專屬資產是交易成本理論中最具有預測力的構念，過去專屬資產構念主要是應用在B2B交易情境，本研究欲將專屬資產所衍伸的概念應用在廠商與消費者間的交換關係，並修正目前專屬資產相關量表的一些問題，包括了對專屬資產的衡量並沒有一致性的作法、衡量方式沒有回歸到專屬資產最原始的定義，以及有些研究用單一題項或是代理變數來衡量會產生效度上的問題，因此研究一依循Churchill（1979）及Hinkin（1998）建議的量表發展程序而發展出能應用到B2C情境的消費者專屬資產量表，本研究以兩階段問卷共計1453位受訪者為施測對象，透過探索性及驗證性因素分析發展出六個構面-「特有使用知識專屬資產」、「特有實體設備/軟體或服務專屬資產」、「忠誠客戶優惠專屬資產」、「特有人際關係及溝通效率專屬資產」、「心理層面認同專屬資產」、「特有無形社會壓力專屬資產」共計19題之消費者專屬資產量表，資料顯示量表具有良好的信、效度及因素結構。 研究二為整體模型架構實證，透過文獻整理釐清專屬資產及移轉成本的相同點、相異點及兩者間的關係，並將專屬資產與移轉成本放入消費者信任-滿意-忠誠回應架構中，結果發現專屬資產為移轉成本的前置變數，且專屬資產及移轉成本皆為消費者滿意與忠誠回應間之重要中介變數。 研究三為比較本研究發展的專屬資產量表（AS量表）與傳統專屬資產量表（TAS量表）在構念預測力上是否有顯著差異，結果發現五個產業中有兩產業（專櫃化妝品業與進口車業）AS量表預測力顯著高於TAS量表，三產業（銀行業、美髮業、精品業）無顯著差異。 / Specific asset is the most predictable construct in transaction cost theory. The construct of specific asset has been most commonly used in B2B context in the past. This research aims to extend the application of specific asset to B2C context, and also solve the following 3 issues regarding the present specific asset scales. First, there is no consent about the measurement of specific asset. Second, the definition of specific asset is misunderstood. Third, some researches use single item or proxy variables to measure specific asset, which leads to potential construct validity problems. Therefore, study 1 follows Churchill (1979) and Hinkin (1998) to develop the consumer-specific-asset scale. This study uses two stages of empirical data and collects 1453 valid samples. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, this study develops a 19-item instrument, including six types of consumer-specific-asset: 1) specific knowledge, 2) specific equipment/software or service, 3) loyalty program, 4) specific relationship and communication, 5) identification, 6) invisible social pressure. The analyzed data shows that this scale has reliability, validity and good factor structure. Study 2 seeks to provide an empirical test of the structural model. The author identifies the similarities, differences and the relationship between specific asset and switching cost first, then put the specific asset and switching cost into the trust-satisfaction-loyalty response model. The results show that specific asset is the antecedent of switching cost, and both specific asset and switching cost are the important mediators between consumer satisfaction and loyalty response. Study 3 focuses on comparing the predictability between the new specific asset scale (developed from study 1) and traditional specific asset scale. The results suggest that among the 5 industries this study chose, the new specific asset scale predicts better in the 2 industries (cosmetic and car) and no significant difference in the 3 industries(bank, hair stylist and luxury goods).

