O ensino superior no Brasil tem criado uma oferta crescente de vagas anualmente. Esta expansão do ensino ocorre não somente nas instituições privadas como também nas instituições públicas. Por essa razão, a qualidade destes cursos deve ser mantida para garantir a formação de profissionais aptos ao mercado de trabalho como também a sua lealdade ao respectivo curso. Este trabalho tem como objetivo, identificar, através de um estudo de caso, que fatores colaboram para o aluno ser leal ao curso escolhido em uma instituição de ensino superior pública, neste estudo na FEA/USP. Os alunos que participaram da pesquisa são os que iniciaram os cursos de Administração, Ciências Contábeis, Ciências Atuariais e Economia em 2007. Para a realização deste trabalho alguns passos foram seguidos: levantamento do referencial teórico dos assuntos pertinentes ao tema, escolha e construção de um modelo utilizado na pesquisa, uma pesquisa qualitativa com alunos que desistiram do curso escolhido, pesquisa quantitativa estruturada com os alunos da FEA/USP e aplicação de técnicas quantitativas para tratamento e análise dos resultados. O modelo escolhido para responder a questão-problema foi o proposto por Bloemer (1998) e aplicado anteriormente para instituições financeiras. Neste estudo o modelo foi aplicado em uma instituição de ensino superior com os constructos qualidade, imagem, satisfação e lealdade. Para identificar a relação entre estes constructos citados acima duas técnicas foram utilizadas, a técnica de equações estruturais e a regressão logística. Como resultado das análises obteve-se que a lealdade do aluno ao curso escolhido decorre diretamente da satisfação geral deste com o curso, a qual é influenciada pela qualidade percebida do curso pelo aluno. Importante destacar que os aspectos que mais diferenciam os alunos leais dos não leais ao respectivo curso são a satisfação com o corpo docente, com os processos administrativos e com a administração de um modo geral. / A growing number of courses have been created lately in higher education in Brazil. This expansion is noticed in private institutions as well as in public ones. The quality of these courses must be maintained to ensure that professionals are prepared for the labour market. The present work aims to identify, through a case study, the factors that contribute so that the student does not abandon the course s/he chose in a public higher education institution, FEA/USP. The students who participated in this study are those who started the courses in Management, Accountancy, Actuarial Science and Economics in 2007. In order to develop this work, some steps were followed: review of relevant literature and development of a model used in the research. A qualitative study was initially carried out with students who abandoned the chosen course. Then a quantitative study was structured to conducted with the students from FEA/USP, and finally, a quantitative analysis was performed using quantitative analysis techniques in order to examine the results obtained. The model chosen to frame this study was the one proposed by Bloemer (1998), which was previously applied to financial institutions. In the present study, the model was used in a higher education institution with constructs of quality, image, satisfaction and loyalty. To assess the relationship among the above-mentioned constructs, structural equations and logistic regression techniques were used. As a result of the analysis, it could be observed that students loyalty to the chosen course comes directly from his or her general satisfaction with the course, which is influenced by the courses perceived quality. It is important to observe that the aspects that most distinguish loyal students from non-loyal ones are satisfaction with professors,, administrative processes and with administration in general.

Nesta tese são investigadas as relações existentes entre a lealdade dos consumidores e os seus antecedentes no contexto das compras pela Internet. Para tanto um modelo teórico é proposto e posteriormente avaliado por meio da aplicação de modelagem de equações estruturais e emprego de bootstraping. Como contribuição teórica, este modelo incorpora em uma única estrutura o conjunto de antecedentes da lealdade composto por qualidade, valor, satisfação, confiança e comprometimento. Os dados deste estudo foram coletados a partir da amostra de 1.585 questionários válidos aplicados para consumidores que costumam realizar compras em varejistas brasileiros da Internet. Resultados obtidos demonstram que a satisfação e o comprometimento afetam diretamente a lealdade e que o valor e a qualidade influenciam-na apenas por meio de efeitos indiretos. A confiança, entretanto, não demonstra relação significativa sobre a lealdade, contrastando com resultados de pesquisas anteriores. Os efeitos totais mais significativos sobre a lealdade partem da satisfação e da qualidade, o que fornece indícios da predominância de vínculos mais transacionais que relacionais entre clientes e varejistas eletrônicos. Destaca-se por fim que o modelo proposto permite a explicação de elevada proporção da variância total da lealdade e que seu desempenho é superior ao de três modelos concorrentes investigados. / In this thesis are investigated the existing relation between consumers´ loyalty and its preceding drivers regarding shopping on the Internet. Therefore a theoretical model is posed and evaluated by the Structural Equation Modeling and the use of bootstrapping. As a theoretical contribution, this model merges, in a single structure, the consumer´s loyalty drivers, including perceived quality, perceived value, satisfaction, trust, and commitment. The data in this essay was gathered from the sample of 1585 valid questionnaires made to Brazilian consumers who are used to shopping on the Internet. The obtained results show that satisfaction and commitment directly affect the loyalty, and the perceived value and perceived quality influence on it indirectly. Trust does not show a significative relation to loyalty, contrasting the results of former surveys. The most relevant total effects on the loyalty go from satisfaction and perceived quality, which supplies traces of predominant links more transactional than relational between consumers and electronic retailers. Finally, it\'s highlighted that the posed model allows high-proportion explanation of the total variance of loyalty and its performance is superior to the three current investigated competitive models.

