As markets have become increasingly saturated, companies have acknowledged that their business strategies need to focus on identifying those customers who are most likely to churn. To address this, a method is required that can identify these customers, so that proactive retention campaigns can be deployed in a bid to retain them. To further complicate this, retention campaigns can be costly. To reduce cost and maximise effectiveness, churn prediction has to be as accurate as possible to ensure that only the customers who are planning to switch their service providers are being targeted for retention. Current techniques and research as identified by literature focus primarily on the instantaneous prediction of customer churn. Much work has been invested in this method of churn prediction and significant advancement has been made. However one of the major drawbacks of current research is that the methods available do not provide adequate time for companies to identify and retain the predicted churners. There is a lack of time element in churn prediction. Current research also fails to acknowledge the expensive problem of misclassifying non-churners as churners. In addition, most research efforts base their analysis on customer demographic and usage data that can breach governing regulations. It is proposed in this research that customer complaints and repairs data could prove a suitable alternative. The doctoral research presented in this thesis aims to develop a customer profiling methodology for predicting churn in advance, while keeping the misclassification levels to a minimum. The proposed methodology incorporates time element in the prediction of customer churn for maximising future churn capture by identifying a potential loss of customer at the earliest possible point. Three case studies are identified and carried out for validating the proposed methodology using repairs and complaints data. Finally, the results from the proposed methodology are compared against popular churn prediction techniques reported in literature. The research demonstrates that customers can be placed into one of several profiles clusters according to their interactions with the service provider. Based on this, an estimate is possible regarding when the customer can be expected to terminate his/her service with the company. The proposed methodology produces better results compared to the current state-of-the-art techniques.

The concept of the ‘supply chain’, rather than a set of independent functions, has been around for more than 25 years. Despite its theoretical longevity, many organisations still struggle to make the supply chain a reality. The supply chain is an integral part of business strategy and is the means by which customer demand is fulfilled. Alignment between marketing and supply chain strategy is critical to fulfilling customer demand in a cost-effective way. This is the primary objective of customer responsive supply chain strategy (CRSC). Over the last 10 years, research into CRSC strategy has primarily been focused on two different academic perspectives: the synthesis of lean and agile thinking, and strategic alignment. The resulting frameworks are prescriptive in their nature and not sensitive to the context-specific nature of supply chain management; a field of study that is hindered by a lack of consensual definition, limited empirical evidence, and studies limited in scope to dyadic relationships. The opportunity therefore exists to carry out empirical research that reaches beyond the dyad, looking at the development of CRSC strategy − the basis for this study being the relationship between market segmentation and supply chain strategy. The research design that was developed to address this opportunity was a multiple case study design. This provides the opportunity to look for theoretical replication of the guiding principles and generative mechanisms that underpin the development of CRSC strategy. The rigour of the research design was improved by the use of a five stage (define research parameters, instrument development, data gathering, data analysis, dissemination & theory development), three phase research design (pilot case, core cases, cross-case comparison). The research was based on the study of three contrasting supply chains, from the perspective of the focal firm. The focal firms included a small UK manufacturer of toiletry and detergent products, a large leading logistics provider (LLP) managing the European supply chain operations for a global electronics manufacturer, and a large UK retailer of health and beauty products. An important aspect of the research design is its boundary spanning nature. It crosses a minimum of two organisational boundaries and includes at least three different organisations within a given supply chain. A process-orientated unit of analysis is used based on the supply chain operations reference (SCOR ® ) model to consider the conversion of demand into supply across the supply chain. The primary research instrument is semi-structured interviews with secondary documentary sources being used for data triangulation where appropriate. The research concluded that traditional methods of segmentation (e.g. by sales value) do not provide a natural link to supply chain strategy and limit customer responsiveness. The challenge for management is to identify the right bases for customer segmentation that enable it to drive supply chain strategy. The primary output of the research was a framework for developing CRSC strategy. Concepts key to developing CRSC strategy and included within the model are: contextual drivers, supply chain strategy drivers and internal mechanisms.

Autonomous software agents, the use of which has increased due to the recent growth in computer power, have considerably improved electronic commerce processes by facilitating automated trading actions between the market participants (sellers, brokers and buyers). The rapidly changing market environments pose challenges to the performance of such agents, which are generally developed for specific market settings. To this end, this thesis is concerned with designing agents that can gradually adapt to variable, dynamic and uncertain markets and that are able to reuse the acquired trading skills in new markets. This thesis proposes the use of reinforcement learning techniques to develop adaptive trading agents and puts forward a novel software architecture based on the semi-Markov decision process and on an innovative knowledge transfer framework. To evaluate my approach, the developed trading agents are tested in internationally well-known market simulations and their behaviours when buying or/and selling in the retail and wholesale markets are analysed. The proposed approach has been shown to improve the adaptation of the trading agent in a specific market as well as to enable the portability of the its knowledge in new markets.

