on research undertaken with Michael Argyle, Lecturer in Social Psychology at Oxford, for the Acton Society Trust. The results of the research were published last month in ‘Training Managers’ (Acton Society Trust, 10s 6d)

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of specific knowledge management resources (i.e. knowledge management enablers and processes) on organizational performance.

The study uses survey data from 189 managers and structural equation modeling to assess the links between specific knowledge management resources and organizational performance.

The results show that some knowledge resources (e.g. organizational structure, knowledge application) are directly related to organizational performance, while others (e.g. technology, knowledge conversion), though important preconditions for knowledge management, are not directly related to organizational performance.

The survey findings were based on a single dataset, so the same observations may not apply to other settings. The survey also did not provide in‐depth insight into the key capabilities of individual firms and the circumstances under which some resources are directly related to organizational performance.

The study provides evidence linking particular knowledge resources to organizational performance. Such insights can help firms better target their investments and enhance the success of their knowledge management initiatives.

Prior research often utilizes composite measures when examining the knowledge management‐organizational performance link. This bundling of the dimensions of knowledge management allows managers and researchers to focus on main effects but leaves little room for understanding how particular resources relate to organizational performance. This study addresses this gap by assessing the links between specific knowledge management resources and organizational performance. The results show that some resources are directly related to organizational performance, while others are not.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of two distinct geographic pathways to internationalization for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Regional and global pathways are juxtaposed to study the influence on export performance of selected key intangible resources, namely, innovation, human resource management, networking and the firm's experience.

Building upon a resource‐based view of the firm, Tobit regression models are used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 2,657 Italian manufacturing firms.

The paper provides empirical evidence that the determinants of SME export performance vary in line with the geographic scope of internationalization. While product innovation (innovation) positively impacts on SME export performance, irrespective of export destination, other factors do so selectively. For example, location in industrial districts (networking) and the deployment of external managers (human resource management) exclusively exert their positive impact respectively on regional and global export performance. The firm's age (experience) does not seem to guarantee success on regional or global export markets.

Investing in product innovation and hiring specialist non‐family executives are associated with success on global export markets. Industry clustering provides the resources that are useful for internationalization up to a point (export growth in regional markets), but it is not effective in the case of expansion on distant international markets.

Exporting beyond the regional market exposes firms to the liability of foreignness to a greater degree, thus requiring more dedicated and specialized resources and competences. This paper supports the hypothesis that export drivers differ between regional and global markets and calls for a definition of export performance that distinguishes between them.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether cultural backgrounds of nations are expressed through the web design of their companies. Actually, it investigates whether, in countries characterized by the same cultural matrix and language but by different national backgrounds, the cultural specificities of a country are a critical success factor for web design and enablers of business excellence.

Starting from a deep literature review, four research hypotheses on the relationship between cultural background and web design are formulated. By employing both the content analysis and the cross-tabulation methodology, these hypotheses are tested.

Brazilian, Portuguese, Angolan and Macanese web sites show that companies operating in these countries are aware that cultural background is a necessary success factor to consider for improving cross-cultural management of computer-mediated communication. Indeed, the findings confirm that the internet is not a culturally neutral communication medium. By providing evidences of web site cultural adaptation, this study supports the use of a targeted approach to web site design and provides managerial guidelines for improving business excellence of companies’ online environment.

The paper offers insights into the topic of a culturally adapted computer-mediated communication for improving consumer experience.

Whilst some may argue that e‐commerce design literature can be applied to the designing of mobile commerce channels, it is an assumption that may come at the expense of the retailer. The purpose of this paper is to identify which marketing design elements could be integrated within a retailer's mobile strategy and suggest the importance of empirical testing. An academic or practitioner must primarily understand the abundance of marketing tools that can be integrated into a mobile strategy before they can begin to investigate the consumer effects.

A literature review of online and mobile design elements is undertaken, in order to develop and illustrate a holistic framework of stimuli for commercial and academic appreciation. Although literature regarding the variety of marketing design elements online is profuse, a holistic framework currently does not exist, an absence that this paper fulfils.

The paper collates and identifies 18 individual marketing design stimuli classified within four stimulus categories relating to their purpose and form.

Literature concerning e‐commerce design and strategy is currently prevalent; however, due to the immaturity of mobile commerce, literature is deficient concerning the strategic design and implications of mobile applications. Although £68.2 billion was spent online in 2011, mobile commerce sales represented less than 5 per cent, highlighting an immediate requirement for research into how such sales could be improved.

The terms are not synonymous; their differences are mainly of function and areas of administration. Community Health is used in national health service law; environmental health to describe the residuum of health functions remaining with local authorities after the first NHS/Local Government reorganization of 1974. Previously, they were all embraced in the term public health, known for a century or more, with little attention to divisions and in the field of administration, all local authority between county and district councils. In the dichotomy created by the reorganization, the personal health services, including the ambulance service, may have dove‐tailed into the national health service, but for the remaining functions, there was a situation of unreality, which has persisted. It is difficult to know where community health and environmental health begin and end. From the outside, the unreality may be more apparent than real. The Royal Commission on the NHS in their Report of last year state that leaving environmental health services with local authorities “does not seem to have caused any problems”—and this, despite the disparity in status of the area health authority and the bottom tier, local councils.