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Kinds of Customers Terms modified by Customers Selected AbstractsA decision support system for telecommunicationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NETWORK MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2002Paul Flynn We have built a Decision Support System (DSS) which can to aid strategic management within the industry in making vital decisions in relation to Customer and Network profiles. This enables managers in the respective areas within the industry to fully utilise the vast amounts of data available to make projections and decisions in relation to utilisation of valuable resources. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Customer perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty: The role of switching costsPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 10 2004Zhilin Yang It is a marketplace reality that marketing managers sometimes inflict switching costs on their customers, to inhibit them from defecting to new suppliers. In a competitive setting, such as the Internet market, where competition may be only one click away, has the potential of switching costs as an exit barrier and a binding ingredient of customer loyalty become altered? To address that issue, this article examines the moderating effects of switching costs on customer loyalty through both satisfaction and perceived-value measures. The results, evoked from a Web-based survey of online service users, indicate that companies that strive for customer loyalty should focus primarily on satisfaction and perceived value. The moderating effects of switching costs on the association of customer loyalty and customer satisfaction and perceived value are significant only when the level of customer satisfaction or perceived value is above average. In light of the major findings, the article sets forth strategic implications for customer loyalty in the setting of electronic commerce. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The Dilemma of the Unsatisfied Customer in a Market Model of Public AdministrationPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2005Janet M. Kelly The relationship between administrative service performance and citizen satisfaction has been assumed, but not demonstrated, in the application of market models to public service delivery. Although the citizen satisfaction literature cautions that the link between objective and subjective measures of service quality is tenuous at best, public-sector professional organizations define a managerial focus on objective measures of service performance as accountability to citizens for outcomes. What if we're wrong? [source] The Second Century: Reconnecting Customer and Value Chain through Build-to-Order: Moving beyond Mass and Lean Production in the Auto IndustryTHE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2005Mark A. Hart No abstract is available for this article. [source] Lessons from Hilti: How Customer and Employee Contact Improves Strategy ImplementationBUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Sean Meehan First page of article [source] ,Consumer' versus ,Customer': The Devil in the DetailJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2010Pinar Akman According to the European Commission, the objective of EU competition rules is enhancing ,consumer welfare'. In EU competition law, however, ,consumer' means ,customer' and encompasses intermediate customers as well as final consumers. Under Article 102TFEU, harming intermediate ,customers' is generally presumed to harm ,consumers' and where intermediate customers are not competitors of the dominant undertaking, there is no requisite to assess the effects of conduct on users further downstream. Using advances in economics of vertical restraints and, in particular, non-linear pricing, this article shows that there are instances where the effect on ,customer welfare' does not coincide with the effect on ,consumer welfare' and the presumption can potentially lead to decisional errors. Thus, if the law is to serve the interests of ,consumers', the Commission should reconsider this presumption and its interpretation of the ,consumer' in ,consumer welfare'; otherwise, it remains questionable whose interests EU competition law serves. [source] The ASCI Computational Grid: initial deploymentCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 13-15 2002Randal Rheinheimer Abstract Grid Services, a Department of Energy Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative program, has designed, implemented, and deployed a grid-based solution for customer access to large computing resources at DOE weapons labs and plants. Customers can access and monitor diverse, geographically distributed resources using the common Grid Services interfaces. This paper discusses the architecture, security, and user interfaces of the Grid Services infrastructure. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Reluctant Customers: Presidents and Policy AdviceINTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 1 2003Paul't Hart Groupthink or Deadlock: When Do Leaders Learn from Their Advisors? By Paul A. Kowert. Albany: Blackwell Publishing, 2002. 265 pp., $65.50 cloth (ISBN: 0-7914-5249-2), $21.95 paper (ISBN: 0-7914-5250-6). [source] Do Satisfied Employees Satisfy Customers?JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2001Parents, Satisfaction Among Public School Administrators, Students, Support-Services Staff Morale Data were obtained from school staff (N= 1,567) who provided support services to schools in a major metropolitan school district. These data were analyzed in relation to data obtained from 3 customer groups (school administrators, students, and parents) who provided ratings of their satisfaction with services. Several aspects of employee morale (e. g., quality of supervision, teamwork, and goal clarity, along with workgroup service climate) were significantly and positively related to administrator and parent satisfaction, but not to student satisfaction. Relations of employee morale and workgroup service climate to administrator satisfaction and parent satisfaction were moderated by customer contact with employees. Results are discussed in relation to expectations of customers and employees that affect the nature of the service-exchange interaction. [source] Effect