Customer Orientation Strategy Research Articles

Relationship between E-Commerce Strategies and Customer Loyalty among Multinational Enterprises in Kenya: A Case of Jumia

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between customer orientation strategies and customer loyalty among multinational enterprises on ecommerce platforms in Kenya. The study specifically focused establishing the relationship of e-marketing, e-service quality and e-trust on customer loyalty among Multinational Enterprises in Kenya.
 Methodology: The research design adapted in this study was descriptive research design. The population comprised of 1378 of ecommerce managers and ecommerce users. The study employed Taro Yamane’s formula to derive a sample of 310 managers. Primary data was collected using questionnaires on a Likert scale of 1-5, based on the three research questions. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze data using mean, standard deviation, frequency distributions, Pearson coefficient of correlation and simple linear regression analysis techniques. The results were then presented in tables and figures.
 Findings: In terms of influence of e-marketing on customer loyalty in Multinational Enterprises in Kenya, there was a statistically significant positive relationship between e-marketing and customer loyalty, (r=0.519, p<0.05). Linear regression analysis showed that 27% of variability in customer loyalty was explained by integration of e-marketing, which statistically and significantly had a positive effect on effective customer loyalty R2 = .27, 𝛽=.524, 𝑡= 10.419, 𝑝 < .05). In terms of influence of e-service quality on customer loyalty among Multinational Enterprises in Kenya, there was a statistically significant positive relationship between e-marketing and customer loyalty, (r=0.514, p<0.05). Linear regression analysis showed that 26.5% of variability in customer loyalty was explained by integration of e-service quality, which statistically and significantly had a positive effect on effective customer loyalty R2 = .265, 𝛽=.629, 𝑡= 10.147, 𝑝 < .05). In terms of the influence of e-trust on customer loyalty among Multinational Enterprises in Kenya, there was a statistically significant positive relationship between e-trust and customer loyalty, (r=0.597, p<0.05). Linear regression analysis showed that 35.6% of variability in customer loyalty was explained by integration of e-trust, which statistically and significantly had a positive effect on effective customer loyalty R2 = .356, 𝛽=.707, 𝑡= 12.505, 𝑝 < .05). In conclusion, Jumia uses various technologies to make e-commerce lively to customers.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that Jumia should invest more in personalized and targeted marketing strategies, focus on enhancing their website and mobile app interfaces to make them more user-friendly and intuitive. In addition, Jumia should prioritize building trust with their customers by ensuring the security of their personal and financial information. It is also recommended that for Jumia Kenya should implement security measures and communicate them effectively to customers to reassure them of the safety of their data.

Whose customer orientation? Exploring the relationships between leaders, team customer orientation climate and customer satisfaction

PurposeTeam leaders play a vital role in achieving superior team performance. However, their role in implementing the organizational customer orientation strategy is not well understood. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study investigates how team leader customer orientation affects team customer orientation climate and team performance (i.e. customer satisfaction) as well as the moderating role of transformational leadership in such effect.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds on survey data collected from matched team leaders, employees and customers nested in 81 service teams and employs hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings indicate that team leader customer orientation increases team customer orientation climate, which leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction. Leaders' transformational leadership moderates the link between a leader customer orientation and team customer orientation climate in an unexpected way. When a team leader is transformational, the team customer orientation climate is enhanced, regardless of the level of team leader customer orientation. When a team leader's transformational leadership is low, the higher leader customer orientation is and the higher team customer orientation climate is.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the customer orientation, transformational leadership and service literature by unraveling team leaders' roles in boosting team customer orientation climate and team effectiveness.

The role of customer relationship management in the formation of a system of marketing communications

Aim. The presented study analyzes customer relationship management and the role of consumers in the marketing communications system.Tasks. The authors show the importance of customer relationship management systems for the promotion of goods and services produced by the organization and the formation of a complex of marketing communications; explore existing problems and approaches to managing relationships with consumers; identify the components of CRM systems; determine the role and forms of user participation in the formation of media content and models of its consumption.Methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study includes works of Russian and foreign authors on the problem under consideration. General scientific methods of cognition are used to investigate major approaches to managing relationships with consumers, methods and tools of interaction with consumers, including through the creation of CRM systems.Results. It is substantiated that the organization’s clients are an invaluable asset of the business, and the relationship with them needs to be managed. A CRM system makes it possible to track the history of customer relationships and implement loyalty programs, involving consumers in the product’s value chain through the formation and use of user content. The outflow of consumers from traditional media to social networks and search engines facilitates the convergence of consumers and producers. Users participate in the creation of media products by writing reviews, recommendations, blogs, taking part in online training seminars, and engaging in digital art.Conclusions. Achieving long-term relationships with consumers, managing customer relationships, and using user content to promote goods and services contribute to improving the effectiveness of the organization’s marketing communications system. A CRM system is both a tool for automating the organization’s business processes and managing channels of interaction with consumers, and a customer orientation strategy. Information about geographical, demographic, behavioral and other characteristics of consumers contained in CRM systems helps to make the right marketing decisions.

