Repeat Business Research Articles

E-commerce websites, consumer order fulfillment and after-sales service satisfaction: the customer is always right, even after the shopping cart check-out

PurposeThis research identifies the critical factors of online service delivery of electronic commerce (e-commerce) websites, including website attractiveness, website functionality, website security and consumer fulfillment during an unprecedented Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 430 online respondents who were members of popular social media groups. The survey instrument relied on valid and reliable measures relating to electronic service quality (e-SERVQUAL) to better understand the participants’ satisfaction with shopping websites, as well as their loyal behaviors and word-of-mouth activities.FindingsThe findings reported that consumers valued the e-commerce websites’ features and their consumer order fulfillment capabilities. These factors increase the consumers’ satisfaction with online shopping experiences, generate repeat business, as well as positive reviews on social media.Research limitations/implicationsThis study addresses a knowledge gap in academia. To date, little research has focused on the consumer order fulfillment aspect of e-commerce transactions and on after-sales of online businesses.Originality/valueThis contribution posits that e-commerce websites ought to be appealing, functional and offer secure transactions. More importantly, it suggests that merchants should consistently deliver personalized service in all stages of an online purchase, including after the delivery of the ordered products.

Caught between winning repeat business and learning: Reactivity to output indicators in international development

• Using a case study, I investigate how standardized output indicators impact informal learning. • Findings suggest that strong reactions to simple output indicators occur in development projects. • These reactions negatively sanction learning outside the frame of standardized indicators. • Each donor and implementer office tier uses indicators to manage and compare the tier below them. • Auditable indicator data should be considered a key product feature of large donor-funded projects. Recent sociological scholarship posits that performance metrics alter professional and organizational behavior, meaning performance indicators may recreate rather than empirically measure phenomena of interest. This perverse effect of measurement is at odds with the goals of international development monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practices, which promote learning “what works” to hone financial stewardship and route funds toward the most evidence-based, high-impact projects. Focusing on the internal, mandated, and standardized M&E system of a large bilateral agricultural development initiative, this article examines whether perverse reactions occur in this case study and how they impact the process of informal learning “what works” by professionals. Although the M&E system under study is standardized across multiple recipient countries, I utilize the experiences of multiple organizations and projects in a single East African country, and interview 58 development professionals. Using this case study, the article demonstrates that the perverse effects of measurement are initiated by the vertical managerial structure of a single project, forming the status quo of everyday development work. It then shows that the status quo is reinforced by the horizontal comparisons at each tier made possible by standardized M&E systems, including comparisons of performance between implementing organizations or donor field offices. Such comparison quiets professionals and organizations that attempt to introduce more empirical forms of learning “what works.” The article suggests that high stakes measurement practices create M&E systems that, instead of enabling learning about “what works” in projects, produce evidence to garner repeat business, what development professionals colloquially term “rebiz.”

How Tourist Preference and Satisfaction Can Contribute to Improved Welfare Standards at Elephant Tourism Venues in Thailand.

Simple SummaryTourists who visit elephant tourism venues (ETVs), and other wildlife attractions, can influence the activities offered at these venues by positive and negative word-of-mouth. When a person has a good experience and they tell their family and friends, or leave reviews online, this can influence people to participate in the activity. The same is also true when a person has a bad experience; although, in this instance, they can influence people not to participate in the activity, limiting the possible success of that venue. Generally, tourists seem to prefer to visit ETVs that allow elephants to behave naturally over those that make their elephants entertain tourists. Therefore, we visited twelve ETVs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and compared the opinions of tourists who visited riding and non-riding venues towards the use of captive elephants for entertainment. We found that tourists who reported a preference for ETVs with higher welfare standards had personally seen elephants being treated poorly. Additionally, higher welfare standards may positively affect tourists’ satisfaction with their experience. Therefore, tourists can influence the activities offered at ETVs by demanding better living conditions for elephants and only financially supporting ETVs with higher welfare standards.Consumer satisfaction and preference can be integral in influencing and solidifying change in user-driven industries such as tourism. High satisfaction rates are imperative to the continual success of a venue as satisfaction determines the likelihood of repeat business and positive recommendations to friends, family and online review forums. Tourist preference for ecocentric tourism venues, over anthropocentric ones, appears to be increasing in elephant tourism venues (ETVs) in Thailand. To explore this, we visited twelve ETVs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and compared the preferences and satisfaction of tourists who visited riding and non-riding venues toward the use of captive elephants in an entertainment setting. We found that tourists visited riding and non-riding ETVs for similar reasons, primarily due to recommendations from friends and reviews, and because the venue had a good reputation. Tourist preference for higher welfare standards was observed at venues where participants directly observed poor treatment of the elephants. Tourist satisfaction may be impacted by higher elephant welfare standards; therefore, tourists have the ability to influence the elephant tourism industry by demanding better living conditions for elephants and only financially supporting ETVs with higher welfare standards.

