Customer Willingness Research Articles

The effect of age, gender and education level on customer evaluations of retail furniture store atmospheric attributes

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the effect of age, gender and education level on customer evaluations of store atmospheric attributes (colour, lighting type, musical genre/tempo/volume, circulation area, lighting, climatic conditions, ambient scent and cleanliness) in the context of retail furniture stores.Design/methodology/approach– To that end, a questionnaire was administered to 273 customers who shopped at furniture stores in the Siteler district of Ankara. The reliability coefficients of the data were defined based on their percentage values. Then, to examine the effect of age, gender and education level on customer evaluations of store atmospheric attributes, the appropriateχ2 analysis was applied.Findings– Significant differences in customer evaluations of store atmospheric attributes emerged based on age, gender and education level. Based on those results, certain store atmospheric attributes (colour, lighting type, musical genre/tempo/volume) preferred by customers were suggested to enhance the design of furniture stores. In addition, the store’s circulation area, lighting, climatic conditions, ambient scent and cleanliness were found to have a significant impact on the duration of customer visits to furniture stores.Originality/value– The study scientifically assessed the effects of age, gender and education on the perceptions of customers in terms of ambient atmosphere. Application of these findings to store design should have positive effects on the willingness of customers to remain in the store and should positively affect their shopping decisions.

Influence of sustainable hospitality supply chain management on customers’ attitudes and behaviors

This study aims to identify the impact of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable hospitality supply chain management actions on customers’ attitudes and behaviors including satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable hospitality goods and services utilizing data collected from U.S. consumers who frequently stay at hotels. Findings suggest that while both environmental and economic dimensions’ actions of sustainable hospitality supply chain management have positive influences on customer satisfaction, loyalty and willingness to pay a premium for sustainable hospitality goods and services, the social dimension actions are found to have a positive influence on customer satisfaction and a negative influence on customer willingness to pay a premium. Results also indicate that customer satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between social dimension actions and customer loyalty. In addition, customer satisfaction positively influences customer loyalty, which ultimately increases customer willingness to pay a premium. The implications of the research findings are provided.

Factors That Affect Customers Willingness to Use Self Service Technologies at Hospitality Organizations

Factors That Affect Customers Willingness to Use Self Service Technologies at Hospitality Organizations

What do customers get and give in return for loyalty program membership?

A successful loyalty program (LP) represents the firms' investment in long-term relationships with their customers. However, to be effective LPs must be perceived as valuable by customers. The purpose of this study is to examine the different types of value customers derive from LP membership and examine the relationship between program value, loyalty to the program, and loyalty to the brand (firm). Further, we examine the effect of program and brand loyalty on behavioral responses, including share of wallet, share of purchase, word of mouth, and willingness to pay more. The moderating effect of program customization and the duration of the customer's LP membership on the relationship between loyalty to the program and loyalty to the brand is also studied. Using a sample of 628 respondents drawn from the two largest stand-alone retail loyalty programs in Australia we find that LP value consists of six primary constructs which drive loyalty. Specifically, we find that value in the form of reward attractiveness, knowledge benefit, and required effort impacts LP members' perceived experiential benefits, which in turn impact program loyalty; while value derived from group belongingness and disclosure comfort drive brand loyalty. We also find that program loyalty influences brand loyalty; and program and brand loyalty together induce positive customer behaviors. However, program loyalty has a negative impact on a customer's willingness to pay. Our findings highlight the impact of multiple program value elements on customer loyalty, extending the literature by clarifying the relationships among program value, attitudinal loyalty, and behavioral loyalty. Practically, our findings suggest how managers can better design and implement their LPs to build customer loyalty.

Predicting customers’ adoption of Islamic banking services in Tunisia:A Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour approach

Objective - The main purpose of the study is to examine the willingness of the Tunisian customers to adopt Islamic banking services, and the factors that may influence their decision. Methods - A total of 100 questionnaires were randomly distributed to Tunisian banking customers, out of which 93 were properly filled and returned. Multiple regression and one sample t-test were subsequently applied. Results – The results showed that uncertainty, compatibility, awareness as well as subjective norm, have a significant impact on the attitude towards Islamic banking services in Tunisia. Likewise, normative belief was also found to have a significant influence on subjective norm, with particular reference to the parents, siblings, peers and colleagues, as the main referent groups. In addition, self-efficacy was found to have a significant influence on perceived behavioural control, and finally, attitude and subjective norm were found to have a significant impact on the intention to adopt Islamic banking services in Tunisia. Conclusions - Tunisian customers are willing to shift to Islamic banking services. Keywords: Tunisia, Islamic Bank, Decomposed theory of planned behaviour

Why does loyalty–cooperation behavior vary over buyer–seller relationship?

