Background After a successful launch in early 2007 Pond’s Age Miracle, Unilever Vietnam’s anti-aging skincare product, is now experiencing falling sales and a declining market share having failed to complete its mission of counter-attacking its main competitor – P&G’s Olay Total Effect. This predicament poses a question of how Unilever Vietnam can improve market performance of this product. Purpose To determine Pond’s Age Miracle customer perceived value and propose recommendations on how to improve it. Method A combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches was pursued. In-depth interviews with consumers were used to discover relevant attributes of anti-aging skincare. A consumer survey was employed to measure relative importance and relative performance of the identified attributes – a basis for determining Pond’s customer perceived value. Findings, Analysis and Conclusion Customer perceived value of Pond’s Age Miracle was found to have a negative character on the entire market scale and across most of the listed consumer groups. Recommendations A re-launch of the upgraded version of Pond’s is suggested to maintain the current consumers and recruit the potential anti-aging skincare users.

Purpose – The purpose of this research was to explain the determiners that influence customer loyalty in rural grocery stores with a comparison of Sweden and Spain. Design/methodology/approach – This is a quantitative research using a multi-cross sectional design with an explanatory approach. The data was collected with a questionnaire survey that was distributed using a face-to-face and online method. Findings – The findings of the research revealed significant support for customer perceived value, satisfaction, trust and commitment to influence customer loyalty. The research also confirms that there are differences in customer loyalty regarding rural grocery stores between Sweden and Spain. Research limitations/implications – This thesis extend previous research by testing an adapted conceptual model of customer loyalty in a context of rural grocery stores and explain the determiners of customer loyalty in Sweden and Spain. The limitations of the research are discussed and directions for future research areas are suggested. Practical implications – The study provides rural retailers with suggestions for marketing strategies related to the determiners (i.e. customer perceived value, satisfaction, trust and commitment) that might influence customer loyalty and attract the rural customers. Originality/value – This research adds to the current stream of rural research by investigating how customer loyalty can enhance profitability. This research has originality since it makes a comparison of two countries, which can be of great interest and inspiration for how to maintain and develop rural grocery stores. Lastly, the research is significant as it provides implications to rural retailers as well as Provincial Governments.

During recent years corporations have been focusing on revenues rather than profits. This led to decreased margins and unstable financial performances. To increase profits, new pricing strategies have emerged. One promising pricing strategy that focuses on increasing profits is value-based pricing, which constitutes the monetising of customer perceived value. The purpose of this paper is to identify what factors influence customer perceived value in the global high-tech service industry. With this knowledge corporations can draw precise evaluations of customer perceived value and hence utilise value-based pricing in the best possible way. A qualitative method was used to study the case of MB Services, the service division of the Meyer Burger Technology Group, and the global high-tech service industry represented at the Hannovermesse 2011, an industrial exhibition in Hanover, Germany. The empirical data collected was analysed together with the theoretical framework. The findings are that customer perceived value of high-tech services is influenced by the overall benefits the customer can obtain from the service, the sacrifices in terms of costs the customer has to pay for the service, competitors’ offerings, different segments, subjective judgments of distinctive people within a corporation, and the industries’ and customers’ level of maturity. Customer perceived value is an underresearched subject, which requires further investigation.

Enterprises can adopt branding extension strategies to decrease the expense on developing the awareness of new products as well as to attract consumers. However, not all of them succeeded. From previous researches, most of them focus on brand extensions of tangible products and regard Fit as the main driver to the success of brand extensions. Overall, the higher the Fit between parent brands and extension products, the more possibly brand extensions succeed. However, if Goal Congruency can be a substitute factor for Fit between them, maybe the different goals they possess offer more value to Consumers. Thus, I extend the scope of brand extensions to service industry, studying on the effect of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ on brand extensions and further on the interaction of ¡§goal congruency¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨. This research uses situation experiment to manipulate well-known brand to extend new service products. In experiment 1, the real enterprises Friday restaurant and 104 job bank separately launch new extended products to study the effects of ¡§goal congruency" on ¡§perceived value¡¨,¡¨ brand extension attitude¡¨ and ¡§consumers¡¦ mood¡¨. In experiment 2, it adds one more factor, advertisement framing, to study the two- way interaction of consumers¡¦ mood influenced by ¡§goal congruence¡¨ and ¡§advertisement framing¡¨ on ¡§brand extension attitude¡¨. First, it shows the incongruent brand extensions are perceived higher brand extension evaluation than congruent ones. Second, when compared with negative advertisement framing, positive advertisement framing with incongruent brand extensions receives higher brand extension evaluation. The consuming goal can be an important factor on evaluation of brand extensions.

Abstract Nowadays¡Mclinics are facing much heavier pressure than ever before¡O While under the National Health Insurance Program¡Mclinics are also faced with a dramatic increase in rivalry and a steep decline in outpatient population¡F how to obtain a competitive advantage has become the priority of each clinic¡O This study adopted literature reviews which focus on Relationship Quality¡]Trust¡BCommitment¡BSatisfaction¡^¡BPerceived Value and Customer Retention¡Mwhich employed to evaluate the empirical data collected from the 199 valid questionnaire samples¡O¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨¡B ¡§Patient satisfaction¡¨¡B ¡§Service quality¡¨¡B ¡§Cost effectiveness¡¨¡B¡§Medical service¡¨and ¡§Basic living¡¨are motives elicited from the data¡Mand analyzed by using principal component analysis¡Mvalidity analysis and reliability analysis¡O The results are as follows¡O ¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨ motivation has an obvious positive effect on the females¡O The education levels of outpatients has a correlation with ¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨ and ¡§Patient satisfaction¡¨ where the motivation constructs become stronger¡O In addition¡M¡§Considerate toward patients¡¨ and ¡§Medical service¡¨ motivations are correlated with the young adults¡O With the multivariate demographic data for reference¡Msustainable actions can be incorporated into the strategy management process for community clinics¡O The clinics can then possess key success factors from mastering outpatient preferences and clinic traits. Keywords¡G Perceived Value¡MRelationship Quality¡]Trust¡BCommitment¡BSatisfaction¡^¡M Customer Retention

