This study tests the effect of a pairing suggestion for food with wine by the glass directly placed on the menu. We made the assumption that these suggestions can, by reducing social and financial ...risk, increase wine by the glass sales. One hundred and fifty-nine customers of a Swiss restaurant participated in this experiment. For 82 customers, a food and wine by the glass suggestion was directly placed on the menu while the 77 others were given a normal menu (without a pairing suggestion). Results show that this type of suggestion significantly increases wine sold by the glass. Practical applications of this strategy are discussed.
This article shows that individuals' product market choices influence their investment decisions. Using microdata from the brokerage and automotive industries, we find a strong positive relation ...between customer relationship, ownership of a company, and size of the ownership stake. Investors are also more likely to purchase and less likely to sell shares of companies they frequent as customers. These effects are stronger for individuals with longer customer relationships. A merger-based natural experiment supports a causal interpretation of our results. We also find evidence of causality in the other direction: inheritances and gifts have an effect on individuals' patronage decisions. A setup in which customer-investors regard stocks as consumption goods, not just as investments, seems to best explain our results.
In this paper, we study the practice of forecast sharing and supply chain coordination with a game-theoretical model. We find that in a one-shot version of the game, forecasts are not shared ...truthfully by the customer. The supplier will rationally discount the forecast information in her capacity allocation. This results in Pareto suboptimality for both supply chain parties. However, we show that a more efficient, truth-sharing outcome can emerge as an equilibrium from a long-term relationship. In this equilibrium, forecast information is transmitted truthfully and trusted by the supplier, who in turn allocates the system-optimal capacity. This leaves both the customer and the supplier better-off, compared to the nontruthful-sharing equilibrium.
We identify a multiperiod review strategy profile that supports the truthful-sharing equilibrium. The key element of this strategy is that the supplier computes a scoring index of the customer's behavior that is updated over time and used to evaluate if the customer has sufficient incentive to share his private information truthfully in each transaction of the repeated game. Compared to trigger strategies, review strategies are more tolerant but require diligence and more monitoring effort.
Prior research indicates that market orientation is associated with positive outcomes for firms. For service organizations, a market orientation is implemented largely through individual service ...workers. The authors investigate the mediational role of customer orientation in a hierarchical model of the influence of personality traits on self-rated and supervisor-rated performance. The results support a partially mediated hierarchical model. Three basic personality traits (emotional stability, agreeability, and the need for activity) account for 39% of the variance in the customer orientation of employees. In turn, the customer orientation measure and conscientiousness account for 26% of the variance in self-rated performance. The customer orientation measure, along with the direct effects of conscientiousness and agreeability, account for 12% of the variance in manager ratings. The authors discuss the results and their implications for marketing researchers and managers.
Logistics excellence has become a powerful source of competitive differentiation within diverse marketing offerings of world-class firms. Although researchers have suggested that logistics ...competencies complement marketing efforts, empirical evidence is lacking on what logistics service quality means to customers and whether it has different meanings for separate customer segments. The authors present empirical support for nine related logistics service quality constructs; demonstrate their unidimensionality, validity, and reliability across four customer segments of a large logistics organization; and provide empirical support for a logistics service quality process. Although structural equation modeling offers support for the logistics service quality process across customer segments, the authors find that the relative parameter estimates differ for each segment, which suggests that firms ought to customize their logistics services by customer segments.
Highlights ► We conducted focus groups regarding perspectives on child influenza vaccination. ► Barriers were fear, mistrust, half truths, inconvenient or unnecessary vaccination. ► Facilitators were ...access, health promotion, child request, and not missing work. ► Practice-based strategies were staff buy-in, standing orders, and vaccine clinics. ► Teen-specific strategies included using schools and web-based social networks.
Employing elements of organizational theory and service recovery research, the authors examine how employees' perceptions of shared values and organizational justice can stimulate customer-directed ...extra-role behaviors when handling complaints. They also investigate how these extra-role behaviors affect customers' perceptions of justice, satisfaction, word of mouth, and purchase intent. The authors capture and match employee and customer perceptions regarding the relevant constructs following a complaint and recovery experience. The results indicate that employees' perceptions of shared values and organizational justice affect customer-directed extra-role behaviors. Furthermore, the authors find that extra-role behaviors have significant effects on customers' perceptions of justice and that these behaviors mediate the effects of shared values and organizational justice on customer justice perceptions. Their study reveals that customer ratings of justice affect the customer outcomes of satisfaction with recovery, overall firm satisfaction, purchase intent, and word of mouth. Finally, the authors show that customers' perceptions of justice mediate the effects that extra-role behaviors have on customer outcomes.
