Long-term Cooperative Relationships Research Articles

Impact of customer engagement strategy on customer loyalty from the perspective of consumer well-being

PurposeThis study aims to investigate mechanisms and boundary conditions of the impact of customer engagement strategies (CESs) on customer loyalty (CL) based on goal-framing and well-being theory.Design/methodology/approachThrough a three-stage, time-lagged research design, 246 valid samples were obtained. This study tested and validated the proposed framework using hierarchical regression analysis and a moderated mediation procedure.FindingsFirst, CESs have a significant positive impact on CL. Second, consumer well-being (CWB) partially mediates the CESs–CL relationship. Third, information processing style (IPS) moderates the impact of CESs on CWB, with a more pronounced effect observed under the affective processing style. Finally, IPS further moderates the indirect effect of CESs on CL, indicating that CESs enhance CL through increased CWB, particularly under the affective processing style.Originality/valueRevealing the pivotal role of CESs in enhancing CL at the corporate level helps bridge the gap between companies and customers, thereby facilitating the establishment of long-term cooperative relationships. Additionally, introducing the concept of CWB into the study of CL offers a novel perspective for understanding customer behavior.

Optimisation of Game Strategies Under Information Asymmetry Between Insurance Companies and Consumers

The information asymmetry common in insurance markets has a profound impact on market operations and outcomes, and game theory provides a framework for understanding and responding to this problem. This paper explores the manifestation of information asymmetry in the insurance market and the application of game theory, as well as the optimisation of strategies between insurers and consumers. On the part of insurance companies, game strategies are optimised through measures such as improving information transparency, enhancing risk assessment and establishing long-term cooperative relationships, while consumers actively participate in the market game by enhancing their awareness of self-protection, improving their insurance knowledge and choosing reputable insurance companies. These optimisation measures help to improve the market environment, enhance market efficiency and achieve a win-win situation in the insurance market, laying the foundation for the healthy development and sustainable stability of the insurance market.

Factors affecting the cooperative relationships in material supply chain of construction enterprises

Abstract The materials supply chain in the construction industry involves many independent actors, creating complex, dependent relationships, including competitive and cooperative relationships. To develop together, chain members need to build a long-term cooperative relationship for mutual benefits, promote the development of chain members and improve the operational efficiency of the construction supply chain. Therefore, studies to measure and improve this relationship are urgently needed. Within the scope of the present article, the authors carry out work with the aim of assessing the current status of the relationship between construction contractors and partners in their material supply chain and ranking the factors affecting the relationship. From the synthesis of research documents, the report outlines eight factors affecting the construction supply chain cooperation, namely: trust, information sharing, choosing the right partner, profit and risk sharing, senior management support, problem solving, transaction frequency and culture of cooperation. A survey was carried out with subjects who are senior leaders of construction enterprises, project directors/deputy directors, site commanders/deputy commanders, employees of different departments. contractors and field engineers. Data from 132 valid questionnaires were used for the study. Based on the survey results, the authors assessed the current relationship with the members in the supply chain and the impact of these factors on the cooperation between construction enterprises and their supply chain partners. The research results of the present article can help construction enterprises identify important influencing factors and take appropriate measures so as to strengthen the cooperative relationships with the stakeholders. This would help improve the operational efficiency of the supply chain.

Operational decisions of live-streaming platform supply chain based on control power: considering the dual preferences of consumers

As the problem of live streaming with goods ‘overturned’ has also emerged, it is crucial for supply chain members to make optimal decisions to maintain long-term cooperation relationship. Based on this background, we construct a new supply chain structure composed of a fresh food supplier, an online celebrity live-streaming base (OCLB) and a platform channel, and establish three game-theoretic models: the centralised decision model (CDM), two decentralised decision models (DDMs) led by fresh food supplier (P-S-L model) and OCLB (P-L-S model) to further explore the optimal decisions. The results show that, when consumers have higher dual preferences of freshness and live-streaming recommendation level, in the P-S-L model, it is in the best interest of the supply chain as a whole to pursue ‘neutral’ control power and choose a ‘moderate pricing and decent quality’ strategy, but in the P-L-S model, the OCLB as the dominant party can pursue higher control power, increase the selling price, or relax its preservation technology upgrading program, which may compensate for the loss of high preservation costs. This study follows the popular topic of live-streaming with goods, opens up new ideas to improve the high profitability of supply chain enterprises.

