Background: Nowadays with the very competitive business environment, it is essential for companies to gain loyal customers. Loyalty programs are one of the tools at the disposition of companies to attract and retain their customers. The relationship between customer loyalty and some socio-demographics factors have been a subject of researches but the specific relationship between socio-demographics factors and customer loyalty programs has not been studied yet. This study is going to try to fulfil this gap. Purpose: To study the influence of socio-demographic factors on customers’ expectations of their loyalty programs and on their loyalty. Research questions: 1. Which socio-demographic factors are influencing customers’ expectations of their loyalty programs? 2. Which socio-demographic factors are influencing program loyalty and company loyalty? Methodology: Quantitative research. Conclusion: It is possible to say that all socio-demographic factors studied have an influence on at least one of the expectations of customers concerning their loyalty programs and on their loyalty too. Those factors are then really important for a company to look at when they start a loyalty program or when they try to improve it.

The use of online personalized advertisements has drawn attention among firms, in efforts of acquiring and maintaining competitive advantage. By collecting individual consumer information, firms are able to personalize advertisements to specific individuals in online contexts. The collection and use of individuals’ personal information have given rise to privacy concerns among consumers. However, contemporary research displays disparate conclusions regarding the extent to which these privacy concerns influence the effectiveness of online personalized advertisements. In order to provide insights regarding this discrepancy, this study explored the theoretical foundations of consumer perceived benefits and risks, upon which contemporary research was based. Two focus groups were conducted to explore how consumers perceive benefits and risks of online personalized advertisements. Using pattern matching, the interpretation of the empirically gathered material implied that consumer perceived benefits, in form of perceived relevance, appears to be insufficient in appealing to the interests and preferences of consumers. Instead, consumers’ perceptions of relevance appear to be dependent on several elements. Furthermore, the findings imply that consumers are aware of the risks through personal information disclosure, yet appear to be unconcerned by them. Instead, consumers seem to possess a sense of hopelessness in online environments, that attempts to restrict the availability of their personal information are pointless.

Since its conception, the concept of ‘market orientation’ has been largely regarded as an employee-perceived phenomenon due to its focus on employees as the unit of analysis. The examination of market orientation from customer perspective (‘perceived market orientation’) remains an under-researched topic, particularly within the non-profit sector. The present study seeks to address this research gap through an investigation of the role of ‘perceived market orientation’ in affecting ‘customer participation’ with churches as the research context. The use of churches as a research context has become increasingly common in studies of non-profit and services organisations. Although the implementation of marketing techniques in the church context has been extensive, there has been little examination of the effectiveness of these methods in encouraging church participation. Consequently, previous studies in this area have failed to contribute to a theoretical understanding of how marketing can be used to motivate participation. It is thus apparent that there is a need for more research in this area to examine the potential role of concepts such as ‘perceived market orientation’ and ‘brand image’ in affecting church participation. This research incorporated two stages of research design in the form of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative phase involved in-depth interviews with Church Goers (CGs) and Non Church Goers (NCGs). Insights gained from the interviews helped the present author to incorporate relevant constructs as predictors of church participation in the conceptual framework. The quantitative phase involved the distribution of self-administered questionnaires using convenience sampling technique. CG respondents were approached through Assemblies of God (AOG) church leaders in Melbourne metropolitan and suburban areas whereas NCG respondents were recruited through newspaper advertisement. A total of 564 usable questionnaires were obtained representing 42% of the total number of respondents approached in both groups. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed to establish construct reliability and validity as well as measurement invariance. Subsequently, the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was employed to analyse the hypothesised relationships between key constructs in the conceptual framework. The results of the study indicate that ‘perceived market orientation’ plays an important role in affecting the church participation of both CG and NCG respondents. An examination of corollary hypotheses reveals that ‘interfunctional coordination’ performs the strongest effect on church participation. Further, ‘customer orientation’ was only found to be significantly associated with church participation in CG group whereas ‘competitor orientation’ was not found to be positively associated with church participation in either group of respondents. The ‘brand image’ construct in the present study was developed to examine the church’s ability in creating a unique brand identity (uniqueness), monitoring brand values (reputation), and managing brand communications (orchestration) from the perspectives of existing (CG) and prospective (NCG) members. The analysis found that ‘brand image’ is a unidimensional construct which is positively associated with ‘perceived market orientation’, ‘perceived benefits’, and ‘church participation’ in both sample groups. The study also examines the significance of ‘perceived benefits’ in affecting church participation. The construct was found to be significantly associated with church participation in both sample groups. Among the three dimensions of ‘perceived benefits’, the construct of ‘social benefits’ was found to perform the strongest effect on church participation in both sample groups. The present study offers significant practical implications for non-profit managers in general and church leaders in particular. Due to the significance of market orientation and brand image in encouraging customer participation, it is recommended that non-profit managers and church leaders embrace market orientation and brand orientation to reach out their target segments more effectively.

