Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-05-05T13:49:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Simoni Fernanda Rohden.pdf: 1016001 bytes, checksum: f67a85c9f67d9d7ae6114be7ed5473f0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-05T13:49:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Simoni Fernanda Rohden.pdf: 1016001 bytes, checksum: f67a85c9f67d9d7ae6114be7ed5473f0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-05 / Nenhuma / A presente pesquisa apresenta uma investigação sobre falhas em serviços e problemas enfrentados pelos consumidores nas compras virtuais, a fim de avançar o campo de estudos de marketing de serviços. O acesso à Internet tem crescido nos últimos anos, principalmente nos países emergentes como Brasil, Índia e China, consequentemente, o comércio online também tem experimentado um aumento consistente nesses países. Tendo em vista a escassez de pesquisas que analisem as falhas mais frequentes nas compras pela Internet e que comparem os consumidores no âmbito dos países emergentes, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa foi analisar os antecedentes e consequentes da satisfação pós-recuperação de falhas em situações de compra online em diferentes contextos culturais. A compreensão do comportamento do consumidor nessas situações, a identificação dos aspectos culturais que influenciam nesse processo, e sua relação com o tipo de reação apresentada foram também intuito desse estudo. Foi proposto um modelo teórico para identificar os principais constructos antecedentes, consequentes e moderadores da satisfação. A fim de testar empiricamente este modelo foi realizada uma pesquisa do tipo survey com uma amostra de 582 consumidores que enfrentaram falhas no contexto online no Brasil, Índia e China. Os dados foram analisados utilizando a técnica estatística de Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (MEE). Os resultados demonstraram que nesse contexto a satisfação do consumidor pós-recuperação da falha virtual impacta positivamente nas intenções de recompra e reduz a propensão do consumidor a assumir comportamentos reclamatórios tanto diretamente com a empresa, reclamando a terceiros, ou fazendo boca-a-boca negativo. Dentre os antecedentes, a percepção de justiça interpessoal foi a que apresentou maior impacto na satisfação do consumidor. Com relação às dimensões culturais, a orientação humana foi identificada como um moderador entre a satisfação do consumidor e o comportamento reclamatório. Além disso, levando em consideração as variáveis contextuais, a experiência prévia com o site apresentou impacto mais forte nos constructos satisfação e reclamação, enquanto a gravidade da falha possui impacto mais forte e negativo nas intenções de recompra. / This research presents an investigation about service failure and problems faced by consumers when shopping virtually, in order to extend the field of study on service marketing. Considering the growth in the access to internet, mainly in emergent countries such as Brazil, India and China, the online trade has also experienced a consistent increase within these countries. Having in mind the lack of studies that analyze the most frequent failures when shopping through the internet, and compare consumers of emergent countries, the main goal of this research is to investigate the influence of cultural dimensions in the answers consumers offer in service failure situations. The comprehension of consumer behavior in these situations, the identification of cultural aspects which have influence in the process, as well as its relation to the reaction of consumers, were also the aim of this study. A theoretical model was proposed to identify the main antecedent, consequent and moderator constructs of satisfaction. In order to test this model empirically a survey was performed with a sample of 582 consumers who have faced online failures in Brazil, India and China. The data was analyzed using the statistic technique Structural Equations Modeling (SEM). The results demonstrated that in this context consumer satisfaction after virtual failure recovery has a positive impact on repurchase intentions and reduces the propensity to engage in complaint behavior, such as voice, third-party or private response. Among the antecedents, the perception of interpersonal justice presented the greatest impact on consumer satisfaction. Considering cultural dimensions, humane orientation has been identified as a moderator between consumer satisfaction and complaint behavior. Besides of that, taking into consideration the contextual variables, previous experience with the website has shown a stronger impact on satisfaction and complaint constructs, while failure severity has a stronger and negative impact on repurchase intentions.