Audience Development within the arts sector refers to the acquiring of marketing intelligence about attendees at cultural events. Audience Development agencies have emerged from arts marketing and use a combination of social and analytical tools to understand existing audiences and to widen access to new audiences. This thesis adopts a Market Studies approach to examine practices and exchanges of Audience Development agencies. The main purpose of this research is to understand the impact of marketisation on the arts sector through understanding market-shaping practices, use of devices, mediation, and affordances. Empirical evidence was gathered through longitudinal multiple case studies of three Audience Development agencies operating in the arts and cultural sectors. Findings indicate that in stabilising the arts sector, externalities are important and must be acknowledged by arts organisations. The study reveals that within the business-to-business service of Audience Development, the object of exchange requires multiple levels of qualification, which are dependent upon those actors involved in the exchange. Marketisation has a particular form, with a greater number of exchanges, but few of these being directly monetary transactions. Due to the minimal monetary exchange within market transactions, there must be other elements that demonstrate value to both actors involved in the transactions. In stabilising the market, Audience Development acts as a service, which receives payment (via membership fees and grant payments) in return for anticipated Audience Development services.

Unlike conventional products and services, higher education (HE) is characterized by not-forprofit institutions serving multiple constituencies (e.g., students, alumni, governments, etc.). Therefore, conventional market orientation (MO) methodology needs to be adapted to reflect this. However, previous researchers who examined the concept of MO in HE have drawn on MO models which were originally developed for manufacturing, with little effort to uncover the dimensions of MO that reflect the specificity associated with the sector and the nature of activities performed by HE institutions. Accordingly, this thesis investigates the concept of MO in HE from a holistic perspective, utilising market orientation theory, multiple constituency theory and value chain theory. First: it proposes a constituency-departmental approach to conceptualize and empirically examine the concept of market orientation against three constituency groups: (1) prospective students in relation to university-marketing departments - 'Prospective Student Orientation', (2) current students in relation to faculties/schools - 'Student Orientation', and (3) alumni in relation to development and alumni relations offices - 'Alumni Orientation'. Second: it investigates whether levels of 'Prospective Student Orientation', 'Student Orientation' and 'Alumni Orientation' are influenced by internal and external factors (e.g., university orientation, university mission, budget size, geographical location, etc.). Third: it examines the effect of 'Prospective Student Orientation', 'Student Orientation' and 'Alumni Orientation' on different organisational consequences (e.g., university business performance, student satisfaction, alumni engagement, etc.).

The traditional focus, in the area of sport management, for researchers studying consumers' perspectives on organizational brand equity has been on spectators and/or fans. This study expands the traditional view of the sport consumer to include those involved in the production of the product, the hockey players who may be viewed as a form of employee providing a service. However, prior to becoming an employee these players are consumers facing a consumption decision between competing brands. This qualitative study is based on data obtained via semi-structured interviews with 54 elite young Canadian hockey players and documentary evidence. The central purpose of this thesis is to increase understanding of the brand equity of the Ontario [ice] Hockey League (OHL) from the player perspective. The players were asked about antecedent influences that help shape their perceptions of the OHL and therefore influence brand equity of the league. The players were further asked how these perceptions might influence their consumption decision of playing in the OHL or pursuing the major competitive path through the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Brands constantly challenge each other for market leadership and release new products to outperform their competition (e.g. Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi or Mac vs. PC). Although brand rivalry is a ubiquitous phenomenon that greatly influences consumer behavior, scholars only recently started to examine brand rivalries’ implications for consumer behavior. Prior consumer research related to rivalry focuses on competitive advertising, brand choice making, brand relationships or brand switching. An emerging stream of research specialized on consumer-based implications of brand rivalries investigates the phenomenon from a social identity theory based brand community perspective. However, little research investigates the underlying psychological processes that drive individual consumers to take sides in a brand rivalry. Consumer side-taking can take several forms. Consumers may prefer one brand over its rival brand, possess more favorable perceptions of their brand’s capabilities, counter-argue negative information about their brands and experience a feeling of joy if a rival brand fails (i.e. schadenfreude). Rather than arguing that consumers take sides because of their brand community membership, we propose that side-taking in brand rivalries may be elicited by consumers’ tendencies to stand by their choices. We find that consumers who own brands (especially in the case of ownership-by-choice) are more likely to prefer their owned brand over rival brands, process information regarding their brand more favorably, are more hostile towards their rival brand and show higher levels of schadenfreude. Particularly, we find that consumers show higher levels of schadenfreude if their choice is disconfirmed (e.g. by a comparative product review), especially if their chose brand is perceived to be inferior and less popular. Moreover, these effects are mediated by feelings of self-threat and regret. Finally, we find evidence for the notion that consumer side-taking, and particularly schadenfreude, is a mean of consumer’s self-affirmation.