Previous research on lead generation has ignored the perceived benefits that buyers receive when exchanging information for firm-generated content. This research contends that digital content offered in a content marketing strategy contains specific benefits that drive the customer to participate in information exchange with the firm. Drawing on the social exchange theory (SET), this work examines how business-to-business (B2B) buyers’ perceived benefits of information exchange affect customer social networking site (SNS) engagement, consequently fostering lead generation. The author argues that content appeal (rational versus emotional) and content focus (buyer versus firm) are critical conditions that influence the relationship between buyers’ perceived benefits of information exchange on their engagement levels. The results of the present study support these statements by uncovering that potential buyers rely on more subjective evaluations (such as perceived benefits as source’s credibility, emotional appeals, and content focus). These subjective evaluations thus spur their behaviors (SNS engagement behaviors and disclosure of information) that ultimately impacts firm performance (sales lead generation). This research has important implications for theory, including the use of source credibility, as a construct for the particularism dimension, to analyze how specific benefits of digital content drive customers to participate in information exchange, and engage with the content. Also, results suggest that potential buyers will be more willing to interact and engage with emotional appeals and buyer focused content. This is relevant because it provides insight on how potential buyers, engaged with B2B content marketing, are willing to disclose information in return for digital firm-generated content. This research also has strong implications for managers. The author offers practical guidance to help marketers implement appropriate combinations of content material that increases the customers’ perceived benefits of the information exchange as a way of fostering customer engagement that leads to information disclosure and successful lead generation.

The effectiveness of loyalty programmes continues to be questioned, especially as their cost to firms increase together with their adoption rate across industries worldwide. Given the divergent industry specific findings predominantly focusing on the retail and airline industries, and the lack of previous consideration of important moderating variables type and timing of rewards, this study extended the research to service industries, investigating the effects of customer perceived benefits on loyalty programme effectiveness in terms of both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Hypotheses established the extent to which reward design elements (customer perceived benefits and type and timing of rewards) develop customer relationships (perceived relationship investment and brand relationship quality) which are market-based assets driving future revenue for the firm, and resulted in customer loyalty in the financial services industry. A quantitative methodology and survey approach was adopted with a randomly selected stratified sample of respondents. The results supported the validity and reliability of the construct measures and a satisfactory adjusted SEM model fit. The study provided industry-specific outcomes, indicating that social (integration with customer values), exploratory (exposure and access to relevant and timeous knowledge), monetary (financial value) and entertainment benefits drive customer loyalty in the financial services industry, with timing of rewards having no moderating impact and type of reward only impactful for consumers that prefer indirect (non-financial) exploratory and entertainment benefits. Importantly, the benefit of recognition was found not to have a significant influence. The study further supported divergent reward design elements as antecedents of customer loyalty across industries, as a result of the divergent nature of customer relationships between industries. Limitations of the research were consideration of customer characteristics, segments, and the relationship between attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. The study’s theoretical contribution provides for a more comprehensive conceptual model of loyalty programme effectiveness, leveraging customer relationships which are grounded in market-based asset theory, as well as an empirical analysis of previously untested relationships between important variables. The research also confirms the requirement for industry-specific design elements for effective loyalty programmes. For practitioners, the findings provide guidance on design elements of an effective programme within the financial services industry. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

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This study examined college students’ cybersex use, perceived benefits of use, time spent online, and compulsive cybersex. Participants consisted of students attending Utah State University Spring semester 2007. Data were collected via an online survey, and 262 surveys were used in the correlation and regression analyses. Results indicated that age, religion and gender are predictive of perceiving more benefits for cybersex participation. A strong positive correlation was found between perceived benefits and compulsive cybersex use. Students’ lack of social skills was predictive of more time spent online. Time spent online for cybersex was predictive of sexually compulsive behavior. There was a positive correlation between sex by phone behaviors, compulsive cybersex, time spent online, and benefits perceived among college students, and cybersex activities were associated with offline relationships.