on Restaurant Tipping of Presenting Customers With an Interesting Task and of ReciprocityJOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2001Bruce Rind Research has shown that servers can increase their tip percentages by positively influencing customers' mood and using the compliance technique of reciprocity. These factors were examined in the current study. An experiment was conducted in which a female server either did or did not present customers with a novel, interesting task that has been shown in previous research to stimulate interest and enhance mood. Additionally, sometimes she allowed customers to keep the task, in an attempt to elicit reciprocity. It was predicted that both of these manipulations would increase tip percentages. Presenting customers with the interesting task did increase tips, from about 18.5% to 22%, although the reciprocity manipulation had no effect. [source] The value increment of mass-customized products: an empirical assessmentJOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2006Martin Schreier The primary argument in favour of mass customization is the delivery of superior customer value. Using willingness-to-pay (WTP) measurements, Franke and Piller (2004), Journal of Product Innovation Management, 21, 401,415 have recently shown that customers designing their own watches with design toolkits are willing to pay premiums of more than 100% (,WTP). In the course of three studies, we found that this type of value increment is not a singular occurrence but might rather be a general phenomenon, as we again found average ,WTPs of more than 100% among customers designing their own cell phone covers, T-shirts and scarves. Building on this, we discuss the sources of benefits that are likely to explain this tremendous value increment. We argue that compared to conventional standard products, a mass-customized product might render the following utilitarian and hedonic benefits: (1) First, the output might be beneficial as self-designed products offer a much closer fit between individual needs and product characteristics. In addition to this mere functional benefit, extra value might also stem from (2) the perceived uniqueness of the self-designed product. As the customer takes on the role of an active co-designer, there may also be two general ,do-it-yourself effects': (3) First, the process of designing per se is likely to allow the customer to meet hedonic or experiential needs (process benefit). (4) Customers may also be likely to value the output of self-design more highly if they take pride in having created something on their own (instead of traditionally buying something created by somebody else). This is referred to as the ,pride of authorship' effect. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Does service failure influence customer loyalty?JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2002Francis Buttle Abstract There is a general consensus that customer loyalty to service providers is not solely dependent upon their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. However, the identified antecedents of loyalty remain, at best, highly speculative. The aim of this extensive literature review is to give some understanding of the nature of customer loyalty and the antecedent effects of service dissatisfaction. The research reviewed suggests that customer loyalty is an attitudinal state, reflecting value, trust and commitment within supplier,customer relationships. Satisfaction is one of several antecedents of loyalty. A key influence on loyalty is the offer of unique value-delivering advantages not provided by competitors. Thus firms need to develop positive value-based exit barriers to achieve loyalty. When service failures occur, the recovery process is likely to have a greater impact on loyalty than the original service failure. The key to successful recoveries was found to be the customer's perception of ,fairness'. Recovery programmes must get it right first time. Customers who remain dissatisfied after a complaint has been handled are more dissatisfied than if no recovery attempt had been made. Dissatisfaction and customer satiation are major causes of a customer's exit. The solution to customer satiation is dynamic value creation. Collection and monitoring of customer data is needed for success and two-way communication is vital. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications. [source] Life Cycle Cost Disclosure, Consumer Behavior, and Business ImplicationsJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Evidence From an Online Field Experiment Summary Comprehensive assessments of final consumption have identified "housing" as a major contributor to total environmental impacts. Within this category, electrical-energy-using products are important. Do consumers opt for more energy-efficient household appliances if they are provided with life cycle cost (LCC),that is, the sum of purchase price and operating cost estimated over the life span of the appliance? And what consequences does LCC disclosure have for business? Physical energy figures shown on appliance labels may be cognitively demanding for consumers, whereas monetary information promises to simplify the decision problem. Despite the rising interest in monetary cost disclosure, its effectiveness relative to physical cost disclosure has not been rigorously evaluated. This research approached the question of effectiveness with an online field experiment for washing machines. Customers of a commercially operating online shop were randomly assigned to two groups. The control group was provided with regular product price information; the treatment group received additional LCC information. A total of 2,065 clicks were recorded and analyzed with multiple regression that controlled for several product characteristics. The evidence suggests that LCC disclosure decreases the mean specific energy use of chosen washing machines by 0.8% (p < 0.01) and their mean specific water use by 0.7% (p < 0.05). As to business implications, LCC disclosure had no effect on the indicator of retail volume, which makes it unattractive for retailers to provide LCC on their own initiative. [source] The Inside Track: On the Important (But Neglected) Role of Customers in the Resource-Based View of Strategy and Firm Growth*JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 