This study argues that a favorable relationship (with trust and commitment) existing between two parties might not necessarily guarantee that subsequent transactions or partnerships can be stabilized. Each party in a relationship is required to conduct specific investments on behalf of the other to prevent discontinued trading or transaction relationships. Hence, this study combines relationship marketing and specific asset investment concepts within the transaction cost theory to investigate the relationship between inter-firm trust and commitment and loyalty and cooperation. By focusing on listed and over-the-counter-traded companies in Taiwan of industries that possess complete supply chains, this study collects 153 effective surveys for empirical analysis. The results show that commitment is more important than trust in a business-to-business (B2B) relationship for increasing the willingness of business customers and/or partners to participate in specific asset investments, thus increasing their loyalty and cooperation in the B2B relationship.

Individual Psychological Ownership: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications for Research in Marketing

Psychological ownership has emerged as an important predictor of workplace motivations, attitudes, and behaviors. While components of psychological ownership theory have been recently adapted to marketing contexts as well, much remains to be done. With a more comprehensive application and use of psychological ownership theory in marketing, additional understanding and explanation could be provided for many of the key phenomena, such as customer satisfaction, loyalty, word-of-mouth, and willingness to pay. In this article, we focus on individual psychological ownership–associated concepts and evidence with implications for research in marketing. Our work offers multiple avenues for future research focused on, but not limited to, marketing contexts.

Do luxury room amenities affect guests’ willingness to pay?

Intangible services have fewer cues to enable consumer evaluation compared to physical goods. Cues are therefore particularly important for highly intangible services, since they provide tangible evidence of quality. This study explores whether luxury brand room amenities can be used as cues for customers to evaluate a hotel. This study attempts to identify what items and amenities guests find most/least useful and to examine whether luxury brand room amenities can enhance customers’ evaluation of a hotel and increase willingness to pay based on positivity bias. Wi-Fi was regarded as the most useful hotel amenity, while telephone was regarded as the least useful amenity. This study found customers willingness to pay is affected by providing luxury brand room amenities. When luxury amenities were placed in the room, customers’ estimation of the room rate and their willingness to pay for it both increased. Moreover, about two out of five expressed a willingness to pay extra for an upgrade to access luxury brand room amenities. The findings of this study provide important implications for hotel practitioners.

프로바이오틱스 시장동향과 전망

Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, conferred a health benefits on the host by FAO/WHO. Probiotics can help to maintain the balance of microflora in the digestive tracts and these beneficial activities provide prevention from diseases to the host. Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli strains are most commonly used as probiotics. In many categories, probiotics are applied to different types of products like foods, dietary supplements, functional foods, and even drugs. Fermented dairy products are the most popular and efficient vehicle foradministration. Probiotics are part of the much larger functional food and beverage market and one of the prime beneficiaries of the latest growth trend of fortified and functional foods. Until 2011, Japan, U.S, and Western Europe were the largest markets for probiotics, both in terms of consumption as well as growth. Since 2011 however, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Brazil have had a tremendous rise in revenue from probiotics and are expected to remain in the product growth stage over the next five years. The primary reasons for the success of probiotics fortified foods in these markets are the increasing awareness about their potency and efficacy and the willingness of customers to pay extra for something healthy. The global probiotics market revenue was 27.9 billion US dollars in 2011 and is expected to reach 44.9 billion US dollars in 2018 with 6.8% annual growth rate. Growing consumption of fermented milks and increasing concerns over digestive and gut health are major driving forces and these demands has translated into increased R&D spending and new product developments over the last three years.

Sleep apps and the quantified self: blessing or curse?

Sleep apps and the quantified self: blessing or curse?

Impact of Credit Risk Management

Abstract Credit risk management was not so necessary, while sales of deferred payment has begun to dominate the prompt payment. The existence of receivables has become a necessity in the area of functional and effective market economy. Most of the receivables in the company have the form of trade credit. Therefore credit management as the management of trade credit has become very important. Insolvency four out of ten companies in the Slovak Republic is due to the delay or any payment of their receivables. Credit managers address important issues during their daily activities: the level of indebtedness enterprises, which is due to the sale of invoice, the increase of indebtedness should be supported or stopped, the ability and willingness of customers to pay their commitments properly and timely, appropriately set criteria for individual credit segments of customers or if it is necessary to make a decision of choosing an effective tool for debt recovery. Article highlights to a correlation between the amount of receivables in the company and its solvency and underlines the importance of credit management and its principal activities. We will use the methods of formal logic such as analysis, synthesis and interpretation. The intention is to draw up basic theoretical principles for determining the credit limit for individual customers in the company.

