Identifying Customer Loyalty Supporting Factors in the Retail Banking Context: An Empirical Examination

This article aims to identify factors which support customer loyalty, either through dedication or by imposing constraints, and subsequently empirically analyzes the relationship between identified factors and the attitudinal and behavioral component of loyalty in the context of retail banking. Data collected from a sample of 293 retail banking customers have been analyzed through structural equation modeling. The study results suggested two constraint promoting factors and one dedication promoting factor which supported loyalty. The study contributes to knowledge by empirically testing the qualitative model and coming out with empirically proven dedication-promoting and constraint-promoting loyalty supporting factors.     

Dynamic internet pricing with service level agreements for multihomed clients

With the increase in internet coverage and the decrease in internet access price, the demand for good internet service has grown. Clients expect a guarantee in the quality of service (QoS) during internet access. In this paper, we present a model in which clients are given assurances by service providers to be able to connect to the internet and to get the bandwidth requested, and, if clients do not get the services they request, the service provider pays penalties to the clients. We consider internet clients that can dynamically connect to a number of internet service providers (ISP). When a client arrives at an ISP, he has to decide whether to accept the client, and then the price to charge from the client for the duration of its connection. Rejection of a client results in a penalty and delay in getting the requested bandwidth also incurs a penalty. We assume a Poisson arrival process with the rate of arrival sensitive to the price being charged. A client requests bandwidth for a time that is exponentially distributed, then the client is idle for a time that is also exponentially distributed; and then either the client departs or requests bandwidth again after the idle period is over. A service provider tries to maximize its income by charging appropriate prices based on its current state and deciding whether to accept more clients or not. Since penalties are imposed, such solutions also automatically balance load among service providers, and so the QoS to clients improves. We present solutions that maximize the income of service providers. The solutions are then compared using simulation. Simulation results show that our solutions significantly improve QoS of clients and increase the income of service providers as compared to a simple heuristic based solution that could otherwise be used.     

Costs associated with adverse events in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Objective:

To estimate adverse event (AE) costs in patients receiving targeted therapies for the first line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Methods:

Retrospective study based on healthcare claims data for patients with mRCC, aged ≥18 years, receiving first-line treatment with targeted therapies. AEs of interest comprised of abdominal pain, back pain, diarrhea, dyspnea, extremity pain, fatigue/asthenia, hand-foot syndrome, hypertension, lymphopenia, nausea/vomiting, neutropenia, proteinuria, and thrombocytopenia. Healthcare encounters for AEs were based on ICD-9-CM diagnosis/procedure codes on healthcare claims. AE costs were examined over a 30-day period, beginning with the date of first mention of AE, and were estimated based on the difference in total costs between patients with and without events. Drug costs of targeted agents were excluded from the analysis. Multivariate generalized linear models with a log-link function and gamma response probability distribution were utilized to control for differences in baseline characteristics between patients with and without evidence of AEs.

Results:

A total of 533 patients were included in this analysis: 418 patients with AE and 115 patients without AE. Baseline characteristics were generally similar between patients in the two groups. The GLM-based estimate of incremental 30-day post-event costs among patients with evidence of any adverse events was $9807 (95% CI?=?$4386–$22,947). For all types of adverse events examined, the estimated difference in costs between evented and non-evented patients was positive; the 95% CI did not include zero for all of the adverse events considered, except hypertension and proteinurea. Study limitations include errors of commission/omission, especially as they may affect case-finding methods that rely on ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes, as was the case in the current study.

Conclusion:

Costs associated with AEs of first-line targeted therapies are substantial in patients with mRCC. Efforts to prevent and/or better manage these events may reduce overall healthcare costs.     

Predictors of organizational commitment in India: strategic HR roles,organizational learning capability and psychological empowerment

Employee commitment continues to be one of the most exciting issues for both practitioners and academicians. Linkages in literature are found for HRM Practices, but there is a lacuna of research linking organizational commitment and strategic HR roles, psychological empowerment as well as organizational learning capability. The current study examines these linkages. Whether these variables predict organizational commitment in Indian managers or not, is also investigated. The sample size of the study comprises of 640 Indian managers. Bivariate and multivariate analysis confirms the hypotheses drawn from the literature. The paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.     