This study is based on the Zeithaml¡¦s Means-End model. Moreover, this study examines how the on-line travel store image affects the perceived value of consumer. It adopts to evaluate the effect of perceived value by different store image dimensions, such as the store factors, the service, the design of websites, the merchandise, the promotion, the satisfaction after sale. The finding of the research is as followed. 1. The variables of age and income of demographic statistics can cause the difference of perceived value. 2. Different usage habits cause the difference of perceived value. 3. The attributes of store factors and merchandise of the on-line travel store image affect significantly to the perceived quality. 4. The attributes of the merchandise and the satisfaction after sale of the on-line travel store image has a negative affection on the perceived risk. 5. The perceived quality has a negative affection on the perceived risk. 6. The perceived quality has a positive affection on the perceived value; on the contrary, the perceived risk has a negative affection on perceived value.

As health care services get more competitive, the health care practitioners and academic researchers are increasingly interested in exploring how patients perceive their care quality and value, form their satisfaction levels and generate their behavioral intentions. Outpatient services provide an alternate setting for patients to have initial contact with health care providers. Besides, two-thirds of Taiwan¡¦s total NHI expenditure is spent on outpatient services. Thus, it is of great significance to note outpatients¡¦ perceptions of health care services. Drawing from marketing literature, perceived value can be viewed as the consequence of service quality and as the antecedent role of satisfaction and behavioral intentions. This study conducted empirical test an integrative model of customers¡¦ perceptions of outpatient services based on the established relationships among four key constructs (service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions). First, this study conducted focus group discussion to identify the factors of quality of outpatient services as follows: (1) the personal interaction between medical staff and patients, (2) the assurance from medical staff, (3) the speed of timely access to a service, and (4) tangible aspect. Later, structural equation model was used to examine the research model which addresses the hypothesized relationships among the four constructs of interest in the health care industry. The main findings are summarized as follows: (1) perceive value had a greater direct influence on behavioral intentions than did service quality and patient satisfaction; (2) service quality had both an indirect effect (through perceived value and satisfaction) and a direct influence on behavioral intentions; and (3) both service quality and value are antecedents of patient satisfaction; the most important determinant of patient satisfaction is quality of health care. Finally, this dissertation ends with a discussion of the results and implications for the managerial practices, followed by suggestions for future research.

Enterprise 2.0 has become popular in firms. Many Enterprise 2.0 researchers and practitioners have recognized the importance of benefits and costs in using Enterprise 2.0 by individuals. However, their effects on adoption intention in enterprise contexts are not discussed. To investigate this issue, we proposed a model to understand the intention to adopt Enterprise 2.0. Three factors are identified based on value-based adoption model (VAM), namely perceived benefits, perceived costs, and perceived value. An empirical survey was conducted to collect data. 500 samples were collected within 18 days. Of which 150 was valid. This yielded a response rate of 30%. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to analyze the data and verify the model. The result showed that perceived value not only played an important role in mediating the relationship between perceived benefits and costs, and adoption intention but it also exerted a significant effect on intention to adopt Enterprise 2.0. Moreover, we identified major factors that may affect perceived value. We find that both perceived benefits and perceived costs have significant impacts on perceived value, and cause intention to adopt Enterprise 2.0. Implications of such finding are discussed.

This thesis aims at studying customer perceived value in language test training industry through an empirical research on four dominate IELTS training institutes in China. Customer questionnaires are used to get customers’ preferences about language test training service, as well as their perceived value of each institute. Based on that, a measurement of each institute’s performance according to the customer preferences is conducted. After analysis, the strength and weakness of each institute is clearly showed, followed by relative explanations and suggestions for their weaknesses.

Whether they are renting a neighbor’s used tools, using a bike sharing program to get to work rather than owning a car, or streaming a movie online through Netflix, consumers are forgoing traditional ownership of goods in favor of gaining mere access to them. This behavior reflects a change in the way consumers view possession and ownership. While it is known that consumers become attached to possessions and that possessions mean a great deal to the identities and lives of consumers, it is unclear how consumers feel about goods which they can possess and use but do not own. Specifically, it is unknown whether consumers perceive and become attached to accessed goods in the same way they do owned goods. The answer to this question has strong implications for marketing theory and practice. This study found no significant difference in the perceived value of the good or the perceived value of the possession experience between owned and accessed goods. However, psychological feelings of ownership were found to affect these measures both directly and as a mediating factor between the method of possession and the perceptions of value. This relationship was not found to behave in the same way for both hedonic and utilitarian goods. Utilitarian goods appeared to benefit slightly more than hedonic goods from feelings of ownership. This research has strong implications for theory, including the development of a new conceptual model that ties together disparate research areas, the lack of differences in ownership effects between owned and accessed goods, and the important role played by psychological ownership in shaping consumer perceptions. This research also has strong implications for managers relating to consumer perceptions of owned vs. accessed goods, the importance of generating feelings of psychological ownership within customers, and the differential effect this process has on the perception of utilitarian products.