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The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between personality factors and consumer behaviour variables for services. .The study has various distinctive features. Previously there has been no meaningful research on the relationship between personality traits and consumer behaviour variables. Most previous studies were directed towards establishing a relationship between individual personality traits and buying behaviour or to predict sales of expensive items such as automobiles, in which personality was not the only influencing factor. Moreover, almost all of the earlier work on personality traits and consumer decisionmaking, was targeted at the study of products not services. In contrast, the current study was aimed at 'usage' behaviour rather than 'buying' behaviour; and building the conceptual framework on services rather than products. Using two studies (N=120 and N = 987), consistent support was found for the effects of personality traits on customer loyalty, satisfaction and switching patterns among mobile phone and credit card users. The personality factor Agreeableness emerged as a single predictor for Customer Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction for both senrices. Openness to Experience was observed as a single predictor of customer switching. Personality facets Modesty, Altruism, and Trust were consistent in providing major predictive power predicting customer satisfaction for different services and in different studies. Similarly the personality facets Altruism, and Trust were consistent in predicting customer Loyalty for two different services and in two different studies. Customer switching was well predicted by the personality facet Values in addition to other facets. It was also understood that under different market conditions different consumer behavior variables might be predicted by different personality facets but major predictive power was found among the facets mentioned above. A number of factors suggest that these results generalizable globally but they were subject to a number of limitations, and hence further research is warranted.

The Internet facilitates access to online product reviews and comments written by consumers. These reviews and comments are available to a large number of other customers and consequently, it can be predicted that these have a considerable impact on the success of goods and services. Therefore it is essential for businesses to understand the rationale of these online articulations. This thesis describes an elaborate research project, conducted to investigate and to derive motives and antecedents of the reading behaviour of consumer reviews in online opinion platforms. The thesis was carried out in two sequential phases of qualitative and quantitative methods. The first phase (N==25) employed asynchronous online interview method, synchronous online interview method and participant validity checks, all of which explored and investigated the motives. Results from the first phase showed four different types of motives that drive customers to read online reviews: Decision-illvolvement, Product-involvement, Social-involvement and Economic-involvement motives. The outcomes also demonstrated four different new types of motives: Self-involvement motives, Consumer empowerment motives, New social-involvement motives and Site-administration motives. Several related themes were also investigated, such as the preference for reading or writing and the reasons for choosing one over the other. The second phase (N==lOlO) tested the relevance of the online reading motives and their influence on consumer buying and communication behaviour in a large-scale quantitative questionnaire. The thesis concluded a necessity for opinion portal providers and commercial providers of consumer goods and services to understand the complex relationship that links motives of the online reading behaviour to the various consumer behavioural constructs. The main managerial implication is to develop strategies that allow organisations to benefit effectively from such online opinions. Further research ought to draw on a variety of research methods to create a clearer picture of online reading behaviour, in particular considering that this is an emerging area of research. Future studies could also investigate the antecedents of online writing behaviour to provide a better understanding of the full equation of eWOM.

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Relationship marketing is a process which adopts information enabled marketing strategy and involves acquiring, retaining and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customers. The literature suggests that distinctive types of relationship marketing strategies are successful in different contexts. Review of literature on categories or typologies of relationship marketing suggested an inadequate conceptualisation of relationship marketing, with primary emphasis on the value creation aspects of relationship marketing. The role of customer data utilisation is discussed rather superficially. Moreover, there is a lack of empirical research in identifying the contextual aspect of these relationship marketing categories. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research was used in this research. Thirty key respondent interviews were carried with senior marketing executives across ten industry sectors to gain an insight into their relationship marketing strategies. The qualitative data was analysed using constant comparison method advocated by the proponents of grounded theory and this resulted in the identification of five distinctive relationship marketing strategies appropriate under different market conditions. The model of strategic relationship marketing was developed from the qualitative findings and the relationship between strategic relationship marketing and its proposed dimensions was tested using stepwise regression. This research contributes to the academic literature by identifying a typology of relationship marketing strategies in consumer markets, where expanded and integrated use of customer information across the organisation, resulting in focused customer acquisition capabilities and improved proposition customisation for customers, enables companies to gain competitive advantage from their relationship building endeavours. The findings also highlight how data utilisation capabilities are determined by the synergies between frequency of purchase of the product, market heterogeneity and proposition customisability. The synergy between consumer involvement in the product or service category, government regulations and overall industry lifecycle are identified as key factors influencing the mutual value creation capabilities of companies.

The rapid growth of the B2C e-commerce leads to the understanding of consumers' online shopping behaviour becoming increasingly crucial to facilitate e-retailers in setting effective marketing strategies. This research investigates variables that affect consumers' online shopping behaviour. Based on their underlining interrelationships, these variables are further conceptualised as sociodemographic determinants, attitudes towards online shopping, previous online shopping experience, online shopping motivations, online information search and online purchase intention. A prototype online shopping consumer behaviour model is further developed to aid the understanding of consumer behaviour in the online shopping context.

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