Analysis of the Role of a Controller in Sales Planning and Control at PT. United Tractors

To meet the needs of the community, companies utilize the market as a means to sell their products, thereby obtaining profits, which is a common goal of companies. To achieve this goal, companies must compete fiercely to win customers from similar companies. The management of the company is obliged to manage all operational activities of the company, coordinate and allocate limited resources efficiently and economically. The planning function carried out by PT. United Tractors Tbk has been good, as seen from the master sales plan that involves other departments within the company. In addition, in the development of the master plan, the division responsible for sales planning also considers specific factors, and the plan is reviewed by the Board of Directors. Thus, the sales planning developed has a reasonably high level of reliability. In terms of sales terms, PT. United Tractors Tbk has made the right decision by selling its products on a cash basis. The company's after-sales support is also good. Similarly, the determination of product prices is satisfactory, as the company considers the customers' ability and the prevailing prices in the heavy equipment market. The control function carried out by PT. United Tractors Tbk has been good, where sales implementation is consistently reviewed every sales quarter. Additionally, the sales function of PT United Tractors Tbk has shifted from a mere sales function to providing solutions. This sales function is beneficial in establishing long-term cooperative relationships with customers.

An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior to Explain General Contractors’ Long-Term Cooperation Intentions in Construction Projects: Empirical Evidence from China

With the continuous development of the construction industry, the current construction production mode is gradually transforming into the contractor, professional subcontractor and labor subcontractor’s “main-sub contractor” cooperative production mode in the market segmentation. Long-term cooperation between contractors and subcontractors is beneficial to both parties, yet only limited research has explored the factors that determine contractors’ willingness to cooperate with subcontractors on a long-term basis. This paper explores the factors that influence contractors’ willingness to cooperate with subcontractors in the long term and the forming mechanisms. To achieve this goal, this study combines the characteristics of the construction industry to increase the variable of past experience, constructing an extended planned behavior theory model. Through questionnaire surveys, contractors with experience in subcontract management were surveyed, and the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling techniques. The results showed that contractors’ long-term cooperation intention was mainly influenced by attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. While past experience, a new variable, had significant effects on attitudes and perceived behavioral control, influencing contractors’ long-term cooperation intention by affecting attitudes and perceived behavioral control, past experience had no direct effect on subjective norms. This study will explain the formation mechanism of the general contractor and subcontractor’s long-term cooperative relationship and provide a theoretical basis for the general contractor to select partners and suggestions for subcontractors to improve their work.

How do strategic networks help SMEs upgrade in global value chains? A cross-national analysis

This study investigates whether strategic networks in global value chains affect the upgrade of suppliers and describes alternative ways of overcoming the barriers to such upgrades. Using a cross-national analysis, we examine the complex upgrade process for suppliers from a long-term perspective by applying qualitative research. We conduct semi-structured interviews to survey small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan and South Korea. The results show that suppliers in global value chains maintain long-term cooperative relationships with lead firms and utilize strategic networks to supplement the management capabilities required for strategic goals. Our findings also indicate that strategic multi-partner networks play a crucial role in ameliorating major barriers to upgrading. This study proposes that suppliers can upgrade through alternative methods utilizing strategic networks. Our findings thus generate important implications for managers working for suppliers in current or potential global value chains.

The Effect of Omnichannel Integration on Fresh Food Customer Engagement from the Viewpoint of Flow Experience

Customer engagement is a new value index affecting the omnichannel benefits of enterprises. It is beginning to attract the attention of both scholars and managers. However, there is still a lack of research on the mechanism influencing customer engagement in the fresh food omnichannel retail context. Drawing from the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework, this paper builds a relationship model between omnichannel integration and fresh food customer engagement. In addition, the paper empirically analyzes the mechanism of omnichannel integration’s impact on fresh food customer engagement. The findings show that omnichannel integration promotes flow experiences through three modes: information integration, business integration, and service and distribution integration. Flow experience is mediating the relationship between omnichannel integration and customer engagement. Strengthening the customer engagement knowledge system can help fresh food omnichannel retailers to create and manage the long-term cooperative relationship between customers and the company’s value creation. The higher the degree of omnichannel integration of fresh food retail firms, the more conducive it is to enhancing the customer flow experience, which will positively impact customers’ attitudinal and behavioral engagement.

