Identify Customer Value Research Articles

Towards Lean Automation: Fine-Grained sentiment analysis for customer value identification

That customer value should drive product development and production is a basic tenet of the Toyota Production System and Lean. Traditional means to extract what the customer wants often focus on customer surveys. But surveys are time consuming and costly. At the same time, there exists a large amount of customer comments in online reviews that is easily accessible, whilst the advances of data science, for example as part of Lean Automation, provide new means to extract information from this data. In this context, a new approach to fine-grained sentiment analysis of Chinese consumer data is developed. The new approach integrates pre-training language model, conditional random field model and linguistic knowledge model. The new approach is shown to outperform traditional approaches in a comparison experiment, while an ablation experiment shows that our new approach is parsimonious, i.e., all three constituting components are needed. Finally, a use case is presented that exemplifies how our new approach can support managers in identifying customer value (through positive evaluations), and most importantly guide Lean improvement, through detailed information on characteristics that are evaluated negatively, ranked according to customer importance. Findings have important implications for research and practice.

Customer-Classified Intracity Fruit Distribution Path Optimization: A Case Study in Jining, China

With the development of technology and economy, customer satisfaction is becoming increasingly important to businesses. Customers expect more in regard to product quality, personalised service and delivery date. This study randomly selected customers from a small-to-medium sized company in China as case study and used a K-Means cluster analysis approach to present the available management in logistics. The mileage saving method was also used to contribute the distribution path planning. This resulted in a more scientific distribution route based on comparative analysis, which helped the target company save resources and improve efficiency. This study helped companies effectively identify customer value by combining customer classification with intracity distribution path optimization. Simultaneously, it provides possible empirical reference to service quality improvement, the distribution path optimization, the resource wasting reduction and the companies’ operation efficiency enhancement. It enriches the current literature about food distribution path optimization for small and medium sized food company.

Applying the framework to identify customer value: A case of sustainable product in agriculture

Developing innovative solutions begins with the identification of needs to represent customer value. This understanding is essential for entrepreneurs to test their hypotheses and deliver value propositions, especially in startups, where the degree of uncertainty is high, and the business model has no consolidation. To this end, different approaches, which are mostly supported by learning cycles of experimentation, have emerged to assess customer and stakeholder value in innovation projects. To understand how these approaches and practices represents an alternative for value identification and proposition, this study aims to demonstrate a method to conduct practices and techniques in innovative solutions to anticipate customer value during the front-end phases of a sustainable product. The main contribution is the application of the framework in the case of a startup focused on agriculture for the development of a grain drying machine. The main technology behind this innovation is the drying through oxyhydrogen burn, which is extracted from the water. The framework proved to be useful for organizing market-bound information to form customer value proposition. The results allow the startup to reduce or solve uncertainties in its business model, which are challenges inherent to the innovation market. The learning from the application of the framework resulted in a remodeling of the business model to achieve a broader public as the startup pivoted initial customer needs into product requirements.

A framework proposition to identify customer value through lean practices

PurposeCustomer value is the key to successful innovation management. This task is considered complex and abstract. For this reason, several models have been proposed to that end, among them, Lean approaches. Lean's background has been applied to value identification, providing many benefits. This paper aims at analyzing the practices employed to identify customer value through Lean approaches.Design/methodology/approachThrough a systematic literature review, the main Lean practices for customer value identification were categorized based on five main streams: (1) customer development, (2) customer value, (3) lean product, (4) lean start-up, and (5) lean innovation. These practices were organized into a framework that addresses value identification based on ideation, value prospection, requirements, construction and measurement, and value delivery.FindingsIn total, 33 practices were found to support capturing the value from the customer's perception. Additionally, a discussion is provided on the complementarity and differences between practices.Originality/valueA framework is proposed to integrate the five streams and the corresponding practices for value identification. The results provide mechanisms that can benefit practitioners to better understand the value demanded by customers during innovation management. In fact, practitioners can use the proposed framework to identify value to customers in a holistic way. Academically, the results gather research on customer value and innovation management to contribute with a novel artifact for customer value identification in operations management using Lean approaches. Finally, a future research agenda on value identification is proposed.

Towards a holistic view of customer value creation in Lean: A design science approach

While “identifying customer value” is the first principle of Lean thinking, the concept of customer value has largely remained unchanged in the Lean discourse - quality, cost and delivery. This res...

Sustainability of organization performance via management techniques

The article deals with some aspects of relationships with furniture market customers. The research results are presented to identify customer value attributes that are important for customer´s choice, satisfaction and value reporting tools. It has been found out that the most important value attributes are high quality of the furniture design, willingness and kindness of the staff, the professional level of the staff and the variety of designs. The least important value attributes are the loyalty programme, the first purchase discount and the architect´s advice. Personal information resources are more important for the customer than the impersonal ones. The Internet is primarily used as a source of information about furniture in general and it is used to get an overview before buying in a brick and mortar shop. These findings form a basis of a properly designed effective strategy for maintaining current customers and acquiring new ones.

