Loyalty Card Program Research Articles

Who donates food purchase data for research? Results from two nationwide data collection efforts in Finland

Introduction & BackgroundFood retailers’ transaction data are increasingly used for research. Unlike many other digital footprints, the representativeness of automatically accumulating food purchase data as such is less biased as food is consumed by all individuals. However, the process of obtaining individual/household level data requires consents from the consumers and, thus, may create selection bias. Objectives & ApproachThe aim of this work is to describe the recruitment process and participant characteristics in the Finnish LoCard study to evaluate the selection mechanism. The Finnish LoCard study comprises two cohorts collected in 2018 and 2023 with 47,066 and 42,340 participants, respectively, who have consented to release their food purchase data for research. The study collaborates with S group, the leading retailer in Finland with 47% market share. Members from their loyalty card program were invited to consent to their purchase data being used for research and voluntarily respond to a background questionnaire. Relevance to Digital FootprintsOur analyses may provide further insights into the selectivity of consumers who are willing to share their purchase data for research purposes. ResultsFor both LoCard cohorts, all loyalty card holders (n~2.3M) were considered. In LoCard I, the invitations were sent to 1.1M primary card holders with confirmed email addresses, of whom 47,066 (3.9%) participated and consented to their purchase data being used for research. In this cohort, women, middle-aged individuals, individuals with higher education, and employed individuals were overrepresented whereas the retired individuals, those with lower education and individuals with children were underrepresented. In the LoCard II, loyalty card holders (n ~2.24M) with an email address were invited. Of these, 852,009 (37.7%) opened the invitation link, and a further 42,340 provided the consent, resulting in response rate of 1.9% from the original population and 4.9% from those reacting to the email invitation. Data on the characteristics of LoCard II participants are not available yet but will be presented in the conference presentation. Conclusions & ImplicationsThis work investigates selection mechanisms in the Finnish LoCard study and evaluates the feasibility of reaching underrepresented groups in health studies, such as socioeconomically disadvantaged groups or young men, through a combination of loyalty card program and email invitations.

Tensorial Principal Component Analysis in Detecting Temporal Trajectories of Purchase Patterns in Loyalty Card Data: Retrospective Cohort Study.

Loyalty card data automatically collected by retailers provide an excellent source for evaluating health-related purchase behavior of customers. The data comprise information on every grocery purchase, including expenditures on product groups and the time of purchase for each customer. Such data where customers have an expenditure value for every product group for each time can be formulated as 3D tensorial data. This study aimed to use the modern tensorial principal component analysis (PCA) method to uncover the characteristics of health-related purchase patterns from loyalty card data. Another aim was to identify card holders with distinct purchase patterns. We also considered the interpretation, advantages, and challenges of tensorial PCA compared with standard PCA. Loyalty card program members from the largest retailer in Finland were invited to participate in this study. Our LoCard data consist of the purchases of 7251 card holders who consented to the use of their data from the year 2016. The purchases were reclassified into 55 product groups and aggregated across 52 weeks. The data were then analyzed using tensorial PCA, allowing us to effectively reduce the time and product group-wise dimensions simultaneously. The augmentation method was used for selecting the suitable number of principal components for the analysis. Using tensorial PCA, we were able to systematically search for typical food purchasing patterns across time and product groups as well as detect different purchasing behaviors across groups of card holders. For example, we identified customers who purchased large amounts of meat products and separated them further into groups based on time profiles, that is, customers whose purchases of meat remained stable, increased, or decreased throughout the year or varied between seasons of the year. Using tensorial PCA, we can effectively examine customers' purchasing behavior in more detail than with traditional methods because it can handle time and product group dimensions simultaneously. When interpreting the results, both time and product dimensions must be considered. In further analyses, these time and product groups can be directly associated with additional consumer characteristics such as socioeconomic and demographic predictors of dietary patterns. In addition, they can be linked to external factors that impact grocery purchases such as inflation and unexpected pandemics. This enables us to identify what types of people have specific purchasing patterns, which can help in the development of ways in which consumers can be steered toward making healthier food choices.

Analyzing the impact of loyalty card programs on customer behavior: insights from the Albanian market.

