Despite considerable effort by organisations to provide excellent service, service failures occur. Increasingly, as the business environment becomes more dynamic and complex, it is unrealistic to expect service delivery to be completely error free (Bansal and Taylor 1999; Keaveney 1995a). When service failure occurs, firms are advised to put in effort to recover customers, because lost customers typically result in substantial financial and reputational loss (Hogan, Lemon and Libai 2003). Moreover, building relationships with customers is always considered as an ideal approach to avoid customers’ dissatisfaction with the recovery attempt. However, it appears that the majority (81%) of customers who complain are not happy with the complaint handling process (TARP 2001). The high percentage of dissatisfied customers suggests that current approaches to recovery are largely ineffective (Davidow 2003). In searching for explanations for the ineffectiveness of service recovery strategies, a programmatic research study was conducted. Study 1 is a qualitative study, including Study 1A and Study 1B. Study 1A was conducted on 199 consumer complaint letters, and Study 1B was conducted using 22 in-depth interviews. Study 2 is a quantitative study conducted on a consumer sample of 431 respondents. Study 2A is a scale development study and Study 2B is a structural equation modelling study. The research program is reported in seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 reviews service recovery literature. Chapter 3 outlines the methodology. Chapter 4 reports the results of Study 1. Chapters 5 and 6 report results of Study 2. Finally, Chapter 7 presents the conclusions, key theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research. In sum, the thesis proposes a conceptualisation of service recovery by providing a model that highlights the different aspects of the relationships between the following constructs: (1) Customer Recovery Expectations; (2) Purchase Deliberation Recollection; (3) Customer Emotional Attachment; and (4) customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation. Customer Recovery Expectations concept reflects the customer’s perception of an appropriate recovery attempt that they prefer in a particular service recovery context. Purchase Deliberation Recollection reflects the customer’s recalled time and effort invested in the purchase deliberation process. Customer Emotional Attachment captures the emotional connection between the customer and the service provider that motivates the customer to act in the provider’s interest. Lastly, the customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation describes the customer’s comparison between their preferred recovery solution and their received recovery solution. The relationships between these constructs significantly influence the two dependent variables: the customer’s satisfaction with recovery and their repurchase intention. The findings highlight that, in service recovery, creating a customer’s positive perception of recovery expectation matching attempt is the key. To affect this, employees should understand that the customer has a recovery expectation which the organisation should attempt to match. In addition, customers with a good and long term relationship with the organisation tend to have more sympathy when service failure occurs. However, long term customers may also be more demanding and have higher expectations than short term customers. When the organisation fails to recover the service failure for a long term customer, the negative effect of not appropriately recovering may outweigh the positive benefits of having a relationship. Therefore, once a good relationship has been built, organisations should be prepared to invest more resources to maintain it through time. That is, a relationship should be maintained in normal as well as in service failure situations. The findings thus have significant theoretical and managerial implications.

Despite considerable effort by organisations to provide excellent service, service failures occur. Increasingly, as the business environment becomes more dynamic and complex, it is unrealistic to expect service delivery to be completely error free (Bansal and Taylor 1999; Keaveney 1995a). When service failure occurs, firms are advised to put in effort to recover customers, because lost customers typically result in substantial financial and reputational loss (Hogan, Lemon and Libai 2003). Moreover, building relationships with customers is always considered as an ideal approach to avoid customers’ dissatisfaction with the recovery attempt. However, it appears that the majority (81%) of customers who complain are not happy with the complaint handling process (TARP 2001). The high percentage of dissatisfied customers suggests that current approaches to recovery are largely ineffective (Davidow 2003). In searching for explanations for the ineffectiveness of service recovery strategies, a programmatic research study was conducted. Study 1 is a qualitative study, including Study 1A and Study 1B. Study 1A was conducted on 199 consumer complaint letters, and Study 1B was conducted using 22 in-depth interviews. Study 2 is a quantitative study conducted on a consumer sample of 431 respondents. Study 2A is a scale development study and Study 2B is a structural equation modelling study. The research program is reported in seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 reviews service recovery literature. Chapter 3 outlines the methodology. Chapter 4 reports the results of Study 1. Chapters 5 and 6 report results of Study 2. Finally, Chapter 7 presents the conclusions, key theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research. In sum, the thesis proposes a conceptualisation of service recovery by providing a model that highlights the different aspects of the relationships between the following constructs: (1) Customer Recovery Expectations; (2) Purchase Deliberation Recollection; (3) Customer Emotional Attachment; and (4) customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation. Customer Recovery Expectations concept reflects the customer’s perception of an appropriate recovery attempt that they prefer in a particular service recovery context. Purchase Deliberation Recollection reflects the customer’s recalled time and effort invested in the purchase deliberation process. Customer Emotional Attachment captures the emotional connection between the customer and the service provider that motivates the customer to act in the provider’s interest. Lastly, the customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation describes the customer’s comparison between their preferred recovery solution and their received recovery solution. The relationships between these constructs significantly influence the two dependent variables: the customer’s satisfaction with recovery and their repurchase intention. The findings highlight that, in service recovery, creating a customer’s positive perception of recovery expectation matching attempt is the key. To affect this, employees should understand that the customer has a recovery expectation which the organisation should attempt to match. In addition, customers with a good and long term relationship with the organisation tend to have more sympathy when service failure occurs. However, long term customers may also be more demanding and have higher expectations than short term customers. When the organisation fails to recover the service failure for a long term customer, the negative effect of not appropriately recovering may outweigh the positive benefits of having a relationship. Therefore, once a good relationship has been built, organisations should be prepared to invest more resources to maintain it through time. That is, a relationship should be maintained in normal as well as in service failure situations. The findings thus have significant theoretical and managerial implications.

