The effect of experiential value,perceived quality and customer satisfaction on customer lifetime value： An example using Star Cruises

The current study represents an attempt at experiential value, perceived quality and customer satisfaction influence on customer lifetime value. The sampling frame consisted of Star Cruises purchases in Taiwan. The authors have collected yield 268 questionnaires, by screening out 13 questionnaires, including those missing value or incomplete answer, and finally a usable sample of 255 questionnaires were utilized in this study. The results show that experiential value, perceived quality and customer satisfaction have positive effects to customer lifetime value. Especially, experiential value has the strongest direct effect. Therefore, if resources are limited, the manager should focus on shaping the experiential value to increase customer lifetime value. Implications for marketing theory and practitioners are discussed, and possible directions for future research are sketched.     

An Empirical Examination of the Form of Relationship Between Sustainable Tourism Experiences and Satisfaction

This paper problematizes the terms “sustainable tourism and satisfaction”. It conceptualizes sustainable tourism as a future trend in tourism and argues that although sustainable tourism and satisfaction frequently function as a means of tourist evaluation and experience for attractions, their social significance extends far beyond current tourism planning. This paper uses empirical material from 642 tourists who had sustainable tourism experiences and gathers samples from several natural resource conservation zones in Taiwan. If tourists feel a sense of novelty about a tourist destination, they may increase their sustainable experience and further enhance their willingness and satisfaction toward sustainable tourism. In addition, sustainable tourism studies suggest that novelty enhances emotional excitement, which in turn leads to more overall valuable evaluations and higher satisfaction. This paper tests both direct and indirect mechanisms simultaneously using structural equation modeling methods. The results support the predictions.     

The effects of promotional package frames and price strategies on inaction inertia

Inaction inertia is the phenomenon in which people are less likely to accept a less attractive opportunity after having missed a relatively more attractive one. Previous studies have mainly explored the inaction inertia effect on single products or services, whereas this study explored how the promotional frames of sales packages influence inaction inertia toward the individual items within the sales packages and the inaction inertia effect of the target product under different price strategies. On the basis of the cost assignments of mental accounting and comparisons of the current inferior promotion with missed superior promotion, this study found evidence that when consumers encounter a freebie (bundle) condition, they assign a higher cost to the focal (supplementary) product and a lower cost to the supplementary (focal) product. Therefore, consumers who have missed a freebie (bundle) promotion exhibit lower (higher) inaction inertia toward the focal product, but higher (lower) inaction inertia toward the supplementary product. Applying a similar internal mechanism to pricing strategies, the findings also show that when consumers encounter a two‐component sales package with a surcharge promotion using a partitioned price (vs. a price discount promotion using an all‐inclusive price), they assign a higher cost to the base product and a lower cost to the surcharge. So, consumers who have missed the surcharge (vs. price discount) promotion show higher inaction inertia when the surcharge of the current inferior opportunity is salient, but show less inaction inertia when it is not salient. Moreover, the percent of a surcharge as a part of the total package value moderates the impact of promotional price strategy frames on inaction inertia. These findings have significant implications for both theoreticians and practitioners interested in inaction inertia, promotional frames, and price strategies.     

Effects of game‐product congruity on in‐app interstitial advertising and the moderation of media‐context factors

Advertising has become one of the major sources of game apps revenues and interstitial ads, in particular, are the most used monetization method among the types of in‐game mobile ad formats. Interstitial ads overlaid on top of a mobile game app have more obvious advertising intent and a higher degree of forced exposure and perceived intrusiveness. This study examined how the degree of congruity (high vs. moderate vs. low) between the promoted products in interstitial ads and the mobile game app environment affects consumers’ responses. The moderating effects of media‐context factors (i.e., excited– or calm–happiness game types and game immersion) were further assessed. The results of two experiments revealed that game‐product congruity lead to better consumers’ responses toward ads and advertised products. The positive effects of game‐product congruity were more salient when consumers played calm–happiness games and were less immersed in the game. Theoretical implications on integrating perspectives across disciplines such as schema theory, happiness, and immersion within the media‐context framework, as well as practical suggestions are discussed.     

Managing resource interaction as a means to cope with technological change

Recognizing that firms cannot avoid interacting with others, this research investigates how firms cope with technological change by managing resource interaction in a network setting. The paper is based on a longitudinal case study utilizing a focal net perspective to explore technological change in the optical media recording industry. The findings show that the development of AMI ability (the ability to acquire, mobilize and integrate resources) is a crucial mechanism for managing technological change successfully. Exercising AMI ability is a dynamic relationship management process and involves establishing, developing, ending, and reactivating business relationships, and illustrates the importance of network competence.     

