The diploma thesis deals with the study of the supply process in the chosen company, which mainly deals with the purchase and sale of cleaning machines and equipment. The thesis presents a proposal to improve the Supply Chain, with an emphasis on streamlining traffic, while at the same time making it possible to streamline customer service by designing a website. The work is divided into three main parts. The first part includes all the theoretical starting points, from which the analytical part starts. This part is mainly consists of analyzing the state of the company by using appropriate methods. On the basis of the shortcomings identified, the third part discusses suggestions for improving the processes that will contribute to their improvement, increasing the competitiveness of the company and increasing the value for the customer.

In recent years, it is not hard to tell that in the retail market of flaming competition in Taiwan, and quality of service is worth of being paid attention. The study tries to investigate the relationships between buyer reactions to ethical behaviors of salespeople and customer-company identification. Several hypotheses are developed and tested to find out whether interactions with salespeople generates customers¡¦ ethical perceptions and impacts on customer-company identification. Moreover, the study intends to explore the consequences of customer-company identification (extra- or in- role behaviors). The study adopts structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the path estimates among constructs. The study adopts convenience sample and the valid return of survey is 296. Results indicate that the significant and positive effects of both moral equity and relativism on customer-company identification and repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth followed up. At last, the managerial implications of this study may help retailers with professional ethics of salespeople and create loyal customers.

Die vier Artikel dieser Dissertation betrachten die Relevanz von Zufriedenheit und Identifikation für Kundenbeziehungen. Artikel 1 untersucht den nichtlinearen Zusammenhang von Zufriedenheit und Loyalität. Artikel 2 analysiert den Einfluss kritischer Ereignisse auf die Zufriedenheit und das Vertrauen von Kunden. Artikel 3 geht der Frage nach, ob mit einem Unternehmen identifizierte Kunden eine stärkere Bindung an das Unternehmen haben und zeigt, dass die Identifikation indirekt diverse Verhaltensweisen fördert, die mitunter nicht über eine Steigerung der Zufriedenheit erreicht werden können. Artikel 4 zeigt zudem, dass die Identifikation des Kunden mit dem Unternehmen sein Kaufverhalten begünstigt und vom Unternehmen gefördert werden kann. / This dissertation consists of four articles which analyze the relevance of satisfaction and customer-company identification for customer relationships. Article 1 investigates the nonlinear effects of satisfaction on loyalty. Article 2 examines the influence of critical incidents on building customer trust and satisfaction. Article 3 demonstrates that customer-company identification leads to higher commitment which in turn fosters distinct supportive behaviors towards the company that are sometimes not attainable by increasing satisfaction. Article 4 shows that customers’ purchase behavior is positively influenced by customer-company identification and demonstrates that companies can increase their customers’ level of identification.

La thèse vise principalement à démontrer la pertinence du marketing d'entreprises aux consommateurs. A travers deux articles, nous explorons le concept de marketing de l'entreprise dans les domaines qui constituent un intérêt considérable dans la communauté académique telle que les émotions et les relations des consommateurs avec l'entreprise. Le premier article traite des implications des marques d'entreprises vis-à-vis des expériences émotionnelles de consommateurs. L'étude démontre que les différences au niveau conceptuel entre des marques d'entreprises et des marques de produits donnent lieu à des différences significatives et importantes sur les réactions émotionnelles et comportementales des clients. Dans le second article, nous nous concentrons sur la relation de l'identification du consommateur avec les entreprises (ICE). Cette recherche élabore les mécanismes d'engagement basés sur l'identité et leur effet sur les réponses des consommateurs à de nouvelles initiatives de la société.Le troisième article aborde d'une autre question de recherche. Etant donné que les études empiriques faisant l'objet des deux premiers articles font appel à des étudiants comme participants, notre troisième article se concentre sur le fait d'utiliser un échantillon d'étudiants dans les recherches en marketing. / The thesis primarily aims to demonstrate the relevance of corporate marketing framework to consumers. Therefore, across two different articles we explore the concept of corporate marketing in areas which hold considerable interest among academicians i.e. consumer emotions and consumer relationships. The first article, deals with the implications of corporate brands on consumer's emotional experiences. The study demonstrates that conceptual differences between corporate and product brands have important and meaningful differences on consumer's emotional and behavioral reactions. In the second article, we focus on consumer's identification relationship with companies. This research elaborates the mechanisms of identity-based commitment and its effect on consumer responses to new company initiatives. The proposed two-tiered, identification-based commitment model explains both positive and negative consumer reactions, an insight missing from prior studies.Finally, the thesis includes a 3rd article which discusses a rather different issue. As the empirical studies in the first two articles use “students” as participants therefore, our third article focuses on the usage of student sample in marketing research. This article explores the underlying argument on the usage of student sample; problems associated with such studies, and identify best practices in French marketing research.