A tecnologia da Internet oferece novas formas de relacionamento entre clientes e empresas, mas os desafios da lealdade permanecem. O objetivo deste estudo foi identificar os fatores influentes na lealdade ao fornecedor e ao canal de distribuição, focando possíveis diferenças entre opiniões e atitudes dos consumidores online e dos offline de livros, CDs e DVDs. Com tal intuito, as principais referências foram os modelos UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology), de Venkatesh et al. (2003), e ECM-IT (Expectation-Confirmation Model in IT Domain), de Bhattacherjee (2001b) e, ainda, os modelos de Coyles e Gokey (2002), Heijden, Verhagen e Creemers (2003) e Bramall, Schoefer e McKechnie (2004). Numa pesquisa qualitativa inicial, investigaram-se os atributos de lealdade inerentes às compras online e offline e, a partir destes, realizou-se uma pesquisa quantitativa com resultados analisados com o uso de técnicas estatísticas uni, bi e multivariadas. Entre os principais resultados, obteve-se que a maioria de consumidores destes produtos não é leal ao fornecedor e orienta-se sobretudo pela localização da loja (lojas físicas) ou pelo preço (lojas online) para voltar a uma mesma loja. Quanto à lealdade ao canal, para os consumidores exclusivos do canal offline, os aspectos mais relevantes para uma possível migração são a atitude em relação ao uso da tecnologia, a confiança, e a expectativa de performance. Para os que já compram pelo canal online, os fatores essenciais para continuar nesse canal são a satisfação, a confirmação de expectativas pós-compra, a expectativa de performance, e as condições facilitadoras. / Internet-based technology has allowed new relationship approaches between companies and their customers but customer loyalty has maintained itself as a challenge. The aim of this study was to identify key factors of loyalty to supplier and distribution channel, paying attention to possible disparities between opinions and attitudes of online and offline buyers of books, CDs and DVDs. Keeping this aim in mind, main adopted references were UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) model by Venkatesh et al. (2003), ECM-IT model (Expectation-Confirmation Model in IT Domain) by Bhattacherjee (2001b), and models developed by Coyles and Gokey (2002), Heijden, Verhagen and Creemers (2003) and Bramall, Schoefer and McKechnie (2004). Starting from a preliminary qualitative research, loyalty attributes related to online and offline purchase transactions were identified. Based on these attributes, a field quantitative research was conducted and the collected data were submitted to uni, bi and multivariate statistical techniques. Results of this study have suggested that major part of buyers of books, CDs and DVDs is not loyal to suppliers (stores), and store location, for offline buyers, and pricing, for online buyers, are key factors for guaranteeing their return to the same store. Considering the loyalty to distribution channel, it was suggested that factors such as attitude toward using technology, trust and performance expectancy are more important for offline buyers to decide to go online, while factors such as satisfaction, post-consumption expectation confirmation, performance expectancy and facilitating conditions are more valuable for online buyers continuance.