Loyalty card programs have become prevalent in the retail industry, offering various benefits and rewards to customers. This study aims to analyze the impact of loyalty card programs on customer behavior in the Albanian market. A survey was conducted among a diverse sample of customers from different retail sectors in Albania. The survey collected data on awareness, satisfaction, loyalty, and customized benefits. The survey was distributed between March and May 2023, and responses were collected electronically. The survey responses were analyzed to address the research questions and test the hypotheses. The findings indicate a significant level of awareness among respondents regarding loyalty card programs. Higher satisfaction with specific benefits, such as discounts and accumulating points, is associated with higher levels of customer loyalty. Customers who reported higher frequencies of loyalty card usage demonstrated greater loyalty. Customized benefits, particularly discounts and accumulating points, significantly influenced customer satisfaction. However, other benefit categories did not show statistically significant associations with loyalty. The study highlights the importance of promoting loyalty card programs to enhance awareness among customers. Improving and optimizing loyalty card benefits based on customer feedback is recommended. Encouraging frequent usage of loyalty cards and personalizing benefits to align with customer preferences are key strategies to foster customer loyalty. The findings provide valuable insights for practitioners in the retail sector to enhance customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Analyzing the impact of loyalty card programs on customer behavior: insights from the Albanian market

Background: Loyalty card programs have become prevalent in the retail industry, offering various benefits and rewards to customers. This study aims to analyze the impact of loyalty card programs on customer behavior in the Albanian market. Methods: A survey was conducted among a diverse sample of customers from different retail sectors in Albania. The survey collected data on awareness, satisfaction, loyalty, and customized benefits. The survey was distributed between March and May 2023, and responses were collected electronically. The survey responses were analyzed to address the research questions and test the hypotheses. Results: The findings indicate a significant level of awareness among respondents regarding loyalty card programs. Higher satisfaction with specific benefits, such as discounts and accumulating points, is associated with higher levels of customer loyalty. Customers who reported higher frequencies of loyalty card usage demonstrated greater loyalty. Customized benefits, particularly discounts and accumulating points, significantly influenced customer satisfaction. However, other benefit categories did not show statistically significant associations with loyalty. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of promoting loyalty card programs to enhance awareness among customers. Improving and optimizing loyalty card benefits based on customer feedback is recommended. Encouraging frequent usage of loyalty cards and personalizing benefits to align with customer preferences are key strategies to foster customer loyalty. The findings provide valuable insights for practitioners in the retail sector to enhance customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Analyzing the impact of loyalty card programs on customer behavior: insights from the Albanian market

Background: Loyalty card programs have become prevalent in the retail industry, offering various benefits and rewards to customers. This study aims to analyze the impact of loyalty card programs on customer behavior in the Albanian market. Methods: A survey was conducted among a diverse sample of customers from different retail sectors in Albania. The survey collected data on awareness, satisfaction, loyalty, and customized benefits. The survey was distributed between March and May 2023, and responses were collected electronically. The survey responses were analyzed to address the research questions and test the hypotheses. Results: The findings indicate a significant level of awareness among respondents regarding loyalty card programs. Higher satisfaction with specific benefits, such as discounts and accumulating points, is associated with higher levels of customer loyalty. Customers who reported higher frequencies of loyalty card usage demonstrated greater loyalty. Customized benefits, particularly discounts and accumulating points, significantly influenced customer satisfaction. However, other benefit categories did not show statistically significant associations with loyalty. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of promoting loyalty card programs to enhance awareness among customers. Improving and optimizing loyalty card benefits based on customer feedback is recommended. Encouraging frequent usage of loyalty cards and personalizing benefits to align with customer preferences are key strategies to foster customer loyalty. The findings provide valuable insights for practitioners in the retail sector to enhance customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Advancing the marketing‐operations interface in omnichannel retail

Advancing the marketing‐operations interface in omnichannel retail

Customer retention using loyalty cards program

Businesses need to retain their customers. They must research to know the best way to achieve a high retention rate, and which incentives are appropriate for participating customers. There are several methods of retaining customers, but we are closely paying attention to loyalty card programs. More participation in the program promotes more incentives and rewards. Therefore, this study aims to understand the influencing factors to shop at Ondoor and Reliance Fresh, and the role loyalty cards play in satisfying and retaining customers participating in the program. For that purpose, this study uses a descriptive survey research design. Data were collected using the questionnaire. Results indicate the availability of multiple products; brand variety, outlet ambience, return policy, price, service, promotions, and store location had a higher impact factor as influencing factors. Loyalty card programs provided by Reliance Fresh and Ondoor have an impact on the participants.