This action research thesis is about the predictors of sales performance within organisations, which are shifting from a manufacturer of goods towards a hybrid company, supplementing their goods offerings with services, or a pure service company. The objectives of this research have been to identify the key criteria that characterise successful sales organisations or salespeople within these types of companies and what differences exist between the sales approaches and salespeople’s behaviour. This research has further aimed to explore how people in sales organisations are recruited and developed within the context of such a change initiative. The latter aim is particularly important, since this study was conducted as an action research inquiry within the context of an interim management provider, who help their clients on these topics through external support. The author has adopted pragmatism as a theoretical position to reach a better understanding of the scope of the problems. This has generated actionable knowledge relevant for sales organisations transitioning from a goods-dominant business towards a hybrid or service-dominant business. A literature review has been conducted to get a better understanding of the drivers and forces beyond servitization and sales within a business-to-business (B2B) context. The first research action cycle was based on the problem definition and initial literature review. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were then applied as elements of the action research process. Qualitative research was a part of cycle one and quantitative research methods were applied in cycle two. Based on the existing literature and the interviews that were conducted, the role of technical and product knowledge, as well as customer and industry knowledge was investigated. Additionally, the relevance of adapting sales approaches to varying customer demands, the role of internal collaboration as a moderating factor for sales success and the role of sales control systems, with a particular focus on reward systems, were a part of further research within cycle two. Sixteen hypotheses were developed and tested by means of an electronic survey. This survey thus identified the differences between sales organisations with an industrial background (goods-dominant) and those with a background in IT and telecommunications (hybrid or service-dominant). In regard to most of the hypotheses presented here, this study found no evidence of significant differences between Industrial and IT sales organisations. As factors that significantly influence the performance of sales organisations within hybrid and servicedominant businesses, this study has identified reward systems and, in particular, the extent to which organisations use incentive compensation as a means for motivation, as well as the extent to which salespeople are rewarded for their results. Moreover, qualitative and quantitative research provided several interesting insights for sales organisations coping with change driven by servitization. As conducted within the scope of this thesis, an action research project aims at improving a problem faced by an organisation. The assumptions made to address the underlying problem and a potential resolution did – during cycle one – not turn out as suitable, so that the initial problem could not be addressed as initially planned. Instead of personality traits, differences between Industrial and IT sales organisations were identified based on knowledge, behaviour and control. This did also address the problem and improve the situation, even if it was not initially intended in this way.

In recent years, key account management (KAM) has been increasingly accepted in the business-to-business market as an approach concerned with establishing and sustaining long-term relationships with a supplier’s most important business customers. Due to the considerable benefits that are associated with implementing this approach, there has been greater emphasis placed by practitioners and academics on the importance of KAM in business-to-business relationships. However, developing effective relationships with key accounts has remained a problematic issue. A major source of this difficulty can be attributed to a lack of understanding regarding the relational aspects of KAM. It is evident that KAM has been practised as a sales oriented approach rather than a relational oriented approach. Despite the rapidly expanding literature on KAM, little attention has been directed towards identifying the relational aspects of key account management and examining their impact on its effectiveness. This research seeks to address this gap in the literature by using the lens of social capital theory and relationship quality to investigate relational antecedents to the effectiveness of supplier- key account relationships. This research adopted mixed methods. A qualitative study was conducted through interviewing executives, managers and sales representatives who practise KAM in the Saudi market. This qualitative study aimed to explore relational aspects of key account management within this market. Drawing from the literature review and results of the qualitative analysis, the research model and hypotheses were developed. The research model was tested using structural equation modelling (AMOS). The data used to test it was collected from questionnaires sent to 172 supplier firms who are operating in the Saudi market. The present research offers insights into the major role of relational aspects of key account management in influencing key account management effectiveness. It provides empirical support to the links between social capital, relationship quality and the effectiveness of the supplier-key account relationship. Hence, social capital and relationship quality are recognised as critical to the effectiveness of the supplier-key account relationship. This research contributes to social capital, relationship quality, and key account management literature. Findings from this research would be useful for practitioners in the field of KAM.

This research applies the principles of alignment and collaboration of technical and social systems to assess if the principles of Sociotechnical Systems Theory advance the theory and practice of nation branding. Following a mixed-method and mixed-model approach, using interviews, questionnaire and documentary evidence the aim of this work is to empirically investigate if the Isle of Man’s nation brand is affected by sociotechnical alignment in its creation, implementation and outcomes. The findings evidence how deficiency in branding know-how, the usage of incorrect tools in the production of the nation brand and the neglect of the brand’s social system leads misalignment in both technical and social systems; ultimately affecting the outcomes of the nation brand. Through these findings, this research has important implications for the filed of nation branding by confirming that the principles of sociotechnical theory can advance both the theory and practice of nation branding. This is achieved through facilitating transparency, democracy and expediting coherence, synergy and civic engagement with the nation brand. In terms of originality and contribution to knowledge, this work represents the first application of sociotechnical theory to nation branding and demonstrates that a nation brand is a sociotechnical system where distinct forms of technical and socio misalignment exist. It also uncovers the relationship between forms of nation branding sociotechnical misalignment and how as a consequence of these links, variants of misalignment combine to create other forms of misalignment within the nation brand’s sociotechnical system.