1,720,987 research outputs found
Consumers’ propensity for rollover service contracts: the influences of perceived value, convenience and trust on service loyalty
No full textRollover contracts are becoming increasingly commonplace in a range of service markets. Such contracts automatically renew for a further term when a contractual period comes to an end. Rollover contracts represent a unique form of loyalty, because a consumer who signs a rollover contract at the time of initial purchase, signals a commitment to stay loyal to the firm before they have even experienced the service delivery. Prior studies of automatic renewal have predominantly been undertaken in the domain of consumer economics, and the psychological dimension of buyer decision making has yet to be explored. The desire for convenience was found to have the strongest influence on consumers’ propensity for rollover service contracts. Additionally, trust as a mediator of reputation, and perceived value also influence consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions for selecting these products. It is concluded that service providers should ensure that consumers recognize that there is an element of reciprocity which is mutually beneficial to both parties in the provision of such contracts.</p
Service contract type and consumer choice behavior: the contributory roles of perceived value, brand reputation and consumer incentives
No full textPurpose: to minimize customer churn, many service providers offer consumers the option of automatic contract renewal at the end of a contract period. Such agreements are known as rollover service contracts (RSCs). This research quantifies the effect of RSCs and other related factors, such as incentives, on consumers' service choice decisions.Design/methodology/approach: the study adopts choice-based conjoint analysis to assess the effect of RSCs on consumers' choices and to determine whether effect size varies when selecting a cell phone network or gym/leisure club provider, which represent lower-priced utilitarian and higher-priced hedonic services.Findings: it was found that RSCs produce negative perceptions and intended behaviors for the majority of consumers across different product types. Nevertheless, as explained by social exchange theory, many individuals may be persuaded to enter into a RSC on the basis of reciprocity if they are offered an incentive such as a price discount or free product add-on.Originality/value: in the marketing domain, this is the first comprehensive study to quantify the role of contract type among a range of other factors in consumers' decision-making when selecting a service. The authors' results offer context-specific implications for service marketers. First, RSCs are perceived more negatively in high-priced hedonistic categories, especially among those with lower incomes. Second, price discounts are more effective than product add-ons for motivating hedonic purchases, while product add-ons work better with utilitarian services
International Marketing Capabilities in the Digital Age: The Role of Social Media Technologies and Firm Cultural Intelligence
No full textThe marketing literature suggests that marketing capabilities are essential drivers of multinational organisations’ performance in foreign markets. Yet, the literature also indicates that cultural barriers represent significant challenges for the marketing department to develop international marketing capabilities that create value for foreign stakeholders. These challenges are even augmented by the emergence of social media platforms and the fast changes in the way consumers and firms communicate.
Previous studies highlighted the role of marketing capabilities in explaining firms’ performance in international markets. However, little is known about the specific drivers of international marketing capabilities in digital and social media marketing and how it differs from a domestic market. In this research, the marketing capabilities and strategic management literature were used to develop a new conceptualisation of the drivers of international marketing capabilities. The thesis investigates the impact of firm cultural intelligence and social media technologies on the development of international marketing capabilities in the context of multinational enterprises that established regional offices to manage their marketing operations in foreign markets.
Results explain that firm cultural intelligence and social media technologies have unique and complementary contributions to the development of international marketing capabilities, and these capabilities play an essential role in firm performance by lessening the adverse effects of foreign market turbulence.
This thesis offers a new conceptualisation to the drivers of international marketing capabilities by identifying two distinct resources that have unique and complementary contributions to the development of international marketing capabilities. The firm cultural intelligence and social media technologies significantly impact the development of international marketing capabilities and might be incorporated into future MNEs’ international marketing research. The research implies that regional marketing managers should build specific processes that embed the cultural factors of their stakeholders and their regional operating markets. These culturally intelligent processes and structures contribute to the development of marketing capabilities and complement other firm’s resources, such as social media technologies
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Is the well-known phrase “small is beautiful” true of small transnational education institutions?
Get PDFThe purpose of this research is to consider the potential attractiveness of operating a small international branch campus (IBC). Drawing upon resource-based and legitimacy theories, we examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the business model that is based on having a small institution size. The data for the study were obtained from expert informants who held a senior management position at one of twelve IBCs globally. The most commonly mentioned strengths of small IBCs cited by our participants related to the advantages and benefits received by students, such as small class sizes, individualised learning, better student-teacher relationships and a stronger sense of community. The weaknesses of small IBCs mentioned most by our participants related to financial and resource issues. We conclude that while there may be opportunities for higher education institutions to develop small campuses overseas that are successful, considerable risks exist. Many of the findings are also applicable to institutions operating in domestic settings
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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