Ce projet de recherche s'inscrit dans la thématique de l'analyse et du diagnostic de l'industrie bancaire et suit la production du sens dans les pratiques bancaires, visant particulièrement trois axes où le sens est produit : l'information, le document bancaire et la communication. au-delà de l'approche de la perspective du technicien, ce projet se propose de mobiliser les outils, les enseignements et les perspectives interdisciplinaires qu'offrent les sciences de l'information et de la communication (sic) en convoquant les acquis des champs de recherche comme la philosophie, les sciences du langage, l'économie, et bien sûr, la sociologie. l'objet de la recherche est celui des pratiques d'information et de la communication (formalisées ou non- formalisées) engagées par les représentatives de la banque (le personnel) et par les partenaires externes (les autorités, les clients, les fournisseurs). le projet empirique est structuré en vue d'un double objectif. d'abord, la recherche se propose de participer à la dynamique précipitée des marchés financiers et aux changements qui sont devenues souvent radicales en vue de l'adaptation aux nouvelles exigences de l'environnement. ensuite, le deuxième objectif de la recherche est de révéler les pratiques innovantes de l'information et de la communication que les banques ont mises en scène afin de répondre aux besoins des clients et de s'adapter aux nouvelles pressions économique (les fluxes internes de l'information et de la communication, les documents formalisés en procédures, normatives, rapports, analyses destinées tant a l'use interne et externe). méthodologiquement, il s'agit d'un projet de recherche participative. / This research project belongs to the thematic of the analysis and diagnosis for the banking industry and follows the creation of meaning in banking practices, by targeting mainly the next three areas: information, bank document and communication. The object of the research consists in the banking practice (formal or non-formal) engaged either internally and externally. This project aims to mobilize tools, lessons and interdisciplinary perspectives offered by the information and communication science (ICS) and to converge also the achievements of research fields such as philosophy, languages, economy or sociology sciences. My observations, based on the participative research methodology, are structured for a double purpose. First, the research targets to join the previous efforts to emphasize the communication’s role, by focusing on the meaning’s creation. The second objective is to reveal the innovative information and communication practice that banks have implemented to meet customer’s needs and to adapt to the new economic pressures.

This work elaborates the impacts of strategically constructed silos that are not byproducts of flagging cross-departmental cooperation or the cumulative effect of decades of decentralized command and control. Rather, these silos are strategically intended structures within organizations. Most significantly, the substantive theory of strategically constructed silos and their impact on customer service contributes to the field by illustrating the presence and consequence of silos occurring in suboptimal conditions. The existence of silos has implications that extend far beyond the retail area. A key take-away from this research is that contrary to how most customer service processes are designed, not all customer-company interactions are alike. As shown in the data, interaction types vary both in regard to the degree of knowledge needed by retail employees to fully serve customers, and the routine or nonroutine nature of the interaction. This is an important finding since it directly relates to whether the existence of a silo is appropriate (or optimal) for a specific interaction or task. Additionally, the findings suggest the role that a task's "routine-ness" plays is secondary to the degree of specialized knowledge needed by retail employees to meet customer expectations. Understanding the various customer-company interaction types and how each interaction type may be affected by silos is crucial for designing customer experiences that will sustain over time. Likewise, identifying customer-company interaction types correctly and then subsequently developing strategies to support these interaction types is critical for both customer experience management (CEM) initiatives and customer relationship management (CRM) system design within the company. This work provides an overview of the implications of strategically constructed silos occurring in suboptimal conditions and provides recommendations for diagnosing customer-company interactions based on interaction type. By identifying strategically constructed silos as an intended structure of the company, the model elaborated here works to deliver prescriptive and specific strategies for managers and employees' use as they attempt to improve their firm's customer-company interaction outcomes.