Submitted by Mateus Rabello (mateus_rabello@hotmail.com) on 2011-08-24T03:24:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado - Mateus Rabello.pdf: 425155 bytes, checksum: eb391a2f1f35ae446621fecfaf956f8b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado (andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2011-08-25T13:20:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado - Mateus Rabello.pdf: 425155 bytes, checksum: eb391a2f1f35ae446621fecfaf956f8b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-08-25T13:40:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado - Mateus Rabello.pdf: 425155 bytes, checksum: eb391a2f1f35ae446621fecfaf956f8b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-04 / Em modelos de competição de preços, somente um custo de procura positivo por parte do consumidor não gera equilíbrio com dispersão de preços. Já modelos dinâmicos de switching cost consistentemente geram este fenômeno bastante documentado para preços no varejo. Embora ambas as literaturas sejam vastas, poucos modelos tentaram combinar as duas fricções em um só modelo. Este trabalho apresenta um modelo dinâmico de competição de preços em que consumidores idênticos enfrentam custos de procura e de switching. O equilíbrio gera dispersão nos preços. Ainda, como os consumidores são obrigados a se comprometer com uma amostra fixa de firmas antes dos preços serem definidos, somente dois preços serão considerados antes de cada compra. Este resultado independe do tamanho do custo de procura individual do consumidor. / In models of price competition, positive consumer search cost alone does not lead to a price dispersion equilibrium. Dynamic models with switching cost, on the other hand, consistently generate this well-documented feature of retail prices. Even though both literature are vast, very few models attempted to put both frictions together. This paper presents a dynamic model of price competition where identical consumers face both search and switching cost. Equilibrium prices display price dispersion. Moreover, becouse consumers have to commit to a sample size before prices are set, then only two prices will be considered before each purchase. This result is independent of the size of the individual search cost.

Chapter 1: Patents and Entry Competition in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Role of Marketing Exclusivity Effective patent length for innovation drugs is severely curtailed because of extensive efficacy and safety tests required for FDA approval, raising concern over adequacy of incentives for new drug development. The Hatch-Waxman Act extends patent length for new drugs by five years, but also promotes generic entry by simplifying approval procedures and granting 180-day marketing exclusivity to a first generic entrant before the patent expires. In this paper we present a dynamic model to examine the effect of marketing exclusivity. We find that marketing exclusivity may be redundant and its removal may increase generic firms' profits and social welfare. Chapter 2: Why Authorized Generics?: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations Facing generic competition, the brand-name companies some-times launch generic versions themselves called authorized generics. This practice is puzzling. If it is cannibalization, it cannot be profitable. If it is divisionalization, it should be practiced always instead of sometimes. I explain this phenomenon in terms of switching costs in a model in which the incumbent first develops a customer base to ready itself against generic competition later. I show that only sufficiently low switching costs or large market size justifies launch of AGs. I then use prescription drug data to test those results and find support. Chapter 3: The Merger Paradox and R&D Oligopoly theory says that merger is unprofitable, unless a majority of firms in industry merge. Here, we introduce R&D opportunities to resolve this so-called merger paradox. We have three results. First, when there is one R&D firm, that firm can profitably merge with any number of non-R&D firms. Second, with multiple R&D firms and multiple non-R&D firms, all R&D firms can profitably merge. Third, with two R&D firms and two non-R&D firms, each R&D firms prefer to merge with a non-R&D firm. With three or more than non-R&D firms, however, the R&D firms prefer to merge with each other.

[pt] Custos de troca existentes em certas indústrias são capazes de fornecer poder de mercado para as firmas que os detêm. O que se espera é que estes custos diminuam a concorrência entre as firmas uma vez que consumidores estarão mais inelásticos a variações de preço. No entanto, o que se nota neste trabalho é que dependendo da maturidade do mercado, firmas podem estar concorrendo por market share mais agressivamente para posteriormente aproveitar o custo de troca e o respectivo poder de mercado gerado por este custo. O que se observa no modelo é que se o custo de troca for diminuído em um momento de concorrência para obtenção de market share, preços podem aumentar. Este estudo analisa empiricamente a ocorrência da lei da portabilidade numérica no mercado de telefonia focando os efeitos na concorrência. / [en] Existing switching costs in certain industries are capable of providing market power to the holding firms. It s expected that these switching costs reduce the competition between the firms, as the consumers would likely to be more inelastic to the price variations. However, what s noticed in this paper is that depending of the market maturity; firms could be greedily competing for the market share to posteriorly take advantage of the switching cost. What s noticed is that if the switching cost is reduced in a competition moment of obtaining the marked share, prices would raise. This paper focuses the empirical study of the occurrence of the number portability in the phone market.