Relative strength of factors influencing customer loyalty in the automobile service industry: a study

Contemporary service marketing literature has focused a great deal on the importance of Service Quality. The SERVQUAL Model has been widely used to measure this construct. The SERVQUAL Model is a measure of the quality of the process, personnel and physical evidence of services. The gap in service literature seems to be in examining the relative effectiveness of the other significant construct- Customer Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty. While Service Quality is a laudable goal, it must be seen as an input to the end result, which is Customer Loyalty. Customer Loyalty is defined as the customer's willingness to patronize the service for extended periods, recommend the service to others, continue to patronize it even if there is a marginal increase in price and pay a premium over competing offerings. If there is another more effective way to achieve Customer Loyalty, that should certainly be examined. The other way could be Customer Satisfaction, defined as the outcome of service and the perceived fairness of pricing. The experimental study indicates that the correlation between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty, is greater than the correlation between Service Quality and Customer Loyalty. This finding could lead to an approach to managing services which is different from the one advocated in much of contemporary service literature.

Strategic management accounting in close inter-organisational relationships

This paper provides a conceptual comparison between the ‘mainstream strategic management accounting’ literature, the ‘accounting and strategising’ literature and ‘strategic management accounting (SMA) in close inter-organisational relationships’. It concludes that ‘SMA in close inter-organisational relationships’ shares some important characteristics with the ‘accounting and strategising’ literature. Important differences were found, too, though. These mainly concerned the need to understand individuals working for close partners as preparers of strategic information; the need for disaggregated accounting information about unique connections to close partners and about the role of indirect benefits that follow from close connections and the need for the company to not only collect information but also disperse diverse information within close inter-organisational relationships. Through an intensive case study of a global robot manufacturer, Robotics, this paper also provides novel empirical evidence on ‘SMA in close inter-organisational relationships’. For instance, SMA practices included indirect benefits, something mainly neglected in the existing literature on SMA. These indirect benefits involved a close customer's willingness to invest time and effort in Robotics’ technological development, thereby contributing to Robotics’ ability to attain revenue gains in its interactions with other customers. Our findings also have important implications for the ‘inter-organisational accounting’ literature, for instance, by highlighting the need to link more explicitly strategic decision-making with the current interest in the role of accounting in inter-organisational dynamics.

Repairing trust in an e-commerce and security context: an agent-based modeling approach

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to study the critical role of trust in electronic commerce extensively in the context of establishing initial trust between trading partners. Ongoing trust between partners can quickly be eroded through security or other trust violations. This paper examines whether customers are willing to transact with an eCommerce vendor in light of security and trust violations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws upon research in professional trust relationships and adapts it to the e-commerce context to create a process view of trust violation and repair. Using a design science framework, this paper employs agent-based modeling as the simulation technique to study the implications of security and trust violations on the willingness of customers to continue transacting with the vendor. The simulations are conducted for a variety of trust violations and reconciliation actions. Findings – While some of the results are predictable, the key finding for managers is that moderate reconciliation tactics are effective for all cases but the most severe trust violations, where trust is irrevocably broken. This has clear financial implications, particularly in cases where vendors may operate with small margins in competitive markets. Originality/value – Given the increasing push toward mobile and Internet-based commerce, and the large range of possible trust violations and security incidents in online purchases, coupled with increasing competition among vendors, it becomes imperative for vendors to provide effective tactics to repair customer trust violations when they arise.

A hedonic analysis of the price for horse riding lessons in Sweden

Abstract Riding school businesses have evolved as popular providers of recreational services in many rural and peri-urban regions of northern and western Europe. We conducted a country-wide survey of riding schools in Sweden to analyse determinants of the price of riding lessons for adults and children. We found that riding schools depend heavily on the willingness of customers to commute, with a positive relationship between the price of a riding lesson and average household income, as well as population density in the municipality. Older schools charged on average higher prices than newly established schools and the presence of an indoor arena proved to be the single most important physical price determinant. Existing financial support to riding schools does not seem to affect the price per lesson directly. Education of riding school managers can be distinguished between various generic skills that allow riding lessons to be provided at a lower price, and specific riding instruction skills for which a premium can be charged. Management implications • A hedonic price analysis was performed on data from a national survey of riding schools in Sweden. The findings indicate that the price of riding lessons decreases with increasing distance from urban areas, increases with rising average household income, and with increasing population density in the nearest municipality. • Many riding schools have not only invested in horses for their customers, but also in specific infrastructure and facilities for guests and children. The majority of the schools surveyed had an indoor arena and provided access to showers, lockers, changing rooms, a cafe and other related leisure facilities. • Riding school managers are typically female, middle-aged and have vocational or university education. However, specific, formal horse-related education yields a direct price premium per riding lesson only in the case of certified riding instructors for children and teenagers. • Riding schools within our sample also actively incorporate non-monetary contributions of their customers into their pricing schemes.

