Strategic Customer Research Articles

PRAKTIK SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT TERHADAP DAYA SAING UKM MAKANAN RINGAN KOTA MAKASSAR DI ERA COVID-19

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit Indonesia, the challenges of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are getting tougher because they not only have to be highly competitive, but how to makethe small and medium enterprises (SMEs) survive in the midst of a pandemic and don't let them close. Therefore, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to create a competitive advantage that is different from its competitors. One of the efforts to achieve this is by optimizing the coordination of the implementation of SCM practices effectively in terms of strategic supplier partnerships, customer relationships and information sharing so that they can survive in the competition and even lead in a pandemic crisis. This study aims to analyze strategic supplier partnerships, customer relationships, information sharing and postponement of the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Makassar City in the Covid-19 pandemic era. This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) data analysis with SmartPLS software. The results of this study indicates that strategic supplier partnership has no effect on the competitiveness of Snack of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Makassar City while customer relationships and information sharing have an influence on the competitiveness of Snacks of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Makassar City in the Covid-19 era.

Bayesian dynamic learning and pricing with strategic customers

We consider a seller who repeatedly sells a nondurable product to a single customer whose valuations of the product are drawn from a certain distribution. The seller, who initially does not know the valuation distribution, may use the customer's purchase history to learn and wishes to choose a pricing policy that maximizes her long‐run revenue. Such a problem is at the core of personalized revenue management where the seller can access each customer's individual purchase history and offer personalized prices. In this paper, we study such a learning problem when the customer is aware of the seller's policy and thus may behave strategically when making a purchase decision. By using a Bayesian setting with a binary prior, we first show that a popular policy in this setting—the myopic Bayesian policy (MBP)—may lead to incomplete learning of the seller, namely, the seller may never be able to ascertain the true type of the customer and the regret may grow linearly over time. The failure of the MBP is due to the strategic action taken by the customer. To address the strategic behavior of the customers, we first analyze a Stackelberg game under a two‐period model. We derive the optimal policy of the seller in the two‐period model and show that the regret can be significantly reduced by using the optimal policy rather than the myopic policy. However, such a game is hard to analyze in general. Nevertheless, based on the idea used in the two‐period model, we propose a randomized Bayesian policy (RBP), which updates the posterior belief of the customer in each period with a certain probability, as well as a deterministic Bayesian policy (DBP), in which the seller updates the posterior belief periodically and always defers her update to the next cycle. For both the RBP and DBP, we show that the seller can learn the customer type exponentially fast even if the customer is strategic, and the regret is bounded by a constant. We also propose policies that achieve asymptotically optimal regrets when only a finite number of price changes are allowed.

Trade-in price and base warranty length: A heuristic algorithm for concurrent optimization

The companies producing durable products consider various strategies to attract customers’ attention and maximize their profit. The two inseparable policies utilized by these companies are free-replacement warranty and Trade-in. Both policies profoundly impact customers’ buying behavior and producers’ profit. In this article, we investigate a monopolist manufacturer producing durable products over a horizon of two periods. This manufacturer simultaneously implements trade-in and base warranty policies for the products and proffers them to strategic customers. The goal is to find the optimal products’ prices, warranty length, and trade-in price, considering the influences of these parameters on the manufacturer’s profit in each period. According to the warranty length and the length of each period, we developed two mathematical models. In these models, the uniform and exponential distributions are deemed as the failure distributions of the products, and a heuristic solution algorithm is then proposed based on the problems' convexity. The numerical study showed that the optimal warranty length and trade-in price are contingent on production costs, failure distributions, innovation, and strategy level. In addition, it is concluded that a higher trade-in price should be offered if the manufacturer chooses without warranty policy.

Privacy Management in Service Systems

Problem definition: We study customer-centric privacy management in service systems. Academic/practical relevance: We explore the consequences of extended control over personal information by customers in such systems. Methodology: We adopt a stylized queueing model to capture a service environment that features a service provider and customers who are strategic in deciding whether to disclose personal information to the service provider—that is, customers’ privacy or information disclosure strategy. A customer’s service request can be one of two types, which affects service time but is unknown when customers commit to a privacy strategy. The service provider can discriminate among customers based on their disclosed information by offering different priorities. Results: Our analysis reveals that, when given control over their personal data, strategic customers do not always choose to withhold them. We find that control over information gives customers a tool they can use to hedge against the service provider’s will, which might not be aligned with the interests of customers. More importantly, we find that under certain conditions, giving customers full control over information (e.g., by introducing a privacy regulation) may not only distort already efficiently operating service system but might also backfire by leading to inferior system performance (i.e., longer average wait time), and it can hurt customers themselves. We demonstrate how a regulator can correct information disclosure inefficiencies through monetary incentives to customers and show that providing such incentives makes economic sense in some scenarios. Finally, the service provider itself can benefit from customers being in control of their personal information by enticing more customers joining the service. Managerial implications: Our findings yield insights into how customers’ individually rational actions concerning information disclosure (e.g., granted by a privacy regulation) can lead to market inefficiencies in the form of longer wait times for services. We provide actionable prescriptions, for both service providers and regulators, that can guide their choices of a privacy and information management approach based on giving customers the option of controlling their personal information.

