The decline in the number of customers in the private country club (PCC) industry in the United States is causing a reduction of revenues, which inhibits the sustainability of the clubs. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore marketing innovation strategies (MIS) that Arizona PCC managers used to attract and retain customers successfully. Relationship marketing theory was the conceptual framework; key constructs of the theory include customer loyalty, service quality, experience satisfaction, trust, and communication. The study explored successful MIS that PCC managers have used to attract and retain customers to prevent closure. Participants consisted of 1 manager from 4 different PCCs in Arizona who used MIS successfully to attract and retain customers. Data were collected from semistructured, open-ended interviews and from marketing documents and website content. Data were analyzed using a 6-phase approach to thematic analysis. The 3 primary themes that emerged included broadening the marketing message to entice people to frequent the club; creating experiences that rated high in satisfaction by members, guests, and employees; and using a variety of communication media. The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by helping PCCs to remain in operation, which could benefit local communities by providing employment opportunities at the clubs and venues for local charities to raise funds.

The Chinese inbound tourism market to Australia has been acknowledged as an emerging market and a major export earner. However, Australian inbound tour operators experience difficulties in establishing and developing viable partner relationships with Chinese travel agents. Recognising the size, importance and complexity of this market, the major purpose of this research is to explore and investigate the crucial process of developing Sino-Australian partnership relationships in the tourism industry, and to educate Australian tourism operatives about this process to facilitate the establishment of business relationships with Chinese travel agents. Hence, the principal research question posed in this thesis is: How might Australian tourism product suppliers and marketers establish and maintain partnership relationships with Chinese travel agents to help Australia become a preferred tourist destination for Chinese tourists? This study is exploratory in nature and draws on applied marketing, management and cross-cultural theories on networking to explore the process of developing partnership relationships in the Chinese inbound tourism market to Australia. The literature on networking, and the development of networking relationships, has been theorised drawing principally on the marketing and management literature. The impact of cross-cultural differences and the effect of guanxi (connection), a key feature of Chinese business networking, on partnership relations between Chinese travel agents and Australian inbound tour operators, is also reviewed and discussed. One of the main contributions of this research is its multidisciplinary nature, drawing on relationship marketing and network theories and applying them to tourism research. Little research has been undertaken into tourism-based partnership relations in the cross-national context. Given the limited research conducted on this topic and its cross-cultural nature, a qualitative research method was adopted for this study. Specifically, this study utilised in-depth interviewing techniques to explore the relationships between Australian inbound tour operators and Chinese travel agents. This study identifies that the process of developing partnership relationships between Chinese travel agents and Australian inbound tour operators is, as expected, highly culturally embedded but in unexpected ways. Although all the Australian inbound tour operators in the study are of Chinese descent, they have adapted to Australian culture and business ethics, giving rise to communication problems that affect partnership relationships. A new stage model of the development of partnership relationships between Australian inbound tour operators and Chinese travel agents is therefore developed by incorporating cross-cultural factors into Western theories on networking and relationship marketing. In particular, the thesis identifies important factors in each stage of the process of developing business relationships. For example, resilient trust and mutual commitment, the pricing issue, word-of-mouth, and quality of services are all considered crucial in attaining long-term stable partnership relationships. Disproving popular myths about guanxi in some of the previous literature, the findings from this research demonstrate that, in China's economic transition period, guanxi plays a significant, but not decisive role in the process of developing partnership relationships between Chinese travel agents and Australian inbound tour operators. However, guanxi relationships can provide added value to the partnership relationships of Australian operators.

In the last decade, the ever increasing pressure of competition faced by businesses has led to the development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In short, CRM is the practice of integrating all aspects of business functions for dealing with customers, with the assistance of technology, and with the intention of boosting company profitability. CRM has been widely promoted as a critical contributor to business survival. However, the high failure rate of CRM projects has also attracted research attention and many factors have been discussed as contributing to the success or failure of CRM implementation. This research argues that CRM is not simply a software package or a computer program. CRM, instead, should be perceived as a strategic issue in order to realize its potential. In addition, this study also argues that CRM implementation is affected by organizational, strategic and cultural factors. In particular, this study was conducted within the context of Chinese small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), with company size and culture as two major focuses in this study. SMEs were chosen as this segment has been overlooked in CRM study, yet it represents a great potential for growth in CRM adoption. Chinese culture was chosen as most of CRM studies have been conducted within a western cultural background. The Chinese culture has distinctive characteristics different from western culture, and this has strong influences on business operations. A quantitative method was adopted for this study and a mailed survey was used to collect data to examine the relevance of these factors within this context. Research participants were recruited using a systematic sampling technique through a comprehensive Chinese business directory. Results suggest that there are positive associations between a company's CRM implementation and its practice of organizational, strategic, and cultural issues. In particular, four organizational issues – organizational integration, executive commitment, system readiness, and resource availability; three strategic issues – vision, planning, and customer-centric culture; and one cultural issue – networking, have an impact on a company's CRM implementation.