Frontline service employees frequently encounter customers' fuzzy requests, defined as requests that are slightly or somewhat outside company policy but not completely unacceptable or detrimental to ...the company. Employees' compliance decisions can profoundly affect customers, organizations, and employees themselves. However, the complex decision process in which service employees engage is largely unexplored. The authors draw from script and motivated reasoning theories, as well as qualitative interviews, to model employees' responses to customers' fuzzy requests in a retail setting. The results, which are based on a national survey of retail employees, indicate that employees with higher customer orientation and higher conflict avoidance tend to handle fuzzy return requests in a friendlier, more effortful manner, especially when customers demonstrate an affiliative style. In contrast, when customers display a dominant style, employees engage in motivated reasoning and perceive the request to be less legitimate, reducing their likelihood of complying. In addition, the employees' perceived flexibility influences their compliance decisions, but punishment expectations do not. The authors conclude with some managerial implications, including better identification of these requests and more training of employees to handle them appropriately.
(1) Background: Exploring the drivers of organic food consumption is crucial for designing pro-environmental marketing strategies. This study aims to investigate elements associated with organic ...product consumption in North Portugal, with a particular focus on food sustainability. (2) Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was administered to 295 participants to examine (1) personal motivations, such as beliefs about the impact of consuming organic products on health, concerns about soil, and self-perception of control; (2) attitudes towards contextual motivations, including the value of time, price, labels, and taste; and (3) the frequency of organic product consumption. A partial least squares model was employed to explore the relationship between participants’ motivations and behavior. (3) Results: Perceiving organic food as healthy was positively associated with higher organic product consumption. Positive attitudes towards cost-effective products, spending less time purchasing products, and a high locus of control did not moderate this relationship. While soil concerns were not significantly associated with the consumption of organic products overall, this association was significant in participants with a higher locus of control. A low locus of control was associated with a positive attitude towards pesticides. (4) Conclusions: The findings suggest that bridging the gap between concerns about soil conditions and pro-environmental behavior involves perceiving oneself as an agent of change and becoming proactive at an individual level. Resources to enhance individuals’ environmental curiosity and literacy may increase their locus of control, fostering a more accurate attitude towards pesticides and, consequently, an increase in organic product consumption. Additionally, companies could strengthen the association between organic food and better health by investing in marketing. These strategies have the potential to positively impact food sustainability.
Purpose
This study aims to identify and analyse the interactions among drivers of anti-food waste behaviour at the consumer level. By understanding the mutual interactions among the drivers, an ...effort is made to identify the most driving and most dependent drivers through the total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) approach. Modelling offers inputs to propose focused interventions for reinforcing the identified drivers of anti-food waste consumer behaviour using the theoretical lens of social practices theory.
Design/methodology/approach
A proposed model of factors affecting anti-food waste behaviour is arrived at to suggest the most effective anti-food waste behavioural interventions. The factors were identified through an extensive literature search. A hierarchical structure of identified factors has been developed using TISM and MICMAC analysis through expert opinion. Focused marketing strategies towards promoting the identified factors for encouraging anti-food waste behaviour were suggested further.
Findings
This study identifies nine drivers based on extensive literature review, brainstorming and expert opinion. The TISM hierarchical model portrays the most important and least important drivers of household anti-food waste behaviour. It establishes that fundamental knowledge and socio-cultural norms are the most critical factors to drive the consumers. Marketers can focus on designing effective interventions to enhance the essential knowledge of the consumers and orient the socio-cultural norms towards anti-food waste behaviour.
Practical implications
This study offers implications for practitioners, policymakers and cause-driven marketing campaigns targeting anti-food waste behaviour. It provides an indicative list of critical factors relevant to household food waste behaviour, which can be used to drive effective marketing campaigns to nudge anti-food waste behaviours.
Originality/value
The proposed food waste behaviour management model was developed through modelling technique (TISM) and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis, and relating them to marketing interventions is a novel effort in the food waste domain.
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