It is common practice for service providers, such as cell phone network providers, to utilise relationship marketing strategies in an effort to retain their customers and thereby to increase profitability. Customers with relationship intentions are willing to respond to such efforts while other customers will refrain. Service failures negatively impact relationship marketing efforts and thus complicate service providers’ relationship-building efforts. Therefore, service providers endeavour to restore customers’ post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty through service recovery efforts to retain their customers. However, the influence that customers’ relationship intentions have on this process has not been considered. Previous research on relationship intention in South Africa focussed only on developing a valid and reliable relationship intention measurement scale. For this reason, the primary objective of this study was to determine the influence of relationship intention on customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention following service recovery within the cellular industry. Supporting the primary objective, a model depicting the influence of respondents’ relationships intentions on satisfaction, loyalty and retention following service recovery was developed. Furthermore, a model depicting the interrelationships of the relationship constructive dimensions of the service recovery process uncovered during this study was also developed. Through non-probability convenience sampling of adults 18 years and older (residing in Johannesburg and the surrounding residential suburbs) who have used a cell phone network provider for three years or longer, 605 respondents completed interviewer-administered questionnaires. Demographic and patronage information, together with respondents’ relationship intentions, attitudes towards complaining, customers’ complaint behaviour, expectations of service recovery, perceived service recovery as well as satisfaction, loyalty and retention following service recovery, were obtained. Results indicated that no associations exist between respondents’ levels of relationship intention and their relationship lengths, as well as whether they had contractual agreements with their cell phone network providers. It is therefore recommended that instead of using relationship length or contractual agreements, cell phone network providers should use customers’ relationship intentions to identify customers for relationship marketing purposes. Findings from this study furthermore include that respondents’ relationship intentions influence their propensities to complain, as well as the likelihood that they will voice a complaint regarding dissatisfactory service delivery. It is therefore recommended that cell phone network providers use the opportunity to identify customers with relationship intentions through customers’ complaint behaviour. This study found that respondents’ relationship intentions influence both their expectations of cell phone network providers to take service recovery action, as well as their perceptions of service recovery. Respondents’ relationship intentions also positively influence their satisfaction, loyalty and retention following service recovery. Based on these findings, it is recommended that cell phone network providers should always take corrective action following service failures (such as billing errors in this study), preferably by including at least an acknowledgement, apology, explanation and rectification of the problem as part of the service recovery efforts. Such a combination of service recovery efforts will increase the satisfaction, loyalty and retention of customers with higher relationship intentions. From the results it can be concluded that customers’ relationship intentions influence their behaviour with regard to propensity to complain, voicing, expectations of service recovery action, perceptions of service recovery, as well as satisfaction, loyalty and retention following service recovery, when service failures occur. The proposed model developed from these findings results in the recommendation that cell phone network providers should view the service recovery process as an interrelated process influenced by customers’ relationship intentions. Cell phone network providers should note that customers with higher relationship intentions will attempt to salvage the relationship when service failures occur, which contributes to their satisfaction, loyalty and retention following service recovery. This study contributes to establishing relationship intention theory by confirming the positive influence of customers’ relationship intentions on constructive behaviour when service failures occur. Moreover, practical recommendations concerning cell phone network providers’ response to billing errors are proposed. Future research should address the methodological limitations of this study by using probability sampling, and data should be collected from all South African provinces. Real-time service failures should be considered as opposed to the scenario-based approach used in this study. Important influences on customer behaviour when service failures occur, such as the perceived severity of service failure, service failure type, perceived justice and attributions, should also be considered with regard to their influence on the constructs of this study. Lastly, the antecedents of or differences with regard to customers’ relationship intentions based on personality, generational cohort or population group deserve further attention to establish relationship intention as study field within the domain of relationship marketing. / PhD (Marketing Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014.

Cloud computing provides access to on-demand computing resources and storage space, whereby applications and data are hosted with data centers managed by third parties, on a pay-per-use price model. This allows organizations to focus on core business goals instead of managing in-house IT infrastructure.                     However, as more business critical applications and data are moved to the cloud, service availability is becoming a growing concern. A number of recent cloud service disruptions have questioned the reliability of cloud environments to host business critical applications and data. The impact of these disruptions varies, but, in most cases, there are financial losses and damaged reputation among consumers.         This thesis aims to investigate the threats to service availability in cloud computing and to provide some best practices to mitigate some of these threats. As a result, we identified eight categories of threats. They include, in no particular order: power outage, hardware failure, cyber-attack, configuration error, software bug, human error, administrative or legal dispute and network dependency. A number of systematic mitigation techniques to ensure constant availability of service by cloud providers were identified. In addition, practices that can be applied by cloud customers and users of cloud services, to improve service availability were presented.