Impact of Loyalty Card Programs on Customer Satisfaction and Engagement with Reference to Colombo District Supermarket Retail Industry

The super market industry in Sri Lanka is highly competitive and a drastic improvement has been observed in the last decade as consumer lifestyle is changing with greater degree of influence by Western lifestyles. Due to heavy competition in the super market industry, super markets are pushed into a situation to focus more towards customer acquisition and retaining programs in order to increase their market share. However, leading super market chains suggest that despite acquisition programs making impact, customers who have been already acquired by the organizations are switching to competitors. Hence, in order to obtain competitive advantage over competitors, super market chains ought to focus executing effective customer retaining program like loyalty program that would have a positive impact on the business performance of the organization. However, presently, super market chains have implemented loyalty programs that don’t yield expected benefits due to drawbacks in the loyalty programs which prevent customers from participating in the loyalty programs due to customer dissatisfaction on loyalty program in general. The research is essentially aimed at identifying factors that have impact on customer satisfaction on customer loyalty program to participate in super market industry. Anticipated Benefits, Privacy concerns, Variety seeking, Customer involvement and commitment are four key factors identified through literature survey that impact on customer participation to loyalty program. The shoppers of Keells, Cargills and Arpico and Laugfs were selected to represent the different loyalty card types in this research and all the Individuals in Colombo district who do their purchases at supermarkets qualify as the population for the research. The results of the study discuss the impact of customer retainment and engagement factors of loyalty card programs on customer satisfaction and the significant impact of those factors on the customer satisfaction.

Attributes of loyalty card programme membership and their influence on customers’ behavioural and attitudinal loyalty: a case of fashion retailing in the Sri Lankan context

Purpose: Loyalty card programmes are commonly used by fashion retailers with the intention of building customer loyalty and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of company financial performance. The purpose of this paper is to study whether customer loyalty depends on the loyalty membership, number of loyalty cards and gender. These questions remained unanswered as the past studies showed mixed results and even very few studies have been carried out in Sri Lanka on this topic. 
 Design/methodology/approach: The study critically analyses the influence of loyalty card programs under three aspects; the loyalty program membership, the number of loyalty cards available, and the gender of the cardholders to find out if there is any loyalty difference between male and female customers. 250 fashion retail customers within the Western Province of Sri Lanka were conveniently selected for the sample. All hypotheses were tested using an independent sample t- test. 
 Findings: The findings show that a loyalty difference exists between the customer being a member of a loyalty card programme and a non-member whereas no difference is shown in terms of the number of cards a customer holds and the customer’s gender. 
 Originality: The study fills the existing gaps of knowledge and arrives at a proper conclusion on the influence of loyalty card programme membership on both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty in fashion retailing in the South Asian context whereas the majority of the studies have focused on grocery retailing (Liu, 2007and influence on behavioural loyalty aspect only (Ha, 2007).
 Implications: The loyalty programmes can be identified as a means of building customer loyalty. It brings other benefits for retailers such as providing opportunities for personalization and aiding in decision-making encouraging to invest on such programmes. While the present study fills the gap of knowledge regarding the attributes of loyalty programs and gender to some extent it still offers a lot of potential for future research.

Who holds a shared responsibility view of minimizing gambling harm? Results from a multiwave survey of casino gamblers.

Objective: Academics, gambling regulators, and the gambling industry increasingly espouse a shared responsibility view of preventing gambling harm, considering individual gamblers and external stakeholders (e.g., gambling industry employees, government regulators, and public health workers) to be jointly responsible for this task. This study is the third in a series exploring gamblers' beliefs about responsibility for preventing gambling harm. Method: A sample of 4,336 subscribers to MGM Resorts International (MGM)'s loyalty card program as of January 2020 completed a web-based survey. Results: We observed that 58.1% of participants only held individual gamblers responsible for helping prevent gambling harm. However, two factors increased the likelihood of holding a shared responsibility viewpoint and assigning responsibility to casinos for reducing gambling harm: (a) scoring positive on the Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen (BBGS) or an Expanded Problem Gambling Screen (EPGS) and (b) being aware of GameSense, an onsite responsible gambling education program. Those who screened positive on the BBGS or EPGS also were more likely than their counterparts to deny personal responsibility for minimizing gambling harm to individual gamblers; that is, they were more likely to hold a purely external responsibility viewpoint. A meta-analytic year-over-year comparison revealed that compared to being aware of GameSense, screening positive for problem gambling was more strongly associated with assigning responsibility to casinos for minimizing gambling harm. Conclusions: We discuss these findings in the context of self-determination theory and suggest implications for health promotion and best practices for message design in responsible gambling programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Estimating Dietary Intake from Grocery Shopping Data-A Comparative Validation of Relevant Indicators in Switzerland.