O interesse em entender o comportamento do consumidor de Baixa Renda vem ganhando importância nos últimos anos. Este interesse crescente baseia-se no entendimento de que o crescimento futuro das economias e organizações empresariais dependem, cada vez mais, da inserção desses consumidores no processo de consumo. Esta dissertação teve como objetivo verificar se os consumidores de Baixa Renda apresentam diferenças no que se relaciona ao comportamento de lealdade à marca de produto em comparação à marca de varejo. Adicionalmente buscou comparar o comportamento de lealdade à marca de produto e marca de varejo entre os indivíduos de baixa renda e alta renda, e identificar as causas possíveis das diferenças encontradas. Para tanto foi realizada uma pesquisa tipo survey com consumidores de Baixa Renda e Alta Renda através de dois questionários estruturados, um para marcas de produtos (televisores) e outro para marcas de varejo. O processo de análise envolveu testes de proporção de diferenças, de médias e associação e de análise de variância múltipla.Os resultados indicaram que a posição na classe de renda não influenciou, de maneira estatisticamente significativa, o comportamento de lealdade, seja em relação às marcas de produto, seja em relação às marcas de lojas de varejo. Porém o estudo indicou a existência de diferenças significativas no processo de lealdade entre loja e produto, não associadas à renda, que indicam que o consumidor apresenta uma relação mais intensa com as marcas de produto do que com as marcas de loja. Neste sentido, os consumidores que responderam sobre marcas avaliaram melhor os construtos de Valor e Comprometimento, reconhecidos como antecedentes do comportamento de lealdade, do que aqueles que responderam sobre a marca de varejo. Ao final, são apresentadas as contribuições acadêmicas e gerenciais do estudo e sugestões para a realização de novos estudos. / Interest in understanding the behavior of Low Income consumer has been gaining importance lately. This increasing interest is based upon the understanding that the future growth of economies and enterprises depend more and more on the insertion of these consumers in consume process. The aim of this essay was to verify if Low Income consumers present differences concerning loyalty behavior towards the product brand and retail store brand. Moreover it tried to compare the loyalty behavior towards the product brand and retail store brand among people of Low Income and High Income and to identify the possible causes of the found differences . To reach this purpose it was performed a research type survey with Low Income and High Income consumers by means of two structured questionnaires, one concerned to product (television) brands and other concerned to retail stores brands. The analyses process dealt with tests of difference proportion , averages and association and analyses of multiple variance The results showed that the position in the income class had no influence, in a statistically significant way, on the loyalty behavior, either concerning product brands or retail store brands. However the study showed the existence of significant differences in the loyalty process between store and product not associated to income, which show that consumer has a more intense relationship with product brands than with store brands. In this way, the consumers that responded about brands evaluated better the constructs Value and Commitment, recognized as antecedents of the loyalty behavior, than the ones that responded about the retail store brand. At the end, the academic and managing contributions of the study as well the suggestions concerning further studies are presented.

M.Comm. / The methodology of supply chain optimisation is a fairly new concept in the field of logistics management and is also referred to as value chain optimisation. This short dissertation explores and describes the effects of a national improvement in supply chain processes on the sales and profitability of RS Components SA. The study contains discussions from various theoretical disciplines and includes topics such as customer service, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, logistics management and supply chain methodology. The link between the performance of the logistics processes and perceived customer service levels is also discussed in detail. Finally the study will show how improved logistical performance can lead to improved levels of customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to customer loyalty and increased profitability. In order to improve the organisation's national supply chain, RS Components SA decided to open a new Trade Counter in the Cape Town sales region. Before the opening of this Trade Counter however, improvements were made to the national logistical network to ensure seamless integration of the new sales branch as a fully operational warehouse. Various financial indicators were measured for the year after the opening of the new Trade Counter in Cape Town, in order to compare such figures to the year prior to the opening of said Trade Counter. The primary results were as follows: Sales for the Cape Town sales region have increased by a greater margin than originally budgeted for. The sales growth target was exceeded by 30.21%. The number of invoices generated for the year after the opening of the Trade Counter in Cape Town has increased steadily while the average invoice value has shown no mentionable growth. This indicates that the Trade Counter in Cape Town has spurned a greater percentage of repeat purchases and that sales have not merely increased due to bigger sales orders. Growth in the number of individual purchasing customers for the Cape Town region also reached a staggering growth of 71.71% compared to the growth target of 45%. Substantial growth was also achieved throughout the year for the number of Trade Counter visits to the Cape Town Trade Counter. Whilst staggering growth rates were achieved in all of the above-mentioned categories, overhead expenses came in lower than was originally budgeted for the Cape Town sales region. A saving of 3.65% was achieved against a sales growth of 75.21%. In conclusion, this study indicated an increase in sales and profitability in the Cape Town sales region. Based on the success achieved through supply chain optimisation, both in terms of increased revenue as well as perceived levels of customer satisfaction, a recommendation is made for further expansion of the supply chain network of RS Components SA through the opening of a new Trade Counter in Durban.

