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The purpose of this study is to provide a critical review of how consumer satisfaction research in the sport management and the nonsport literatures has developed over the past several decades, and, with that information, to propose a new comparison standard in the formation of sport consumer satisfaction. Though several alternative explanations of consumer satisfaction have been developed, expectancy-disconfirmation framework is the theoretical foundation most used in consumer satisfaction research. However, expectancy-disconfirmation theory does not allow researchers to fully assess the potential complexity of sport consumer satisfaction. Therefore, in addition to recommendations for improving the application of expectancy-disconfirmation, we also propose counterfactual thinking as an alternative comparison standard in determining sport consumer satisfaction. The proposed framework contributes to the literature on sport consumer behavior by illustrating how sport consumers use a “what might have been” rather than “what was” heuristic to explain satisfaction judgments with their sport consumption experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to increase the understanding of loyalty's formative processes in fitness organizations. Building upon recent conceptualizations, the purpose of this study was to test the mediating role of psychological commitment in the relationships between consumers' satisfaction, perceived value, involvement, identification, informational, and volitional processes and their attitudinal and behavioral loyalty toward a fitness organization. We conducted a questionnaire-based study in a French health and fitness club context with a sample of 252 club members, of which we were able to collect data in regard to repurchasing behavior for 110. This allowed us to confirm the relevance of the research model in regard to behavioral intentions, although including the behavioral-loyalty dimensions of the length of the relationship, frequency of participation, and repurchasing behavior failed to validate it. These findings have managerial implications for sustaining club membership levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents research on Internet marketing by sports teams and organizations. Sports fans perceptions of the quality of the Web sites of sports teams are examined in terms of their consumer satisfaction with those sites and the customer loyalty to them. Structural equation model tests indicated that consumer satisfaction with a Web site had a positive relationship to customer loyalty and use of the Web site by sports fans. Implications of the findings for sports marketing executives are discussed, particularly relating to user interfaces on Web sites and security of electronic commerce.

Sport marketing researchers have generally studied two types of satisfaction at sporting events: game satisfaction and service satisfaction. One gap in the literature is studying the two types together. A model of the relationships between service quality, core product quality, game and service satisfaction, and behavioral intentions is proposed and tested. Data were collected from spectators at a professional baseball game in Japan (n = 283) and at two college football games in the United States (n = 343). The results in both Japan and the United States indicate that game atmosphere was a strong predictor of game satisfaction whereas stadium employees and facility access were the major antecedents of service satisfaction. Game satisfaction had a significant impact on behavioral intentions across the two settings, although the service satisfaction-behavioral intentions relationship was significant only in Japan. The research findings, managerial implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes a conceptual model to examine the relationships between service attributes, brand associations, customer satisfaction, commitment, price of membership, and intention to repurchase in a fitness club. The results show that the services offered by the club, its security, and the promoted image of the club impact positively on satisfaction. The customer relations at the club, customer commitment, and their frequency of weekly attendance have a positive direct effect on intention to repurchase. Perceived price has a negative direct influence. Finally, the research showed that overall satisfaction has a slight positive impact on frequency of attendance. These findings create a paradox for managers of health and fitness organizations who will have to balance the need to increase frequency of attendance to positively impact on intention to repurchase with the need to deliver the service attributes that affect satisfaction and intention to repurchase at high quality level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the library users' minimum acceptable, desired, and actual observed service performance level of the University of Saint Louis (USL) College Library along the four service quality dimensions: access to information (AI), affect of service (AS), library as place (LP) and information control (IC). It also sought to determine the interrelationships of library service quality, satisfaction with library services, and loyalty to library and its services. This study utilized a questionnaire ased on (a) the LIbQUAL™ 2003 by the Academic and Research Libraries (ARL) and Texas A&M University Libraries; (b) satisfaction on library services; and (c) loyalty measures. It was distributed among 400 library users. Findings indicated that customers' minimum acceptable service level along AS, LP and IC are generally high except for AI. Customers' desired service level indicated that AI, AS, and IC are generally high except for LP which is very high. USL library did not meet the expectations of the customers by comparing the desired service level vis-a-vis with observed actual service performance level provided. Customers were satisfied with the circulation service, internet/online service, library instruction, current awareness services, reference service, multimedia service, and depository area/service. Customers' satisfaction with the different library services is positively correlated with