In light of the globally increasing prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases, new scalable and non-invasive dietary monitoring techniques are urgently needed. Automatically collected digital receipts from loyalty cards hereby promise to serve as an objective and automatically traceable digital marker for individual food choice behavior and do not require users to manually log individual meal items. With the introduction of the General Data Privacy Regulation in the European Union, millions of consumers gained the right to access their shopping data in a machine-readable form, representing a historic chance to leverage shopping data for scalable monitoring of food choices. Multiple quantitative indicators for evaluating the nutritional quality of food shopping have been suggested, but so far, no comparison has validated the potential of these alternative indicators within a comparative setting. This manuscript thus represents the first study to compare the calibration capacity and to validate the discrimination potential of previously suggested food shopping quality indicators for the nutritional quality of shopped groceries, including the Food Standards Agency Nutrient Profiling System Dietary Index (FSA-NPS DI), Grocery Purchase Quality Index-2016 (GPQI), Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), Healthy Trolley Index (HETI) and Healthy Purchase Index (HPI), checking if any of them performs differently from the others. The hypothesis is that some food shopping quality indicators outperform the others in calibrating and discriminating individual actual dietary intake. To assess the indicators’ potentials, 89 eligible participants completed a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and donated their digital receipts from the loyalty card programs of the two leading Swiss grocery retailers, which represent 70% of the national grocery market. Compared to absolute food and nutrient intake, correlations between density-based relative food and nutrient intake and food shopping data are stronger. The FSA-NPS DI has the best calibration and discrimination performance in classifying participants’ consumption of nutrients and food groups, and seems to be a superior indicator to estimate nutritional quality of a user’s diet based on digital receipts from grocery shopping in Switzerland.

Sociodemographic differences in motives for food selection: results from the LoCard cross-sectional survey

BackgroundAlthough sociodemographic differences in dietary intake have been widely studied, the up-to-date evidence on the corresponding variations in motives for food selection is limited. We investigated how sociodemographic characteristics and special diets in households are associated with the relative importance of various food motives.MethodsParticipants were members of the S Group loyalty card program across Finland who consented to release their grocery purchase data to be used for research purposes and responded to a web-based questionnaire in 2018 (LoCard study). Self-reported information on sociodemographic factors (age, gender, marital status, living situation, education, household income), special diets in household and food motives (Food Choice Questionnaire) were utilized in the present analyses (N = 10,795). Age- and gender-adjusted linear models were performed separately for each sociodemographic predictor and motive dimension (derived by factor analysis) outcome. The importance of each sociodemographic predictor was evaluated based on an increase in R2 value after adding the predictor to the age- and gender-adjusted model.ResultsAge emerged as a central determinant of food motives with the following strongest associations: young adults emphasized convenience (∆R2 = 0.09, P < 0.001) and mood control (∆R2 = 0.05, P < 0.001) motives more than middle-aged and older adults. The relative importance of cheapness decreased with increasing socioeconomic position (SEP) (∆R2 = 0.08, P < 0.001 for income and ∆R2 = 0.04, P < 0.001 for education). However, the price item (“is good value for money”) depicting the concept of worth did not distinguish between SEP categories. Considerations related to familiarity of food were more salient to men (∆R2 = 0.02, P < 0.001) and those with lower SEP (∆R2 = 0.03, P < 0.001 for education and ∆R2 = 0.01, P < 0.001 for income). Respondents living in households with a vegetarian, red-meat-free, gluten-free or other type of special diet rated ethical concern as relatively more important than households with no special diets (∆R2 = 0.02, P < 0.001).ConclusionsWe observed sociodemographic differences in a range of food motives that might act as barriers or drivers for adopting diets that benefit human and planetary health. Interventions aiming to narrow SEP and gender disparities in dietary intake should employ strategies that take into account higher priority of familiarity and price in daily food selection in lower-SEP individuals and males.