According to Aristotle, for a human being to live their best life, that is a life that flourishes, is to live a political life. A political life is lived best in a polis , or a self - sufficient community, so therefore, the most flourishing human life is one lived in a polis . Also, for a polis to be self - sufficient, its citizens must be flourishing, so there exists a special sort of constitutive relationship between the polis and its citizens. There are certain capacities available to human beings in the polis that promote their flourishing (namely loyalty and trust) that help fulfill important human needs. These capacities are best carried out through various subcommunities in the polis . Subcommunities range in size and interest, but the ones that best fulfil l important human needs also contribute most to the polis, and thus contribute most to human flourishing. In this paper, I will argue that physical retail space is a particular kind of subcommunity that can fulfill an important human need. While it is popular opinion that the shopping mall, and more - broadly physical retail as a whole, does not have a place in the increasingly technologically savvy community, physical retail space offers humans a place to engage that is necessary for their flourishing.

Digitaliseringen inom banksektorn har under de senaste åren utvecklats konstant. De stora förändringar som har skett inom banksektorn har lett till att konsumenterna idag kan utföra sina banktransaktioner vilken tid som helst på dygnet, utan att behöva besöka ett bankkontor. De digitala verktygen representerade huvudsakligen av Internetbanken, Telefonbanken, Mobilt BankID och Swish har underlättat för konsumenterna att hantera sina ärenden på ett smidigt och enkelt sätt, vilket har lämnat sina spår på den marknaden som bankerna verkar i. En stor del av bankkontoren i Stockholms län avvecklas då den fysiska kontakten minskar. Storbankerna SEB, Swedbank, Handelsbanken samt Nordea får nu en mycket stor utmaning att skapa kundlojalitet med konsumenterna då kundkontakten försvinner. Detta gör det även svårare för storbankerna att knyta kontakt med nya konsumenter. Syftet med denna studie är att belysa hur en utökad digitalisering av tjänster påverkar kundlojalitet till bankerna på den svenska marknaden. Uppsatsen ger en översikt av valda marknadsförings teorier och relevanta begrepp avseende bankens digitalisering och dess påverkan på kundlojaliteten. Därefter presenteras val av metod och motivet bakom valet. I den empiriska delen presenteras undersökningsdata med tillhörande analys av de insamlade data. Studien avslutas med en sammanfattad diskussion kring resultat och därefter redovisas studiens slutsats. / Digitalization in the banking sector has evolved steadily in recent years. The major changesthat have taken place in the banking sector have led consumers to carry out their bank affairs atany time of the day without having to visit a bank office. The digital tools represented mainlyby the Internet Bank, Telephone Bank, Mobile BankID and Swish, have made it easier forconsumers to handle their banking transactions in a smooth and easy way, which has left theirmark on the market in which banks operate. A large part of the bank offices in StockholmCounty are ceased as physical contact is reduced. The big banks SEB, Swedbank,Handelsbanken and Nordea have a very big challenge now to create customer loyalty withconsumers as the customer contact disappears. This makes it even harder for major banks toconnect with new consumers. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how an increased digitalization of services affectscustomer loyalty to the banks in the Swedish market. The essay provides an overview ofselected marketing theories and relevant concepts regarding the bank's digitization and itsimpact on customer loyalty. Thereafter, the choice of method and the motivation behind theselection are presented. In the empirical part, survey data are presented with the accompanyinganalysis of the collected data. The study concludes with a summary discussion of results andafterwards the conclusion is presented.