The purpose of this study is to explore what motivates or discourage customers' intentions to join a loyalty program (LP) in the Swedish energy market. To answer the purpose of the thesis, equity theory and theory of planned behavior (TPB) have been applied to the discussion. In addition, two research questions have been developed. RQ1: What potential perceived benefits of loyalty programs motivate customers' intentions to join a loyalty program in the energy market? RQ2: What potential perceived costs and risks of loyalty programs discourage customers' intention to join a loyalty program in the energy market? To conduct the thesis, a qualitative research approach with an abductive focus in the form of semi-structured interviews was used. By applying a thematic analysis, 19 consumers living in different cities in Sweden were interviewed to explore answers related to RQ1 and RQ2. The results for RQ1 showed that monetary savings, recognition benefits and sustainability benefits motivated customers' intentions to join a loyalty program in the energy market, where monetary savings were considered most valuable.  Exploration benefits and recognition benefits motivated some customers' intentions to join and others not. Social benefits did not motivate customers' intentions to join. For RQ2, the results showed that financial costs and social risks discourage customers' intentions to join a loyalty program in the energy market. Time and data privacy and security issues discourage some customers' intentions to join and others not.  This thesis addresses the research gap concerning loyalty programs in the energy sector by focusing on customers' intentions to join such programs, utilizing equity theory and the theory of planned behavior. It provides new insights into how customers' intentions are influenced by various perceived benefits, costs, and risks associated with joining an LP. Furthermore the study provides actionable insights for energy companies seeking to develop effective loyalty programs. This study emphasizes the importance of monetary savings as the primary motivator for customers to join such programs, ensuring that perceived benefits outweigh costs in line with the equity theory. Additionally, it recommends personalizing recognition, diversifying rewards, simplifying the joining process, ensuring transparency, and integrating sustainability initiatives. By adopting these strategies, energy companies can create compelling loyalty programs that encourage customer intentions to join and engage in the program.

A quantitative, descriptive, explorative survey was conducted to explore and describe factors contributing to underutilisation of HIV testing services among tuberculosis patients and clients in Malawi. Sampled were 282 participants attending an outpatient clinic. A self administered questionnaire was used. The findings revealed that 80.5% of the respondents perceived themselves susceptible to HIV infection, 55% believed there were negative consequences of HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC), 87.6% perceived HTC had benefits, most of the respondents (76.8%) mentioned the benefit of knowing the HIV status helping one to plan life, 65% believed in themselves, that they could accept and undergo HIV testing with ease. The study recommends that all HTC providers be thoroughly trained in knowledge and skills to offer services with confidentiality and avoid stigma and discrimination of those found HIV positive. The importance and benefits of HTC should be emphasised in all behaviour communication messages / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

A quantitative, descriptive, explorative survey was conducted to explore and describe factors contributing to underutilisation of HIV testing services among tuberculosis patients and clients in Malawi. Sampled were 282 participants attending an outpatient clinic. A self administered questionnaire was used. The findings revealed that 80.5% of the respondents perceived themselves susceptible to HIV infection, 55% believed there were negative consequences of HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC), 87.6% perceived HTC had benefits, most of the respondents (76.8%) mentioned the benefit of knowing the HIV status helping one to plan life, 65% believed in themselves, that they could accept and undergo HIV testing with ease. The study recommends that all HTC providers be thoroughly trained in knowledge and skills to offer services with confidentiality and avoid stigma and discrimination of those found HIV positive. The importance and benefits of HTC should be emphasised in all behaviour communication messages / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)