Characterization and Correction of Bias Due to Nonparticipation and the Degree of Loyalty in Large-Scale Finnish Loyalty Card Data on Grocery Purchases: Cohort Study

BackgroundTo date, the evaluation of diet has mostly been based on questionnaires and diaries that have their limitations in terms of being time and resource intensive, and a tendency toward social desirability. Loyalty card data obtained in retailing provides timely and objective information on diet-related behaviors. In Finland, the market is highly concentrated, which provides a unique opportunity to investigate diet through grocery purchases.ObjectiveThe aims of this study were as follows: (1) to investigate and quantify the selection bias in large-scale (n=47,066) loyalty card (LoCard) data and correct the bias by developing weighting schemes and (2) to investigate how the degree of loyalty relates to food purchases.MethodsMembers of a loyalty card program from a large retailer in Finland were contacted via email and invited to take part in the study, which involved consenting to the release of their grocery purchase data for research purposes. Participants’ sociodemographic background was obtained through a web-based questionnaire and was compared to that of the general Finnish adult population obtained via Statistics Finland. To match the distributions of sociodemographic variables, poststratification weights were constructed by using the raking method. The degree of loyalty was self-estimated on a 5-point rating scale.ResultsOn comparing our study sample with the general Finnish adult population, in our sample, there were more women (65.25%, 30,696/47,045 vs 51.12%, 2,273,139/4,446,869), individuals with higher education (56.91%, 20,684/36,348 vs 32.21%, 1,432,276/4,446,869), and employed individuals (60.53%, 22,086/36,487 vs 52.35%, 2,327,730/4,446,869). Additionally, in our sample, there was underrepresentation of individuals aged under 30 years (14.44%, 6,791/47,045 vs 18.04%, 802,295/4,446,869) and over 70 years (7.94%, 3,735/47,045 vs 18.20%, 809,317/4,446,869), as well as retired individuals (23.51%, 8,578/36,487 vs 31.82%, 1,414,785/4,446,869). Food purchases differed by the degree of loyalty, with higher shares of vegetable, red meat & processed meat, and fat spread purchases in the higher loyalty groups.ConclusionsIndividuals who consented to the use of their loyalty card data for research purposes tended to diverge from the general Finnish adult population. However, the high volume of data enabled the inclusion of sociodemographically diverse subgroups and successful correction of the differences found in the distributions of sociodemographic variables. In addition, it seems that food purchases differ according to the degree of loyalty, which should be taken into account when researching loyalty card data. Despite the limitations, loyalty card data provide a cost-effective approach to reach large groups of people, including hard-to-reach population subgroups.

The effect of loyalty card attitude, store satisfaction and store loyalty on purchase intention: The case of cosmetics retailers

Purpose- The purpose of the study is to see if the attitude towards loyalty card programs, store satisfaction and store loyalty create purchase intention in the cosmetics industry. More specifically, two cosmetics retailers –Gratis and Sephora – which are supposed to apply different loyalty programs are selected to examine if there are differences regarding consumers’ purchase intention for the two. Methodology- This research applies PLS-SEM to test the proposed model with the data obtained from 200 respondents who use loyalty cards of Sephora or Gratis. Findings- The results of Multi Group Analysis reveal that loyalty card attitude and store loyalty create purchase intention for the consumers of Gratis, but not for Sephora. On the other hand, loyalty card attitude exerts more influence on the store satisfaction and loyalty for Sephora than does for Gratis. Conclusion- Cosmetics retailers should design loyalty programs depending on the expected returns.

Plastic loyalty – Investigating loyalty card programs for a Finnish hotel chain

Few studies of hotel loyalty programs, particularly field studies, examine basic questions such as the need for loyalty programs or their effects on hotel choice. Other gaps in loyalty program research include business versus leisure travelers, travel frequency and multiple loyalty program memberships. This case study extends loyalty program research by asking business and leisure customers of a Finnish hotel chain, without a loyalty program, what hotel attributes and loyalty program features appeal to them. Examining the 1315 responses highlighted significant differences between leisure and business travelers as well as the importance of travel frequency. The results suggest that the chain should consider intangible and symbolic benefits (e.g. upgrades and late check-outs), which would cost less than discounts or other tangible benefits. The chain might also consider developing a customer community offering emotional benefits and an interactive forum for targeted marketing and customer involvement in service development.