their loyalty towards the library which is manifested through using the library for related purposes aside from borrowing books; encouraging friends and colleagues to use the library; saying positive things about the library services to other people; and recommending the library to someone who seeks their advice. Correlation indicated that there is a significant direct relationship between library service quality and customers' satisfaction. Furthermore, customers' satisfaction is directly correlated with their loyalty towards the library and its services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model that focuses on the cultural and religiosity drivers and satisfaction outcomes of consumer perceptions about online retailers’ deceptive practices. It specifically investigates: the role of cultural orientation and religiosity in forming consumer ethical ideology; the link between the consumer’s ethical ideology and his/her perceptions regarding the deceptive practices of online retailers; and the effect of perceived deception on consumer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a quantitative survey conducted among 468 Egyptian consumers aged 18 and above. These were measured on a five-point Likert scale. To test the hypothesized relationships among the constructs of the model, structural equation modelling was employed. Findings – The study confirmed that power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and religiosity are important in forming idealistic attitudes, while both individualism and masculinity lead to an egoistic attitude. Idealism was observed to have a positive association with consumer perceived deception, while egoism was found to negatively affect consumer perceived deception. Finally, it was revealed that the perceptions of consumer about the deceptive practices of online retailing decrease consumer satisfaction. Originality/value – This research puts together in a single model both antecedents and outcomes of the perceptions of consumer about the deceptive practices of online retailing; concurrently examines the role of cultural orientation, religiosity, and ethical ideology of the consumer in forming ethical attitudes and responses; focuses on the instrumental role of cultural characteristics on consumer ethical perceptions from the perspective of the individual, rather than the society as a whole; and provides useful examination of the effects of perceived deception on consumer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early identification and communication of risks throughout the construction phase allows project teams to manage and minimize cost increases and schedule delays while increasing customer satisfaction. A better understanding of the distribution of risks during a construction project can improve risk management. This research created a new term, risk encounter, which measures and defines when a risk is communicated on a project, relative to the project schedule. This paper examines risk-management data regarding 229 small building projects at a U.S. university. The project teams encountered 1,229 risk events. A risk encounter was calculated for each risk event and plotted against a project lifecycle timeline. Individual risks were found to have unique characteristics related to the impact on the project cost, the impact on the schedule, and the nature of the risk. This study attempted to identify whether the characteristics of risk affect the distribution of risks during construction. ANOVA results indicate that positive relationships exist between risk characteristics and risk distribution. Additional analysis shows that risks with large cost impacts are typically identified by project teams earlier in the project schedule and risks that cause greater schedule delays are identified toward the end of the project schedule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of database marketing in private clubs. Additionally, it aimed to develop a list of preferences that would be beneficial to track and determine how satisfaction levels with the remembrance of preferences impacted overall satisfaction at home and reciprocal clubs. A mixed method approach involving a focus group of private club managers and a mail survey of members at three private clubs was used to achieve research objectives. Results indicated that database marketing is only starting to become prevalent in private clubs. Also, member satisfaction with remembrance of preferences did affect their overall satisfaction with the club. A list of member preferences that would be beneficial to track is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Customer satisfaction has been regarded as a key antecedent to positive future consumption behavior; however, studies on the relationship between satisfaction and personal well-being in the cultural context are scarce. To fill the research gap, a field survey with a sample of 367 cultural visitors in the performing arts context was conducted to investigate the role of satisfaction on the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of customers' well-being. Findings indicate that satisfaction serves as mediator in transforming consumption benefits into fulfilling autonomy and relatedness needs, which subsequently contributes to personal well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately there has been a growing debate on the differences between business and residential telecom consumers. Yet, evidence on these differences is lacking. This study partially fills this gap by econometrically analyzing the drivers of satisfaction with mobile and fixed internet services for business clients in Spain. The results reveal that the factors that drive satisfaction for micro-enterprises and residential customers are similar, but the drivers of satisfaction for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are distinct. For example, alternative DSL operators outperform the incumbent for micro-enterprises, but not for SMEs. Overall, for both fixed internet and mobile services, operators with small market shares perform better than the incumbent, and business clients’ satisfaction levels increase when they perceive that they can switch operators. Finally, subscribing to mobile and