This thesis considers two kinds of problems, motivated by practical applications in data center operations and maintenance. Data centers are the brain of the internet, each hosting as many as tens of thousands of IT devices, making them a considerable global energy consumption contributor (more than 1 percent of global power consumption). There is a large body of work at different layers aimed at reducing the total power consumption for data centers. One of the key places to save power is addressing the thermal heterogeneity in data centers by thermal-aware workload distribution. The corresponding optimization problem is challenging due to its combinatorial nature and the computational complexity of thermal models. In this thesis, a holistic theoretical approach is proposed for thermal-aware workload distribution which uses linearization to make the problem model-independent and easier to study. Two general optimization problems are defined. In the first problem, several cooling parameters and heat recirculation effects are considered, where two red-line temperatures are defined for idle and fully utilized servers to allow the cooling effort to be reduced. The resulting problem is a mixed integer linear programming problem which is solved approximately using a proposed heuristic. Numerical results confirm that the proposed approach outperforms commonly considered baseline algorithms and commercial solvers (MATLAB) and can reduce the power consumption by more than 10 percent. In the next problem, additional operational costs related to reliability of the servers are considered. The resulting problem is solved by a generalization of the proposed heuristics integrated with a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach, where demand predictions are available. Finally, in the second type of problems, we address a problem in inventory management related to data center maintenance, where we develop an efficient dynamic programming algorithm to solve a lot-sizing problem. The algorithm is based on a key structural property that may be of more general interest, that of a just-in-time ordering policy. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Data centers, each hosting as many as tens of thousands of IT devices, contribute to a considerable portion of energy usage worldwide (more than 1 percent of global power consumption). They also encounter other operational costs mostly related to reliability of devices and maintenance. One of the key places to reduce energy consumption is through addressing the thermal heterogeneity in data centers by thermal-aware work load distribution for the servers. This prevents hot spot generation and addresses the trade-off between IT and cooling power consumption, the two main power consump tion contributors. The corresponding optimization problem is challenging due to its combinatorial nature and the complexity of thermal models. In this thesis, we present a holistic approach for thermal-aware workload distribution in data centers, using lin earization to make the problem model-independent and simpler to study. Two quite general nonlinear optimization problems are defined. The results confirm that the proposed approach completed by a proposed heuristic solves the problems efficiently and with high precision. Finally, we address a problem in inventory management related to data center maintenance, where we develop an efficient algorithm to solve a lot-sizing problem that has a goal of reducing data center operational costs.

Submitted by CARLA MARIA GOULART DE MORAES (carlagm) on 2015-05-20T12:37:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 AlexiaHentges.pdf: 872410 bytes, checksum: e46c7736e872378a9b72ac7365dbe338 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-20T12:37:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AlexiaHentges.pdf: 872410 bytes, checksum: e46c7736e872378a9b72ac7365dbe338 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-13 / BB - Banco do Brasil / Muitos estudos já foram realizados em marketing de relacionamento no intuito de fortalecer os laços entre clientes e empresas. Nesse sentido a relação entre duas empresas (cliente/fornecedor) ou mercado B2B tem recebido atenção na literatura de marketing. Estes consumidores empresas costumam diferenciar-se nesta relação tendo em vista que na maioria das vezes suas aquisições de produtos e serviços são muito mais expressivas, tanto em quantidade quanto em valores. Assim estas relações são objeto deste estudo e foram analisadas no mercado bancário, buscando explicar a influência dos antecedentes da lealdade para as empresas clientes de bancos. Para isto foi proposto um modelo no qual foram