Inter-firm relational resources in cloud service adoption and their effect on service innovation

This study examines (1) inter-firm relational resources for cloud service adoption and (2) their effects on service innovation. A research model and the related hypotheses are developed based on resource-advantage (R-A) theory that combines inter-firm relational resources identified in theoretical and empirical research as important antecedents of cloud service adoption and its effect on service innovation. This study collects data from 165 managers from service firms in Taiwan. The results show that resources, including reliability, cost, and compatibility significantly affect a firm’s cloud service adoption. Furthermore, the adoption of cloud service significantly contributes to service innovation. The findings add to the current understanding of service innovation in two important ways. First, drawing on R-A theory, this study is among the first attempts to identify inter-firm relational resources (reliability, cost, compatibility, and customer orientation) for cloud service adoption and their effect on innovation performance. Second, this study introduces cloud services as effective technological platforms for a firm and its business partners to share, integrate, and reciprocate information, knowledge, and experience for service innovation.     

A predictive investigation of first-time customer retention in online reservation services

This paper reports a predictive investigation of first-time customer retention in an emerging service business—online reservation services. We work with an online platform that enables customers to make reservations for various types of restaurants. With numerous first-time users on the platform, the focal company is eager to effectively identify recurring customers. However, the business problem is challenging due to that each first-time customer has one and only one booking record hinders the use of well-established marketing models that demand multiple booking records for a customer. By analyzing more than 100,000 observations, we extract booking-related features that are useful in predicting first-time customer retention. Our feature extraction is potentially applicable to other service sectors (e.g., hotel, travel) with similar booking information fields (e.g., reservation timing, party size). We further conduct a comparative study in which surprisingly, the seemingly simplistic generalized additive model (GAM) for our test cases consistently outperforms computationally intensive ensemble learning methods, even the cutting-edge XGBoost. Our analysis indicates that there is no silver bullet for applied predictive modeling and GAM should definitely be included in the arsenal of business researchers. We conclude by discussing the implications of our study for online service providers and business data analytics.     

Organizational intellectual capital and its relation to frontline service employee innovative behavior: consumer value co-creation behavior as a moderator

Frontline service employee innovative behavior is “the moment of truth” that significantly affects organizational performance. Yet, little research has investigated the effect of organizational intellectual capital on frontline service employee innovative behavior. This study used SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 20.0 to examine the structural model and the hypothetical effects of (1) different dimensions of organizational intellectual capital on frontline service employee innovative behavior and (2) consumer value co-creation on frontline service employee innovative behavior along the dimensions of organizational intellectual capital. A total of 282 valid questionnaires were collected from frontline service employees working at a travel agency located in Taipei, Taiwan. Human capital and customer capital were found to positively affect frontline service employee innovative behavior. The interactions between consumer value co-creation and human and customer capital had a significant moderating effect on frontline service employee innovative behavior.     

Boom‐Baby CEOs,Career Experience,and Risk Taking: A Natural Experiment Using Chinese CEOs’ Growth Paths

China's economy represents a unique experimental environment, in that it has undergone a successful transformation from a planned to a more open system. Leveraging this natural experimental setting, this study examines the impacts of CEOs’ formative experiences on their risk‐taking behavior. Two events likely constitute formative experiences for CEOs: economic reforms that commenced in 1978 and their prior career experiences. In turn, CEOs’ risk tolerance attitudes likely reflect the influences of these significant events. The results show that CEOs who experienced economic reforms in their early adult life exhibit higher risk‐taking likelihood and greater risk tolerance than those who grew up during the planned economy era. Furthermore, firm performance achieved by CEOs’ risk taking is significantly better when CEOs originally started working in and then remained within business sectors.     

Now or later: Delay's effects on post-consumption emotions and consumer loyalty

This study identifies differences in immediate and delayed post-consumption emotional assessments, triggering a dynamic shift in word-of-mouth evaluation and repurchase intention. Experiment 1 compares participants' responses to cellphone purchases in immediate and half-hour delay conditions. Experiment 2 generalizes the research scope by examining biscuit consumption and imposing an additional 24-hour delay. Results indicate that (1) products with higher hedonic value elicit excitement and cheerfulness, which intensify over time and increase consumer loyalty; (2) products with higher utilitarian value induce feelings of confidence and security, which gradually fade in intensity and diminish consumer loyalty over time; (3) products with lower hedonic value lead to dissatisfaction, which dissipates over time, and low-level consumer loyalty rises; and (4) products with lower utilitarian value generate feelings of anger, which grow over time and erode consumer loyalty.