Psychological influences on customer willingness to pay and choice in automated retail settings

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of price attribute framing and factors such as urgency and perceived price fairness on customer willingness to pay (WTP) in automated retail settings. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted two sets of quasi-experimental scenarios surrounding vending-machine purchase decisions. The first set was analyzed with MANOVA, the second set with choice-based conjoint (CBC) analysis. Findings – When prices are framed positively (as a discount), customer WTP is higher at high published price levels than it is for unframed or negatively framed prices. The effect on WTP holds whether the reference price range is broad (few large increments) or narrow (numerous small increments). In the CBC scenarios, immediate availability of the product was most influential on choice, followed by price and brand effects. These findings held under conditions invoking both urgency and price fairness. Providing an explanation for higher prices increases perceived price fairness. Research limitations/implications – Further study might assess the presence or absence of interaction effects in the conjoint scenarios. Practical implications – Managers should consider transparency in dynamic pricing, particularly when the price change is outside the control of the firm. The conjoint scenario results also offer evidence that dynamic pricing will not impact other marketing-mix decisions for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) dramatically (availability at point of purchase and presence in the consumer consideration set remain strong influences on choice). Social implications – Understanding these effects on WTP could help managers manage perceptions of unfairness and optimize WTP. Originality/value – A theoretical contribution from this study is that the immediate loss/gain consideration under theories of decision making under uncertainty outweigh considerations such as scarcity urgency or perceived unfairness. Use of conjoint analysis in WTP research, study of dynamic pricing in FMCG setting.

Persuading Effect of Store Aesthetics on Shoppers' Purchase Intentions: The Gender Difference

The spending capacity and willingness of customers has increased in India. Keeping this in mind, marketers have come up with organized retail outlets to attract and cater to the customers' needs. A well-designed and finely maintained store not only attracts more footfalls, but also increases the sales. Apart from that, beautification, which is known as aesthetics of the store, is also important for the marketers. Gender differences have been found to play a major role in buying behaviour. This paper focused on studying the most preferred aesthetic element of the store (both exterior and interior) by both the genders. Furthermore, the effect of these elements on the purchase intentions of the customers was also analyzed by regression. The study was conducted at a leading apparel store in the city of Cuttack, Odisha. The results showed that product display was the most preferred factor by both genders, having the maximum effect on their purchase intentions. A major difference was found in the preference of both genders with respect to the external appearance of the store and music played in the store. This research will help managers to understand the preferences of the customers in a store and design the store aesthetically to attract more footfalls and generate purchases.

The Study of the Effect of Packaging of the Product on Consumers' Willingness to Buy in Gum Industry

Focusing is on the needs of consumers of basic essentials marketing trends. This study explored the needs of consumers and consumer behavior analysis and prioritizes the factors that affect the process of finding the market's major tasks (Moon, minor, translated by Ardestani, 2005). This study aimed to evaluate the impact of packaging of the product on consumer willingness to buy gum industry. The present study was carried out on a sample of students of Islamic Azad University of Qazvin, about 24,000 persons. Using a simple random sample of 400 questionnaires were distributed among the students finally 376 valid questionnaires were collected. Finally, the researcher concluded that the functional characteristics of the product packaging have an impact on the willingness of customers to purchase it.

Managing Supply Risk for Vertically Differentiated Co‐Products

The manufacturing complexity of many high‐tech products results in a substantial variation in the quality of the units produced. After manufacturing, the units are classified into vertically differentiated products. These products are typically obtained in uncontrollable fractions, leading to mismatches between their demand and supply. We focus on product stockouts due to the supply–demand mismatches. Existing literature suggests that when faced with product stockouts, firms should satisfy all unmet demand of a low‐end product by downgrading excess units of a high‐end product (downward substitution). However, this policy may be suboptimal if it is likely that low‐end customers will substitute with a higher quality product and pay the higher price (upward substitution). In this study, we investigate whether and how much downward substitution firms should perform. We also investigate whether and how much low‐end inventory firms should withhold to strategically divert some low‐end demand to the high‐end product. We first establish the existence of regions of co‐production technology and willingness of customers to substitute upward where firms adopt different substitution/withholding strategies. Then, we develop a managerial framework to determine the optimal selling strategy during the life cycle of technology products as profit margins shrink, manufacturing technology improves, and more capacity becomes available. Consistent trends exist for exogenous and endogenous prices.

Analysis of factors influencing energy efficiency in a Smart Metering Pilot

This paper analyzes the results of providing smart meters and appropriate feedback on electricity consumption in a pilot study involving around 1 000 households in Latvia. The findings from our study have shown that smart meter roll-out and provision of appropriate feedback information can provide significant energy savings for household customers. In comparison with the control group the average consumption of the target group fell by 19% year by year. Additionally, there was identified in the consumption group 0–399 kWh per month that feedback enabled by smart meters motivated to consume less electricity those customers who recognize options how to change their energy consumption behavior. It was also identified that customer willingness to receive additional information does not necessarily correspond with later actions to reduce consumption. This could be related to actual or desired behavior that together with feedback induced motivation results into energy saving actions.