Increasing social welfare with delays: Strategic customers in the M/G/1 orbit queue

Strategic customers typically patronize service systems at a higher rate than the socially optimal one. Much literature has focused on inducing customers to join such systems at this latter rate. This entire literature considers nonidling policies that are the focus of queueing theory. We demonstrate that strategically imposing delays into service systems can improve the social welfare using the M/G/1 queue with orbit. This versatile queueing model has been extensively studied from a performance evaluation perspective. In this system, customers who arrive and find the server idle begin immediately their service. However, strategic customers who find the server busy decide whether to balk or join a virtual queue, that is, an orbit. Then, each time the server finishes a service, he begins to retrieve a customer from the orbit and the corresponding retrieving time is not negligible. These retrieving times function as extra delays that are imposed on customers that find a busy server. We show that when customers are strategic, there are certain ranges of the parameters where delaying the orbit customers can increase the welfare of a system or even maximize it. To this end, we characterize and compute the equilibrium strategies for the customers' joining/balking dilemma. We consider both the unobservable and observable versions of the system, and provide some insight on the optimal delay and level of information in such systems. We further show that the welfare for this system is higher than the corresponding standard M/G/1 queue with the same delay.

The impact of reneging on a fluid on-off queue with strategic customers

The impact of reneging on a fluid on-off queue with strategic customers

Strategic Orientation Dimensions and Customer Satisfaction: A Case of Selected Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Strategic Orientation Dimensions and Customer Satisfaction: A Case of Selected Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Significant Role of Islamic Work Ethic in Islamic Banking: A Systematic Literature Review and Direction for Future Research

Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) showed a significant role in various Islamic institutions, including Islamic banking. Unfortunately, only a few scholars studied the critical role of IWE in Islamic Banking and how it affected the whole organization. This study attempted to explore the degree of IWE implementation and its implications in Islamic banking. We investigated in-depth 22 articles related to IWE in Islamic banking between 2012-2021 through various reputable journal indexing sites. We concluded that the implication of IWE in Islamic banking is associated with work behavior/attitude, work outcomes, and organizational outcomes. IWE implications related to work behavior included organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), employee attitudes towards organizational change, and auditor's opinion and behavior. IWE implications related to work outcomes included employee job performance, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation. IWE implications related to organizational outcomes included organizational performance, strategic performance measurement systems (SPMS), organizational culture, and customer satisfaction. Thus, due to the enormous implication of IWE in Islamic banking, it's supposed to be integrated with the HR management system, started from HR planning strategy, HR training & development program, performance appraisal system as well as benefit and compensation. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed further.

A typology of omnichannel retailer activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis paper develops a typology of omnichannel retailer activities and corresponding customer responses during a rapidly changing external coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic environment, to contribute towards academic research on omnichannel strategies and to assist retailers when making future investment and resource decisions.Design/methodology/approachImplementing a dual desk research process, the authors carry out a document review of 61 retailers operating globally and connected customer reviews and categorise them using a content analysis.FindingsThe findings show that retailers employ a multitude of new omnichannel strategies during a pandemic and implement new or upgraded cross-channel services. Customer data show that delivery and customer service issues largely persist. The authors divide retailer actions and microfoundations into five broad categories and present a typology of strategic retailer activities and customer responses.Originality/valueThis research presents insights into omnichannel strategies from both a retailer and customer perspective, and offers guidance on improving the implementation of future omnichannel strategies.

Strategisk samskabelse på biblioteker

Co-creation has emerged as a way in which organizations combine strategic product development and strategic customer relationship building. This article takes a relational approach to co-creation and presents two typologies that can serve to facilitate strategic leadership of constructive collaboration between the parties in co-creation.The first typology concerns the strategic alliances in co-creation. It differentiates between the parties collaborating as a ”club of experts”, a ”crowd of people”, a ”community of kindred spirits” and a ”coalition of parties”. The second typology concerns the strategic agendas of co-creation. It differentiates between the creation of “ideas”, “designs” and “practices”. Taken together, these typologies show why there is no one best practice in co-creation, but different options and opportunities. Hence, co-creation requires on-going attention to and dialogue about the best fit between the key aspects of co-creation: The purpose, the participants, the processes and the product.