Total Quality Management Practice on the Performance of Commercial Banks: Case of Sidian Bank Kenya Limited

In an effort to boost performance, Sidian Bank Kenya has been implementing quality management practices. However, the bank has faced difficulties as a result of demotivated employees and employees leaving the company in search of better opportunities. The bank hasn't even met the goals it set for itself, despite putting these total quality management measures into place. As a result, the study mostly looked into how Sidian Bank's performance in Nairobi City County, Kenya, is influenced by total quality management practices. A descriptive research design was used in the study. The Kenyan Sidian Bank was the focus of this study, and 66 managers and support staff were among the respondents. There were 66 respondents to the census. The questionnaires that were given to all of the respondents were used to collect the primary data. Despite not being a part of the final study, the pilot study included 10 bank employees who provided responses to the survey. The quantitative data shown in tables and figures was examined using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. Multiple regression analysis was used to establish the link between the variables. According to the study, continuous improvement, staff empowerment, top management commitment, and customer orientation all had a substantial impact on Sidian Bank performance. The study came to the conclusion that the goal of continuous improvement is to give employees the tools they need to deal with problems and gradually improve their work processes' effectiveness. Employee motivation has been shown to rise in direct correlation with employee empowerment through increased autonomy. Through its leadership and commitment to the overall quality management goal of customer satisfaction, top management fosters an organizational culture that places a priority on total quality and customer happiness, which in turn increases employee empowerment and job satisfaction. By implementing the appropriate management framework and customer-focused institutions to enhance business performance, customer orientation enables the bank to forge close relationships with its customers and generate revenue. The study suggested that the Bank set attainable objectives for the successful implementation of continuous improvement in order to reduce stress and maintain employee engagement on the successful path. By regularly soliciting and acting on feedback from employees, the bank should give them a voice and give them opportunities to advance through more autonomy, more responsibilities, or even a completely new position. In order to set an example and provide individuals with high-quality processes that they can use, the bank needs the commitment and engagement of its top managers across the board. The bank's customer orientation strategy should be viewed as a customer relationship management tool that aims to guarantee management of target customers and available capital in order to generate sustainable profits over the long term.

Implementation of Defensive Marketing Strategy MSME in the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic (Case Study on Warkop Angkringan Giras in Mojokerto Regency)

The purpose of this study was to analyze the Defensive Marketing Strategy carried out by the MSME Warkop Angkringan "Giras" in Mojokerto Regency, in order to be able to compete and keep its business sustainable in the COVID-19 pandemic conditions and obtain optimal profits. This research is an exploratory research where the approach used is a qualitative approach. Qualitative researchers seek to understand life experiences in context and the meanings associated with those experiences by using Focus Group Discussions. The sample amounted to 20 people, who were taken based on certain criteria. Data collection techniques by conducting open ended interviews in the hope of obtaining more complete information from the respondent. Data analysis used descriptive analysis method. The results showed that the Defensive Marketing Strategy in the MSME of warkop angkringan "Giras" Free wifi with a Mental Model is a Competitor Orientation strategy which includes symbols, prices, product differentiation and value promotion,, Customer Orientation Strategy includes superior customer service, innovative product features, and focus in a narrow market segment and a Market Drive Orientation Strategy consisting of Digital Marketing, Healthcare Procedures, crowding services, and Hours of Operation..

