This paper aims to understand the customer satisfaction between Mainland shoppers and Local Shoppers regarding the shopping centre in HK. It will be reviewed and analyzed based on shopping centre management theories. Apart from finding out the shopping behavior of mainland shoppers and Hong Kong shoppers, we would like to understand their customer satisfaction on different customer services aspects. Data was collected through questionnaire. Survey of two shopping centres were carried out to understand the customer satisfaction. In-depth study on the customer satisfaction between Mainlanders and Hong Kong people is then carried out. It was found that Mainland shoppers and local shoppers have different expectation in different customer services aspects. For example, Mainlander thinks that prices of the products in both shopping centre - Harbour City and Landmark North is reasonable. However, local shoppers think that the product in Landmark North is expensive. Also, the Mainland shoppers think that both the shopping centre provide a wide range of product for them. However, Hong Kong people expects the variety of product are not enough in both the shopping centre. On the other hand, they both appreciate the high customer service performance in Hong Kong. In conclusion, Hong Kong and Mainlander appreciate a wider range of shops in term of price, product category and exhibition. Shopping centre managers should provide a comfortable environment which could enhance the shopping experience of the customer. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

M. Tech. Business Administration / One of the challenges facing analytical laboratories is to satisfy customer needs. Organisations are striving to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction. Service providers, like analytical laboratories, are faced with different problems that challenge customer satisfaction: turn-around time, quality of service, employee skills levels, cost, and customer retention. This research was conducted in order to identify and understand factors contributing to customer satisfaction.

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School.

This research makes a case for treating an electronic commerce web site as a social actor and argues that LT-enabled support for personalization systems and virtual communities has a significant impact on the perceived communication characteristics of a web site. This research studied the impact of two communication characteristics - adaptiveness and connectivity of a web site. Adaptiveness indicates the extent to which a web site adapts itself to support the needs of its customers whereas connectivity refers to the ability of a web site to link potential customers with other visitors. Further, synthesizing research from communication, media choice and technology adoption literatures, this thesis proposes social presence as the experiential construct and perceived usefulness as the utilitarian construct that will mediate the relationship between communication characteristics of a medium and customer loyalty. A survey and a laboratory experiment were conducted to test the linkages proposed above. The survey showed that while adaptiveness impacted on both social presence and perceived usefulness, connectivity had an impact only on social presence and an insignificant impact on perceived usefulness. Social presence did not influence perceived usefulness while both social presence and perceived usefulness had a significant impact on customer loyalty. By filtering Amazon.com real-time, the lab experiment was conducted to specifically study the causal impact of a web site's support for personalization and virtual communities. Support for personalization had a strong impact on adaptiveness, whereas support for consumer reviews had strong effect on connectivity. Interestingly, support for personalization had a weaker, but significant effect on connectivity and support for consumer reviews had a similar effect on adaptiveness. Data from the experiment was also analyzed using mediation analyses as well as partial least square analysis to show that the general pattern of results observed were consistent across methods thus improving the confidence in the research model proposed. This research by proposing social presence as a crucial experiential predictor of customer loyalty has addressed an important gap that exists in our current understanding of web users' behavior. It also makes a key contribution by empirically showing that a web site's support for IT-enabled personalization and virtual communities do have a significant impact not only on the perceived communication characteristics, but also on customer loyalty through social presence and perceived usefulness.

This research focuses on dining experience as an example of experience marketing. In this study, the qualitative research method has been used to derive particular concepts involved in the dining experience from the bodies of reviews. Similarly, quantitative content analysis method has been used to provide rich and valuable information about the concepts explored from the qualitative data. Inferential statistics has been used in the study to test hypotheses about the relationships between elements in the dining experience context. The results indicate that food quality is the most important predictor of the dining satisfaction while service quality may not be an effective factor to create satisfaction. Moreover, social needs in dining experience are more evident in dinners than in lunches. The results of the study reveal the effectiveness and applicability of the online review analysis in bringing new insights from dining experience to contribute to the field of experience economy. / viii, 127 leaves ; 29 cm