Despite considerable effort by organisations to provide excellent service, service failures occur. Increasingly, as the business environment becomes more dynamic and complex, it is unrealistic to expect service delivery to be completely error free (Bansal and Taylor 1999; Keaveney 1995a). When service failure occurs, firms are advised to put in effort to recover customers, because lost customers typically result in substantial financial and reputational loss (Hogan, Lemon and Libai 2003). Moreover, building relationships with customers is always considered as an ideal approach to avoid customers’ dissatisfaction with the recovery attempt. However, it appears that the majority (81%) of customers who complain are not happy with the complaint handling process (TARP 2001). The high percentage of dissatisfied customers suggests that current approaches to recovery are largely ineffective (Davidow 2003). In searching for explanations for the ineffectiveness of service recovery strategies, a programmatic research study was conducted. Study 1 is a qualitative study, including Study 1A and Study 1B. Study 1A was conducted on 199 consumer complaint letters, and Study 1B was conducted using 22 in-depth interviews. Study 2 is a quantitative study conducted on a consumer sample of 431 respondents. Study 2A is a scale development study and Study 2B is a structural equation modelling study. The research program is reported in seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 reviews service recovery literature. Chapter 3 outlines the methodology. Chapter 4 reports the results of Study 1. Chapters 5 and 6 report results of Study 2. Finally, Chapter 7 presents the conclusions, key theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research. In sum, the thesis proposes a conceptualisation of service recovery by providing a model that highlights the different aspects of the relationships between the following constructs: (1) Customer Recovery Expectations; (2) Purchase Deliberation Recollection; (3) Customer Emotional Attachment; and (4) customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation. Customer Recovery Expectations concept reflects the customer’s perception of an appropriate recovery attempt that they prefer in a particular service recovery context. Purchase Deliberation Recollection reflects the customer’s recalled time and effort invested in the purchase deliberation process. Customer Emotional Attachment captures the emotional connection between the customer and the service provider that motivates the customer to act in the provider’s interest. Lastly, the customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation describes the customer’s comparison between their preferred recovery solution and their received recovery solution. The relationships between these constructs significantly influence the two dependent variables: the customer’s satisfaction with recovery and their repurchase intention. The findings highlight that, in service recovery, creating a customer’s positive perception of recovery expectation matching attempt is the key. To affect this, employees should understand that the customer has a recovery expectation which the organisation should attempt to match. In addition, customers with a good and long term relationship with the organisation tend to have more sympathy when service failure occurs. However, long term customers may also be more demanding and have higher expectations than short term customers. When the organisation fails to recover the service failure for a long term customer, the negative effect of not appropriately recovering may outweigh the positive benefits of having a relationship. Therefore, once a good relationship has been built, organisations should be prepared to invest more resources to maintain it through time. That is, a relationship should be maintained in normal as well as in service failure situations. The findings thus have significant theoretical and managerial implications.

This thesis explores the topic of brand distinctiveness, which involves elements of a brand that make it stand out in the minds of consumers. This thesis has shown that colour is a key element of branding that helps consumers identify a brand.