Supply Chain Management Practices and Performance of Public Institutions in Rwanda: A Case of Rwanda Biomedical Center

The purpose of this research was to assess the role of supply chain management practices in the performance of the public institution in Rwanda a case of Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) as The study specifically looked at role of Strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship and information sharing on organization performance of RBC. The study was important to RBC, public institution in Rwanda and other private institutions. To elaborate on role of supply chain management practices in the performance of the public institution the related literature, the researcher was guided by the study objectives. The study was guided by theory of constraints and information sharing theory. The research design was used as descriptive while the population is 450 employees of Rwanda Biomedical Center and the sample size was 82 respondents. Purposive and simple random sample procedures were used for data collection. The researcher obtained primary data using a questionnaire and analyzed it using qualitative and quantitative methods. Descriptive studies were used to examine the data, and inferences were drawn from the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential data analysis, with tables, charts, and percentage studies showing that they all had a substantial impact on Rwanda Biomedical Centre's performance. For instance, strategic supplier partnership (0.305, p < 0.05); customer relationship (0.482, p < 0.5) and information sharing (0.183, p < 0.05) were all significant affecting the performance of Rwanda Biomedical Centre. The study further found that there was variation of 66.5% on the Customer Relationship, information sharing, strategic supplier partnership at 95% confidence interval. This shows that 66.5% changes in performance of public institution in Rwanda. According to the findings, Rwanda Biomedical Centre/effectiveness RBC's is aided by smart supplier partnerships, customer relationships, and information exchange. Managers are advised to increase the organization's performance through cultivating supplier relationships. Managers must also build a clear channel of communication and collaboration between suppliers and customers in order to be effective. Keywords: Supply Chain Management Practices, Performance of Public Institutions, Rwanda Biomedical Center, Rwanda

The Mediating Effect of Innovation in Between Strategic Orientation and Enterprise Performance: Evidence From Malaysian Manufacturing Small-to-Medium-Sized Enterprises.

Strategic orientation and innovation are vital determinants for accelerating the performance of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, there is a lack of empirical evidence confirming the innovation at the product and process levels that instigated the SMEs’ performance. Moreover, the mediating effect of process and product innovation can play a significant role in strategic orientation and manufacturing SMEs’ performance. In this respect, this study aims to examine the mediating effect of product and process innovation between strategic orientation (i.e., market, entrepreneurial, and customer orientation) and the performance of Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The questionnaire survey gathered data from 360 manufacturing SMEs and was analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to achieve these research objectives. The study analysis established that customer and entrepreneurial orientation significantly influence product and service innovation. However, the market orientation is significant for process innovation but insignificant for product-level innovation among SMEs. The study’s consequences exposed that process innovation has significantly mediated between the strategic (market, customer, and entrepreneurial) orientation and SMEs performance. It implies that market, entrepreneurial, and customer-related strategies would substantially improve SMEs’ performance by harnessing innovation at product and process levels. The core insights provided by the current work are to strengthen the strategic orientation that can promote product and process innovation, thereby harnessing the SMEs’ performance. Additionally, the study’s significance and limitations were reported at the end.

Omni-channel retail operations in the presence of strategic customers: The benefit of inventory commitment.

This paper studies the impact of strategic customer behavior on retailers’ omni-channel strategies. Customers in the market are classified into strategic omni-channel customers and myopic B&M (brick and mortar) store customers. The retailer firstly charges a full price but will then salvage the leftover inventory at a lower price (markdown policy) for strategic omni-channel customers after the customers’ demand is realized. The strategic omni-channel customers choose purchase timing to maximize their own expected profit. While, the myopic B&M store customers do not choose purchase timing. By characterizing rational expectation equilibrium, we find that the inventory level under markdown policy is higher than that in the classic model where no markdown policy is implemented. Also, the policy will transfer more strategic customers to the online channel to buy at full price so that the retailer will benefit from it. Besides, inventory commitment policy can further increase retailer’s profit based on markdown policy. In addition, we extend the model to the supply chain and present the contrasting view that the total profit of the decentralized supply chain under the wholesale price contract is higher than that of the centralized supply chain. The influence of strategic customer behavior and system parameters on the retailer’s optimal decision is discussed through numerical study.

Charging more for priority via two-part tariff for accumulating priorities

We consider an unobservable M/G/1 queue with accumulating priorities and strategic customers who pay for priority accumulation rates. We show that when affine pricing is introduced, multiple equilibria may exist. This is in contrast to the standard linear pricing case where the equilibrium strategy is unique. Furthermore, a revenue-maximizing operator may generate more revenue under the optimal affine pricing than under linear pricing. In particular, we show that if the utilization level is not too high, no other combination of a priority scheme and pricing generates more revenue than the optimal affine pricing of accumulating priorities.