Bank Dependence and Bank Financing in Corporate M&A

We examine the valuation impact of bank-financed mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and the loan contracts used to finance M&A transactions, focusing on the difference between bank-dependent acquirers and other acquirers. We find that bank-financed deals have higher acquirer’s cumulative abnormal returns relative to other cash M&A deals, but this certification effect exists only for bank-dependent acquirers. Despite bank-dependent acquirers being more susceptible to hold-up, banks do not impose higher loan pricing or more stringent nonprice terms on them. After completion of the acquisition, bank-dependent acquirers retain the M&A financing banks for a much larger share of their borrowing needs, suggesting the importance of repeat business for lack of hold-up. Our findings highlight the positive aspects of bank dependence and the importance of implicit contracting for the lack of hold-up in lending markets. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, finance.

The Role of Sustainable Restaurant Practices in City Branding: The Case of Athens

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the role that restaurant practices play on tourists’ choices and specifically on city branding. It examines whether sustainability practices are considered by customers to be part of what they perceive as overall quality, leading to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat business. It examines whether sustainability practices become part of the customer experience and perceived quality, and if they could work as another key predictor of customer dining satisfaction effecting their decisions to revisit a destination. Several studies focused on sustainability practices from the restaurant owner’s perspective, but there is no study investigating the viewpoint of international tourists and consumers of common restaurants, and the influence of green practices on visiting a major European capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research was conducted using a sample of 204 international consumers after completing meals at local restaurants in Athens. This study offers insights on the role that sustainable and green practices of restaurants play in customer satisfaction as it relates to a potential re-visit of a destination; however, it still shows a path worth investigating. Restaurateurs, tourism experts (DMO), and local government should monitor what influences the satisfaction of potential global tourists while taking their sensitivity on sustainability issues into account when shaping their branding strategy during the COVID-19 era.

Attributes of medical tourism destination brands: case study of the Korean medical tourism market

ABSTRACT This study explores Korea’s attributes of medical tourism destination brands in the medical tourism market and examines its impact on customer engagement, trust, and revisit intention. The role of the attributes in shaping the intentions of medical tourists is also examined. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to create and verify five attributes. Structural equation modeling showed that the relationships between the proposed variables have a significant effect. This study, using the Korean market as a case study, provides valuable insight into the process of forming tourists’ intentions and encouraging them to repeat business.

‘Exceedingly Obnoxious to others in the Trade’: Carlisle Bookseller, Printer and Publisher Charles Thurnam (1796–1852)

Early-nineteenth century traders, manufacturers and retailers are often depicted as inhabiting a world where approval, trust and reputation mattered. Positive engagements with customers, fellow business-people and with the wider community were all, apparently, important. This has been made most obvious in the literature in relation to clients whereby shop-keepers eager to please an increasingly affluent population, offered liberal terms to encourage repeat business. Entrants to the market place, keen to forge new connections with peers, drew on established links to enhance their own fledgling businesses. Publicised via newspapers, they promoted their integrative rather than disruptive appearance. The career of Carlisle printer and publisher Charles Thurnam questions this narrative. Intermingled with his civic engagement, Thurnam’s outbursts of violence and aggression, threatening behaviour, legal entanglements and witness intimidation reveal an approach seemingly at odds with the notion of a ‘polite and commercial’ people.

Accessing the Link Between Brand Recognition to Increase Repeat Business

Accessing the Link Between Brand Recognition to Increase Repeat Business

E-Commerce Websites, Consumer Order Fulfillment and After-Sales Service Satisfaction: The Customer Is Always Right, even after the Shopping Cart Check-Out!

Purpose: This research identifies the critical factors of online service delivery of electronic commerce (ecommerce) websites, including website attractiveness, website functionality, website security and consumer fulfillment during an unprecedented Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 430 online respondents, who were members in popular social media groups. The survey instrument relied on valid and reliable measures relating to electronic service quality (e-SERVQUAL), to better understand the participants’ satisfaction with shopping websites as well as their loyal behaviors and word-of mouth activities. Findings: The findings reported that consumers valued the e-commerce websites’ features and their consumer order fulfillment capabilities. These factors increase the consumers’ satisfaction with online shopping experiences, generate repeat business as well as positive reviews in social media. Originality: This contribution posits that e-commerce websites’ ought to be appealing, functional and offer secure transactions. More importantly, it suggests that online merchants should consistently deliver a personalized service in all stages of an online purchase, including after the delivery of the ordered products. Research implications/limitations: This study addresses a knowledge gap in academia. To date, little research has focused on the consumer order fulfillment aspect of e-commerce transactions and on the aftersales services of online businesses.