The presence as well as the nature of the relationship between customer perceptions of service customization and reliability is investigated in the first of three studies of the dissertation by applying an exploratory analytical approach---"probabilistic scaling analysis." Results suggest the existence of a positive and ordinal relationship between customer perceptions of customization and reliable quality. The second study of the dissertation applies a more confirmatory, 'contingency theory' approach to validate, and further develop the findings of the first study. Results are consistent in that a positive and ordinal relationship is observed between customer perceptions of service customization and reliability. Further, findings suggest that customization quality moderates the affect of reliable quality on overall service evaluations. Some support is also found for the moderating role of reliable quality. Together, these findings help unravel the relationship between customer perceptions of service customization and reliability, and demonstrate how each of them affects the marketplace efficacy of the other. / Overall, results of the probabilistic scaling analysis, as well as contingency theory demonstrate that among customers at the lower end of the latent scale, it is primarily the 'things gone wrong,' i.e. lack of reliability that governs the unfavorability of their overall perceptions. Among customers on the higher end, it is 'things gone right,' i.e. favorable customization quality perceptions that govern the favorability of their overall perceptions. Together, these results suggest that a service provider must minimize 'things gone wrong' and then focus on 'things gone right' to elicit favorable overall evaluations. / In a service environment however, 'doing things right' requires an immediate understanding of individual needs that a customer brings forth during every service transaction, and that must be met to create value for the customer. Qualitative data are analyzed using a conceptual framework to provide a systematic understanding of these issues. Such understanding also provides diagnostic information towards exploring key segment level differences observed in the second study of the dissertation. Overall, the analyses of the third study extend current subject understanding by providing a contextual development of value-creating individual customer needs as they relate to service customization and reliability, and their implications on service design. / Overall, the dissertation develops current subject understanding of service customization and reliability, and therefore of service quality in general. Customers evaluate service offerings on both elements of quality---customization and reliability, and thus one of them cannot be studied without understanding its affects on the other component of quality. The research, we believe, would develop the understanding of the subject, and would also aid service providers in more scientific service design as well as decision-making.

Despite many efforts to promote the importance of considering consumer experience, few studies have provided empirical evidence of their impact on immediate consumption outcomes and on their relationship with existing product/service design attributes, while considering the subjective nature of consumer experiences. In the present dissertation, we propose that important insights could be gained in building such evidence by considering research on emotions and rigorous empirical approaches that account for the subjectivity of the experience. Specifically, we propose a framework that builds on the consumption emotion literature and on functional theories of emotions and that is based on a Bayesian approach that takes into consideration individual differences in emotional experience. The framework rests on four core elements: (1) assessment of emotional experience emerging over the consumption episode, (2) link between this experience and immediate evaluative and behavioral outcomes, (3) exhaustive consideration of potential eliciting factors among elements of the consumption object and environment, and (4) assessment of the added value of the experience elicited by the consumption offering and consideration of alternative influences of consumption emotions on consumption outcomes consistent with their functional values. / The framework was applied in the context of extended health services in which repeated consumption episodes were observed. Results show that emotional states that arise during consumption do impact satisfaction measures, but have a limited impact on consumers' immediate consumption behavior. These relationships however could not be explained by the added value brought by the experience, as no evidence for mediation by emotional experience was found between service attributes and consumption outcomes. Emotional states experienced either prior or immediately following consumption showed a superior ability to predict consumption outcomes, with their influence being tied to their respective informational and, to some degree, motivational functions. We also provide evidence that emotions experienced before and elicited during consumption moderated the impact of service attributes on both satisfaction and immediate consumption behavior. Results highlight the importance of considering emotional states experienced at any stage during consumption, but also the challenge of doing so with existing resources in the present context. Contributions, limitations, and future directions are also discussed.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, Durban, 1991.

The South African music industry is in crisis. Recent data suggests that the industry has declined by an average of 13.2% per year for the past 5 years. The industry seems to be unable to accept responsibility for this state of affairs and consistently blames external factors for its woes. A new look at the marketing strategies for the industry is urgently required The primary objective of this dissertation is to raise the debate around current marketing strategies, to show that these strategies are not able to facilitate growth in the industry, and need to be radically reassessed. Anticipated results were achieved during the interviews that were conducted. There is a general belief throughout the industry that the reason for the decline is beyond the control of retailers or suppliers. Blame was placed on the increasing sales of cellular phones, gambling, the national lottery and piracy. None of the interviewed stakeholders considered a change in marketing strategy to be beneficial. It is recommended that marketing strategies be reviewed. The tendency to operate on a 'product and price' advertising strategy should be removed, and a strategy put in place that responds to the wants and needs of consumers. This strategy should include a great degree of personal relevance for the consumer. Retail stores should focus on establishing brand identity for their stores rather than focusing on product and price. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

Global pressures from within the oil industry has decreased profitability of retail operations which has affected the large oil companies as well as franchisees. A point of differentiation that has been identified is customer service and although all the major players have more or less the same training programmes - they are internally generated. There is very little literature to suggest that oil companies carry out customer perception surveys and to this end, this research has been tailored. Although it is impossible to react to all customer's perceptions, there may be benefits in conducting further research if certain aspects are highlighted by different respondents. Using SERVQUAL as the basic measuring instrument of customer satisfaction, it was adapted to suite the petroleum industry. Caltex Oil SA uses an independent auditor Market Pulse and the main points of this questionnaire were incorporated in the study. It is important to note that the Market Pulse audit is internally generated, measuring the retailer's compliance to Caltex standards. A new questionnaire was then developed to measure customer's expectations and their perceptions of what a good service station should offer. The gaps were then statistically identified and explored, and, possible solutions to close these gaps are generated. / Thesis (MBA)- University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.