fixed bundles and dealing only with one telecom operator increase SMEs’ satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how consumer-written and system-aggregated user-generated content (UGC) on travel booking websites jointly influence consumer behavior. The purpose of this research is to test the effects of different types of UGC on various consumer behavior outcomes. Experiment 1 found a significant interaction effect between UGC type (consumer-written versus system-aggregated) and valence (positive versus negative) on product evaluation, perceived information value, and satisfaction. Experiment 2 found a significant interaction between consumer-written and system-aggregated UGC valences. When consumer-written UGC was negative, consumers demonstrated more negative product evaluation and lower buying intention, regardless of system-aggregated UGC valence. When consumer-written and system-aggregated UGC valences matched, consumers indicated greater perceived information value, satisfaction, and future behavioral intention. Trustworthiness partially mediated the effect of the fit between consumer-written and system-aggregated UGC on consumer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To date, few empirical studies have focused on the constituents of creative tourists’ experience and its consequences. This study aims to bridge this research gap by examining the effect of creative tourists’ experience on their memories, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Data were collected from 296 creative tourists, selected through purposive sampling, at selected resort hotels in the Malaysian states of Terengganu and Kedah. The results show that creative-tourist experience is a second-order factor with five dimensions, namely escape and recognition, peace of mind, unique involvement, interactivity, and learning. The results of structural equation modeling show that creative tourists’ experience is a good predictor of their memories, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. The proposed model and findings can greatly help researchers and practitioners understand the concept of creative-tourist experience and its complex relationships with their memories, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research investigates the path from integrated marketing communications to switching cost, satisfaction, commitment, and switching intention among mobile telecommunications customers. This research is based on extant literature that brand awareness, image, and personality created by company integrated marketing communications influence consumer expectations. Exploratory research finds that consumers will be satisfied if the provider can fulfil its promises and meet customer expectations. Sales promotion has a direct relationship with switching costs. In turn, switching costs affects the level of commitment, which can be augmented by high consumer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, commitment, and switching cost are direct antecedents of switching intention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The theoretical understanding of online shopping behaviour has received much attention. Less focus has been given to online retailing ethics. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a comprehensive model of online retailing ethics. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a survey amongst a sample representative of universities across Egypt. In total, 310 questionnaire were collected and analysed using structure equation modelling using WarpPLS. Findings – The results indicate that the consumer perceptions of online retailing ethics (CPORE) as a second-order construct is composed of five constructs (security, privacy, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, and service recovery) and strongly predictive of online consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors find a significant mediating effect of trust, and commitment on the relationship between CPORE and customer satisfaction. The results also show that individualism had moderate effects on the relationship between CPORE and customer satisfaction. Contrary to expectations, power distance had no significant effect. Research limitations/implications – Despite the contributions of this study some research limitations need acknowledgment. First, this study employed a convenience sample. The authors encourage future studies to use random sampling of general consumers. The ethics literature identifies some factors which influence ethical judgments of consumers (e.g. sex, age, and education). Such research could identify how each variable, individually and cooperatively, impacts consumer ethical evaluations of online retailing. The authors did not collect data from non-internet shoppers because the focus of this study was online consumers referring to their latest purchase online. It may be an interesting extension, however, to test this conceptual model for other populations like non-online consumers. Originality/value – This study developed and empirically tested a comprehensive model of CPORE with its multidimensional constructs and evaluated its impact on both consumer satisfaction and repurchase intention via trust and commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-relationships among perceived product necessity, perceived value, customer satisfaction and affective attitude are examined in Harare, Zimbabwe using structural equation modelling. The study provides evidence that perceived product necessity, perceived value and customer satisfaction each positively influences affective attitude. The findings also show that perceived product necessity has a positive effect on perceived value while perceived value has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Lastly, the study reveals that perceived product necessity does not influence customer satisfaction. The research has implications for theory, managers and future researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This quantitative research study was designed to investigate customers' perceptions of leadership practices and front-line staff performance on their satisfaction in selected public sector agencies in central Manchester. The participants