Trzecia platforma ICT w transformacji cyfrowej organizacji inteligentnych

SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) is the concept that four technologies are currently driving business innovation. SMAC creates an ecosystem that allows a business to improve its operations and get closer to the customer with minimal overhead and maximum reach. The proliferation of structured and unstructured data that is being created by mobile devices, sensors, social media, loyalty card programs and website browsing is creating new business models built upon customer- generated data. None of the four technologies can be an afterthought because it’s the synergy created by social, mobile, analytics and cloud working together that creates a competitive advantage. Social media has provided businesses with new ways to reach and interact with customers, while mobile technologies have changed the way people communicate, shop and work. Analytics allow businesses to understand how, when and where people consume certain goods and services and cloud computing provides a new way to access technology and the data a business needs to quickly respond to changing markets and solve business problems. While each of the four technologies can impact a business individually, their convergence is proving to be a disruptive force that is creating entirely new business models for service providers.

The effects of promotion activities on consumers' purchase intention in chain convenience stores

This research aims to investigate the effects of brand image, promotion activities, and perceived value on consumers' purchase intention in convenience stores. The empirical analysis confirms the significantly positive impacts from all the variables on purchase intention and highlights the strong influences of functionality in brand image, monetary promotion in promotion activities, and monetary price in perceived value. We found that the perceived value plays a more influential role in determining the purchase intention, compared with the impacts from brand image and promotion activities. Monetary promotion activities exhibit a strongly positive impact on purchase intention through promotion itself and increasing perceived value. The current loyalty-card program, which provides price discount as regular monetary promotion and point accumulation for free collectables as non-monetary promotion, serves as the most effective mixture of promotion activities to create the win-win situation between consumers and convenience stores.

Loyalty card adoption in SME retailers: the impact upon marketing management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) retailers adopt and implement a loyalty card programme as a marketing management decision-making tool. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative and longitudinal case study research design is adopted. Data were collected from multiple sources, incorporating semi-structured interviews and analysis of company documents and observation within a retail SME. Findings – The findings presented focus on the loyalty card adoption process to reflect both the organisational issues and impact upon marketing management decision-making. Research limitations/implications – This research is restricted to one region within the UK, investigating loyalty card adoption within a specific industry sector. Practical implications – SME retailers operate in an industry environment whereby there is a competitive demand for loyalty card programmes. SME retailers need to carefully consider how to match the firm’s characteristics with customer relationship management (CRM) operational requirements as highlighted in this case. Originality/value – The evidence presented extends current knowledge of retail loyalty card programmes beyond the context of large organisations to encompass SMEs. The study also illustrates the value of a structured, formal CRM system to help SME retailers compete in a complex, competitive and omni-channel marketplace, adding new insights into the retail literature.

From trait to state: understanding privacy concerns

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of how information privacy concerns are derived from the combination effects of individual traits, compound traits, situational traits and surface traits that ultimately influence the consumer’s attitude toward data collection programs. The study investigates a hierarchical model of individual traits, information privacy orientation and consumer privacy concerns.Design/methodology/approach– The empirical research utilizes structural equation modeling to analyze the responses from 964 respondents.Findings– The results suggest that consumer attitudes toward data collection programs associated with personal shopping information (e.g. retail loyalty card programs) are determined through a hierarchical model of personal traits and contextual-dependent variables. Specifically, the authors find that the compound traits of risk orientation and need for cognition influence the situational trait of information privacy orientation which leads to the surface trait of consumer privacy concern and ultimately attitude toward the information collection program.Practical implications– The results suggest several means to increase participation in data collection programs. Although high need for cognition and high risk orientation cannot be changed, communication plans can provide guarantees that mitigate perceived risk associated with sharing personal information and highlight the information value to the individual’s sharing of information.Originality/value– While previous research focuses on either the internal traits or external traits, this research contributes to the current literature by offering insights into how privacy evolves from more abstract personality traits to more situational-specific behavioral tendencies, which then influence attitudes and behavior.

The influence of relationship marketing investments on customer gratitude in retailing

Customer gratitude represents the emotional core of reciprocity and plays a key force in developing and maintaining successful seller–buyer relational exchanges. Based upon personal interviews with 239 members of loyalty card programs of a department chain store, this study shows that alternative relationship marketing investments (i.e., direct mail, tangible rewards, interpersonal communication, and preferential treatment) have a differential influence on customers' gratitude and consequently behavioral loyalty. More specifically, results of this study indicate that preferential treatment is the most effective relationship marketing tactic to enhance customer gratitude, followed by interpersonal communication and tangible rewards, respectively. Management implications for retailers to increase customers' gratitude are discussed.