estudados como antecedentes da lealdade: satisfação, comprometimento afetivo, valor percebido e confiança; e algumas variáveis moderadoras, como: custos de mudança, relacionamento com o gerente, preferência de canais, crédito, dependência e imagem, que foram avaliadas na relação direta com a lealdade e ainda como moderadoras da relação satisfação - lealdade. Foi utilizada a técnica de regressão linear múltipla para explicar a interação destes antecedentes na relação com a lealdade. A pesquisa se baseia em um survey do tipo transversal, sendo analisada uma amostra de 128 empresas do Rio Grande do Sul, que responderam a um questionário estruturado contendo as escalas dos constructos e as questões sobre o perfil das empresas. Os resultados principais mostraram que as variáveis que mais influenciaram a lealdade das empresas com seu principal banco foram: satisfação, comprometimento afetivo, imagem e dependência. E nos efeitos moderadores foi possível observar a interação dos custos de mudança, do relacionamento com o gerente e da dependência do cliente com a variável satisfação na sua relação com a lealdade, sendo que cada um desses efeitos foram testados de modo independente. Os coeficientes negativos para os termos de interação, representando os efeitos moderadores, revelaram que clientes que possuem altos custos de mudança, alta dependência ou um bom relacionamento com o gerente no seu principal banco não precisam ter uma satisfação tão elevada para manterem-se leais a este banco. / Many studies have been made about relationship marketing with the intention of straightening the bonds between companies and clients. But the relationship between two companies (client/supplier) or market B2B is worth of distinction. These consumer companies usually stand out at this relation, in the sense that most of the time their products and services purchases are greater, in amount and price wise. Therefore, these relationships are the objects of this study and have been analyzed in the banking market, trying to explain the influence of the predecessors of loyalty to companies that are bank clients. For that matter, it was proposed a model in which was studied as predecessors of loyalty: satisfaction, affective commitment, perceived value and trust; and some moderational variables as: switching cost, relationship with managers, channel preference, credit, dependency and image, that were evaluated in the direct relation with the loyalty and as moderators of the satisfaction ? loyalty relationship. It was used the multiple linear regression technique to explain the interaction of these predecessors in the relation with the loyalty. The research was based in a survey of the transversal kind, being analyzed a sample of 128 companies from Rio Grande do Sul, that answered a structured poll containing the constructors scales and the questions about the profile of these companies. The main results showed that the variables that were more influential in the companies loyalty with their main business bank were: satisfacion, affective commitment, image and dependency. And in the moderation effects it was possible to observe the intention of the change costs, the relationship with the manager and the client dependency with the satisfaction variable in the relation with the loyalty, being that each one of these effects were tested in an independent way. The negative coefficient in the interaction terms, representing the moderational effects, revealed that clients that have high change cost, high dependency or a good relationship with the manager at their main bank don't need to have a high satisfaction to keep themselves loyal to that bank.

台灣行動通信市場自從1997年開放自由競爭以來，市場發展迅速，到2003年用戶數到達最高峰，共2,509萬戶，普及率達111%，但2004年以來用戶數即出現下降趨勢，市場呈現飽和現象。在這樣競爭的環境下，各電信業者勢必要想辦法保有自己公司的忠誠顧客，並努力促成其他業者的顧客轉換過來，藉此來提高或維持自己的市場佔有率與獲利。 因此本研究由顧客滿意度和顧客忠誠度出發，研究滿意度對忠誠度的關係，並導入轉換成本之概念，研究轉換成本對忠誠度之影響，並探討轉換成本對於滿意度與忠誠度之間關係的干擾效果。 本研究以電信業為例，針對台北市使用2G、3G行動通訊服務之消費者進行研究，以便利抽樣之方式，在三大商圈共發放300份問卷，並回收有效問卷159份，經統計資料分析，本研究發現： (1) 顧客滿意度對顧客忠誠度具有正向關係。 (2) 轉換成本對顧客忠誠度具有正向關係。 (3) 顧客滿意度與忠誠度間之關係，會受到轉換成本之影響。 根據上述之結論，本研究建議電信業者可藉由提升特定項目之滿意度，來創造顧客忠誠，並靈活運用轉換成本之概念，藉由提高財務轉換成本，以降低舊客戶轉換到其他業者的意願；另一方面則創造比同業更低的程序轉換成本和不確定性成本，讓其他業者之用戶在考慮轉換過來時，不會面臨到很大的轉換成本。