虛擬社區即指原本各自獨立的電腦，因某種秩序或某種共通性被逐一串連，而創造出的網路上的新世界。在匿名的環境中人們更容易傾吐心聲，表達真實感受，殊不知個人隱私正點點滴滴被記錄與分析，也成了目標行銷的一大利器。本研究的主要重點，即在探討目前虛擬社區蒐集的個人資料內容與用途，同時援用相關法令以分析該關係行銷作法是否可能違反若干隱私權保護原則，以及試圖尋找關係行銷與網路隱私權的平衡點，讓廠商與消費者兩造各取所需互蒙其利。 　　透過對Blizzard、AOL、Geocities、Liberty Financial、Amazon等五個個案的分析，發現儘管虛擬社區分屬不同行業，提供的服務也相去甚遠，但所蒐集的顧客資料其實大同小異，唯可以蒐集目的來劃分關係行銷層次。且虛擬社區在維護方面無甚弊病，然在蒐集與利用部份，泰半違反隱私權保護原則（即蒐集限制、目的明確化、利用限制等原則）。 　　針對目前仍具爭議性的問題，本研究乃站在客觀的角度加以描述，並加入來自各方廣泛的討論內容；在整理分析過後，試圖提出適當建議，例如虛擬社區在資訊中介者與資訊統合者之間的定位問題，研討虛擬社區應當如何調整與第三者公司的合作關係，以及如何建立管理機制，讓關係行銷與隱私權保護能兩者得兼。 第一章 緒論 1 第一節 研究背景 1 第二節 研究動機 4 第三節 研究目的與研究問題 7 第二章 文獻探討 8 第一節 虛擬社區 8 第二節 顧客輪廓資料與關係行銷 14 第三節 隱私權概說 17 第四節 電腦處理個人資料保護法 27 第三章 研究方法 34 第一節 觀念架構 34 第二節 研究變數與衡量 36 第三節 研究設計 41 第四節 研究限制 45 第四章 個案研究 47 第一節 個案描述與分析 47 第二節 問題與討論 73 第五章 命題發展 78 第一節 個案觀察 78 第二節 命題推論 87 第六章 結論與建議 93 第一節 研究結論 93 第二節 研究建議 96 參考文獻 99

據內政部統計資料顯示2006年臺灣有六萬四千五百四十對夫妻離婚，平均每天有一百七十七對夫妻「一拍兩散」，大約每兩對佳偶中就有一對離婚，離婚率高居亞洲第一。「婚姻問題」是目前臺灣社會中相當重要的議題，也導致因男女離婚而衍生的家庭社會問題正在不斷發生。 然身為長期提供陷入婚姻困境的婦女們，一個求助和傾訴管道的臺北市晚晴婦女協會，從2004到2007年，這四年裡每年入會新增人數卻每下愈況。 針對此狀況，本研究以消費者需求調查面向著手，了解晚晴協會內會員與非會員的服務需求、滿意度以及入會參考依據等。本研究同時認為關係行銷的概念，有助於非營利組織與包括會員與非會員的諮詢個案，保持良好且長期性關係。藉由本研究發現的結論，確立該組織與會員之間關係，提升會員對於組織的參與度以及促使非會員積極加入晚晴協會之可行性探討。 / According to the statistic released in 2006 by The Ministry of Interior, about 170 couples in Taiwan confronted marriage issue every day. In other words, one of two couples will divorce after getting married. It is also the highest rate among Asia countries. “Marriage” and “Family” relationship in Taiwan have become serious social issues nowadays. Warm Life Organization thus is set up to provide a communication and support platform to help women who are dealing with different marriage and family issues. However, this strong and well-known social functions did not drive more new membership into the organization, moreover, the total membership number between 2004 to 2007 has significantly drop down every year. The purpose of this thesis aims to discover customer needs, customer satisfaction and customer participation between organization with members and non-members. Meanwhile, this research adopts the concept of relationship marketing as a major channel to build up a long-term reliability and relationship between organization as well as members or non-members. This research further suggests possible membership maintenance methods, more membership participation opportunities and driving force to encourage new blood according to the survey result.

