Measuring customer experience in service: A systematic review

The aim of this systematic review is to identify how customer experience in the service sector has been measured in relevant publications in the marketing field. A sample of 33 papers was collected from two electronic databases—the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) and Scopus (Elsevier)—covering a large number of publications. After analyzing the articles and reviewing the customer experience literature, the following are our main contributions: (i) clarification of the concepts that appear in the literature review of customer experience in the service sector; (ii) classification of the variables, scales, and constructs related to customer experience in service; (iii) demonstration of the service experience as the preponderant construct that is used to measure customer experience in service; and (iv) proposal of a new dimension—the concept of ‘pre-experience’—to measure customer experience in service. These contributions can provide a more solid basis for measuring customer experience in service.     

Herbert J. Davenport on Conspicuous Consumption and the Economics of Feminism

This article analyzes Herbert J. Davenport’s discussions of conspicuous consumption and feminism. Even though these (typically) Veblenian topics represent two “episodes” in many respects disconnected with the central body of Davenport’s theoretical interests, the assessment of Davenport’s views on these matters enlarges our knowledge of the development of his thought. Our analysis shows how Davenport can be enrolled among the forerunners of the modern theory of positional goods. Moreover, our article offers some new findings on the impact of Veblen’s ideas on one of his closest students at the Chicago University.     

A Stochastic Model with Penalized Coefficients for Spatial Price Comparisons: An Application to Regional Price Indexes in Italy

This paper focuses on a new strand of research that uses stochastic approach for making spatial price comparisons. We propose a novel method to account for the presence of spatial dependencies in consumer prices and consequently in price indexes by imposing penalization conditions on the estimation of traditional CPD models leading to the spatially-penalized country-product-dummy (SP-CPD) model. The paper proposes an appropriate estimation strategy, which enables us to simultaneously estimate all the parameters in the model, including the smoothing parameter of the penalization term instead of determining it externally. In order to estimate spatial price indexes for areas lacking in price data, we suggest applying the kriging methodology to the price indexes obtained from the SP-CPD model. This new approach is applied to official Italian CPI data for constructing regional spatial price indexes for 2014. The results show that price levels are higher in the Northern-Central regions than in the South.     

What is the CSR’s Focus in Healthcare?

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been the subject of several academic contributions, but in the health sector the development of an interest in this subject is very recent. Although many practices in healthcare are already socially responsible, progressing from a series of socially responsible behaviours to a socially responsible organization entails a more consolidated awareness of the health sector’s mission and the needs of its participants. In this paper, we will review the different studies published that address the relationship between the healthcare sector’s corporate responsibility and society, with the aims of individuating the prevailing foci that are emerging and categorizing the proposed contributions according to these foci: social responsibility and organization; social responsibility and social impact; social responsibility and competitiveness. Finally, the paper finishes with a personal definition of CSR and its correlated ethical roots.     

Inbound open innovation in biopharmaceutical firms: unpacking the role of absorptive capacity

In this study, we extend recent attempts to clarify the role of antecedents of absorptive capacity in realising purposive inflows of external knowledge in the biopharmaceutical industry. By assuming that internal R&D resources contribute to absorptive capacity as a multidimensional concept, we propose a framework for the integrated analysis of the interactions between the different antecedents of absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation of biopharmaceutical firms. Our analysis relies on a set-theoretic approach and uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study a set of selected Italian biopharmaceutical firms. The analysis reveals that biopharmaceutical companies with a diversified R&D business domain and an extended entrepreneurial scientific network are likely to adopt an inbound open innovation strategy.     

The Effects of Multiple Health and Nutrition Labels on Consumer Food Choices

Consumers face an increasing availability of information on health and nutritional aspects of foods, especially on food package labels. Previous research has identified that this information is positively valued, but the effect of presenting several items of information simultaneously is not well understood. We conduct a choice experiment to identify the effects of multiple health and nutrition information labels for two products representing a healthy and less healthy food choice. Although our consumers attach positive utility to most of the individual labels evaluated here, the simultaneous presence of more than one label only has positive impact on utility in one of nine possible cases. Therefore, promotion of multiple labels should not be considered beneficial a priori either from a regulatory or business perspective. In addition, results show that consumers show a higher willingness to pay for nutrition and health labels for less healthy products.     

Does nutrition information on food products lead to healthier food choices?

This paper examines the link between nutrition label use and consumers’ healthier food choices. Label use is considered for the two main types of labels currently found on food products; nutrition facts panels and nutrition/health claims. This link is tested using a three-equation multivariate probit model. Data were obtained from an ad hoc survey conducted in two medium-sized Spanish cities. The results indicate that the use of nutrition information by consumers, whether this involves the fact panel or the claim labels, does influence consumer choice of healthier food products to the same extent, although different types of consumers use the various types of labels considered.     

Trends and Drivers in CSR Disclosure: A Focus on Reporting Practices in the Automotive Industry

This work focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices of multinational corporations. Based on a longitudinal study of CSR reports of companies operating in the automotive industry, the paper offers a detailed study of how disclosure practices are changing and which principles and approaches influence and drive the development of such disclosure. Based on a four-year report-based study, the findings enable us to identify three main trends in the CSR disclosure strategy of automotive firms. First, in line with the mainstream CSR literature, the present study confirms the trend towards the increasing environmental and social accountability. Second, it adds evidence to the emerging debate regarding the harmonization and standardization of reporting and discusses this aspect by mentioning the standards as exerting some normative pressures within the sector. Finally, it provides evidence on specific links emerging between issues and actors. The implications of this evidence contribute to opening up the debate on CSR disclosure to the possibility of combining the institutional lens with a strategic approach that captures the materiality considerations of CSR disclosure.     

Filling vacancies: an empirical analysis of the cost and benefit of search in the labour market

This paper investigates empirically the factors that affect the cost–benefit ratio of employers’ search. The empirical analysis is based on a small Dutch data set containing individual information on filled vacancies. It is found that firms that use advertisements during recruitment are sensitive to labour market conditions; their search cost per applicant rises (drops) in tight (slack) labour markets because of the diminished ability of advertisements to generate applicants in tight labour markets. Furthermore, it is found that the high search cost incurred by posting identical vacancies is more than compensated for by the benefits from having a larger flow of applicants.     

Innovation in Agro-Foods: A Comparative Analysis of Value Chains

ABSTRACT

The innovative activity of firms has been linked to the introduction of a new product or process associated with the development or application of new technological knowledge. New products generally contain innovative techniques that increase the quality of goods. New processes are based on the use of new technologies to increase the efficiency of production. However, the exclusive link between technology and innovation has been criticized for various reasons. It provides a restrictive vision considering innovation as part of the manufacturing and services sectors. Innovation in firms affects not only the development and application of new technologies but also the adoption and the reorganization of business processes, internal organization, external relations, and marketing. The literature in the field of management emphasizes the importance of integrating product, process, and organization to translate new ideas into market success. Thus, to obtain a complete picture of the innovative efforts of firms in the agro-food industry, the concept of innovation has been extended to both technological and nontechnological innovations. This analysis provided evidence of innovations used by agro-food firms. It also identified latent demand for future innovation.