Relational,Functional Benefits and Customer Value in Large Retailing: A Cross-Format Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT

Based on the existing marketing concept on relational and functional benefits and on the retailing management of customer value, the present research empirically tests the influence of these customer benefits by providing a comparative analysis for different retailing formats, such as supermarkets and hypermarkets. Using questionnaire data for a sample of customers (N = 362), the authors developed structural equation modeling. This study identifies the factors influencing customer value, as well as the key to understand the relationships of customer benefits, customer value, loyalty, and purchase intention in the retailing service context. The contribution of the present research includes empirically testing a conceptual model, by developing a comparative analysis, along with providing some meaningful insights to retailing managers on how to strategically manage customer value variables to increase and enhance customer retention and purchase intent.     

Herding in the strategic allocations of Spanish pension plan managers

This paper empirically examines herding behavior in the strategic style allocations of Spanish pension plan managers. The study uses both the standard metric used in financial literature to capture institutional herding and a new approach to address some shortcomings of this traditional measure. Concretely, some authors have highlighted that the traditional measure does not take into account that the probability that a manager buys rather than sells a certain stock depends on both the initial holding in the stock and the asset flows. As a consequence, this study proposes a new approach, which can be applied to other financial markets and provides more accurate values of the probability to increase (or decrease) the style exposures bearing in mind the previous exposure of each portfolio. The study confirms the existence of herding behavior by using both methods. Although the strength of this behavior decreases using the new approach, the herding levels detected in this study of style herding of Spanish pension plans are higher than those of previous research analyzing portfolio holdings in other countries. Additionally, herding levels are higher in periods of low volatility while market returns does not seem to influence herding levels.     

The covariation for Banach space valued processes and applications

This article focuses on a recent concept of covariation for processes taking values in a separable Banach space $B$ and a corresponding quadratic variation. The latter is more general than the classical one of Métivier and Pellaumail. Those notions are associated with some subspace $\chi $ of the dual of the projective tensor product of $B$ with itself. We also introduce the notion of a convolution type process, which is a natural generalization of the Itô process and the concept of $\bar{\nu }_0$ -semimartingale, which is a natural extension of the classical notion of semimartingale. The framework is the stochastic calculus via regularization in Banach spaces. Two main applications are mentioned: one related to Clark–Ocone formula for finite quadratic variation processes; the second one concerns the probabilistic representation of a Hilbert valued partial differential equation of Kolmogorov type.     

Driving forces of chemical risks for the European biodiversity

In the framework of the EU-funded research project ALARM (Assessing LArge-scale environmental Risks with tested Methods), an original method combining the DPSIR (driving forces–pressures–state–impacts–responses) framework and an analysis based on the distinction between the four spheres of sustainability (environmental, economic, social and political) has been developed. This paper presents the application of this method, called “the tetrahedral DPSIR” for the identification and analysis of driving forces of environmental chemicals risks for biodiversity, in Europe. The purpose of this methodology is to help reduce the pressures on biodiversity through modifying the driving forces behind them by offering scientific advice to policy makers. We frame our analysis in the context of the current policy, namely the implementation of REACH (Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of CHemicals).     

The Role of Cultural and Symbolic Capital in Entrepreneurs' Ability to Meet Expectations about Conformity and Innovation

We conceptualize entrepreneurs' success in acquiring resources as the outcome of a socially embedded process of pursuing legitimacy, which in turn encompasses their ability to meet field incumbents' expectations about conformity and innovation. Drawing from Bourdieu's theory of practice, we specifically discuss entrepreneurs' ability, when entering a business field, to simultaneously conform to existing field arrangements (i.e., to "fit in") and to be perceived as innovators (i.e., to "stand out"). A possible paradoxical relationship marks entrepreneurs' ability to meet both of these expectations; we discuss the role of entrepreneurs' cultural and symbolic capital in this process. In addition, two contingency factors may influence how entrepreneurs' ability to fit in and stand out affects their resource acquisition. First, the contribution of the two facets of legitimacy to resource acquisition is influenced by the maturity of the field the entrepreneur enters. Second, entrepreneurs' resource acquisition may be enhanced by their ability to artfully navigate the possible conflicting demands to fit in versus stand out through impression management.     

Reconciling culturalist and rationalist approaches: leadership in the United States and Turkey

This article empirically investigated the invariance and discriminant validity of a six-factor leadership model across two very divergent cultures: the United States and Turkey. In conjunction with the rationalist approach to international management, it was hypothesized that the same range of six leadership styles would appear in both cultures. However, coinciding with the culturalist approach to international management, it was also hypothesized that managers would emphasize different styles in each culture. Turkish and US managers each completed the Leadership Effectiveness Questionnaire measuring degree of emphasis placed on six leadership styles. Results of the test of model invariance indicated that the six styles existed in both cultures; however, discriminant analysis demonstrated that the Autocratic and Consensus styles differentiated managers best. Turkish managers emphasized the Autocratic style to a greater extent and the Consensus style to a lesser extent than did US managers. Implications for international management are discussed. ©1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Evaluating horizontal mergers in the presence of price promotions

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - In this paper, I investigate the impact of a horizontal merger between firms that use price promotions. I find that after the merger, the merged firms...     

On stochastic comparisons of minimum order statistics from the location–scale family of distributions

We consider stochastic comparisons of minimum order statistics from the location–scale family of distributions that contain most of the popular lifetime distributions. Under certain assumptions, we show that the minimum order statistic of one set of random variables dominates that of another set of random variables with respect to different stochastic orders. Furthermore, we illustrate our results using some well-known specific distributions.     

What's Behind CRM Research? A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications in the CRM Research Field

The diversity of approaches to customer relationship management (CRM) brings about the need for systematic reviews. The objective of this article is to identify and categorize the most used publications in the CRM field. We conducted a bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science database. To identify and categorize the subfields, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis. The most used publications were categorized into: (1) methodology in the CRM research field; (2) relationship marketing; (3) service quality and customer loyalty; (4) implications of market-oriented strategy; (5) CRM theory and its practical implications; (6) strategic management; and (7) customer value.     

Robust XVA

We introduce an arbitrage‐free framework for robust valuation adjustments. An investor trades a credit default swap portfolio with a risky counterparty, and hedges credit risk by taking a position in defaultable bonds. The investor does not know the exact return rate of her counterparty's bond, but she knows it lies within an uncertainty interval. We derive both upper and lower bounds for the XVA process of the portfolio, and show that these bounds may be recovered as solutions of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The presence of collateralization and closeout payoffs leads to important differences with respect to classical credit risk valuation. The value of the super‐replicating portfolio cannot be directly obtained by plugging one of the extremes of the uncertainty interval in the valuation equation, but rather depends on the relation between the XVA replicating portfolio and the closeout value throughout the life of the transaction. Our comparative statics analysis indicates that credit contagion has a nonlinear effect on the replication strategies and on the XVA.