Cultural distance and customer orientation strategy of Chinese service MNEs under the belt and road initiative

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore mechanisms of cultural distance in the base of Chinese Service Multi-National Enterprise (MNE) settings. When attempting to enter overseas markets, many service MNEs face challenges caused by the cultural distance between the home and host countries. Culture distance attracts much attention in academia and industry. However, there are few empirical works to examine how cultural distance affects customer orientation strategies in a global supply chain. This paper aims to answer the following research question: How is the effect of cultural distance on customer acquisition and customer retention strategies, and the effect of customer orientation strategies on the performance of service-oriented MNEs controlled by Chinese capital along the Belt and Road Initiative?Design/methodology/approachThis paper examines the effect of cultural distance on the customer acquisition strategy and customer retention strategy, and the effect of customer orientation strategies on the performance of Chinese Service MNEs. A large-scale empirical study of Chinese Service MNEs operating in overseas markets is performed and questionnaires were distributed and collected. This paper uses Hofstede's method (Hofstede, 2010), Schwartz's method (Schwartz, 2003) and House et al.'s method (House et al., 2004) to calculate cultural distance. By using each kind of method, this study calculates the absolute culture distance and relative culture distance respectively.FindingsThe results suggest that cultural distance negatively affects customer orientation strategy, customer acquisition strategy positively affects performance and the interaction of customer acquisition and customer retention positively affects performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study aims to contribute to the existing literature with a more fine-grained understanding of the inclusion of customer orientation strategy of Chinese Service MNEs in global supply chains.Practical implicationsThe findings outline several important implications that Chinese Service MNEs seeking to expand to overseas markets.Originality/valueThis paper contributes a novel, combined perspective of culture distance and customer orientation strategy.

The impact of organizational factors on E-CRM success implementation

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the effects of organizational factors on electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) successful implementation.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a structured questionnaire survey conducted in Vietnam. The dataset consists of 241 valid responses by individuals working at Vietnamese airlines. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were used to examine the causal relationships among organizational factors, customer orientation, knowledge management, data quality and CRM strategy.FindingsThe result shows that organizational factors have influence on e-CRM success. However, there are other factors needed to be more considered that are customer orientation having the most influence, following by knowledge management and technology. Still other factors have indirect effect on e-CRM success such as data quality and CRM strategy.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to examine an integrated model depicting the direct and indirect effects of organization factors on e-CRM success. From this perspective, this paper provides an improved understanding of how customer orientation and organizational factors, technology and knowledge management influences airlines applying e-CRM. This study also provides several implications for practice. The paper suggests airline providers and marketing managers, especially those in Vietnam, focus more on customer orientation activities. The paper also recommends that airlines should pay attention to its organizational structure in line with its customer-orientation strategy.

Building a Conceptual Model for E-CRM Implementation Strategy

The relevance of Information Technology (IT) on Electronic Customer Relationships (E-CRM) within the implementation strategy can be emphasized. This E-CRM implementation strategy is the result of the innovative process related to electronic customers and organizations. However, achieving excellence and the correct deployments of the E-CRM implementation strategy requires rethinking of the E-CRM strategy on a different level in the E-CRM process. To achieve this goal, this paper suggests a conceptual model for E-CRM implementation strategy, focused on all stages from E-CRM mission to E-CRM strategy at different levels (operational, analytical, and collaborative) and connected with E-CRM process (electronic customer acquisition, electronic customer retention, and electronic customer expansion). This in order to increase the customer orientation strategy, customer intelligent strategy, and knowledge capture strategy to reach to the vision of E-CRM. Additionally, the stages presented in this paper may help managers in designing an E-CRM implementation strategy to achieve higher innovation, effectiveness, efficiency, and profitability based on the nature of the underlying electronic marketing activities and the new database technology used for communication with customers.

Exploring customer orientation as a marketing strategy of Mexican-American entrepreneurs

Customer orientation is a major tenet of the entrepreneurial marketing concept, especially as the concept applies to small- and medium-sized minority businesses. The present exploratory research focuses on the customer orientation of Mexican-American entrepreneurs in the context of enclave theory, firm performance, and immigrant generation. A discernible percentage of the firms of the Mexican-American entrepreneurs surveyed followed a co-ethnic enclave customer orientation marketing strategy. However, the most common entrepreneurial marketing strategy observed was oriented toward a mixture of Hispanic and non-Hispanic customers. First generation Mexican-American entrepreneurs differed from second-and later-generation Mexican-American entrepreneurs in terms of the extent to which they employed co-ethnic customer and employee strategies as well as their self-assessed business skills. Even so, perceived business performance did not differ across customer orientation strategies and was relatively similar across immigrant generation and other personal and firm characteristics.