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2016-04-05T23:41:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Anna Sofia Costa Neri.pdf: 1757298 bytes, checksum: b4e53d5be3ed8bb584b6b5da02489f69 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-05T23:41:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Anna Sofia Costa Neri.pdf: 1757298 bytes, checksum: b4e53d5be3ed8bb584b6b5da02489f69 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-07 / The service sector has shown steady expansion in the Brazilian economy, reflecting directly expressive financial results for the country. The health insurance sector is inserted in this context and in the face of disability in the provision of public health services to the population in a universal way, it presents itself as an indispensable element in the framework currently in force in Brazil. The sector's growth has provided an intense competition between operators of health plans by requiring these companies seek to capture and keep customers loyal to their services, thus remaining competitive. However, a considerable amount of customer complaints of this market is presented by the National Health Agency. Identifying the relationship between perceived quality, perceived value and cost of change as trainers concepts of customer loyalty, this study sought to understand that relationship with users of supplemental health services. These, in turn, provided information by completing a validated questionnaire that was used to build a theoretical model analyzed by structural equation modeling with the use of partial least squares technique (PLS). The theoretical framework used in this paper presents the trainers concepts and customer loyalty influencers. The results demonstrated an understanding of users and service aspects of the study, both in its relationship to the health insurance, as in its relationship with the hospital use most with your plan. Relations between the concepts presented in the model were mostly positive, except for the influence of the value perceived by the customer in relation to the health plan on loyalty to the hospital, and the influence of the value perceived by the customer in the hospital on customer loyalty to the health plan. / O setor de serviços tem apresentado constante expansão na economia brasileira, refletindo diretamente em resultados financeiros expressivos para o país. O setor de saúde suplementar está inserido nesse contexto e, diante da incapacidade na prestação de serviços públicos de saúde à população de forma universal, se apresenta como um elemento indispensável no quadro atualmente vigente no Brasil. O crescimento do setor proporcionou a competitividade entre as operadoras de planos de saúde, exigindo que estas empresas busquem captar e manter clientes leais aos seus serviços, consequentemente, mantendo-se competitivas. Entretanto, um considerável volume de reclamações dos clientes desse mercado é apresentado pela Agência Nacional de Saúde Suplementar. Identificando a relação entre qualidade percebida, valor percebido e custo de mudança como conceitos que influenciam a lealdade do cliente, este trabalho buscou entender a referida relação junto aos usuários dos serviços de saúde suplementar. Estes, por sua vez, forneceram informações por meio do preenchimento de um questionário que foi utilizado para construção de um modelo teórico analisado por meio da modelagem de equações estruturais com a utilização da técnica dos mínimos quadrados parciais (PLS). O suporte teórico utilizado neste trabalho apresenta os conceitos formadores e influenciadores da lealdade do cliente. Os resultados demonstraram o entendimento dos usuários quanto ao atendimento dos aspectos estudados, tanto em sua relação com o plano de saúde, como em sua relação com o hospital que mais utiliza com seu plano. As relações entre os conceitos apresentados no modelo foram, em sua maioria, positivas, com exceção da influência do valor percebido pelo cliente em relação ao plano de saúde sobre a lealdade ao hospital, e a influência que do valor percebido pelo cliente no hospital sobre a lealdade do cliente ao plano de saúde.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka framtidsutsikter och utmaningar för kontaktlös betalningsmetod som är NFC-baserad. Detta mynnade ut i frågor som undersökte kring varför enbart ett fåtal banker valt att satsa på kontaktlösa betalkort, vilka utmaningar som NFC-baserade betalningar står inför i den svenska marknaden och även vilka framtidsutsikter den kontaktlösa betalningsmetoden har i den svenska betalningsbranschen. För att svara på dessa frågor, tillämpades en kvalitativ fallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Två respondenter från varsin bank som infört kontaktlös betalningsmetod i Sverige intervjuades, likaså en respondent från en bank som inte hade infört kontaktlös betalningsmetod i Sverige och ytterligare två respondenter från en annan bank som inte infört kontaktlösa betalningsmetoder i Sverige. Utöver detta, intervjuades även en forskare från Sveriges riksbank och en konsult som arbetar inom ett forum för kontaktlös betalningsmetod. Studien påvisade att anledningen till