Inappropriate managerial responses to critical service events (CSEs) in restaurants contribute to an increased rate of customer defection and restaurant failure. Some restaurant managers lack employee-training strategies that may enhance service recovery from CSEs. This case study explored what employee-training strategies participants deemed essential to enhance service recovery to CSEs. The population for this study was restaurant managers from a U.S. regional chain in South Carolina with at least 3 years of employee-training experience. Organizational learning theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with restaurant managers and an exploration of company archival documents related to CSEs. Using Yin's 5 step data analysis method (i.e. compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding), 3 major themes emerged: customer needs and requests, which included the importance of listening to customers and affirming their requests; employee actions and attitudes, which included opinions about the ideal employee demonstrating a great attitude when correcting mistakes; and training, which included multiple methods to improve employee performance through continuous training. Recommendations for action included how to instruct employees to listen, apologize, solve problems, and thank customers. Restaurant managers may apply these results to improve service quality and customer experiences. Social implications include strategies to create positive experiences for employees and customers enhancing community employment and business sustainability.

Inom forskningsområdet tjänståterställning arbetar forskare och företag med att identifiera servicefel samt hitta effektiva sätt att lösa kunders problem. Trots detta skapar klagomålshantering problem för företag och det finns många utvecklingsmöjligheter. Att få kunskap om hur kunder upplever klagomålssituationer fysiskt och psykiskt kan därmed vara betydelsefull information för företag. Inom detta forskningsområde saknas det innovativa fältstudier som involverar verkliga beteenden. Det saknas även fältexperiment med elektrodermal aktivitet (EDA) som mätinstrument. EDA mäter autonom sympatisk upphetsning som är integrerad med emotionella och kognitiva tillstånd, vilket möjliggör mätning av individers omedvetna känslor. Därav grundas denna studie på ett fältexperiment där deltagarnas fysiska och emotionella reaktioner har kunnat dokumenteras och göras kvantifierbara genom EDA. Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur kunders emotionella och fysiska reaktioner påverkas när de klagar på en produkt medan de exponeras för fysiska temperaturstimuli. Denna studie har ett positivistiskt forskningsperspektiv, en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi och en deduktiv ansats. Det empiriska materialet består av insamlad data från enkäter och EDA-band. Resultatet från studien visar att ju allvarligare ett problem är, desto större negativ påverkan har det på kundnöjdhet, lojalitet samt word of mouth (WOM). Det visar även att det finns ett samband mellan interpersonell värme, kundnöjdhet och lojalitet, men inte WOM. Resultaten indikerar även att fysisk värme inte kan dämpa emotionella reaktioner samt att fysisk kyla har en effekt på emotionella reaktioner. Slutligen kan det konstateras att fysisk värme ökar interpersonell värme samt att fysisk kyla inte ökar interpersonell värme. / Within the research area of service recovery, researchers and companies try to identify service errors and find effective ways to solve customers' problems. Despite this, complaint handling creates problems for companies and there are many opportunities for development. Gaining knowledge about how customers experience complaint situations physically and psychologically can therefore be important information for companies. In this area of research, there is a lack of innovative field studies involving real-world behaviors. There is also a lack of field experiments with electrodermal activity (EDA) as a measuring instrument. EDA measures autonomic sympathetic arousal that is integrated with emotional and cognitive states, allowing measurement of individuals' unconscious emotions. Hence, this study is based on a field experiment where the participants physical and emotional responses have been documented and made quantifiable through EDA. The purpose of this study is to explain how customers emotional and physical reactions are affected when they complain about a product while exposed to physical temperature stimuli. This study has a positivist research perspective, a quantitative research strategy and a deductive approach. The empirical material consists of collected data from surveys and EDA measurement. The results from the study show that the more serious a problem is, the greater the negative impact is on customer satisfaction, loyalty and word of mouth (WOM). It also shows that there is a relationship between interpersonal warmth, customer satisfaction and loyalty, but not WOM. The results also indicate that physical warmth cannot dampen emotional responses and that physical cold has an effect on emotional responses. Finally, it can be stated that physical warmth increases interpersonal warmth and that physical coldness does not increase interpersonal warmth.

Word of mouth has been considered a big factor for why brands do not need to make excessive marketing efforts, due to consumers recommending their products or services to other consumers through WoM. Given this thesis explores the relationship between WoM, complaints and repurchase intentions of consumers when it comes to fast-food restaurants, the WoM mostly is that of a negative aspect. This to see how the consumers feel about the area of fast-food and how they themselves spread their Word of Mouth, how and if they complain and what their intentions are on repurchasing. The empirical findings were obtained using a qualitative method. There were 25 interviews conducted with different consumers from three different countries. Later these findings were analyzed with the theoretical framework of this thesis.  The conclusion of the thesis is that the consumers are more likely to spread WoM, both positive and negative depending on their experience with the brands. As the theory mentions, it is the experience that the consumer is after. However, also that if a product is excessively marketed, and that the product does not live up to said marketing, how dissatisfied the consumer becomes with it. / <p>Då kursen bedrevs via zoom, så hade vi presentationen via zoom också. </p>

