Role of customer orientation in an integrative model of brand loyalty in services

This study attempts to model the development of brand loyalty by examining the simultaneous effects of customer orientation, perceived quality, brand associations, and satisfaction on brand loyalty. Data are used from retail banking and discount store retailing services to examine the direct and indirect effects of customer perceptions of customer orientation and quality on brand loyalty. It was found that customer orientation has a direct effect on brand loyalty and indirect effects through customer satisfaction, perceived quality, and brand associations as mediators. Further, perceived quality has a direct effect on brand loyalty as well as an indirect effect with satisfaction as a mediator. The results suggest that effective management of brand loyalty would require tracking of customer perceptions of a firm's customer orientation, quality and brand, in addition to measuring customer satisfaction.     

The impact of the tertiarization process in Spanish economic growth from a regional perspective

The article focuses on the impact that the growth of the service sector has had on the economic growth of the Spanish regions. Thus, the study tries to define regional groupings in order to identify different modalities of regional growth. As a result of the cluster analysis, we propose the groupings and analyse the beta-convergence in per capita GDP and in terms of the degree of tertiarization in the Spanish regions. Taking these groups as our starting point, a data panel model with fixed effects is applied and the study concludes that mainly capital stock and capital productivity in market services explain to a great extent the growth in per capita GDP in the Spanish regions.     

Understanding the causes of defection among satisfied B2B service customers

Abstract

Many research studies conclude that satisfaction is strongly and positively related to repurchase intentions and loyalty behaviour. However, companies are often faced with the perplexing question of why some customers, who are satisfied, still switch suppliers given the right circumstances. To answer this question, an exploratory research study was conducted in the facilities-management industry with business-to-business service customers. The study was conducted in two stages: an exploratory stage that focused on the industry as a whole, and a confirmatory stage that focused on lost customers from one specific company. It was found that switching motives and actual reasons for switching are quite different. Customers, despite being satisfied, are more likely to switch suppliers for price reasons than they originally stated.     

Farmland conversion to non-agricultural uses in the US and Canada: current impacts and concerns for the future

Conversion of farmland to non-agricultural uses presents a challenge to future food production and ecosystem services in US and Canada. Expansions of housing, transportation, industry, retail sales, schools and other developments are driving land out of farming. In the US there is annual conversion of 500,000 ha away from food and fibre production systems. Coupled with 1% annual population increase, this will reduce today's 0.6 ha per person to 0.3 ha by 2050. Canada has more land and smaller population, but farmland losses are occurring in fertile areas near coasts and in level valleys where highest quality land is located. Current rates of increase in agricultural productivity will not compensate for this land loss. Compared to US, there are more specific tools and legislation at the provincial level in Canada that provide opportunities for controlling sprawl. Important in both countries is general lack of awareness and concern about loss of productive farmland, a situation that could be improved through education. Stimulating collective understanding of this growing problem and providing viable solutions could provide the basis for national policy strategies to promote and assure sustainable food systems for the future and enhance the capacity to maintain vital ecosystem services.     

Book review

Smallholder farmers who grow diverse landraces in centres of crop diversity contribute to sustaining the capacity of agricultural and food systems to adapt to change by maintaining crop evolution in their fields today, thus enabling humanity to continue to have the broad genetic variation needed to adapt crops to changes tomorrow. Given this fact, the last 20 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in on-farm conservation of crop infra-specific diversity. While numerous projects to support it have been, and continue to be, implemented worldwide, there has been very little systematic assessment of the extent to which these projects have been effective at contributing to the maintenance of crop diversity on-farm and the creation of associated benefits for the farmers involved. The factors and relationships implicated in attaining conservation and livelihood results are complex, so that a conceptual scheme that brings them together in a simplified but coherent fashion can be extremely useful for the scientists, donors, policy-makers and practitioners concerned. This paper presents a conceptual framework for analysing on-farm projects, the trade-offs involved and assesses their success in a more systematic way.     

关于构建现代产业体系的国内研究综述

目前,我国学术界对现代产业体系概念的划分基本趋于一致,强调现代产业体系的核心在于实现先进制造业、现代服务业和现代农业之间的深度融合。现代产业体系是时间性和区域性概念。构建现代产业体系,地方政府应立足自身发展实际,考虑现代区域产业体系是实现产业结构合理化还是高级化。在路径选择方面,现代产业体系的核心是产业融合,动力是技术创新,载体是产业集群。     

服务业FDI与东道国服务经济增长研究——基于中国数据的实证检验

服务业的发展对一国经济增长至关重要,而服务业利用外资能够促进东道国服务经济的发展。利用1993-2012年中国服务业实际利用外资的数据,来检验服务业外商直接投资对东道国服务经济增长的影响。结果显示:服务业FDI与服务业增加值之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,且两者之间互为因果关系。要利用服务业FDI带动东道国服务业经济的增长,必须采取有力措施积极引进服务业外商直接投资。     

保险风险预测与征信服务——看美国保险公司如何应用征信信息

在美国,征信信息除被应用于授信类机构评估信用风险外,也被保险公司广泛应用于保险风险预测。而如何在企业和个人征信系统的基础上,逐步纳入保险等机构的相关信用信息,并依法向其提供方便、快捷、高效的金融业服务,是建立金融业统一征信平台的重要任务之一。他山之石可以攻玉,通过对美国保险公司使用征信信息的情况进行分析,为企业和个人征信系统扩展服务提供借鉴。     

加快发展消费金融市场促进经济发展方式转变

当前,国际金融危机的影响仍在向更深领域蔓延,全球经济复苏步伐缓慢,部分经济体债务负担沉重,西方贸易投资保护主义有再次抬头的趋势。在此形势下,加快发展我国的消费金融市场,对于刺激居民消费需求,大规模启动国内消费市场,促进经济发展方式由传统的投资和出口拉动型向消费驱动型转变,具有较强的现实意义。为此,在深入分析我国消费金融市场发展的现状和不足,并在借鉴西方发达国家的先进经验的基础上,提出加快发展我国消费金融市场的政策建议。     

我国城市社区居家养老服务问题探析

近年来,我国人口老龄化速度不断加快,养老问题日渐迫切。在家庭养老功能弱化和机构养老存在明显弊端的情况下,居家养老成为有效解决养老问题的一种新型养老模式。发展居家养老服务已成为越来越多的城市有效解决养老问题的良好选择。但其在服务经费、筹资渠道、服务种类和层次、服务质量、供给主体、志愿者队伍等方面存在一些问题,还需做进一步的改进和完善。