Thesis (Ph. D. in Management)--Vanderbilt University, May 2010. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

M.B.A. / The question then arises is there not perhaps a fourth level of economic value as a result of engineering experiences for customers, and in being truly customer centric? The aim of this dissertation is to develop a model to understand the economic value in customer centric business models that engineer customer experiences through understanding customer behaviour. The aim is to: • To review current and proposed customer centric business models in various published literature in order to develop a collaborative customer centric business model. • To review literature and secondary sources to understand and discuss the economical benefits that can be derived from a customer centric business model and customer experiences. • To review customer attrition and acquisition data in contrast to customer management strategies in order to understand the economical benefit related to strategy. • To conduct an informal study using existing and proposed experiences and interactions by a variety of consumers in order to assist with the development of a customer centric business model and understand the benefits various experiences may have on the economical value to the organization.

M.B.A. / Building relationships with various groups of stakeholders is critical to an organisation’s success. One critical group of stakeholders are the organisation’s employees – the Internal Market. Internal Marketing is the key to superior service and the result is external marketing success. Internal Marketing can be defined as the promoting of the organisation and its product(s) or product line(s) to the organisation’s employees. Internal marketing as a term evolves from the notion that employees constitute an internal market within the organisation. This market needs to be informed, educated, trained, rewarded and motivated to meet external customers' needs and expectations. Understanding customer expectations is a prerequisite for delivering superior service. In order to achieve customer and organisation alignment, the organisations have to ensure that their internal processes, systems and employees are aligned to their common objectives of retaining customers and delivering superior service. Internal Marketing (IM) and Customer Service Centre (CSC) employees was chosen as the subject for this research to determine and establish the nature and perceptions of internal marketing in the service delivered by the Customer Service Centre employees from this specific Bank. IM has wide application in the service sector, but there is little empirical evidence that shows how Customer Service Centre employees perceive it. IM comprises of five components. Customer orientation and customer satisfaction involves leveraging customer relationships and their associated in-depth customer knowledge, which guides an organisation’s strategy towards meeting customer objectives. The implementation of specific corporate or functional strategies relates to the alignment, education and motivation of employees so that they can deliver on customer expectations, whilst meeting the organisation’s objectives. Employee motivation and employee satisfaction relates to attracting, developing, motivating and retaining qualified employees through job products that satisfy their needs. Inter-functional co-ordination and integration involves internal cross-functional relationships or co-operation to deliver effective service to the customers. The marketing-like approach refers to internal marketing-like activities that can influence employees to become customer-conscious and marketoriented. It is critical that employees within an organisation understand their impact and influence on other employees who are part of the complete value-chain that renders a service to the customer. This is important as employees within an organisation provide a service or support to other employees who deliver the end product or service to the customer. This study identified the employees’ perceptions of the internal marketing components within a Customer Service Centre of a leading Bank. The Customer Service Centre provides first level telephonic support to the Bank’s employees. This is a key function in order to ensure that all problems are resolved quickly so that the employees can deliver service to their customers. This research contains a background to the study, a literature review that was researched to clearly define and understand IM, it concepts, as well as related subjects to IM and call centre environments. A survey was then conducted with the CSC employees and the findings were then analysed and proposed recommendations were then concluded. The outcomes of the research identified that four of the five IM components are present in a CSC environment.

M.Comm.

No description available.