Customer value in self-service kiosks: a systematic literature review

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a cohesive overview of the available self-service and customer value literature, identify customer value in self-service kiosks (SSKs), and analyze this value from the customer experience perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe study comprises a systematic literature review of available works on customer value.FindingsThe paper presents conclusions on the SSK’s technological forms, presence in industries, and conceptual state. The review also provides a cohesive inventory of customer value elements in SSKs. The in-depth analysis proposes two alternative models of the customer value creation process: linear and circular.Research limitations/implicationsThe study reveals gaps stemming from the inconsistency and fragmented nature of previous research on customer value in SSKs. The gaps are treated as opportunities for future studies.Practical implicationsBy identifying new sources of competitive advantage and new ways to improve customer service strategies and experience management, the findings support managerial decision making at the stages of considering, implementing, and improving SSK networks.Originality/valueThis study is the first to systematically review and provide an inventory of customer value elements in SSKs. It, therefore, offers new perspectives on customer value creation using self-service technology.

Value Creation Strategy in Tourism : An Islamic Perspective

The international tourism industry now is becoming an increasingly competitive marketplace. Understanding the needs, interests and behaviors of different tourist markets plays a critical role in support them to destinations. Given the fast growth in the number of tourists and despite the great Muslim population worldwide. It is important to develop appropriate marketing strategies. To develop tourism prospects sharia government could use such a marketing strategy, marketing for instance, marketing mix and segmenting, targeting and positioning (STP). The marketing mix is a set of marketing tools used by a state or a company to continue achieving its marketing objectives in target market. STP is the most important initial step in identifying customer value. It is expected from the use of this strategy could make sharia tourism as a market leader in the field of tourism and also could attract more tourists to visit and increase economic returns of state. 
 Keywords: Value, Strategic, Tourism, Management, Islamic, Marketing Mix

Implications of customer value perceptions for the design of electricity efficiency services in times of smart metering

Smart meters are the backbone of modern electricity metering and an important enabler of reaching energy efficiency targets. The implementation of new metering infrastructure is, however, making little progress and is often focused on technical aspects only. Additionally, existing smart metering information systems do not yet exploit the possibilities to optimally support customers in their electricity savings activities. Knowing customer preferences is absolutely essential for the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures and, as a consequence, for realizing the economic value of smart metering technology. The presented research contributes to the field by identifying customer value perceptions concerning new smart meter services in the retail electricity market in Switzerland. Founded on a choice-based conjoint analysis with a data sample of more than 1500 respondents from three Swiss regions, five customer segments with different preferences are identified. With the exception of the comfort-oriented customer segment, the other four segments are comprised of customers who are willing (1) to pay for smart meter services and (2) to change their behavior to save electricity. Based on the identified customer value perceptions, implications for the design of smart meter-based energy efficiency services are elaborated.

A novel utility-based model for identifying the customer value in online shopping

This study focuses on identifying customer's utility in online shopping. The utility is defined as the level of customer satisfaction in the online shopping experience. Our study is consisted of three phases: In the first phase, customers are segmented by K-means algorithm according to some demographic and preference properties. The optimal number of cluster is determined by DUNN index. In the second phase, one-dimensional utility functions are identified according to each significant factor in online context. By testing the utility independency, the multiplicative utility functions are used for identifying the global customer's utility. In the third phase, a novel customer value model is developed with utility usage. The proposed RFMU model can identify customer value better than RFM model and can resolve the main drawback of RFM model in predicting the value of new customers. This model is tested in one electronic retailer that provides flower and plant products and services.

INTERFACE BETWEEN CUSTOMER VALUE DRIVERS AND COMPANY’S VALUE

The evolution of business orientations and management concepts led to an emphasized interest in value and value creation. The viewpoints at value, analysed in scholarly literature, are very different. For those reasons, lately there appeared a need to disclose the multidimensity of the notion of value. The multidimensity originates not only from the different viewpoints of stakeholders, but also from different perceptions of researchers from different fields. The paper is focused on the viewpoints of company’s owners and customers. It aims to disclose the interface between the value created for customers and the value of a company. The article highlights the multidimensity of the notion of value by discussing how value is perceived by companies, customers and how customers bring value to companies. A detailed view of the customers’ perception of value is obtained by identifying customer value drivers. The interface is specified by linking customer value drivers to company’s value through such links as marketing decisions, marketing results and financial results.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.3.2093

Identifying customer value in emerging markets via conjoint analysis: a case study of an Estonian packaging company

The current paper considers the use of conjoint analysis in emerging economies, specifically considering the customer values and consumer segments of a leading plastic packaging material producer in Estonia. In doing so, the paper builds upon and extends the customer needs identification and conjoint analysis literature. The analysis successfully identified the most important attributes and revealed four customer segments that seek fundamentally different needs: delivery speed, flexibility of offering, quality for money and product appearance. Managerial implications for using conjoint analysis in emerging markets to better understand consumer needs for the purpose of value creation and segmentation are discussed.