The research project investigated the applicability of the Service-Profit Chain model in the context where there are bottom of the pyramid customers who service bottom of the pyramid consumers in a middle income country. All businesses are concerned about creating value for themselves. In the past a lot of initiatives have focused on internal restructuring measures as well driving one of the most valuable assets they have their brands. However, there is now a growing realisation by businesses driven by a number of factors that a the management of customer relations is one of the most effective tools to manage and increase profitability. In view of the increasing emphasis that is being placed on the role of customers in creating value for businesses the service-profit chain is an appropriate response to how businesses can go about managing customer profitability. The research project was done using a quantitative research method with customers of one of the leading softdrinks beverage companies in the country. Prior to this a thorough literature review was conducted which showed the relevance of the service-profit chain model in managing customer profitability. The main finding from the research is that the service-profit chain does not apply to the context described above and in the study. This is mainly because there was no relationship found between customer loyalty and customer profitability. However, the last chapter proposes a model to help with establishing this relationship. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The results of the exploratory research revealed the existence of perceptions and myth amongst low-income consumers in respect of the banking sector. Numerous pieces of research have been undertaken deriving reasons for people’s continued refusal to access the banking sector. Some of these reasons have been cited as cost, access and complexity of available products. A key factor to success in reducing the number of unbanked consumers in South Africa is the understanding of the aspects of human psychology that drives consumer behaviour. This was an exploratory piece of research that derived its questions from the disciplines of Philosophy, Behavioural Economics, Social Psychology and Strategy. The questions this research sought to answer were viz • What are the myths and perceptions people have about the banking sector? • How do myths and perceptions influence consumer behaviour in respect of financial services? As a result of it being exploratory research, qualitative surveys using in depth interviews was the chosen methodology. The results of the qualitative survey revealed the existence of perceptions and myths among consumers in the Banking Sector. The extent, to which these impacted consumer behaviour, was derived from a combination of direct feedback from the participants and a sense of what could potentially happen. The concluding discussion points out that sustainable solutions will follow an organisational approach, which reveals a deep respect for these consumers as capable human beings who require a collaborative (and not paternalistic) partner to improving their lives. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In South Africa’s automotive industry where product features are very similar among vehicles, where there is huge competition between the vehicle brands, whether they are imported or locally produced, what is the leverage one can use to gain a competitive advantage? What will be the means of differentiation? The answer and the ultimate business advantage may very well be customer service excellence. In an effort to measure service excellence, South African customer satisfaction questionnaires, have historically via the questions that they ask and the weightings they give to these questions emphasised the transactional component of customer satisfaction. South African automotive retailers however need to understand the relationship component of the satisfaction of customers. This research shows that the current definition of Customer satisfaction does not measure this relation component as defined by emotional intelligence of the service advisors. Suggestions are given at the end of the report as to how this situation can be changed and the advantages that can be taken for automotive retailers. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Online purchasing is becoming increasingly common as a purchasing mode. At the onset of e-commerce it was thought that success was guaranteed merely by being present on the internet and offering low prices. Currently customer service has proved itself to be a key element for achieving good results in a website (Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Malhotra, 2002b). In this context, the study of commercial website quality has emerged as an area of strategic importance. As in traditional stores, service quality and customer satisfaction seem to play vital roles in the success and survival of Internet sites.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1976.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1976.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 457-475).

published_or_final_version / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

The paper aims at exploring the shoppers’ evaluation of service quality and its impact on shopping centre management. For shopping centre management team, understanding their customers’ perceptions of the centre’s service quality is an important issue as shoppers’ evaluations and perceptions is believed to be highly related to their patronage behaviors and purchase intention. Through a case study of a shopping centre, this research will try to offer some insights on the relationships between evaluations of service quality and the shoppers’ patronage behaviors which may derive some implications for contemporary shopping centre management. Literatures tell us that people elicit behavior after cognitive processing and formation of emotions. Adopting similar concept, marketing scholars found that customer behaviors are affected by their evaluations of service quality and satisfaction level through their perceptions on product or service attributes in cognitive processing. This study will follow the direction with reference to this model of behavior formation. In the case study, personal interviews had been conducted with selected shoppers at a shopping centre. They were asked to rate the performance of 36 sub-attributes of the shopping centre under 5 shopping centre attributes, namely “accessibility”, “merchandise”, “retail environment & design”, “services of centre’s staff” and “promotions”. They were also asked about their patronage behaviors at the shopping centre such as frequency of visits, duration of visits, amount of spending etc. It was found that the shoppers generally had positive evaluations on the centre’s performance on the 5 shopping centre attributes as a whole, especially had high evaluations on “accessibility”, “merchandise” and “services of centre’s staff”. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) was conducted to evaluate the service quality of 36 sub-attributes by comparing shoppers’ perceived actual performance and the importance level. It was found that only 8 sub-attributes, such as “access by public transportation”, “variety of stores” and “quality of stores” were found with high perceived service quality with high perceived actual performance and high importance level to the shoppers compared with other sub-attributes. These sub-attributes with high perceived service quality were tested with occurrence tendency of patronage behaviors in the correlation analysis. It was found that high perceived service quality on merchandises, facility management and organization of promotion activities to certain extend had influence on manipulating patronage behaviors. However, some results showed that sub-attributes with high perceived service quality showed minimal or even no correlation on any measure patronage behavior parameters. With reference to the model of purchase behavior regarding perceptions of service quality, the study may reveal that many possible antecedents of formation of shopping centre patronage behaviors may be still unreached in the contemporary studies. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management