involved in the study were customers of two selected public sector agencies. The main instrument for the data collection was a four-point Likert Scale questionnaire that was administered to conveniently selected ninety six public sector customers. A multiple regression analysis was employed to analyse the data. The findings from the study revealed that there a statistically significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction and customer service worker performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research develops an integrated model of Information System (IS) success based on the DeLone and McLean (2003. The DeLone and McLean model of information systems success: A ten-year update.Journal of Management Information Systems, 19(4), 9–30) IS success model and the technology–organization–environment framework of the firm to provide small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the relative importance and knowledge of IS success. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from 316 Iranian and Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. Our findings show that the determinants of IS success among SMEs are not limited to the technological factors identified in the DeLone and McLean (2003) IS success model. We in effect found that IS success among SMEs is also determined by some key organizational and environmental determinants. We observed that the involvement of both top management and employees in different stages of IS implementation is important and IS success among SMEs requires internal and external support. The study contributes to the theory by extending and empirically testing the DeLone and McLean IS success model in a different setting than in previous studies. The study can serve as a basis for future research in this field through advancing the theoretical development in the area of IS success. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main objectives of this paper are to examine the effect of hotel hospitality on the satisfaction level of foreign guests in the context of the hotel industry, as well as to explore the moderating effect of national identity (country-specific hospitality) on the relationship between hospitality and guests’ level of satisfaction. In this study, “national identity” refers to the distinctive cultural elements of a specific country that are incorporated into the hotel’s service design. This study, involving 315 foreign guests at Malaysian hotels, used survey administration as the main data collection method. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was performed and statistical support for the effect of hospitality on the patrons’ satisfaction with their hotel stays, as well as the moderating effect of national identity on satisfaction levels, were found. This study also proposes a new scale to measure “country-specific hospitality”. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines (1) the relationships between airline travelers’ casual attribution (stability and controllability), pre-recovery emotions, post-recovery emotions, and overall satisfaction; and (2) analyzes the mediating effect of pre-recovery emotions on the relationship between causal attribution and post-recovery emotions. Theoretical hypotheses were derived based on a literature review, and to empirically test the hypotheses, data were collected from 210 airline travelers in Malaysia. These respondents were airline travelers who experienced some service failure and relevant service recovery within the past year. According to the results, the two dimensions of casual attribution both influenced pre-recovery emotions. Pre-recovery emotions were significantly related to positive and negative post-recovery emotions, and post-recovery emotions were significantly related to overall satisfaction. In addition, pre-recovery emotions moderated the relationship between casual attribution and post-recovery emotions. These results have important practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Buildings can be poorly maintained because of lack of understanding about the role of building maintenance in achieving the organization's objective and long-term profitability. The maintenance management is the agent that provides maintenance services to fulfill the needs of the organization. However, involvement of all of the key participants is the key to enhance maintenance planning, execution, and outcome whereby the participative mechanism involves the key participants dealing with the maintenance issues. Thus, this paper seeks to identify the participative mechanisms through a literature review. Then, a relationship between the mechanisms and maintenance performance through a questionnaire survey and interview is established. Finally, a regression model for prediction purposes is produced. The findings reveal that effective communication among the key participants is vital to enhance the maintenance performance. Therefore, this paper recommends that management should develop an effective communication platform involving all key participants, with contribution and commitment toward the maintenance activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on increased interest in “customer delight,” this study identifies specific customer-described delightful experiences and explores factors that influence guests’ delightful experiences in the context of the lodging industry. Utilizing the critical incident technique (CIT), two broad groups of factors are emerged—tangibles (i.e., property related) and intangibles (i.e., service related). Within these two groups, five categories are identified as factors of guests’ delightful experiences: service-related tangibles, property-related tangibles, professional services, friendly services, and unexpected services. Consistent with previous studies, results from this study show loyalty is strongly represented when customers have delightful experiences. Implications for industry and academia, as well as directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main purpose of the paper is to identify a method for measuring customers' satisfaction of eServices in CRM systems. The research is conducted through elaborate overview analysis of enterprises