Importance of Customer Loyalty in Telecommunication Sector

Customer loyalty is a serious matter of concern for every business where it measures the customer’s likeliness to give repeat business with a brand or organization. In other words, it is the outcome of a positive experience for customers as well as customer satisfaction. In this paper, the role of the relational dimension will be studied in the context of customer loyalty. The aim of this paper is to analyze the concept of relationship marketing and the key variables of the dimension relationship and their role in customer loyalty. South Asian telecommunication industry is selected to analyze the role of relational dimension in the context of customer loyalty. Previous studies will be reviewed to analyze the concept of relationship besides demonstrating the role of relationship marketing in the telecommunication industry. Additionally, the concept of customer loyalty and multiple theoretical approaches to customer loyalty is appropriately discussed here. Another important part of this study is that this paper will discuss the different phases of loyalty. The primary research will be accomplished through a questionnaire survey method and the collected data will be analyzed with statistical analysis. A positive relationship between the elements of relationship marketing and customer loyalty is analyzed through multiple correlations and regression tables. It shows that all the components of relationship marketing have a good impact on customer loyalty and will prove that more customers will confident more they will be loyal to the brand.

Do you respond sincerely? How sellers\u2019 responses to online reviews affect customer relationship and repurchase intention

For many online businesses, online reviews are crucially important to managing reputation, word-of-mouth sales, and, ultimately, their survival. Hence, more and more online business owners are posting public responses to both positive and negative reviews. But do these responses change anything? And, if so, which types of responses are the most effective for strengthening customer relationship and increasing the chances of repeat business? With two surveys and a series of partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analyses, we tested three relevant hypotheses to answer these questions. The results show that when business replies to online reviews with promotional information, consumers perceive the seller to be self-interested, and both relationship quality and repurchase intention decrease. However, sincere responses that do not contain promotional information, such as gratitude and apology, are highly correlated to positive relationship quality and the likelihood of future repeat business. These findings enrich the academic literature on online reviews, and the recommendations stemming from our results should be of interest to any business that relies on their online reputation for survival.

Sales promotion in health and medicine: using incentives to stimulate patient interest and attention

BackgroundSales promotion—the use of incentives to encourage patronage—is a staple of marketing communications in the health services industry. Sales promotion applications commonly used by health services organizations include free samples, free trials, coupons, contests, and loyalty programs. These avenues engender goodwill, appreciation, and attentiveness; they also serve as small, but powerful promotional mechanisms by reminding recipients of healthcare institutions, compelling particular actions, encouraging repeat business, or prompting some related desirable in an effort to hasten exchange and bolster loyalty.DiscussionSales promotion offers myriad opportunities for healthcare providers to connect with audiences. While limited in their power to attract broad audiences when used in isolation, sales promotion avenues used in tandem with other marketing communications create helpful engagement synergies which amplify conveyance initiatives. This article presents an overview of sales promotion and notably shares deployment insights and experiences from Willis-Knighton Health System, permitting peer healthcare establishments to view associated pathways, reflect on their own sales promotion efforts, and potentially bolster initiatives with the perspectives supplied herein.ConclusionsSales promotion offers healthcare providers a complementary communications avenue, helping to reinforce other elements of the marketing communications mix, affording opportunities to develop better connections with patients. In formulating associated communication plans, health and medical establishments should be reminded of the benefits offered by sales promotion and especially strive to effect creative applications that build interest and attention. By doing so, opportunities to bolster patient volume and increase all-important market share abound.

Collateral Misreporting in the Residential Mortgage-Backed Security Market

Securitized mortgage appraisals routinely target pre-specified valuations, 45% of purchase loan appraisals exactly equal purchase prices, and appraisals virtually never fall below purchase prices. As a result, appraisals exceed automated valuation model (AVM) valuations 60% of the time and are 5% higher than AVM valuations on average. High appraisals and indicators of appraisal targeting predict loan delinquency and residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) losses and are priced at the loan level through higher interest rates, but have essentially no impact on RMBS pricing. Selection bias simulations and unfunded loan application appraisals indicate that high appraisals are intentional. The extent to which appraisals exceed AVM valuations varies across loan officers, mortgage brokers, and appraisers, and high appraisals are associated with more repeat business for appraisers, potentially incentivizing appraisers to inflate their appraisals. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.