8 2005Ivo Zander abstract This paper argues for the important role of customers as a source of competitive advantage and firm growth, an issue which has been largely neglected in the resource-based view of the firm. It conceptualizes Penrose's (1959) notion of an ,inside track' and illustrates how in-depth knowledge about established customers combines with joint problem-solving activities and the rapid assimilation of new and previously unexploited skills and resources. It is suggested that the inside track represents a distinct and perhaps underestimated way of generating rents and securing long-term growth. This also implies that the sources of sustainable competitive advantage in important respects can be sought in idiosyncratic interfirm relationships rather than within the firm itself. [source] A New Venture's Cognitive Legitimacy: An Assessment by CustomersJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2003Dean A. Shepherd Many legitimacy problems associated with new ventures appear to stem from a lack of customers' knowledge and understanding of the new venture. Of particular concern to entrepreneurs is cognitive legitimacy. The findings of this article suggest that customers appear to have a preference for greater rather than lesser information about a new venture's product, organization, and management (holding the content of that information constant). Furthermore, customers appear to use a contingent decision policy. For an independent startup business that is perceived as new on all three dimensions, priority should be given to building customer knowledge in the product, followed by building customer knowledge in the organization. Less attention should be given to building the customer's knowledge in the management team, although such actions still will build cognitive legitimacy. [source] Capacity allocation with traditional and Internet channelsNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 8 2006Yue Dai Abstract In this paper we study a capacity allocation problem for two firms, each of which has a local store and an online store. Customers may shift among the stores upon encountering a stockout. One question facing each firm is how to allocate its finite capacity (i.e., inventory) between its local and online stores. One firm's allocation affects the decision of the rival, thereby creating a strategic interaction. We consider two scenarios of a single-product single-period model and derive corresponding existence and stability conditions for a Nash equilibrium. We then conduct sensitivity analysis of the equilibrium solution with respect to price and cost parameters. We also prove the existence of a Nash equilibrium for a generalized model in which each firm has multiple local stores and a single online store. Finally, we extend the results to a multi-period model in which each firm decides its total capacity and allocates this capacity between its local and online stores. A myopic solution is derived and shown to be a Nash equilibrium solution of a corresponding "sequential game." © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006 [source] An Extension of the Traditional Theory of Customer Discrimination: Customers Versus CustomersAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2003Stephanie O. Crofton This study provides an extension on the traditional theory of customer discrimination. The traditional theory looks at customer discrimination via a case in which customers discriminate against a certain type of employee. This paper considers a case of customer discrimination in which customers discriminate against another group of customers. This paper argues that if women choose to attend an all-women college, they are engaging in this previously unexamined form of customer discrimination. Economic theory predicts that firms catering to customers who discriminate will charge higher prices. Thus, this study tests for the existence of customer discrimination by estimating a tuition equation at women's colleges and coeducational schools using ordinary least squares and a dummy-interaction technique. This study finds that, all else held constant, women's colleges do charge higher tuition rates. [source] Price dispersion in a model of identical agents with perfect informationPACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2004Zhiqi Chen The driving force in the model is service capacity and congestion cost. Each firm chooses a service capacity. Customers of a firm bear a congestion cost which, for a fixed service capacity, is an increasing function of the number of customers served by this firm. We demonstrate that under certain conditions the combined profit of two firms and the total surplus are higher in a price-dispersion equilibrium than in a single-price equilibrium. [source] A Consumer-Driven Approach to Increase Suggestive SellingPERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2003Don Rohn ABSTRACT Several research articles have been published demonstrating the effectiveness of behavioral interventions in improving suggestive selling behavior of sales staff (e.g., Johnson & Masotti, 1990; Martinko, White, & Hassell, 1989; Mirman, 1982; Ralis & O'Brien, 1986). Procedures employed in these studies made use of two classes of personnel to implement the intervention: (1) personnel internal to the organization or (2) external consultants. The current study examined the efficacy of a consumer-driven approach to improve suggestive selling behavior of three employees of a fast food franchise. Customers delivered either a verbal prompt or praise to an employee after they had placed their order. Delivery of a prompt or praise depended on whether or not the employee made a suggestion for an additional food purchase. This consumer-driven intervention increased suggestive selling behaviors of all three employees, and was associated with higher suggestive sales in each case. [source] Modeling and Managing the Percentage of Satisfied Customers in Hidden and Revealed Waiting Line SystemsPRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2006Chester Chambers We perform an analysis of various queueing systems with an emphasis on estimating a single performance metric. This metric is defined to be the percentage of customers whose actual waiting time was less than their individual waiting time threshold. We label this metric the