<p>In 2000, more then 4 million Swedish citizens were given the responsibility to invest a part of their earned money in the new premium pension system. With limited knowledge in financial markets was it now up to the people themselves to decide how to invest. Due to the citizens lack of knowledge lead them to a passive behavior. This meant a new role for the financial institutions and the advising that followed. Since the start, there has been constant debates on how well the system has been working and who it has been beneficial to.With the new role of the pension advisors the problem question was stated as: considering the customers’ knowledge and understanding of the financial factors, how has the advising of premium pension funds evolved since 2000? With the sub question: what role will the future of pension funds advising have?The aim of the study is to research how the knowledge among the Swedish public has changed, how the perception of risk has altered, how the trust and confidence among financial advisors have changed, what importance new laws and regulations have had, and how the relations between customer and advisors has developed with the uneven knowledge. The future of pension advising will be investigated.This study has a qualitative approach with seven semi-structured interviews with different institutions that are related to pension saving. Due to the nature of the study a hermeneutic approach and abductive perspective is obliged.The respondents have observed the level of knowledge among the public to be low, however has it gotten better. The laws and licenses implemented has changed how pension advisors are working, and increased the confidence for advisors. For the future, a majority of the advisors are calling for the government to take the responsibility on educating the public in private economy. This would, according to the respondents, simplify the advisors job. The insufficient level of knowledge has created both problems and opportunities for advisors. The trouble with a product/service such as advising its complexity, which makes it hard for the institutions to explain, and for the customers to understand it. Therefore, the authors agree with the respondents, to educate the Swedish citizens in order for them to understand the opportunity that is in front of them.</p>

<p>Networking is commonly used in many business clusters such as in San Diego, California. The strongcollaborative and networking culture spurs entrepreneurial activities and is crucial forentrepreneurial success in the region. Networking is a fascinating phenomenon much discussed inliterature. Sociologists have tried to map the patterns of networks and describe its existence andfunction in society. Relationship marketing theorists have taken to the discussion from a businessperspective and explained the relationships between the individuals in the business network. Thepurpose of this research is to analyze social networking and network organizations in San Diego inorder to investigate what entrepreneurs can gain from networking which can accelerate growth insmall businesses.</p><p>The empirical study consists of a qualitative case study in San Diego. Data has been collected throughsemi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, business service providers, investor, networkorganizations representatives, consultants and well-experienced professionals with knowledge froma variety of organizations in different industries.</p><p>The theoretical study on networks, business networking, relationship marketing andentrepreneurship has led to the construction of the Entrepreneurial Relational Capital Model. Themodel is constructed on theories embraced in the thesis and is meant to work as a tool to evaluateentrepreneurs’ relational capital; or the entrepreneurs’ network of relationships and theirconstruction. The model has been used to analyze empirical data and the results show theimportance of evaluating business relationships for the entrepreneur to become more time efficientin networking, and to find the individual with the desired expertise. The research has shown thatentrepreneurs need to establish strong relationships to key individuals in the industry of their focus.The entrepreneurs’ social networking with key individuals accelerate the start-up process becausethe high level of trust in the relationship results in valuable referrals.</p>

