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Purpose: The use of technology is constantly evolving for various services at airports to enhance the passenger experience. However, the passenger's perspective towards the technology is different. Design/methodology: A survey was conducted to know these perspectives and find the differences. The collected data was based on the passengers at Australian airports. The CAST software was used to analyse the simulation model. Findings: The collected survey helped in identifying three types of passengers: the number of passengers who prefer traditional service, the number of passengers who prefer technologybased services and the number of passengers who prefer technology-based services only under the specific circumstances such as less crowded and less processing time. Each type of passenger was further analysed based on their provided arriving time at the terminal and processing time for check-in to evaluate the impact on waiting time. Practical implications: The findings suggest that only one third passengers prefer technologybased services at airports and present the resulting impact on the waiting time at check-in facilities. Originality/value: Given the current rate of technological innovations at airports, the findings provide insights for check-in facilities management at airports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discount house is the latest American marketing innovation to be exported and to be met with the cry "it can't happen here." In an article in the April, 1962 "Journal of Marketing," the author generalized that marketing activities that would work in the United States would usually work in Australia. Here he examines the discount house against the Australia marketing scene and in Mexico, another market which has shown some willingness to accept American marketing ideas but not without resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the impact of the use of self-service technologies on interfirm relationships, a grounded theory study was conducted. This article reviews the results and implications of an exploratory study conducted with a sample of Australian business bank customers and interviews with 6 Australian financial institutions. Findings indicate that 2 customer segments exist—a transaction-oriented segment and a relationship-oriented segment. Unlike existing literature that states that bank customers prefer relationships (K. Eriksson & R. Marquardt, 2001), the present findings indicate that this is only the case for 1 segment of business customers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore situational influences on customers' actual choice between self-service and personal service and to examine the impact of past experiences on self-service technology (SST) attitudes and behavior. Design/methodology/approach – A supermarket self-checkout machine is the SST under investigation. A mixed qualitative research design was used and a total of 209 observations and 47 interviews were obtained from customers in five supermarket stores in Australia. Findings – Perceived waiting time, perceived task complexity, and companion influence are the three situational factors that impact on a customer's actual choice between self-service and personal service. Past experiences influence SST attitudes and behavior in a more complex manner than SST characteristics and other individual difference variables. Research limitations/implications – The findings may not be generalizable to internet- or telephone-based SST contexts. Practical implications – By understanding what factors affect a customer's choice, better strategies can be developed to manage and coordinate multiple service delivery options. The findings also highlight the importance of preventing frequent failure and providing speedy recovery in the SST context. Originality/value – This paper goes beyond SST attitudes/intentions and focuses on the moderating effect of situational factors on a customer's actual SST behavior. It also examines the impact of focal product and product-norm experiences on SST attitudes and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the mismatch between the impersonality of electronic money on the one hand and Australian customers' desire to have a personal banking relationship on the other. This gap is illustrated by a critical appraisal of literature relating to the sociology of money, the adoption of information and communication technologies and self-service technologies. The paper argues that bank-marketing professionals adopt an activity-centred social marketing strategy. This strategy places customers and their activities at the centre to help ensure a fit between payment activities, services, and values relating to money within different cultural contexts. The strategy has managerial implications for, when payments services are tracked according to customers and activities, the data required are different from data generated by following customer segments and products. An activity-centred social-marketing strategy has the potential to increase trust in banks and halt the shift of financial relationships to intermediaries such as brokers and financial planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]