Disclosing opaque inventory information in a two-period sales setting: substitute products' selling strategy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the opaque inventory information disclosure strategy for an online retailer who sells two substitutable products to customers in two selling periods.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop a two-period model where an online retailer sells two substitute products with two inventory composition structures to maximize profits. The authors investigate the optimal inventory disclosure decision from both ex post and ex ante perspectives. Sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the effects that discount rate, transaction cost and the probability of agreeable inventory situation have on the equilibrium disclosure outcome. The authors also consider risk-averse customers and horizontally differentiated products to highlight the robustness of our results.FindingsThe authors find that the online retailer will choose the opaque information disclosure when attempting to increase revenue and reduce the mismatch of supply and demand in both ex post and ex ante inventory information conditions. Comparing with ex post disclosure strategies, ex ante opaque disclosure is optimal in a larger price region, and the total revenues gap between opaque disclosure and complete disclosure gradually increase as discount rate, transaction cost or the probability of agreeable inventory situation decreases. Furthermore, strategic customers may tend to be risk neutral when faced with opaque inventory information in a two-period sales setting.Originality/valueThis current paper is the first paper to study the online retailer's inventory information disclosure strategy in two selling periods. Moreover, this paper presents the conditions under which the online retailer should share complete or opaque inventory information with customers to maximize the online retailer's total revenues.

Strategic customer behavior and optimal policies in a passenger–taxi double-ended queueing system with multiple access points and nonzero matching times

Strategic customer behavior and optimal policies in a passenger–taxi double-ended queueing system with multiple access points and nonzero matching times

Learning and data-driven optimization in queues with strategic customers

Learning and data-driven optimization in queues with strategic customers

Queueing Information Management of Primary Care Delivery With E-Visits

The goal of this work is to investigate the system configuration and information management of primary care delivery with electronic visits (e-visits). We consider a medical institution employing primary care physicians and other clinicians that offer office visits (in-person) and e-visits (through secure messaging from patient portals), and where different queue-joining behaviors: denoted as the mixed strategy, the duplication strategy and the threshold strategy are adopted by flexible patients based on different system configurations. Different queueing models are developed to capture flexible patients' queue-joining behaviors according to queueing information provision. In particular, we develop the equilibrium behavior of a dual server system where state information is available for one of the servers and the flexible patient exhibits a utility-maximizing behavior, which extends the literature on the analysis of queueing systems with strategic customers. The duplication strategy with deletion offers the least expected waiting time for the patients, and the threshold strategy provides the next best performance which is superior to the mixed strategy, which demonstrates the value of information. IEEE

Strategic behavior for hotel standby upgrade programs: Empirical evidence and pricing implications

AbstractMany hotels have recently started to offer room upgrades digitally after the completion of booking to replace traditional front‐desk upselling during check‐in. Quickly becoming popular for upselling the premium rooms that may otherwise go unsold, standby upgrade—an availability‐based, discounted premium room upgrade—is a prominent example. However, customers, in particular loyalty members, may become knowledgeable about standby upgrades through repeated interactions with this technology, and act strategically, that is, initially choose a standard room with the expectation of being offered a premium room discount through standby upgrades. Consequently, while enjoying the benefits of this program, hotels may face the potential cannibalization of premium sales due to such strategic behavior and need to adjust their pricing accordingly. Using a major hotel chain's 16‐month booking and standby upgrades data, we empirically investigate the existence and extent of strategic customers in the context of standby upgrades. After showing preliminary evidence of potential strategic behavior, we develop a maximum likelihood estimator to estimate the percentage of customers who are strategic. This estimator captures the sequential nature of customer decision‐making for standby upgrades (booking decision, clicking the standby upgrades offer, and requesting an upgrade) through a Sequential Logit Model. We find evidence of strategic behavior in three (out of eight) hotels examined. Considering both a weak‐form and a strong‐form strategic behavior, our estimates suggest that 12%–42% of the loyalty customers act strategically in these three properties. We then propose a new pricing policy to help hoteliers maximize their premium room revenues from direct bookings and standby upgrade requests. This policy recommends a discounted full price, but also a higher standby upgrade price for loyalty customers, which can bring a revenue improvement of up to 19% over a policy ignoring the strategic behavior and 34% over a policy assuming that all customers are strategic—two reasonable benchmarks without an estimate of the fraction of strategic customers. Our research, thus, provides insights for technology managers on the potential customer behavioral challenges that a hotel may face with the adoption of a disruptive digital technology, and how existing policies may need to be adjusted for the technology to be successful.

How much information should be given to the strategic customers of a queueing system?

How much information should be given to the strategic customers of a queueing system?