Consuming postcolonial shopping malls

Abstract

Through a naturalistic inquiry, we interpret shopping malls in India as post-colonial sites in which young consumers deploy the West in an attempt to transform their Third World identities. Shopping malls in former colonies represent a post-colonial hybridity that offers consumers the illusion of being Western, modern, and developed. Moreover, consumption of post-colonial retail arenas is characterised as a masquerade through which young consumers attempt to disguise or temporarily transcend their Third World realities. This interpretation helps us to offer insights into transitioning retail servicescapes of the Third World, which in turn helps to improve extant understanding of consumer identity and global consumer culture.     

Underdeveloped Other in country-of-origin theory and practices

Consumers and marketers employ extant sociocultural discourses to give meaning to the products they consume or sell. In this paper, we present data and analyses that illustrate the manner by which American consumers and marketers draw upon one such sociocultural discourse, development, in the context of “craft” objects. Beyond the focus on discourse, however, our intent is to apply a post-development perspective to the Otherness inherent in country-of-origin (COO) theory and practices. We critique the COO framework and see it as a ramification of, and further creator of, economic difference and hierarchy.     

Online Market Entry: The Motivations for Imitation across Retailer Types

This study examines the motivations for imitation in retailers' online channel entry. Extant literature suggests that legitimacy and efficiency are the primary motivators for firms to imitate. We develop hypotheses that center on the belief that not all firm types would use the same motivator for deciding to imitate and enter the online market; legitimacy would be the driving force for some retailer types whereas efficiency would be the motivator for others. We test our hypotheses on unique data collected from multiple sources. Our findings confirm that the motivators for imitation vary across retailer types. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A STEINDLIAN MODEL OF CONCENTRATION,DEBT AND GROWTH

Income distribution plays a crucial role in the Kaleckian models of growth. The recent US experience has seemingly turned the Kaleckian argument on stagnationism on its head. Does it, therefore, render the Kaleckian growth framework redundant? We argue that while there is a tendency towards underconsumption, there could be other counteracting tendencies like the wealth effect of the capitalists or the possibility of debt for the workers. But such a growth process, which is primarily driven by the asset price markets, is, by its very nature, iniquitous and extremely volatile and the downturn is far more severe than the normal business cycles.     

Mobilizing grassroots’ technological innovations and traditional knowledge, values and institutions: articulating social and ethical capital

The Honey Bee Network has helped provide a sort of loose platform to converge creative, but uncoordinated individuals across not only Indian states having varying cultural, linguistic and social ethos, but also in 75 other countries around the world. What the Network is trying to do in a rather quiet manner may transform the way the resources—in which poor people are rich—are used in the future. These resources are their knowledge, innovations and sustainable practices.I first argue that the classical concept of social capital does not distinguish between the trust in society created for social good versus social ‘bad’. For instance, the trust among members of the mafia and other socially undesirable networks does not constitute social capital. I am also trying to emphasize that part of social trust which is guided by higher ethical values which may not have become social norms as yet. This is being characterized as ethical capital. Finally, I conclude that the Honey Bee Network has tried to articulate the social and the ethical capital of society at the grassroots to demonstrate how local individuals and communities are trying to solve local problems without any outside help.     

Triad lessons: Generalizing results on high performance firms in five business-to-business markets

Significant differences are known to exist among organizations operating in different countries due to different national and organizational cultures, strategic orientations, and management styles. Less clear, however, is whether there are significant patterns of differences in how marketing-related factors drive performance in the most successful firms regardless of country. Building on a previous study of major Japanese firms [Deshpandé et al., 1993. Journal of Marketing 57, 22–27], an exploratory study compared samples of business-to-business relationships of Japanese, English, French, German, and US companies. We found the expected significant differences in organizational cultures, but found no country-specific slopes or intercepts in regressions relating factors such as innovativeness, organizational climate and culture, and market orientation to business performance. Successful firms appear to transcend differences in national culture and develop a common pattern of drivers of success which include primary focus on organizational innovativeness, a participative work climate, and an externally oriented organizational culture.