Crowded identity: Managing crowdsourcing initiatives to maximize value for participants through identity creation

In this article, we consider crowdsourcing from the consumer perspective. Specifically, we examine the identity value (i.e., sense of self) that consumers accrue by participating in creative crowds. How can managers structure crowdsourcing initiatives to maximize value for participants through identity creation and expression? We strive to answer this question first by examining the different types of crowdsourcing initiatives from a value co-creation perspective. Then we evaluate how consumers construct identities through consumption and review the literature on identity theory. Finally, we link the identity type—personal, extended, or social—to the management of crowdsourcing ventures and offer suggestions for practitioners.     

Aligning corporate transfer intentions and subsidiary HRM practice implementation in multinational corporations

We study HRM practice implementation in subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) and diverge from extant research by focusing on alignment, which we conceptualize as the degree to which subsidiary implementation of HRM practices corresponds with the subsidiary-specific transfer intentions of corporate headquarters. In explaining alignment we examine different aspects of the headquarters–subsidiary relationship, namely, the extent of formal control, interpersonal relationships and subsidiary strategic HRM capabilities. Based on a sample of 105 subsidiaries from 12 Nordic MNCs, the results highlight the importance of expatriates, trust and the strategic HRM capabilities of the subsidiary HR function. We conduct post hoc analyses to shed further light on (i) the relationship between our independent variables and the two separate components of alignment – corporate intentions and subsidiary implementation, and (ii) two different types of misalignment – excessive and insufficient.     

Tourism and regional income inequality: Evidence from China

This study examines the role of tourism development in reducing regional income inequality in China. First, the theoretical foundation for how tourism affects regional income inequality is discussed. Second, based on the conditional convergence framework, this study proposes a spatiotemporal autoregressive model to capture spatial and temporal dependence as well as spatial heterogeneity. Tourism development is introduced as a conditional convergence factor in an attempt to examine whether the convergence speed is accelerated by regional tourism development. Third, the effects of international and domestic tourism in narrowing regional inequality are compared both globally and locally. The empirical results indicate that tourism development contributes significantly to the reduction of regional inequality, with domestic tourism making a greater contribution than international tourism.     

组织员工授权知觉与员工服务质量关系探析——基于典型相关分析

以国家会议中心各部门的一线服务人员及其所服务的客户作为主要调查对象，259份有效问卷作为样本，利用SPSS20.0对调查结果进行典型相关分析，探析了员工授权知觉与服务质量的关系。结果表明：组织员工授权知觉和员工服务质量之间存在正相关关系，员工对自己工作能力的信心强度和对自己是否拥有工作自主权与独立权的感知程度更能有效的影响到客户对员工服务质量的评价，在提高员工授权知觉的情况下，员工的服务质量会得到提高，并凸显在服务的效率和可靠性这两方面。对一线服务员工进行适当的放权，使其授权知觉水平提高，有利于增强员工自信心，树立员工的责任感和价值感，提高员工服务工作的效率及可信赖性。     

以企业文化为导向的星级酒店CRM的实证研究

酒店业的高速发展以及顾客的期望值不断提高,如何利用CRM系统来提升客人的满意度,以达到提升酒店竞争力是酒店需要关注的,本文对客户关系管理(CRM)理论研究和国内星级酒店CRM中存在的问题进行分析,最后以三亚丽思卡尔顿酒店基于企业文化创建的CRM系统值得我国国内酒店学习和借鉴。     

Decomposing Impression from Attitude in Relationship Management Outcomes

This study expands relationship management theory by testing the linkages between perceived relational quality, organizational impression, and attitude in affecting the behavioral intention of customer public of five major banks. A survey of 1,178 banking customers showed that perceived relational quality, organizational impression, and individual attitude, significantly affected supportive behaviors. Organizational impression was found to be almost three times more determinant than perceived relational quality in affecting individuals' attitudes, and subsequently, their supportive behaviors. By highlighting the role of organizational impression, linkages between the relationship management perspective and other theoretical frameworks, such as image repair, become apparent; bearing implications for scholarship and practice.     

The role of customer gratitude in making relationship marketing investments successful

This paper recognises that customer loyalty is important for many competitive organisations, and that retail firms make investments to build and maintain loyal relationships with their existing and potential customers (e.g. loyalty programs). However, there has been little focus on the mechanisms by which these relationship investments operate to achieve customer loyalty. This paper examines one mechanism, namely customer gratitude, which works to make a firm’s relationship marketing investment a success or a failure. Using data from 1600 undergraduate students, this study empirically confirms the mediating role of customer gratitude between the customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customers’ perceptions of the value of the relationship with the firm. Further, a significant moderating effect of perceived benevolence on the relationship between customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customer gratitude was identified. For theorists, this customer gratitude model offers a better psychological explanation of how relationship marketing investments operate to improve the value that customers place on their relationships with retailers. Our research suggests that managers should invest resources to stimulate customer gratitude in order to build strong customer–seller relationships.     

Trade Credit in the Crisis： Selling or Financing？

The work investigates the use of trade credit in Italy for reasons of a financial nature. The analysis considers Italian small and medium-sized enterprises （SMEs） and investigates, over the years of 2009-2011： the existence of functional relationships between the incidence of trade receivables and payables and corporate profitability; the existence of interdependencies between trade credit policy and trade debt policy; and the coexistence of interchangeable and complementary conditions between trade debts and bank loans and other sources of funding. To verify the research hypotheses, linear regression models on a yearly basis are used and these models are put under observation over the years of 2009-2011. We can conclude that there are interdependencies between trade credit policy and trade debt policy and that trade credit is a source of flexible way of financing, also available in periods of crisis, which has a positive effect on the profitability of SMEs and can be utilized as a complementary and substitute source of financing to bank loans.     

Credit lender–borrower relationship in the credit card market – Implications for credit risk management strategy and relationship marketing

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008, precipitating the international financial crisis. Many questioned the banks’ risk-taking credit system. Understanding credit risk and how the credit system functions may provide knowledge on managing credit, to avoid another such international crisis. We study the credit card field and present a pricing decision model for managing credit risk. Recent credit lenders’ portfolio re-pricing practices call for immediate attention to the credit lender–borrower relationship and relationship marketing. A literature review and recent phenomena in the credit card industry reveal that the lenders’ re-pricing strategy negatively affects the credit lender–borrower relationship and relationship marketing. Thus, we introduce a pricing decision model incorporating the lenders’ re-pricing strategy and the credit lender–borrower relationship. Further, we discuss the implications of, and the role of marketing in, credit risk management and the implications of relationship marketing for credit lenders in foreign markets, including the US market.     

物流整合与信息共享对企业绩效的影响——关系满意的中介效应

通过问卷调查对中国130家物流外包企业进行数据收集,本研究利用结构方程模型,实证分析了物流整合与信息共享通过关系满意对运营绩效的影响,以及关系长度对关系满意与运营绩效间关系的调节效应.研究表明物流整合促进企业绩效,同时与信息共享通过关系满意促进运营绩效,而关系满意对运营绩效有显著影响,且这种作用会受到合作关系的历史长度的影响.