using ERP systems. On the bases of the analysis suggestions for companies relying on CRM systems, a conceptual agenda for agile BI monitoring of service quality and client's perceptions is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to better understand the impact of intercultural communication competence on personal interaction and customer satisfaction in grocery retail industry. The study explored three major constructs namely intercultural communication competence, personal interaction which is one of the important variables for service quality and customer satisfaction of major grocery retail outlets (e.g. supermarkets and hypermarkets) in Klang Valley area, Malaysia. The customer based approach methodology was adopted and the data was collected using structured questionnaire survey. The measurement of the constructs and their interrelationships were examined based on structural equation modelling approach. Based on the proposed framework, a number of propositions were developed to facilitate empirical research on intercultural communication competences of staff comprises of inter-role congruence and interaction comfort as perceived by customers of the selected grocery retail outlets. This contributes to the development of a theory based path model, which links the intercultural competence to service quality and customer satisfaction. Although numerous researchers have studied the extensive topic of service quality and customer satisfaction, none of those studies explored the critical role of intercultural communication competence and integrated the construct in their service quality and customer satisfaction model. Since intercultural notions are becoming acknowledged as crucial to success particularly in multicultural society, an inclusive dimension of the key determinants of the factor should improve our understanding of this phenomenon and provide an impetus for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This papers suggests ways of developing positive images of Incheon International Airport, taking into account the impact that the quality of protocol service has on the image of the airport, and the degree of customer satisfaction. For this study, structural equation modelling was applied to data collected from 163 people who used the VIP room. The analyses revealed that reliability and reactivity had a significant impact on the level of satisfaction. Also, reliability and confidence had a significant impact on the corporate image. In addition, it proved that customer satisfaction effected the airport's image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explaining human behavior is a primary concern for tourism research and a substantial body of research concludes that highly satisfied tourists are more likely to return to a particular destination. In this article, we provide an analysis of this body of work, arriving at three concerns relating to the strength of association between satisfaction and behavioral intention: (1) the link between constructs is complex, resulting in the frequent omission of causal factors; (2) inconsistency with construct operationalization impedes cumulative knowledge development; and (3) explainable variance is impeded by between-study heterogeneity. We illustrate these problems by analyzing empirical guest survey data and conducting a meta-analysis of published papers in the three top tourism journals between 2002 and 2011. We offer four recommendations for future research investigating the link between satisfaction and behavioral intention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently particular attention has been devoted to the relationship between leisure activities and subjective well-being. Less attention has been dedicated to tourism as a life satisfaction domain, despite it being one of the most relevant leisure activities. The aim of this article is to contribute to expanding this line of investigation. Building on the Dunlap and Heffernan hypothesis and employing activity-based segmentation, it verifies to what extent environmental attitudes are related to activities that tourists perform during their vacation, and whether a relationship exists between the activities performed and life satisfaction. The hypothesis is that tourists involved in more appreciative activities are normally more concerned about the environment, more beneficial for host territories, and happier. The article demonstrates that a positive association exists between these aspects and the way tourists “use” nature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Every enterprise must establish a set of high-quality service recovery strategies in order to grasp the opportunity to communicate with customers after receiving their complaint messages. These actions help a company to re-build customers’ confidence in its products, enhance its image, and even change complaining customers into loyal customers. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of service recovery strategies for the motorcycle industry in Taiwan. Beginning with a designing a questionnaire about customer relationship quality and customer loyalty relationship and then distributing the questionnaires to customers who are not satisfied with the service but then accepted the service recovery, this study attempts to understand if the customer relationship quality and loyalty are enhanced after the interference of service recovery and to verify if the service recovery strategies offered by the motorcycle industry are indeed effective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The downturn of the markets in the recent global economic crisis points to a need to question the current dynamics of the market system, a decade after the turn of the millennium. The inequalities with regard to the consumption of resources across world markets, the declared low satisfaction rates over what is offered in the marketplace, and the increasing skepticism with marketing practices are all more pronounced than ever. It is becoming evident that consumer marketing fails in constructing a happier society. Consumers, producers, and governments as the three main market stakeholders, share responsibility for the undesired consequences. This article provides a