The Moderating Role of Market Strategy in Explaining CSR-Performance Link: A Multi-level Model

Existing studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and performance have mainly taken a macro perspective, focusing on how CSR influences the external stakeholders. However, the approach has relatively underexplored the role of internal stakeholders (i.e., employees) which function as an intermediating mechanism of the CSR-performance link. Utilizing the 4-wave longitudinal survey data of approximately 3,500 employees in 520 branches as well as archival data from one of the largest Korean commercial banks, we examine whether the relationship between CSR and performance is mediated by employee engagement, and further examine if market strategies such as customer and competitive orientation moderate the mediation. Our results show that employee engagement mediates the CSR-performance relationship, and each market strategy differentially moderates the mediated relationship. The customer orientation strategy strengthens the positive influence of CSR on employee engagement and performance, whereas the competitive orientation strategy makes the positive influence of CSR disappear. Our findings suggest that the firm can maximize the financial return from CSR through engaged employees when CSR as a non-market strategy goes hand in hand with the market strategy.

Social Insurance Service Quality Surveys as a Customer Orientation Strategy

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of service quality from the point of customers’ view using the services of institutions offering social insurance, and also to present how important is to measure service quality at insurance market. SERVQUAL method was applied with a seven-point Likert scale. The SERVQUAL method also took into account the extended minimum size. The study was conducted among the customers of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS) in north-eastern Poland. For five tested areas (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy) 20 questions were assigned. Actual, expected, and minimum quality of provided services was determined. Additionally, the gaps were defined which allowed organizations to evaluate the service in terms of efficient and effective customer service policy. The gaps identify the areas on which the company should pay a particular attention. According to the respondents, assurance area plays a major role among the dimensions mentioned. However, the research shows that empathy area was rated as the highest by the respondents. In turn, customers have the highest expectations in relation to the area of assurance. The biggest gap was observed in the dimension of responsiveness. In general it can be stated that quality of insurance services provided by the surveyed institutions were assessed at the good level. In many areas, the amendments should be introduced indicated in the next part of the article. Moreover, customers were grouped by demographic and social variables, depicting that older and better educated customers are more satisfied with the insurance service quality. Scientific contribution of the authors is preparation of the research questionnaire measuring the quality of insurance services that can be used by studied institutions to make good decisions. The conclusion briefly describes the potential for appication of customer satisfaction research and customer service strategies in the social insurance sector. Due to the study carried out, market institutions can properly identify customer needs in the services they provide and see occurring discrepancies. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.25.1.5115

Implementation and effects of user participation in playground management: a comparative study of two Swedish municipalities

This paper describes and analyses how customer orientation strategies, with the focus on user participation, are implemented in playground management and their effects on managers' attitudes and work with physical playgrounds. A comparative case study was conducted in two Swedish municipalities that involve users in different ways: through a manager-driven participation process and through informal user-initiated dialogue. The empirical material consisted of qualitative interviews with professionals in the management organisations and studies of local playgrounds. Implementation of strategies for user participation and tactical management activities appeared to be of importance. The manager-driven participation strategy was associated with a particularly positive attitude among managers, but also difficulties such as maintaining continuous dialogue with users. The small differences found in playground provision between the two municipalities give reason to question the physical effects of participation processes, and show the need for further research.

Determinants of Shopping Behavior of Urban Consumers

ABSTRACT This study explores the influence of geodemographic settings of commercial centers, customer attractions in shopping malls, and route to shopping of urban shoppers. The present research analyzes retailing patterns in urban areas in reference to customer orientation strategies, product search behavior, and enhancing value for customers. Interrelationship among urban retailing, marketplace ambiance, conventional shopping wisdom of customers, long-term customer services, and technology-led selling processes are also addressed in the study based on an empirical survey. Broadly, this study makes contributions to the existing research in urban retailing about shopping attractions, routes to shopping, and establishing customer-centric strategies.

Determinants of Shopping Behavior of Urban Consumers

This study explores the influence of geo-demographic settings of commercial centers, customer attractions in shopping malls, and route to shopping of urban shoppers. The present research analyzes retailing patterns in urban areas in reference to customer orientation strategies, product search behavior and enhancing the customer value. Interrelationship among urban retailing, marketplace ambiance, conventional shopping wisdom of customers, long-term customer services, and technology led selling processes are also addressed in the study based on empirical survey. Broadly, this study makes contributions to the existing research in urban retailing towards factors determining shopping attractions, routes to shopping, and establishing the customer-centric strategies of the firms.