Percentage of Satisfied Customers (PSC.) This threshold is a reflection of the customers' expectation of a reasonable waiting time in the system given its current state. Cases in which no system state information is available to the customer are referred to as "hidden queues." For such systems, the waiting time threshold is independent of the length of the waiting line, and it is randomly drawn from a distribution of threshold values for the customer population. The literature generally assumes that such thresholds are exponentially distributed. For these cases, we derive closed form expressions for our performance metric for a variety of possible service time distributions. We also relax this assumption for cases where service times are exponential and derive closed form results for a large class of threshold distributions. We analyze such queues for both single and multi-server systems. We refer to cases in which customers may observe the length of the line as "revealed" queues." We perform a parallel analysis for both single and multi-server revealed queues. The chief distinction is that for these cases, customers may develop threshold values that are dependent upon the number of customers in the system upon their arrival. The new perspective this paper brings to the modeling of the performance of waiting line systems allows us to rethink and suggest ways to enhance the effectiveness of various managerial options for improving the service quality and customer satisfaction of waiting line systems. We conclude with many useful insights on ways to improve customer satisfaction in waiting line situations that follow directly from our analysis. [source] Clearly Irrational Financial Market Behavior: Evidence from the Early Exercise of Exchange Traded Stock OptionsTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 1 2003Allen M. Poteshman This paper analyzes the early exercise of exchange-traded options by different classes of investors over the 1996 to 1999 period. A large number of exercises are identified as clearly irrational without invoking any model of market equilibrium. Customers of discount brokers and customers of full-service brokers both engage in a significant number of irrational exercises while traders at large investment houses exhibit no irrational early exercise behavior. Rational and irrational exercise is triggered for discount and full-service customers by the underlying stock price attaining its highest level over the past year and by high returns on the underlying stock. [source] Book Reviews: Simply Better: Winning and Keeping Customers by Delivering What Matters Most by Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan, and Marketing as Strategy: Understanding the CEO's Agenda for Driving Growth and Innovation by Nirmalya KumarTHE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2005Mary C. Drotar First page of article [source] THE DETERMINANTS OF THE QUANTITY-QUALITY BALANCE IN MONOPOLY,AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC PAPERS, Issue 1 2009HUGH SIBLY This paper describes how a monopolist manipulates the balance of quantity and quality in order to increase revenue when its customers treat quantity and quality as substitutes. This ,skewing' of quality depends on the characteristics of customer's demand for quality. Customers differ in demand for quality, because they differ in either (i) their preferences and/or (ii) their time cost per unit. The monopolist is constrained to supply the same quality of good to all customers. The price and quality per unit are described under the assumption the monopolist (i) profit maximises; (ii) maximises social welfare subject to a profit constraint. The determinants of the skewing of quantity and quality are found under third-degree price discrimination and uniform pricing. [source] Manufacturing Site Location Preferences of Small Agribusiness FirmsJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2002Kim Jensen This study examined the perceived importance of site location characteristics identified in a 1999 survey of 198 small Tennessee agribusinesses. Responding firms ranked proximity to buyers/customers, labor, and raw materials above other factors. However, the relative importance of all factors varied by industry subsector. For example, compared to food processing firms, textile milling and lumber/wood products firms perceived community incentives as less important. Projected firm growth and current location also affected the perceived importance of site location factors. The diversity of perceived factor importance across agribusiness subsectors supports the idea that incentives and promotion of site location factors to attract small agribusiness may need to be tailored to meet specific firms' needs. [source] Retailer's Response to Alternate Manufacturer's Incentives Under a Single-Period, Price-Dependent, Stochastic-Demand Framework,DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 4 2005F. J. Arcelus ABSTRACT This article considers the joint development of the optimal pricing and ordering policies of a profit-maximizing retailer, faced with (i) a manufacturer trade incentive in the form of a price discount for itself or a rebate directly to the end customer; (ii) a stochastic consumer demand dependent upon the magnitude of the selling price and of the trade incentive, that is contrasted with a riskless demand, which is the expected value of the stochastic demand; and (iii) a single-period newsvendor-type framework. Additional analysis includes the development of equal profit policies in either form of trade incentive, an assessment of the conditions under which a one-dollar discount is more profitable than a one-dollar rebate, and an evaluation of the impact upon the retailer-expected profits of changes in either incentive or in the degree of demand uncertainty. A numerical example highlights the main features of the model. The analytical and numerical results clearly show that, as compared to the results for the riskless demand, dealing with uncertainty through a stochastic demand leads to (i) (lower) higher retail prices if additive (multiplicative) error, (ii) lower (higher) pass throughs if additive (multiplicative) error, (iii) higher claw backs in both error structures wherever applicable, and (iv) higher rebates to achieve equivalent profits in both error structures. [source] Customer