Despite considerable effort by organisations to provide excellent service, service failures occur. Increasingly, as the business environment becomes more dynamic and complex, it is unrealistic to expect service delivery to be completely error free (Bansal and Taylor 1999; Keaveney 1995a). When service failure occurs, firms are advised to put in effort to recover customers, because lost customers typically result in substantial financial and reputational loss (Hogan, Lemon and Libai 2003). Moreover, building relationships with customers is always considered as an ideal approach to avoid customers’ dissatisfaction with the recovery attempt. However, it appears that the majority (81%) of customers who complain are not happy with the complaint handling process (TARP 2001). The high percentage of dissatisfied customers suggests that current approaches to recovery are largely ineffective (Davidow 2003). In searching for explanations for the ineffectiveness of service recovery strategies, a programmatic research study was conducted. Study 1 is a qualitative study, including Study 1A and Study 1B. Study 1A was conducted on 199 consumer complaint letters, and Study 1B was conducted using 22 in-depth interviews. Study 2 is a quantitative study conducted on a consumer sample of 431 respondents. Study 2A is a scale development study and Study 2B is a structural equation modelling study. The research program is reported in seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 reviews service recovery literature. Chapter 3 outlines the methodology. Chapter 4 reports the results of Study 1. Chapters 5 and 6 report results of Study 2. Finally, Chapter 7 presents the conclusions, key theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research. In sum, the thesis proposes a conceptualisation of service recovery by providing a model that highlights the different aspects of the relationships between the following constructs: (1) Customer Recovery Expectations; (2) Purchase Deliberation Recollection; (3) Customer Emotional Attachment; and (4) customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation. Customer Recovery Expectations concept reflects the customer’s perception of an appropriate recovery attempt that they prefer in a particular service recovery context. Purchase Deliberation Recollection reflects the customer’s recalled time and effort invested in the purchase deliberation process. Customer Emotional Attachment captures the emotional connection between the customer and the service provider that motivates the customer to act in the provider’s interest. Lastly, the customer’s Recovery Expectation Disconfirmation describes the customer’s comparison between their preferred recovery solution and their received recovery solution. The relationships between these constructs significantly influence the two dependent variables: the customer’s satisfaction with recovery and their repurchase intention. The findings highlight that, in service recovery, creating a customer’s positive perception of recovery expectation matching attempt is the key. To affect this, employees should understand that the customer has a recovery expectation which the organisation should attempt to match. In addition, customers with a good and long term relationship with the organisation tend to have more sympathy when service failure occurs. However, long term customers may also be more demanding and have higher expectations than short term customers. When the organisation fails to recover the service failure for a long term customer, the negative effect of not appropriately recovering may outweigh the positive benefits of having a relationship. Therefore, once a good relationship has been built, organisations should be prepared to invest more resources to maintain it through time. That is, a relationship should be maintained in normal as well as in service failure situations. The findings thus have significant theoretical and managerial implications.

This thesis explores the reasons why customers stop buying brands. The first part quantifies what proportion of customers defect for the reasons that are within and beyond brand managers' control. The second part examines how the reasons for defection impact on post-defection brand equity of former brand.

No description available.

