The service quality-satisfaction link revisited: exploring asymmetries and dynamics

This study provides deeper insight in the link between service quality and customer satisfaction. The traditional assumption of a linear relationship is challenged by exploring asymmetries and dynamics. The simultaneous influence of service quality and customer experience on satisfaction is examined by means of nonlinear structural equation modeling. Results show that functional-utilitarian quality attributes (availability, efficiency, fulfillment, and privacy) lose their capability to delight customers as the customer relationship matures. In contrast, hedonic quality attributes (design, enjoyment, and image) only exhibit an increasing effect on satisfaction for more experienced customers. These insights are vital for service managers as they help to improve the efficiency of quality investments.     

Limit-order submission strategies under asymmetric information

This paper provides evidence that informed traders dominate the response of limit-order submissions to shocks in a pure limit-order market. In the market we study, informed traders are highly sensitive to spreads, volatility, momentum and depth. By contrast, uninformed traders are relatively insensitive to all these market conditions. The dominance of the informed over limit-order submissions is magnified by contrasts between them and the uninformed in the use of aggressively-priced limit orders.     

Messung der Werbeeffizienz — Ein zweistufiger DEA-Ansatz

Zusammenfassung  Marketingmanager stehen zunehmend unter Druck, millionenschwere Werbeinvestitionen zu legitimieren. Die Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) hilft Werbeeffizienz messbar zu machen. Das Verfahren erlaubt es, den mehrstufigen Transformationsprozess ausgehend von Werbeinvestitionen über psychografische Wirkungen bis zum ?konomischen Werbeerfolg ganzheitlich abzubilden. Auf diese Weise wird der Wirkungsprozess der Werbung nicht mehr als Blackbox betrachtet, sondern in der Effizienzbewertung berücksichtigt. Dr. Maik Hammerschmidt Wissenschaftlicher Assistent und Habilitand am Lehrstuhl für ABWL und Marketing II an der Universit?t Mannheim Prof. Dr. Hans H. Bauer Professor für Marketing an der Universit?t Mannheim sowie Wissenschaftlicher Direktor des Instituts für Marktorientierte Unternehmensführung der Universit?t Mannheim     

Are All Professional Investors Sophisticated?

Abstract. Existing empirical evidence is inconclusive as to whether professional investors show more sophisticated behavior than individual investors. Therefore, we study two important groups of professional investors and compare them with laymen by means of a survey covering about 500 investors. We find that some professionals, i.e. institutional investors, behave in a more sophisticated manner than laymen, whereas the less researched investment advisors seem to do even worse. Our survey approach complements available evidence due to its design: it compares professionals with (qualified) interested laymen, it covers six measures of sophisticated behavior, uses several control variables and strictly compares investment decisions in the private domain.     

On the Edge of Buying: A Targeting Approach for Indecisive Buyers Based on Willingness-to-Pay Ranges

Targeting the “right” consumers is a core part of marketing. Whereas existing techniques to identify these consumers use demographic or psychographic variables or behaviors such as response probabilities, a proposed new targeting approach builds on consumers’ incremental responses to identify them by their willingness-to-pay (WTP) ranges. These WTP ranges reveal a consumer as a definite buyer, a definite non-buyer, or an indecisive buyer. The proposed theoretical framework indicates that indecisive buyers offer the highest incremental responses to targeted marketing mix activities and thus should be the most preferred targeting group. A sequence of three laboratory experimental studies validates the proposed approach for targeted price discounts and non-price tactics. In addition, a large-scale field experiment involving a consumer engagement campaign that includes observed purchase behavior demonstrates the high external validity and applicability of this approach.