Drug Dealers’ Rational Choices on Which Customers to Rip-Off

a b s t r a c t Background: Drug dealers are infamous for overcharging customers and handing over less than owed. One reason rip-offs frequently occur is blackmarket participants have limited access to formal means of dispute resolution and, as such, are attractive prey. Yet drug dealers do not cheat every customer. Though this is implicitly understood in the literature, sparse theoretical attention has been given to which customers are ripped-off and why. Methods: To address that lacuna, this paper uses the rationality perspective to analyze qualitative data obtained in interviews with 25 unincarcerated drug sellers operating in disadvantaged neighborhoods of St. Louis, Missouri. Results: We find that dealers typically rip-off six types of customers: persons who are strangers, first-time or irregular customers; do not have sufficient money on hand to make a purchase; are uninformed about going market rates; are deemed unlikely to retaliate; are offensive; or are addicted to drugs. Dealers target these groups due to perceiving them as unlikely to be repeat business; not worth the hassle of doing business with; unlikely to realize they are being ripped-off; in the wrong and thus deserving of payback; and, unwilling to retaliate or take their money elsewhere. Conclusion: Our findings are discussed in relation to their practical implications, including the importance of giving blackmarket participants greater access to law, and how customers may prevent being ripped- off.

Stickiness: An Unspoken Chapter in the Gig World

Gig economy is very attractive due to its alluring factors of flexibility, control work–life balance and entrepreneurial activities, but is it enough to bring them back to the same platform companies. Stickiness and gig economy are opposites as stickiness defies the core principle of gig economy, which is temporariness. But stickiness needs focus as more gig workers are dependent on it as a steady source of primary income. Companies also look at them for getting highly skilled workers at lower costs. This article delves into the factors which bring repeat business from the same gig worker to the platform company.

Governance and customer value creation in business solutions

PurposeThis paper aims to consider the impact of contractual and normative governance mechanisms on recommendation intent in a context of healthcare and professional lighting where repeat business from a customer is absent. The authors suggest both contractual and normative governance can create recommendation intent, but only when sufficient customer value is created.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on a combination of survey and archival data from the supplier and customer in the medical equipment and advanced (business) lighting systems industries. The authors analyze the data using seemingly unrelated regression and mediation tests.FindingsContracts and relational norms can increase customer recommendation intent, but only when the supplier creates customer value.Practical implicationsThe paper’s findings suggest that customers of business solutions are more likely to recommend their supplier when contracts are relatively detailed and when buyers and suppliers attempt to craft strong relational norms, despite service solutions being delivered during a relatively short time span.Originality/valueThe extant research on business solutions has focused on extended relationships between exchange partners with a high likelihood of repeated transactions. The authors demonstrate how to govern relationships in a solutions context where the likelihood of repeat business from the same customer is low using contractual and normative governance.

Compensation Consultant Fees and CEO Pay

ABSTRACTWhile compensation consultants are known to play an important role in the design of executive compensation contracts, evidence on the effect of consultant incentives on CEO pay is mixed. Using compensation consultant observations with mandatory fee disclosures, which a prior study identifies as an optimal pay setter, we examine whether CEO pay is associated with consultants' incentives to retain clients, measured by fees for executive compensation services. In contrast to previous studies that find no support for repeat business incentives, we find evidence that CEO pay is higher when consultants receive abnormally high fees, demonstrating a strong incentive to retain the client, and that this positive association occurs only in weakly governed firms. This finding highlights the importance of consultant incentives and corporate governance in executive compensation settings.JEL Classifications: M12; G34; G38.Data Availability: Data used in this study are publicly available.

Relationship Trading in Over‐the‐Counter Markets

ABSTRACTWe examine the network of trading relationships between insurers and dealers in the over‐the‐counter (OTC) corporate bond market. Regulatory data show that one‐third of insurers use a single dealer, whereas other insurers have large dealer networks. Execution prices are nonmonotone in network size, initially declining with more dealers but increasing once networks exceed 20 dealers. A model of decentralized trade in which insurers trade off the benefits of repeat business and faster execution quantitatively fits the distribution of insurers' network size and explains the price–network size relationship. Counterfactual analysis shows that regulations to unbundle trade and nontrade services can decrease welfare.

New Zealand tobacco retailers’ understandings of and attitudes towards selling Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: a qualitative exploration

IntroductionIn 2017, the New Zealand Government signalled its intent to legalise the widespread sale of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), which many New Zealand retailers have actually sold for several...

Intellectual Property – Solidify Your Competitive Edge

This article notes that startup companies are temporary organizations in search of a repeatable and scalable business model that provides the organization with the ability to scale and grow while minimizing or preferably eliminating competition. This goal is achieved thru use of our Intellectual Property Pyramid TM (IPP) which is an analysis technique that accounts for both the market and the patent landscape to determine if the company’s IP (portfolio) creates a position that is “impervious to competitive advancement’s”.