In recent years there has been considerable growth in research concerned with commercial sponsorship and its effects. A range of conceptual and theory-guided models have been proposed, established psychological theories applied, and several construct level phenomena described, in an effort to explain the way sponsorship works and how it might impact audiences. The current research consolidates and adds to this literature by outlining how an item and relational information framework (Einstein & Hunt, 1980; Hunt & Einstein, 1981) can be used to explain the cognitive processes involved when consumer audiences encounter commercial sponsorship communications. Item information can be described as that which is processed in an individual’s mind when seemingly unrelated entities are encountered, while relational information is that which is processed when seemingly related entities are encountered. These cognitive processes are assumed to be relatively automatic, and hence not under the conscious control of the individual. Item information is useful in that it promotes item salience and distinctiveness, and assists memory retrieval by enhancing item discriminability. Relational information is useful in that it promotes associative relationships between items, and assists memory retrieval by enabling one item to serve as a cue for other related items. Any given set of items will initially be encoded predominantly as either item or relational information based on apparent similarities or dissimilarities, but optimal memory performance occurs when additional encoding is encouraged by also orienting people toward the processing of the alternative form of information. In the context of sponsorship, it is proposed that brand-event relationships which are perceived as incongruent (e.g., an electronics brands sponsoring an equestrian event) will be processed most naturally in people’s minds as item information, while those which are perceived as congruent (e.g., a swimwear brand sponsoring a swimming event) will be processed most naturally as relational information. Accordingly, memory for incongruent sponsorships should be facilitated if people are encouraged to process additional brand-event relational information, and memory for congruent sponsorships should be facilitated if people are encouraged to process additional brand-specific item information. Conceptualising sponsorship within an item and relational information framework provides an explanation for a range of findings from previous sponsorship research, such as that congruent sponsorships are better remembered than incongruent sponsorships (see Cornwell, Weeks, & Roy, 2005), that the provision of information linking unrelated sponsors and events together can enhance subsequent memory for the pairing (Cornwell, Humphreys, Maguire, Weeks, & Tellegen, 2006; Simmons & Becker-Olsen, 2006), and that people often tend to be biased toward attributing sponsorships to those brands that most obviously relate to an event, and to those brands that are prominent in the marketplace (Johar & Pham, 1999; Pham & Johar, 2001). Two sets of experiments are reported. Experimental Set One is composed of five cued recall experiments and assesses the applicability of using an item and relational information framework with respect to awareness related sponsorship outcomes. In addition to manipulating brand-event congruence and type of supplementary sponsor information within each experiment, direction of cueing (event cue with brand target, brand cue with event target), competitor brand presence, and type of competitor brand information are manipulated across experiments. This set of experiments demonstrates general support for using an item and relational information framework in sponsorship; congruence effects are consistently found, relational information is shown to facilitate both brand recall and event recall, and item information is shown to facilitate brand recall when competitor brands are not present in the sponsorship context. An unintended item information manipulation also demonstrates the value of providing event-contextualised brand-specific item information. Relational information is shown to increase erroneous recall (in the form of incorrect intrusions from other brands, and recall of events to competitor brands) while item information appears to help limit erroneous recall. The findings fall short of fitting entirely within an item and relational information framework in that differential sponsor information effects for each level of brand-event congruence are not observed in every experiment, and in that the intended item information manipulation does not consistently facilitate cued recall performance. These shortcomings however, provide insight into basic item and relational information ideas when elaborate stimuli are employed, and when cued recall is used as the dependent measure. The results additionally demonstrate that cueing direction is an important influence which should be considered when evaluating sponsorship awareness effects. Further, it is shown that competitor presence in the sponsorship environment may not impact overall levels of correct recall for sponsors and events, although competitor presence may increase incorrect recall of non-sponsor brands to event cues, and recall of events to non-sponsor brand cues. Experimental Set Two is composed of two experiments and was designed to determine if and how the item and relational information framework might generalise to non-awareness related sponsorship outcomes (namely attitude toward the brand and brand purchase intent). Here again, brand-event congruence and type of supplementary sponsor information are manipulated within each experiment, and competitor brand presence is manipulated across experiments. Results show that the item and relational information framework is not directly generalisable to predicting non-awareness related sponsorship outcomes, but that it does provide value by highlighting the need to consider differences in the types of communications sponsors employ (especially when seeking to promote the brand-event relationship using relational information). The experiments demonstrate that sponsors tend to fare better than competitors regardless of whether the competitor is named in the context of the sponsorship, and that brand-event congruence makes no overall difference to attitudinal and purchase intent ratings (in contrast to what is often reported in the literature). Additionally, the results suggest that attitudinal and purchase intent sponsorship outcomes may potentially be moderated by inferred sponsor motives and mediated by perceptions of sponsorship exploitation (derived from the presence of competitors in the sponsorship environment). These suggestions are however more speculative. The research adds to the sponsorship literature by providing an explanation of the possible cognitive processes involved when people encounter commercial sponsorship communications, most specifically with respect to awareness related sponsorship outcomes. It additionally demonstrates that sponsorship can be a useful applied context in which theoretical memory ideas can be tested and refined. That is, sponsorship offers an alternative to using single word and word pair stimuli in memory research, where manipulation of important variables is nonetheless possible, and where presentation of stimuli can be both incidental and intentional. Future research directions for an item and relational information framework as applied to sponsorship are suggested, together with research aimed at further testing basic item and relational information ideas.

This masters thesis titled 'Buying across price tiers in the Australian wine market' explores if the duplication of purchase law (DoP) can be used to describe how consumers purchase across price tiers. The law has traditionally been used to describe how consumers buy across different brands in repeat purchase markets over time. This thesis builds on the generalisability of the DoP law by applying it to how consumers buy from different price tiers in a market where much price choice exists.

Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to undertake theory development and testing particular to re-purchase intention in an experiential service context, specifically the cultural performing arts. Services researchers suggest implementing a multi-disciplinary approach to research that uses theories and methods from several of the management fields will advance the domain of services research. This thesis aims to contribute to the field of service research by drawing from methods and theories offered in both service operations and services marketing fields. To date, service research has been preoccupied primarily with consumer behaviour aspects of services marketing such as satisfaction but underestimates the importance of constructs such as re-purchase intention and the subsequent implications for strategy formulation and implementation. Further to this, the current approach to services research has overlooked the nexus between marketing and operations and the importance of the implementation of strategy to achieve objectives. It is argued that failing to integrate service operations both practically and theoretically into the re-purchase intentions research framework confines its potential effectiveness. In addition, the lack of specific service context application has been identified as a significant oversight in previous services research. Construct measurements and findings have been difficult to replicate across contexts and contextual examination of constructs and relationships has been suggested as a solution. One such context deserving of attention is that of the experiential services, specifically the performing arts. Therefore, using measures and theories developed specifically for this context, this thesis will offer a more comprehensive approach to re-purchase intention research in a performing arts setting. This thesis adopts a mixed method approach by implementing a series of three integrated studies, which amalgamates both operations and marketing fields. This thesis aims to identify the aspects of a performing arts encounter that are relevant to the customer by conducting a two-staged set of qualitative interviews. This process is based on the operations technique Service Transaction Analysis (STA). First, consultant consumers and organisational personnel were used to formulate a consensus definition of a typical performing arts experience and, second, 26 in-depth interviews were conducted with potential future consumers of the performing arts based on this description of the offering. These two studies, coupled with extant literature, informed the research instrument designed for the main survey. This instrument was conducted on 273 potential future consumers of the performing arts. Qualitative work undertaken in Study 1 identifies the service experience description. Study 2 highlights the service management and marketing issues relating to re-purchase intention especially focusing on value, customer satisfaction, show experience and service quality and discloses a set of specific issues incorporated into the wording of the survey instrument. Study 3 measures and tests the key constructs of service quality, show experience, value, satisfaction and the significance of the hypothesised pathways to re-purchase intention. The proposed model is then analysed using the AMOS 5.0 Structural Equation Modelling package. This thesis is structured in the journal paper format with each of the chapters representing each of the five journal papers. In addition, an introductory and concluding chapter are appended with the concluding chapter providing an in-depth discussion of the contributions of this thesis. The papers are based on the progressive results of the research program and offer an integrated set of findings and discussions. The papers are not mutually exclusive but interrelated to comprehensively illuminate the central research theme of the thesis and discuss many aspects of marketing and operations significant to re-purchase intention. The entire thesis is drawn from the data set generated from the three integrated studies developed to address the overall research theme. The central research theme is to investigate the nature of re-purchase intention in an experiential setting using marketing and operations theories as platforms of analysis. Interestingly, the tested model of this thesis found empirically that the subjective and experiential aspects of the service, such as the emotional and artistic quality of the show, did not have a significant and direct relationship with re-purchase intention. This finding is of interest, in particular, to scholars of experiential consumption and marketing practitioners offering these types of services. Previous research has supported the desire to fulfil experiential needs as driving the initial purchase. Conversely, this finding suggests that the desire to visit again is driven by utility and value. As customer maintenance and repeat patronage are of utmost importance to practice, this is an exciting development. Offering further support, the tested model found service quality and show experience were mediated by value to satisfaction, with satisfaction inturn mediating the relationship between value and re-purchase intention. Collectively, these findings have lead to several developments and contributions for both scholarship and practice. The contributions to knowledge of this thesis highlight five main theoretical contributions and four main managerial implications. These encompass: · Advancing the ‘service management trinity’, specifically strengthening the importance of the relationship between service marketing and service operations. · Advancing service management theory by understanding the service offering more intricately and the importance of service description. · Clarifying the roles of experiential and utilitarian attributes of the service experience in an experiential setting extending knowledge related to re-purchase intention. · Particularizing and measuring the construct of re-purchase intention to the performing arts and clarifying the predictors of this construct in the context of experiential performing arts. . · Testing and clarifying the relationships of value and satisfaction to re-purchase intention extending the understanding of re-purchase intention in this field and elaborating the approach and understanding of this construct for future research. This thesis further contributes to knowledge by offering several managerial contributions. These incorporate: · Market segmentation and targeting strategies as critical for performing arts management. · Operations service design and creation strategies in the performing arts by including important aspects of the service experience as highlighted by customer driven research. · Specific recommendation for streamlining delivery through standardised mass customisation. · Offering value frameworks for creating value in service delivery and targeting customer perceptions of superior value. This extending the understanding of the customer perceived value equation. By contributing to the field of service management and advancing enquiry in the field of services marketing and service operations, this thesis offers a new perspective and practical approach to service marketing context analysis making a valuable contribution to scholarship. This approach is based on improving organisational performance in experiential services specifically by applying operations and marketing theory from a customer-perspective. By doing this, findings inform organisations of ways to better meet the needs and wants of consumers through design, delivery and marketing. Moreover, the findings assist researchers in further advancing the field of services research. This research positions the future research program to focus on continuing the advancement of service management by examining the higher order constructs of service quality and show experience and examining the impact of additional customer motivations such as emotional goal attainment and involvement in experiential settings.