critical perspective on the contemporary paradigm that dominates marketing thought in relation to the central role and the evolving meaning of consumption in the market economy that is favored by most governments. The core position of the article is that determining happiness as the ultimate end requires a shift to a new societal orientation for all stakeholders of the market system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networking applications have gained huge popularity. With the widespread use of smart devices (e.g., on-board units, smartphones), these social networks are increasingly going mobile. As a result, a new trend of networking has emerged, referred to as vehicular social networking (VSN), which combines the wireless communications between vehicles with their social relationships. In a broader view, VSNs are social networks formed on roadways by users who have social relationships, interactions, and common interests. The exploitation of vehicular users? social properties provides better networking and social support to innovative applications and services. This article overviews recent achievements in VSN by providing an organized view of existing approaches. Its contribution lies in a taxonomy for content dissemination approaches in the context of VSN. Also, a framework is outlined to tackle a major new challenge: supporting user satisfaction. Finally, this article emphasizes open research and future trends. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the relationships of rice cakes’ product attributes, overall satisfaction, and repurchase intentions. Rice cake attributes were investigated as well as consumers’ behaviors, with a total of 324 female respondents. All respondents purchase rice cakes at least 2 to 3 times per year, and 10.8% of respondents purchase rice cakes once a week, which was the highest frequency. The results of analysis indicate that commercialization attribute, consumers’ satisfaction, and repurchase intentions have effects on each other. Product attributes had a direct effect on repurchase intentions and overall satisfaction had a direct effect on repurchase intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the popularity of festivals and events across destinations, many have failed because of tight budgets and a lack of marketing knowledge. Accordingly, this study aims to assist festival organizers understand more about their target audience. The present study examined the utility of psychological commitment for segmenting festival visitors. We first profiled festival visitors based on their commitment levels and then investigated whether the segments differ in their sociodemographic characteristics, satisfaction, and loyalty. The results demonstrated the presence of three segments, each of which displayed meaningful and significant variation in the intensity of their festival commitment. The groups differed in age, education, and past experience. We also observed that the more committed visitors were to the festival, the higher their overall satisfaction was with the festival experience, and the more likely they were to exhibit loyalty intentions toward the festival. Based on these findings, practical and theoretical insights are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many travel destinations across the world have endured sporadic or prolonged violence that significantly impacts their respective region’s tourism-reliant economy. This research addresses the issue of violence and travel by examining talk of violence, perceptions of the worsening of crime, fear at the destination, destination satisfaction, and their effects on return intention within the context of travelers who are very familiar with the destination. Study results, obtained from migrants who had spent many winters in the area that borders on a region that had recently erupted in drug-related violence, found the significant effects, direct or indirect, of all variables. Importantly, fear at the destination was found to subsume satisfaction with the destination, which directly impacts intention to return to the destination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study is to add to the literature on consumer financial guilt in hospitality and tourism by exploring the circumstances in which it occurs and investigating antecedents that influence the experience of consumer financial guilt. Using an impulsive travel purchase as the context, this mixed-methods study examined the effects of gender and prepurchase mood on feelings of postpurchase guilt and satisfaction. Qualitative and quantitative results indicated that women were more likely than men to experience consumer guilt following an impulse travel purchase, and that this effect was moderated by prepurchase mood. Hierarchical regression analysis also indicated that consumer financial guilt affected levels of anticipated satisfaction with the purchase, over and above the effect attributed to prepurchase mood and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tourist information offices (TIOs) are an important external information source in the tourists’ decision-making process. Assessing the quality of TIO information services implies measuring both technical quality, that is, the outcome of the service performance, and functional quality, that is, the quality of the whole delivery process. The article presents a methodology to correlate and combine mystery shopping and customer satisfaction research in order to assess the overall performance of TIOs at destination and discusses the effectiveness of this approach compared with a separate application of the two methods. The study is part of a project aimed at providing local authorities and TIO office managers in the mountain areas of Italy and Austria with an integrated and user-friendly tool to monitor the quality of information delivered to tourists both before and during their visit, evaluate the management of information services and make benchmark comparisons in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The market development process of green dwellings is systematically analysed and the market dynamics of green dwellings are researched from three-pronged approach, green dwellings' quality (performance), the