<p><strong>Syfte: </strong>Syftet med denna uppsats är att illustrera vilka faktorer som påverkar kundrelationer och hur ett företag bör gå tillväga för att förbättra dessa samt för att bevara sina kunder. Vi vill ge en illustration på hur en välorganiserad kundrelation kan framkallas. Uppsatsen är även en undersökning som kommer att framhäva Länsförsäkringarnas varianter av strategier och metoder inom kundrelation, detta kommer även att baseras ur kundens perspektiv. Det vitalaste kommer att handla om hur Länsförsäkringarna kan förbättra och utveckla detta.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Vi valde att använda oss av primärdata för att öka trovärdigheten genom enkätundersökning och intervjuer, våra sekundärdata användes för att ge stöd till den primäradatan med författares och forskares teorier. Sedan jämförde vi resultatet från intervjuerna och enkätundersökningen med vad teoretikerna anser för att se om det överensstämmer med resultatet.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Resultat & slutsats: </strong>Vi tycker att det har varit ett intresseväckande arbete att följa Länsförsäkringarnas tillvägagånssätt om hur de bemöter kunderna och relationen till dem. Verksamheten är ledande inom försäkringar men befinner sig i en konkurrenskraftig marknad. Därför är det viktigt att omhänderta sina kunder, särskilt de kunder som idag är missnöjda och som troligtvis inte har orkat byta försäkringsbolag. Det är dessa kunder som kan föra vidare det dåliga ryktet om företaget till nya potentiella kunder. Vi anser att företaget har en bristande kundrelation, detta har bekräftats med empiriska studier och med den sekundäradata.</p><p><strong>Förslag till fortsatt forskning: </strong>Det finns många aspekter att analysera, som exempelvis; en djupgående studie om hur CRM implementeras och används av konkurrenterna (IF, Trygghansa och Folksam) samt i jämförelse med Länsförsäkringarna.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Uppsatsens bidrag:</strong> Detta arbete ger en verklighetssyn av Länsförsäkringarnas relationer till sina kunder och hur företaget skall förbättra detta samt utveckla personalens kompetens inom det berörda området.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Nyckelord och förkortningar: </strong>Lf = Länsförsäkringarna, Rm= Relationsmarknadsföring, Crm= Customer relationship management, Rm-tåget= Relationsmarknadsföringståget,</p><p>E-CRM= Electronic customer relationship management, Kundnöjdhet, Kundrelationer, Kundlojalitet</p> / <p><strong>Aim:</strong> The purpose of this essay is to ilustrate factors which influence customer relationship and how companies should improve and retain their customers.We want to show how an organized customer relationship can evoke. This essay is also an investigation which will bring out different variations of strategies and methods of customer relationship. This will also base on the customer experience. The most important thing is that the essay will give the readers answers on how the company Länsförsäkringarna can develop these strategies.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Method:</strong> We have chosen to use Primary data to increase the reliability threw interviews and questionnaire examination.We also used secondary data to provide support to the primary data.We compered the results from the interviews and questionnaire examination with professors and authors teories</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Result and Conclusions</strong></p><p>We think that it has been an intresting work to follow Länsförsäkringarna strategies on how they aproach the customers and their relationship with them. Länsförsäkringarna are leaders in their business in insurance but their position in the market is very competitive. Therefore it is very important to take a good care of the cutomers, especially the customers who are not satisfied and don’t care to change to another incuranse company. They will surtenly spread a bad reputation about Länsförsäkringarna threw word of mouth to the new potential customers. In our opinion we think that Länsförsäkringarna have a bad relation to their customers and that have been confirmed by our empirical studies and with the help of secondary data.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Sugestion of future research </strong></p><p>There are many aspects to analyze, for example a deep going study about how to implement CRM and how it is used by competetors of Länsförsäkringarna, and also to compare the study with Länsförsäkringarna.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Contribution of the thesis</strong></p><p>This work gives a realitypicture of Länförsäkringarna:s relations to their customers and how the company shall develop their staff competence in customer relationship management.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Key words</strong></p><p>Lf = Länsförsäkringarna, Rm= Relationship marketing, Crm= Customer relationship management, Rm-tåget= Relationshipmarketing train,</p><p>E-CRM= Electronic customer relationship management, Customer satisfaction, Customer relationship, Customer loyalty</p>

<p>Companies in the western world can no longer compete by using traditional means such as product and price since the commerce of services continually grows. To avoid similarity and increase competitive advantages modern companies have to be more specified. The competition between companies has increased and customers are harder to reach. Customers of today can afford luxury but trend indicates that originality, identity, and status are more important than factual needs. Products created and consumed at the same time within the service market are often very homogenous (similar). The small differences between companies make it hard to find the grounds of the consumer’s choice also making it imperative for companies to inter-pret the needs, habits, and expectancies of the consumer. A winning con-cept is hard to identify – individualism makes it harder to predict trends, product cycles becomes shorter, and the market becomes more casual, changeable, agile, lively, and impulsive. The purpose of this paper is to examine through quantitative survey which design factors create value for the consumer and how this affects the consumer choice. With prospective on the time of service the relation between consumer and company is evaluated in the moment of truth.</p> / <p>Företag i västvärlden kan inte längre vara med och konkurrera med traditionella medel som produkt och pris. Handeln med tjänster växer, för att undvika likriktning och öka konkurrensfördelarna ligger det i tiden för företag att nischa in sig. Konkurrensen om nya kunder hårdnar, och de blir allt svårare att nå. Kunder har idag råd med lyxvaror men trenden pekar på att originalitet, identitet och status är viktigare än faktiska behov. Inom tjänstemarknaden är produkterna som skapas och konsumeras vid samma tillfälle ofta mycket homogena. Det är svårt att veta på vilka grunder konsumenten väljer leverantör eftersom det ofta finns små skillnader mellan företagen. Det är viktigt för företag att förstå och tolka kunders behov, vanor och förväntningar. Det blir allt svårare att identifiera ett vinnande koncept – individualism bryter ner förmågan att förutse trender, produktlivscyklerna blir kortare, detta tillsammans med en mer flyktig, ombytlig, rörlig, livlig, impulsiv marknad. I uppsatsen undersöks vilka designfaktorer som skapar mervärde för kunden och påverkar valet av tjänsteföretag. Syftet med uppsatsen är att med hjälp av kvantitativ undersökning analysera vad det är som gör att kunderna väljer ett visst tjänsteföretag. Samt utvärdera om det går att uppfylla kundernas olika behov genom att addera nya faktorer till en tjänst för att skapa mervärde för kunden. Med perspektiv på servicetillfället utvärderas relationen mellan kund och företag i sanningens ögonblick.</p>