att ett fåtal banker erbjudit kontaktlös betalningsmetod till sina kunder var till följd av att Sverige varit relativt sena med att byta från magnetremsa som betalningsmetod till chip och PIN, vilket gjort att man ogärna investerade i kontaktlös betalningsmetod. Utmaningar som kontaktlös betalningsmetod står inför är att se till att infrastrukturen utökas i Sverige samt informera kunder om kontaktlös betalningsmetod. Framtidsutsikterna för kontaktlös betalningsmetod är positiva och tanken bland flera aktörer är att kontaktlös betalningsmetod ska vara väldigt utbrett i Sverige år 2020. / The purpose of this research was to investigate future prospects and challenges regarding contactless payment method which is based on NFC. These lead to the formulation of questions which researched why only a few banks had chosen to employ contactless payment cards, which challenges that NFC-based payments are facing in the Swedish market, and also which future prospects the contactless payment method has in the Swedish payment market. In order to answer these questions, a qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews was utilized. Interviews were conducted with two respondents from respective banks which had introduced contactless payment in Sweden while additional interviews were conducted with one respondent from a bank which had not introduced contactless payment in Sweden and two respondents from another bank which had not introduced contactless payment methods in Sweden. In addition to this, one respondent from the central bank of Sweden and one consultant working within a forum regarding contactless payment have been interviewed. The study showed that the reason to why few banks have offered contactless payment method to their customers was due to that Sweden had been relatively late in regards to changing from magnetic strip as a payment method to chip and PIN, which resulted in that the market participants did not wish to invest in the contactless payment method. Challenges which the contactless payment method is facing, is to make sure that the infrastructure will be increased in Sweden, and inform customers about the contactless payment method. The future prospects for the contactless payment methods are positive and the intention among several market participants is that the contactless payment method will be very widespread in Sweden 2020.

以往針對客戶流失與轉換行為所研究的對象，多偏重以消費品產業為主，較少探討工業品產業客戶流失對於企業經營所造成之影響。本研究針對工業品產業中之營建工具業，探討其客戶流失之原因及行為表現，並期望透過相關研究，使業者可預先發現可能流失之客戶，並做為後續發展客戶慰留專案之參考。 本研究可分為五部份，第一部份首先將回顧與本論文有關之文獻。第二部份則提出本研究之研究架構及研究方法。第三部份則以SPSS軟體進行實證研究，統計方法係利用敘述性統計分析、因素分析、信度分析、單因子變異數分析及區別分析等進行資料分析。第四部分為討論前述之研究發現，並將其與消費品市場之客戶流失行為模式相比較。最後則為結論與建議。 研究結果發現：1.流失原因可萃取出產品及服務因素及價格因素兩大構面。轉購原因可萃取出服務及品牌策略、產品策略及價格策略三大構面。2.流失行為係以降低購買頻率及轉換新的供應商兩種方式表現。3.營建工具業與服務業客戶轉換行為模式有明顯差異。4.購買持續時間較長之客戶，對於送貨時間太久之重要性認知程度與購買持續時間較短之客戶有明顯差異。產品價格太高及採購頻率兩項變數可作為判別流失客戶是否會轉換供應商之模式。但由於區別力不甚良好，故並不適合以此兩項變數作為判斷預測之基準。 / A great deal of effort has been made on the causes of customer churn in the consumer products industry. What seems to be lacking, however, is this subject in the industrial products industry. This study will focus the discussion on the causes of customer churn and customer switching behavior in the construction products supplier, in order to provide guidance for developing retention and loyalty programs. This study can be divided into five parts; the first part reviews the literature on this subject. The second part introduces the methodology to be utilized throughout the study, first with structural diagram of study followed by study methods, and object in study. The third part utilizes using SPSS for Windows as the tool to conduct statistical analysis, including description statistical analysis, reliability test, Discriminant Analysis, Factor Analysis, and One-way ANOVA. The fourth part discusses the experimental result of this study, and compares it with customer switching behavior in the consumer products industry. The last part is a conclusion of the thesis. The results of this study show as follows. 1. The main causes of customer churn are product and service oriented or price oriented. The main causes of customer switch are service and brand strategy, product strategy or price strategy. 2. Customer switching behavior includes decreasing purchased frequency and transferring to a new service provider. 3. Customer switching behavioral model in the service industry is different from the model in the construction products supplier. 4. The customers who have longer purchasing duration have higher recognition of importance for deliver time. Purchasing frequency and product price are not the best variables to predict if the customers would churn or not.