supply-side and demand-side. This paper builds a structural equation model of green dwellings' market development, makes an empirical analysis by questionnaire, and comes to the critical path of green dwellings' market development. The result shows that developers' plan, design and construction quality, mandatory government policies and regulations have direct positive effects on the quality (performance) of green dwellings, in which the mandatory government policies and regulations impact the most. Market expectations, strategies and value orientation of the developers, and incentives of the government have direct positive effects on green dwellings' supply, in which incentives of the government impact the most; structure and number of population, income levels as well as consumers' satisfaction have significant positive impacts on green dwellings' consumption, in which consumers' satisfaction impacts the most. The results can help the government and developers make appropriate countermeasures scientifically based on the critical path, and thus promoting the market development of green dwellings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, apart from the commercialization of products, the Supermarkets provide satisfaction to customers. It is also very common to find third-party stores and services added. In this context, the objective of this study is to analyze how the administrative management of these stores and services, also called Support Businesses, is carried out by a network of supermarkets in the state of Santa Catarina. A network of 12 establishments, which serves 57,000 customers per day in the state of Santa Catarina and considering 170 Support Businesses, participated in this study. Thus, the researchers administered a questionnaire to 130 owners of those Businesses in the following cities of Santa Catarina: Florianópolis, São José, Criciúma, Palhoça, Blumenau and Joinville. Based on the collected data, it was evident that there is a lack of professional management for this new reality of supermarkets. Therefore, this empirical-exploratory article contributes to the beginning of a new theory about an administrative management for these businesses. This articles ends with an administrative management proposal that contemplates the ambitions of the owners of stores and services installed in supermarkets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors in the study demonstrate how Product and Marketing Controlling can utilise the applied statistics from social sciences to understand the root cause of the gap between the planned and actual customer satisfaction (regarding to the branch and counter services) at one retail bank in the United Kingdom. In order to understand the underlying factors the authors conduct factor analysis on the data from the detailed survey by the bank that targeted the customer satisfaction. The three key factors that have been identified as key drivers of the customers' satisfaction with the overall service quality in branches are the satisfaction/quality of branch personnel; the satisfaction with the branch infrastructure; and the process quality. The key performance indicators build around these factors enable the analysts to understand the trends and the key driver of the variance of customer satisfaction plans (target vs. actual analysis). This study as part of a strategic bank planning and control ("Controlling") framework highlights the importance of cost effective solutions in the field of bank marketing. The scientific approaches such as factor analysis have an emerging importance in the practice of bank controlling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today all modern industry has competitive market place over the world. We are in position to achieve our organization objective for control over cost of manufacturing and to improve quality of product. Purchase of product is the one of key area of any organization for procurement of material and other resources. Nowadays supplier plays an important role for supplying material to organization based on supply contract and also responsibility towards delivery quality product at right time at right place. In this evaluation supplier play an important role for performance measure of profit and quality of product. Supplier evaluation is one of the most critical activities in purchasing (or) procurement process. Selecting the wrong supplier could be enough to deteriorate the whole process financial and operational positions. This paper proposes and demonstrates the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in evaluating the performance measures of suppliers in leading engineering firm in the energy sector, Chennai. Also formulated 12 suppliers relative performance efficiency between input and output variable reported by DEA Frontier Software. The result of the project can be used to identify best supplier for the purpose of maximizing customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a closer look at factors which serve as a catalyst for transforming initially dissatisfied customers into evangelists of the firm; that is, customers who spread positive word-of-mouth about a company, its products and/or services--and recommend them to other consumers. We propose a conceptual model, rooted in relationship marketing theory, which identifies a set of factors that afford a better understanding of post-service recovery customer transformation processes. The proposed model is empirically tested in the context of mobile telecommunications services using a structural equation modeling approach. Our findings reveal that when companies are capable of designing effective service recovery processes--where customers perceive effort and justice in the outcome -in itia l dissatisfaction can turn to brand loyalty, long-term commitment and, above all, readiness to speak positively about the company and its products. Finally, the main implications fo r marketing practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. The goal of the article is to identify the effective ways of implementing innovative technologies in design and garment manufacturing. Methodology. The study of the ways of enhancing the level of product competitiveness of garment