대한민국의 직업교육훈련 ODA 협력관계 발전에 관한 연구 - 한독협력사업을 중심으로 -

The cooperation between the two countries, which began in 1961 when the German government established the Korea-German Industrial School in Incheon, maintained a close cooperative relationship through mutual exchanges even after the support project ended in 1993. From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the German government unilaterally supported Korea, and the two countries maintained mutual exchanges from the 1990s. It has grown into a partnership to build a cooperative relationship by jointly carrying out ODA projects. Meanwhile, Korea, as a donor country, has been promoting vocational education and training support projects in various developing countries for over 40 years, starting with the Indonesian Vocational Training Center support project in 1986, but there is no case of long-term cooperation such as that between Korea and Germany. Through the study on the development of the Korea-Germany long-term cooperative relationship, we are able to understand the need to build a sustainable growth model based on the demand in the field of vocational education and training in the recipient countries. And we are able to understand that the experience of cooperation between Korea and Germany can be a practical model for Korea's TVET cooperation projects in the future.

Geometric linguistic scale and its application in multi-attribute decision-making for green agricultural product supplier selection

Establishing long-term cooperative relationships with reliable suppliers of green agricultural products is essential to the sustainable development of fresh supermarkets. Qualitative attributes in such a multi-attribute decision-making problem have spawned the analyses on linguistic evaluations that are close to people's cognition and expression habits. There is still a challenge to capture the mathematical implications of linguistic evaluations and link them with decision-maker's psychology. To address this issue, this paper introduces a geometric linguistic scale which is characterized by the proportional relations between progressive grades and their corresponding fuzzy implications. Aggregation methods based on the geometric linguistic scale are developed to handle decision matrices with direct linguistic evaluations, full pairwise comparisons and partial pairwise comparisons, respectively. A consistency repairing process is presented to improve the reliability of pairwise comparisons. We further investigate a real-world problem concerning green agricultural supplier selection to illustrate the proposed method. The rational range of the scale parameter and consistency index are analysed through a sensitivity analysis.

Social foraging in vampire bats is predicted by long-term cooperative relationships.

Stable social bonds in group-living animals can provide greater access to food. A striking example is that female vampire bats often regurgitate blood to socially bonded kin and nonkin that failed in their nightly hunt. Food-sharing relationships form via preferred associations and social grooming within roosts. However, it remains unclear whether these cooperative relationships extend beyond the roost. To evaluate if long-term cooperative relationships in vampire bats play a role in foraging, we tested if foraging encounters measured by proximity sensors could be explained by wild roosting proximity, kinship, or rates of co-feeding, social grooming, and food sharing during 21 months in captivity. We assessed evidence for 6 hypothetical scenarios of social foraging, ranging from individual to collective hunting. We found that closely bonded female vampire bats departed their roost separately, but often reunited far outside the roost. Repeating foraging encounters were predicted by within-roost association and histories of cooperation in captivity, even when accounting for kinship. Foraging bats demonstrated both affiliative and competitive interactions with different social calls linked to each interaction type. We suggest that social foraging could have implications for social evolution if "local" within-roost cooperation and "global" outside-roost competition enhances fitness interdependence between frequent roostmates.

The Setting of School-Enterprise Major Curriculum Based on Students’ Satisfaction

The current curriculum cannot meet the needs of students for learning and employment. In this study, the researchers shall improve students’ satisfaction with school-enterprise cooperation specialty by optimizing the curriculum of school-enterprise cooperation specialty. The article through the survey questionnaire and the literature research method was carried on the analysis and the discussion for this study. This provides an important development direction for the school-enterprise cooperation professional curriculum development. One the one hand, students can master more practical skills. It can also improve the satisfaction and success rate both school and enterprise, and promote long-term and stable cooperative relationship. To achieve a win-win situation for schools, enterprises and students.

Development of New Food-Sharing Relationships in Vampire Bats.