<p>Swedish consulting companies within the architecture-and engineering business exist on a market that is distinguished by an increasing globalization and internationalization. The companies’ commissions are based mostly on long-term, personal clientele. These relations are threatened by a huge number of coming retirements and high employee turnover.</p><p>Consequently these companies need to improve and strengthen their relationships with existing customers, to create long-term employee and customer loyalty. The purpose of this essay was to analyze and evaluate consulting companies´ internal marketing. To elucidate the problem a survey has been performed on three architecture- and engineering business and their client. From the study, elements that are important to create loyalty have been derived. The theories are based on involvement, branding and organization.</p><p>From the result it may be concluded that all consulting companies fulfil every factor considered important to create loyalty. These factors are mainly strong brand, high involvement and customer satisfaction. The companies realize the great importance of personal relations and are aware of the strategic procedures needed to create loyalty. They have also successfully created loyal customers. However, this loyalty is directed to individuals instead of companies.</p><p>The fact that loyalty is directed to individuals instead of companies is not a big problem today, but coming retirements and high employee turnover means that in the future it will be more important to focus on creating loyalty towards the companies. To secure their future situation, the companies need to develop strategies to strengthen customer relations to the company.</p><p>The conclusion is that companies in this position need to work strategically to build their brand image. By creating a stronger brand internally the companies will maintain an attractive working place, increasing loyalty amongst employees. This in turn will strengthen the possibilities to create long-term customer loyalty towards their brand.</p><p>Suggestion to further research is to study additional factors that are important to create loyalty directed to the company.</p> / <p>Svenska konsultföretag inom arkitektur- och teknikbranschen agerar på en marknad som kännetecknas av en ökad globalisering och internationalisering. Företagens uppdrag bygger främst på långsiktiga och personliga kundkontakter som hotas av stora pensionsavgångar och hög personalomsättning. Av denna anledning behöver de nu förstärka relationerna med de befintliga kunderna samt knyta personalen till sig för att skapa både lojala anställda samt lojala kunder. Uppsatsens syfte var att analysera och utvärdera konsultföretagens interna marknadsföring. För att belysa problemet har en surveyundersökning gjorts på tre konsultföretag inom arkitektur- och teknikbranschen, samt hos deras kunder. Utifrån studien skulle faktorer härledas som är viktiga för konsultföretag för att skapa lojala anställda samt lojala kunder. Teoridelen baseras på teorier om involvering, branding och organisation.</p><p>Resultatet visar att konsultföretagen uppfyller samtliga av de faktorer som anses viktiga för att skapa lojalitet. Dessa faktorer är främst starkt varumärke, höginvolvering samt kundtillfredsställelse. Företagen inser vikten av personliga relationer samt är medvetna om de strategiska arbetssätten för att skapa lojala kunder. Studien visar att företagen har lyckats med detta. Lojaliteten är dock personanknuten och inte riktad till företagen.</p><p>Att lojaliteten är personanknuten är i dagsläget inget stort problem, men då stora pensionsavgångar väntar och personalomsättningen blir allt högre kommer det bli mer aktuellt i framtiden att fokusera lojaliteten till företaget. För att säkra situationen i framtiden behöver företagen arbeta strategiskt med att förankra kundkontakterna till företaget.</p><p>Slutsatsen är att företagen i detta läge behöver arbeta strategiskt med att bygga upp sitt varumärke. Genom att börja varumärkesuppbyggandet internt och förankra företagets identitet erhålls en attraktiv arbetsplats, vilket stärker lojaliteten hos de anställda. Vidare ökar detta förutsättningarna för att skapa en långsiktig varumärkeslojalitet hos kunderna.</p><p>Som förslag på vidare forskning gavs, att studera ytterligare faktorer som är viktiga för att skapa varumärkeslojalitet.</p>