manufacturers is conducted. General scientific methods used in the problem investigation process are observance and description; theoretical methods used are analysis, generalization, systematization and classification. Findings. Efficiency factors of modern computer technologies application and necessity of implementation of 3D design systems that will lead to the emergence of the designs of new generation meeting the high level of quality are determined. Application of photo digitizer instead of digitizer board to download garment templates into the computer is proposed. Practical value. Practical significance of the 3D design system application is in total customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports a range of positive effects of trusting relationships between leaders and followers on multiple measures of performance in small professional service firms. Six performance measures were used: financial outcomes, staff and customer satisfaction, productivity, and staff and manager tenure. Predictions that firms with high levels of manager-follower trust would outperform their low-trust peers were supported on all measures. Importantly, the findings indicated that retaining managers and staff in small firms is associated with high levels of manager-follower trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online crowdsourcing markets (OCM) are becoming more popular as a source for data collection. In this paper, we examine the consistency of survey results across student samples, consumer panels, and online crowdsourcing markets (specifically Amazon's Mechanical Turk) both within the United States and outside. We conduct two studies examining the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the expectation- disconfirmation theory (EDT) to explore potential differences in demographics, psychometrics, structural model estimates, and measurement invariances. Our findings indicate that (1) U.S.-based OCM samples provide demographics much more similar to our student and consumer panel samples than the non-U.S.-based OCM samples; (2) both U.S. and non-U.S. OCM samples provide initial psychometric properties (reliability, convergent, and divergent validity) that are similar to those of both student and consumer panels; (3) non-U.S. OCM samples generally provide differences in scale means compared to those of our students, consumer panels, and U.S. OCM samples; and (4) one of the non-U.S. OCM samples refuted the highly replicated and validated TAM model in the relationship of perceived usefulness to behavioral intentions. Although our post hoc analyses isolated some cultural and demographic effects with regard to the non-U.S. samples in Study 1, they did not address the model differences found in Study 2. Specifically, the inclusion of non-U.S. OCM respondents led to statistically significant differences in parameter estimates, and hence to different statistical conclusions. Due to these unexplained differences that exist within the non-U.S. OCM samples, we caution that the inclusion of non-U.S. OCM participants may lead to different conclusions than studies with only U.S. OCM participants. We are unable to conclude whether this is due to of cultural differences, differences in the demographic profiles of non-U.S. OCM participants, or some unexplored factors within the models. Therefore, until further research is conducted to explore these differences in detail, we urge researchers utilizing OCMs with the intention to generalize to U.S. populations focus on U.S.-based participants and exercise caution in using non-U.S. participants. We further recommend that researchers should clearly describe their OCM usage and design (e.g., demographics, participant filters, etc.) procedures. Overall, we find that U.S. OCM samples produced models that lead to similar statistical conclusions as both U.S. students and U.S. consumer panels at a considerably reduced cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of e-commerce institutional mechanisms on trust and online purchase have traditionally been understood in the initial online purchase context. This study extends this literature by exploring the role of ecommerce institutional mechanisms in the online repurchase context. In doing so, it responds to the emerging call for understanding the institutional context under which customer trust operates in an e-commerce environment. Specifically, this study introduces a key moderator, perceived effectiveness of e-commerce institutional mechanisms (PEEIM), to the relationships between trust, satisfaction, and repurchase intention. Drawing on the theory of organizational trust, and based on a survey of 362 returning online customers, we find that PEEIM negatively moderates the relationship between trust in an online vendor and online customer repurchase intention, as it decreases the importance of trust to promoting repurchase behavior. We also find that PEEIM positively moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and trust as it enhances the customer's reliance on past transaction experience with the vendor to reevaluate trust in the vendor. Consistent with the predictions made in the literature, PEEIM does not directly affect trust or repurchase intention. Academic and practical implications and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to obtain feedback from civilly committed sex offenders (N = 113) about the components of treatment that they believed to be most important and helpful in preventing reoffense. Participants were also asked to rate their satisfaction with the treatment process and therapists. Victim empathy and accountability were rated as the most important elements of treatment, along with skills for preventing relapse and methods for controlling sexual arousal. There was a fairly robust correlation between client perceptions of importance and satisfaction on most treatment components. Some clients expressed concerns about respect, confidentiality, and judgmental attitudes of some therapists. Because civilly committed sex offenders are considered to be among the most likely to reoffend, strategies are discussed for engagement of this population in a meaningful process of change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]