Textilmarknaden blir allt mer utsatt för konkurrens. Företag måste idag vara duktiga på att erbjuda konsumenter något utöver det vanliga för att hålla sig kvar på marknaden. Det finns olika sätt för företag att konkurrera på och denna uppsats har som syfte att undersöka vilka egenskaper en påse skall ha för att ge kunden ett mervärde som därigenom kan bidra till ökad kundlojalitet. Fyra olika påsar från fyra olika företag har använts i uppsatsen och dessa är: Acne, Best of Brands, KappAhl och H&M. Intervjuer med kvinnor i åldrarna 20–30 år ligger till grund för resultatet. Resultatet av vår uppsats visar att påsen har en positiv inverkan på konsumenters attityder. Påsen bidrar till konsumenters helhetsintryck av butiken och respondenterna upplever sig som bättre kunder när de får en fin påse. Påsen ses som en statussymbol men också som ett marknadsföringsverktyg för varumärket. Solomons ABC-modell har använts för att skapa förståelse för hur olika attribut påverkar konsumentens köpbeteende. Vi skapade en illustration med de olika attributen på påsen vi valt att undersöka. Tillslut skapades en egen modell sammansatt av ABC-modellen och påsens attribut för att tydliggöra vad hos en påse som skapar en attityd hos konsumenten som kan leda till ökad kundlojalitet. / The textile market is more exposed to competition than ever. The companies need to communicate a comparative advantage in order to survive. There are several ways a company can compete and the intended purpose of this report is to examine which characteristics a bag should have in order to increase customer value and strengthen the customer loyalty. The report highlights the design of the bag, its attributes and elements making bags from certain companies of greater importance than others in reinforcing the customer loyalty. Four different bags from different companies have been used in our report. The selected companies were, Acne, Best of Brands, Kappahl & H&M. Interviews have been held with women in the ages20-30 years and are part of the result. The result of our report shows the great impact a bag has regarding consumer attitudes. The bag contributes to the customer’s overall impression of the brand and respondents consider themselves as a customer of greater importance when receiving an elegant bag. The bag is considered as a status symbol as well as a markting tool for the brand. The ABC-model of Solomon has been used to create an understanding of how different attributes of the bag affects the purchasing behaviour of the consumer. We created anillustration with the chosen attributes of the bag that were examined. Finally, we created ourown model with guidance of the ABC-model and the attributes of the bag. This were made to clarify what kind of attributes affecting the customer behaviour, which in turn drives thecustomer loyalty.

Facebook boasts an audience approximately three times as large as the next most popular social media networks, so it comes as no surprise that brands are devoting substantial resources to engage with their fans on the world’s most widely used social networking site. Television shows are among those brands using Facebook as a platform to connect with consumers, and their potential for fan relationships is unique from those of other brands, but there are, as of yet, no published scholarly articles for driving Facebook fan engagement and loyalty for a television show. This mixed methods study uses an ethnographic content analysis of the Facebook fan page for the series Orange is the New Black in order to evaluate the engagement of various types of posts and compare that information with scholarly research and industry best practices in order to inform an online user survey. The survey of 452 adult fans of TV show Facebook pages revealed which types of posts most engage audiences in ways that fostered engagement, parasocial interaction, and ultimately, viewing loyalty.

[pt] Este estudo identifica os atributos capazes de promover a fidelização de Clientes à operadoras de telefonia celular, com o objetivo de subsidiar profissionais do setor de telecomunicações no desenvolvimento de ofertas para seus atuais e futuros Clientes. Através da teoria da análise conjunta busca-se identificar conjuntos de atributos desejáveis e relevantes para a escolha de uma operadora de telefonia celular. A escolha dos atributos e níveis resultou de uma pesquisa qualitativa (entrevistas informais) com executivos de operadoras de telefonia celular e com cerca de 10 usuários. Em seguida, foi escolhido manualmente, a composição de estímulos (cartões) a serem aplicados aos entrevistados. Realizou-se, então, a coleta de dados por meio de questionários, os quais foram entregues pessoalmente aos entrevistados. Na última etapa, após a análise dos atributos e utilidades dos níveis propostos na pesquisa de campo, verificou-se que os atributos, design do aparelho, Qualidade de cobertura e Custo mensal apresentaram percepção e importância relativa elevada frente aos entrevistados. Propiciando que o objetivo geral de se identificarem as características relevantes para a escolha e fidelização de uma operadora de telefonia celular fosse alcançado. / [en] This research identifies the atributes to promote customer loyalty for mobile operators, in order to help them in retain its actual and future customers. It accomplishes its goal through the conjoint analysis theory. The attributes and levels choice resulted from interviews made with mobile operators executives and mobile users. The conjoint stimuli were defined following the basic principle of fractional factorial design. The partial utilities of the attributes levels show that equipment design, coverage quality and monthly cost presented a high perception and relative importance, which in turn, are recommended for customer loyalty.