Learning Processes, Strategy Selection, and Performance in Business-to-Business Service Firms,DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 2 2004Debra Zahay ABSTRACT Learning about customers takes place through relevant dialogues with those customers, also known as customer relationship management (CRM). As relationships develop, information about the customer is gathered in the firm's customer information systems (CIS): the content, processes, and assets associated with gathering and moving customer information throughout the firm. This research develops a measure of CIS management capabilities based on learning organization theory and measured by the ability to get, store, move, and use information throughout the business unit. This measure is then used to analyze customer learning processes and associated performance in the context of marketing strategic decision making. This study of 209 business services firms finds that generic marketing strategy positioning (low-cost and differentiation) and the marketing tactics of personalization and customization are related to CIS development. Customer information systems development in turn is associated with higher levels of customer-based performance, which in turn is associated with increased business growth. Since the strongest association with customer-based performance is strategy selection, the long-term benefits of the knowledge gained from the CIS may be in the ability to assist in measuring customer-based performance, rather than in the ability to immediately contribute to performance. Finally, for these firms, customization and personalization are not directly associated with performance and thus may not be necessary to support every firm's marketing strategy. [source] Combining Economic and Conjoint Analysis to Determine Optimal Academic ServicesDECISION SCIENCES JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE EDUCATION, Issue 1 2004Mona Whitley Howard ABSTRACT In today's era of global competition, organizations must manage their functions and activities in a manner such that they are responsive to customers' needs and can provide excellence in service to the customer while also being efficient and cost conscious. These issues are extremely common in corporate organizations, but such concerns are equally relevant in service industries, including institutions of higher education. This study is conducted at a private, undergraduate institution of higher education. We utilize focus group evaluation and conjoint analysis combined with economic analysis in the form of a newly designed preferred utility economic cost diagram to pick the ideal services that should be provided to enrolled students at the institution. The package of ideal services accounts for preferred utility expressed by students and a new methodology (preferred utility function) to balance these against financial considerations to optimize services and financial gains for a college adult education program. This combination of focus groups and mathematical techniques can be easily employed by educational institutes. [source] Herding Behaviour and the Size of Customer Base as a Commitment to QualityECONOMICA, Issue 267 2000Chong Ju Choi This paper refers to herding behaviour as developed in Bikhchandani et al. (1992), Bannerjee (1992) and Choi and Scarpa (1994). We examine the behaviour of a potential customer who does not know how many of her predecessorsdecided not to purchase the product. We show that, ceteris paribus,a smaller (larger) customer base increases the likelihood of a positive(negative) cascade. Hence, a firm can signal its commitment to high quality(Schelling 1960) by choosing to develop a customer base that relies upon thecustomer's ,private' information rather than one that relies on an informational cascade. [source] Power flow congestion relief by using customer-side energy storage systemsELECTRICAL ENGINEERING IN JAPAN, Issue 1 2007Ken Furusawa Abstract In recent years, energy storage systems have increasingly been expected as a means of load leveling of the annual load factor. Of course there is an effect of installing the energy storage systems at the substation. But some customers operate their storage system in an integrated way and it also has an effect of increasing the load factor. In this paper the authors proposed that the energy storage systems on the customer side be used for congestion relief on transmission networks. However, it is not clear which kind of customer has the effect of relieving transmission line congestion. First, this paper assumes the authors determine the optimal configuration of energy equipment including energy storage systems. We propose a new contract whereby electric utility subsidizes a part of the entrance cost of the energy storage systems and customers change the output pattern of energy storage according to the request of the electric utility. This paper evaluates the possibility that the contract gives merit to both the electric utility and the customer. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 158(1): 36,45, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20299 [source] Performance analysis of a cellular mobile network with retrials and guard channels using waiting and first passage time measuresEUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Issue 4 2009A. Economou Most studies of modern cellular mobile networks concern performance measures directly computable from the stationary state probabilities such as the blocking probability and the mean traffic rates of the various kinds of calls. In this paper, we consider a cellular mobile system with retrials and guard channels for the handover calls, but we concentrate on performance measures related to the waiting and first passage times of the system. More concretely, we first build a Markovian model representing a station of the network and then we study the waiting time of a customer, the idle times of the guard channels and the time between successive lost calls. These measures shed light on the behaviour of the system and quantify the quality of service from both points of view of the customer and the administrator. Several numerical results illustrate the effect of the system parameters in its performance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 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