Some nonhuman animals form adaptive long-term cooperative relationships with nonkin that seem analogous in form and function to human friendship [1-4]. However, it remains unclear how these bonds initially form, especially when they entail investments of time and energy. Theory suggests individuals can reduce the risk of exploitation by initially spreading out smaller cooperative investments across time [e.g., 5] or partners [6], then gradually escalating investments in more cooperative partnerships [7]. Despite its intuitive appeal, this raising-the-stakes model [7] has gained surprisingly scarce empirical support. Although human strangers do "raise the stakes" when making bids in cooperation games [8], there has been no clear evidence for raising the stakes during formation of social bonds in nature. Existing studies are limited to cooperative interactions with severe power asymmetries (e.g., the cleaner-client fish mutualism [9]) or snapshots of a single behavior within established relationships (grooming in primates [10-13]). Raising the stakes during relationship formation might involve escalating to more costly behaviors. For example, individuals could "test the waters" by first clustering for warmth (no cost), then conditionally grooming (low cost), and eventually providing coalitionary support (high cost). Detecting such a pattern requires introducing random strangers and measuring the emergence of natural helping behaviors that vary in costs. We performed this test by tracking the emergence of social grooming and regurgitated food donations among previously unfamiliar captive vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) over 15months. We found compelling evidence that vampire bats selectively escalate low-cost grooming before developing higher-cost food-sharing relationships.

Swiss Cooperation in the Travel and Tourism Sector: Long-term Relationships and Superior Performance

Despite a growing body of research on the interface and relationship between transport and tourism, this research area remains undeveloped. Using Switzerland as a case study, the present study aims to investigate the level of integration between public transport and tourism companies, the enablers of their long-term cooperative relationship and outstanding performance, seen from the perspective of the public transport companies. A mixed methods approach is used to provide greater insights into how these companies cooperate with each other. Our findings suggest that public transport companies adopt different cooperative strategies with different types of partners. They are able to maintain long-term cooperative relationships due to strong cooperation in sales, a long tradition of cooperation, a high degree of involvement in national public organizations, and their central focus on the customer. Type of partner, sales, product design and pricing, and service provision have statistically significant effects on cooperative performance.

Public-private partnerships in developing countries

Purpose Mounting fiscal constraints and increasing complexity of public services have led governments to search for alternative service delivery mechanisms. The public–private partnership (PPP) is one type of service arrangement in which the public and private sectors enter into a long-term cooperative relationship for the purpose of delivering a public good or service. Despite increasing private sector participation in developing nations, there is a need for more systematic assessment of PPPs in such countries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect the adoption and implementation of projects in the context of developing countries. Design/methodology/approach A multiple case holistic design is employed to analyze 19 select projects across several developing countries to identify and pool clusters of variables that facilitate or impede PPPs. Findings The results indicate five broad categories of political, economic, legislative, financial and management requisites. Research limitations/implications A limitation of this research is that the cases were not selected at random. However, the projects are spread across several areas such as public health, public utilities, public works, transportation and water/wastewater infrastructure in different countries. This allows the authors to examine how the common factors apply across different contextual settings. Originality/value This paper seeks to contribute to the literature by examining several developing countries to identify and pool clusters of variables that facilitate or impede the effective implementation of PPP projects in the context of such regions.

Moral self-judgment is stronger for future than past actions

When, if ever, would a person want to be held responsible for his or her choices? Across four studies (N = 915), people favored more extreme rewards and punishments for their future than their past actions. This included thinking that they should receive more blame and punishment for future misdeeds than for past ones, and more credit and reward for future good deeds than for past ones. The tendency to moralize the future more than the past was mediated by anticipating (one’s own) emotional reactions and concern about one’s reputation, which was stronger in the future as well. The findings fit the pragmatic view that people moralize the future partly to guide their choices and actions, such as by increasing their motivation to restrain selfish impulses and build long-term cooperative relationships with others. People typically believe that the future is open and changeable, while the past is not. We conclude that the psychology of moral accountability has a strong future component.

Delta-shaped openness: Visualizing the foreign capital in mainland China

Opening to the world is considered to be an important reason for China's rapid rise in recent decades. Due to China's unique geographical pattern, the eastern coastal areas have always been the window of China's interaction with the world. Although China's east-west openness gap has been widely recognized, mapping the huge gap is valuable in terms of recognizing mainland China. Foreign direct investment (FDI) reflects the long-term cooperative relationship between China and overseas, and FDI is deemed to show a high level of openness to the outside world. Based on the actual utilized amount of FDI capital of the prefecture-level cities in mainland China in 2016, this study developed an equal FDI capital map. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) are transformed into two much larger deltas, while non-delta-shaped regional units, including Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), Fujian, Shandong, and Liaoning are also transformed into deltas of different scales. In addition, the distribution of FDI growth rates indicates that delta-shaped openness is being further strengthened in mainland China.