In the service industry, preferential treatment is a popular strategic approach for retaining valued customers (e.g., Barnes, 1997; Gronroos & Ojasalo, 2004; Zabin & Brebach, 2004; Lacey, Russell, Jaebeom, & Morgan, 2007; Mattila, Hanks, & Zhang, 2013). However, some researchers argue that preferential treatment can lead to customer dissention toward the service firms (Fournier, Dobscha, & Mick, 1998). Marketers are reminded not to ignore the majority of less-profitable non-VIP customers, who have potential to be developed into valuable VIP customers in the future and contribute to firms’ economies of scale, total profits and healthy long-term growth (e.g., Zeithaml, Rust, & Lemon, 2001; Johnson & Selnes, 2005). The existing literature has mostly focused on negative responses (e.g., negative word-of-mouth, brand switching) of non-VIP customers in a preferential treatment context (Feinberg et al., 2002; Lehmann, 2001). However, positive responses of non-VIP customers in a preferential treatment scheme are largely neglected. Therefore, research on the positive responses from the majority of non-VIP customers is important for building a more complete theory of preferential treatment in this regard. In the current research, benign envy refers to a positive motivation derived from envy that compels the envious person to catch up with the envied person. Non-VIP customers with benign envy are more likely to have positive responses (e.g., treatment upgrading, positive word-of-mouth) toward the desired possession of other customers (i.e., VIP treatment). Investigating the antecedents leading to non-VIP customers’ benign envy of preferential treatment in the relationship marketing domain is a critical issue. Therefore, the primary objective of the current research is to investigate the antecedent conditions leading to non-VIP customers’ benign envy in preferential treatment (i.e., VIP treatment) contexts. To achieve my research objective of predicting benign envy of non-VIP customers, I first propose a popular market factor, the VIP granting method, as an antecedent variable influencing non-VIP customers’ benign envy (criterion variable). Specifically, I propose two types of VIP granting methods which have different impacts on benign envy of non-VIP customers toward VIP treatment. The current research theorizes that ascription-oriented VIP granting methods (e.g., birthdate, gender, kinship) and achievement-oriented VIP granting methods (e.g., accumulated consumption points, accumulated mileage, stipulated deposits) determine the choice of salient dimensions for comparison between non-VIP customers and VIP customers, which in turn determines the outcome of comparison (similar vs. dissimilar). The current research further investigates the mediation roles of perceived attainability and perceived deservingness to explain the psychological mechanisms that induce benign envy in non-VIP customers (Study 1). In addition, the current research examines the impact of cultural differences (ascription-oriented versus achievement-oriented) on perceived deservingness of VIP treatment by envied VIP customers (Study 2). The current research contributes to the marketing theory of preferential treatment in four respects. First, this research operationalizes the concept of benign envy as a motivation rather than an emotion to help explain and understand the controversial concept of benign envy in previous studies (e.g., Tai, Narayanan, & McAllister, 2012; Van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2009). Second, drawing on the concepts of ascription and achievement in the discipline of sociology, the current research classifies conventional VIP granting methods into two categories based on customers’ ascribed attributes (e.g., birthdate) and achieved attributes (e.g., accumulated mileage). This classification helps both scholars and practitioners better understand the impacts of different VIP treatment strategies on non-VIP customers. Third, a theoretical model is proposed to predict benign envy. The proposed model contributes to the service literature with an in-depth understanding of psychological processes explaining how the benign envy of non-VIP customers is induced in the preferential treatment marketing context. Fourth, instead of drawing a holistic view on similarity as adopted in previous envy research and social comparison literature, the current research investigates the effects of similarity between the VIPs and non-VIPs from a more complex but realistic perspective. In this research, the upward social comparison which elicits envy was operationalized by similarity/dissimilarity along with two independent dimensions (ascription and achievement) instead of a unidimensional holistic perception. This operationalization allows the possibility that individuals will be similar in one dimension but dissimilar in another. The salient dimension of similarity between VIP customers and non-VIP customers thus can be triggered and manipulated by different VIP granting methods at the discretion of marketers. This advancement in the operationalization of similarity further contributes to envy studies and social comparison theory in the preferential treatment domain. Finally, the current research contributes to the theory of envy from a cross-cultural perspective and reveals a cultural boundary condition of the effect of perceived similarity on perceived deservingness of VIP treatment, which in turn influences the valence of envy. My findings showed that the effect of perceived similarity on perceived deservingness is more pronounced in achievement-oriented cultures than in ascription-oriented cultures. This is because ascription-oriented non-VIP customers (vs. achievement-oriented) tend to respect and value the ascribed attributes regardless of whether they are the actual beneficiary (i.e., similar to the VIP in personal salient attributes)

Relationship marketing reduces emphasis on the sales focus that organizations traditionally place on profitability, shifting towards a campaign that emphasizes customer relations and retention. The aim of this study is to determine how relationship marketing can be used to assist Botswana Railways to address issues pertaining to customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention, and at assessing how customers currently perceive the quality of service rendered to them. The extant literature emphasizes that trust is the main pillar of a relationship between customers and service providers. This relationship is nurtured though constant communication to manage expectations as well as perceptions, including therein some consideration for the seven (7) P's which are central to most service marketing concepts. Data for this study was collected by means of self-administered questionnaires which were completed by a broad spectrum of Botswana Railways customers. The questions were designed around a Likert scale technique, with the data then being processed using the Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings of the study reveal that although a reasonable number of customers are relatively satisfied with the service-delivery aspects they get from Botswana Railways, there was little to no communication between their businesses and Botswana Railways, and that the various aspects that are integral to the realization of relationship marketing do not exist in the organization. This is supported by the fact that most of the customers interviewed have revealed that there is no system of communicating carriage policies and informing them about new products. These findings suggest that a number of initiatives must be introduced to enable the organization to move from transactional-based activities to relationship-based activities. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2010

Marketing channel research has relied on a variety of theoretical perspectives to understand interfirm relationship management and governance processes between a buyer and a seller, such as a supplier and a distributor. However, conclusions arising from different theoretical perspectives sometimes can be controversial. For example, both the economic approach and the sociological approach that conventionally dominate extant marketing channel research encourage firms to commit to existing relationships. Seeking new partners increases transaction costs, and therefore can harm incumbent relationship loyalty, leading to potential exchange hazards. On the other hand, however, network theory and the resource-based view suggest that exploring new relationships can help firms gain new knowledge and capabilities that contribute to superior firm performance and competitiveness. Therefore, how marketing channel firms balance the seemingly contradictory strategies - committing to the incumbent relationship (i.e. relationship exploitation strategy) while also exploring new relationships (i.e. relationship exploration strategy) is the central theme of the thesis. By focusing on the distributor firms, the thesis investigates the issue by two essays. The first essay examines how a distributor's relationship exploration strategy and relationship exploitation strategy influence its opportunism. The research provides different boundary conditions for how to manage relationship exploration strategy and relationship exploitation strategy, including two types of uncertainties (environment uncertainty and performance ambiguity), and two types of network factors (network density and network centrality). One of the interesting findings in the first essay is that while relationship exploitation reduces opportunism as predicted, relationship exploration exerts no significant main effect. This finding demonstrates that relationship exploration strategy is not the opposite of relationship exploitation strategy; rather, it is a conceptually independent construct. The nature of relationship exploration and its effect on incumbent relationship is the subject of the second essay. A theoretical framework was thereby developed to examine how a distributor's relationship exploration strategy can enhance its own dynamic capabilities, which in turn can promote the dyadic relationship quality between the distributor and its incumbent supplier. In sum, relationship exploration is not necessarily destructive. If firms are able to develop their own dynamic capabilities in forms of absorptive capacity and innovative capability, exploring new relationships can be a constructive co-development strategy beneficial for sustaining long-term continuity in the channel dyads.

Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (MBus) -- University of South Australia, 1996