Background: Swedish healthcare is frequently claimed to be top class. A view not only communicated by politicians and the media, but also shared by an average citizen - for decades. Certain statistical indicators seem to support this: Sweden historically scores very high in life expectancy, stroke and cancer survival and infant mortality. At the same time, it is being reported that Swedish healthcare is suffering from a number of problems. While statistics looks reassuring, it focuses on results rather than processes, and does not take patient perceptions into account. Patient perspective seems to be somewhat overlooked in general in favour of more operations-focused research.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to address the shortage of relevant literature and describe patient experience surrounding service failure in the fairly unique institutional context of Swedish public healthcare. Patient experience will include patient perceptions on service failure and recovery, as well as patient expectations and post-failure responses.   Method: The study employed a qualitative approach with 13 semi-structured interviews.   Conclusion: The study located reasons for service failure, which are fairly consistent with both previous research on this matter and the reported struggles of Swedish healthcare. It was also found that service recovery is not a common occurrence. Determinants for patient expectations and variability in patient post-failure responses were also uncovered.

近年來，企業開始利用聯合品牌策略、以合作的方式有效提升自身的品牌權益；學術界亦有許多關於聯合品牌的研究，但多專注於產品導向品牌應用該策略的效益，少有以服務導向的聯合品牌為研究對象。本研究從消費者的觀點探討服務業進行聯合品牌策略時，其本身與合作夥伴不同層級的品牌權益組合與聯合品牌服務成效對於企業本身、合作夥伴以及聯合品牌品牌權益的影響。 　　本研究透過4 x 2準實驗設計的方式進行假說驗證。首先，透過前測篩選出消費者心中最熟悉且兩者之間適配度最高的雞排店與手搖飲料店做為研究情境的素材；進一步操弄四種品牌權益組合（高高、高低、低高與低低）以及聯合品牌的服務成效（成功與失敗），形成八種實驗問卷，共回收257份有效樣本；最後以配對樣本T檢定以及雙因子變異數分析做為研究方法進行資料分析，本研究的研究結果證實： 一、品牌權益組合對於聯合品牌的品牌權益具有顯著影響： 　　當二母品牌皆具高品牌權益時，該聯合品牌品牌權益將低於合作前二母品牌的品牌權益，反之，聯合品牌的品牌權益將比合作前二母品牌都高；當合作前兩母品牌的品牌權益為一高一低時，聯合品牌的品牌權益將介於二者之間。 二、品牌權益組合對於各母品牌有顯著影響： 　　當企業與具備較高品牌權益的夥伴合作時，該企業的品牌權益將於合作後提升，反之則下降；當兩企業皆具高品牌權益時，合作後二者品牌權益皆會下降，反之，合作後兩者的品牌權益皆會上升。 三、聯合品牌服務成效對於各母品牌與聯合品牌的品牌權益有顯著的正向效果。 四、品牌權益組合與聯合品牌服務成效之間不具備交互效果。 / Recently, the companies start utilizing the co-branding strategy to efficiently enhance their brand equity. This concept also appear on the academic paper, which focus on most product-intention brands but seldom service-intention ones. This research is to clarify the effects of brand equity mixes and service effects to the mother brands and the co-brand after the co-branding strategy in the aspect of consumers. This research examines the hyposises by 4 x 2 quasi-experiment design. First, after executing the pre-test, this research picked fried-chicken and soft drink stores as the matirials of experiment situation. Then, this research designed 8 versions of questionnaire to manipute 4 brand equity mixes and the service performance of the co-brand. The amount of efficient samples is 257 and the research methods are pair-T test and two-way ANOVA. The research results are: 1. Brand equity mixes have significant effects of the co-brand’s brand equity: When two mothers’ brand equity is both high, the co-brand will be lower than its mothers; in contrast, when they are both low, it will higher than them. When one mom is high and the other is low, the brand equity of the son will be between the two. 2. Brand equity mixes have significant effects of the mother brand’s brand equity: When the company co-operate with the one with higher brand equity, its brand equity will rise after co-operating. When both companies are high, they will drop after co-branding; in contrast, when both are low, they will rise. 3. Service performance of the co-brand has significant positive effects to all parties. 4. Brand equity mixes and the service performance of co-brand have no interaction.