The Study of Evolution Among Logistic Service Quality, Service Compensation and Long-Term Cooperation Commitment

Since Internet of Things (IoT) development makes trade model among original organizations be more complicated, how to cooperate with customers to develop long-term cooperation relationship is closely correlated with long-term development of the Company and therefore becomes an important research issue. The study takes logistics related companies as research subjects to conduct cases study via qualitative research. The research results show that logistics companies shall implement different remedies aiming at different service deficiencies. It shall be not only the material compensation, but also the fairness and satisfaction of customers after compensation physically or psychologically acknowledged by the customers to deepen mutual trust. In short-term perspective, it is to urge customers designating the company to manage integrated services in term of activities in front or back end of logistics value chain. In long-term perspective, to use IOT technology creates logistics information platform through the integration of front and back ends as to facilitate long-term cooperation commitment among organizations.

The Customer Flow in Chinese Audit Market after SEC Punishment

Based on the situation of customers change of the 27 accounting firms punished by China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in the capital market of China from 1999 to 2016, this paper found the CSRC punishment will cause those clients requiring high financial statement quality to change firm. However, the customers caring more about audit discount and long-term cooperation relationship with auditors will choose to stay. This shows that the intimate relationship between auditors and customers as well as audit cost discount can increase Switching Cost, thus offsetting "Signaling" effect and slowing the customer churn from firm which already received administrative penalty. However, the regulation does not change the fact that the financial report quality of remaining customers is not high.

A Research on the Elastic Adjustment Mechanism of the PPP Contract

PPP is a long-term cooperative relationship between the government and social capital. The PPP contract is not a business relationship but a kind of cooperation. The implementation of the PPP project is based on cooperation” and its problem-oriented is regarded as the effective solution of the public service supply. During the operation of the PPP project, the uncertain factors will break through the risk prediction of the PPP contract, which will lead to the loss of the foundation of contract conclusions, the imbalance of contract interests, and the deadlock of cooperation or the incompleteness of the PPP contract. Moreover, the information that can be obtained by both parties is limited and the risk is inexhaustible. The traditional contract system is based on the functional purpose of resolving disputes, paying attention to the rigor and strictness of the contract design, emphasizing on the measures of checks and balances, and paying attention to the division of all aspects including responsibilities and rights, lack of cooperation atmosphere flexibility. The logical starting point of the PPP model is cooperation” rather than confrontation”. The problems arising in the performance of the contract must be resolved in a more flexible manner, rather than focusing directly on the sharing of liability for termination of the contract and damages for breach of the contract. It is necessary to set up flexible management thinking of the PPP contract, establishing effective flexible adjustment mechanisms of the contract, forcing the PPP contract to be embedded by legislation, including flexible concession period, flexible price adjustment, flexible income distribution and stock right change, etc. The parties are needed to provide a path for renegotiation, allowing both parties to change the content of the contract through negotiation. In response to the challenge of contractual uncertainty and resulting problems, the path to the implementation of the variable clause of the PPP contract should include defining the trigger condition for the clause to be adjusted quickly, introducing to periodic review fixes, setting conditions for the contract to be renegotiated”, and arranging for renegotiation” between the government and the private sector. In the process of the PPP long-term contract performance, not all uncertain risks and situation changes can be adjusted and renegotiated. It is necessary to start the PPP contract adjustment within the framework of the contract system. Due to the diversity of participants and the complexity of the structure of the PPP model, the change situation of the situation of the contract cannot be defined uniformly, so it should be interpreted by expansion. Force majeure” and change of law” leading to contract change of circumstances” is the most important trigger factor of the PPP contract adjustment. That adjustment can construct an effective flexible adjustment mechanism of the PPP contract, so as to reduce the cost of project negotiation, to control the spread of risks, to avoid the breakup of the relationship between the two sides under the pressure of changes, and to save the crisis of cooperation, in line with the PPP model of the government and social capital long-term sustainability of the basic concept of cooperation.