Fighting churn with rate plan right-sizing: a customer retention strategy for the wireless telecommunications industry

Prior literature suggests that wireless customers have difficulty in predicting their usage requirements and they often subscribe to rate plans that are not financially optimized. However, the benefits of having wireless customers on optimal rate plans are relatively unknown due to limited research in this area. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap and presents a customer retention strategy for the wireless telecommunications industry. The usage and payment records of 1403 Canadian post-paid wireless customers are examined over a 3.7-year study period. Pearson's χ ² test and hazard function graph are used to reveal how customer churn rate is influenced by rate plan suitability. The statistical analysis demonstrates that customers who are using optimal rate plans have lower churn rate than those with non-optimal ones.     

Salesperson's listening in buyer–seller service relationships

Research has consistently shown that salesperson's active listening behavior leads to strong sales performance. Yet the influence of management policies on listening has received very limited attention, and prior research linking listening to customer retention has led to mixed findings. This study examines how listening is enhanced through control systems and the influence of listening on customer retention in a service context. Dyadic data from salespeople and their customers show that a behavior-based control system (measured as a second-order construct) positively influences listening and the salesperson's customer orientation totally mediates the influence of listening on customer commitment to the salesperson and loyalty to the service company. Our findings indicate that listening is a necessary but not sufficient condition for assuring relationship development. More specifically, customer orientation is the generative mechanism through which listening is able to influence customer retention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Intensification of conservation agriculture systems for increased livestock feed and maize production in Zimbabwe

Livestock and crops are key components of mixed farming systems and are a source of household food and income. However, mixed farming systems face livestock feed shortages and low soil productivity challenges. Conservation agriculture (CA) systems based on minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotations offer an opportunity to grow both fodder and food crops on the available land to improve productivity and crop output per-unit area. A four-year experiment involving maize monocropping as control treatment and four relay or intercropping treatments with different legume and fodder crops was set up on contrasting soils in Zimbabwe. Lablab was superior in biomass production compared with radish on both soil types. On the clay soil, continuous maize, sole lablab, sole radish, maize/lablab relay and radish/common beans relay treatments produced similar biomass when soil moisture was adequate. When soil moisture was limiting, lablab produced more biomass than continuous maize, radish, maize/lablab relay and radish/beans relay treatments on clay soil. On sandy soils, lablab produced more biomass than continuous maize, radish, maize/lablab relay and radish/beans relay treatments. Leguminous and non-leguminous fodder crops can be grown successfully in CA systems that are being promoted in the mixed crop/livestock farming systems of southern Africa.     

B2C环境下的客户行为分析

本文以B2C电子商务交易过程为背景,从客户行为分析的目标出发,提出了基于B2C电子商务环境下的客户行为分析过程,并对B2C环境下的客户消费心理和行为进行了分析,提出了B2C环境下的客户保留策略,这对B2C网站具有借鉴意义。     

Is Underwriter Retention of IPO Shares a Good Substitute for Underwriting Spreads?

In Taiwan, underwriters are required to retain at least 10 percent but no more than 25 percent of underwritten initial public offering (IPO) shares and sell the remainder to the public. We find that IPO underpricing causes underwriters to retain more shares to earn capital gains on retained shares and that underwriter retention is a signal of IPO underpricing. If underwriter retention is cancelled, underwriters need to be compensated through lottery draw processing fees or underwriting spreads. We show that issuers should compensate underwriters through underwriting spreads directly, rather than indirectly through underwriter retention or lottery draw processing fees.     

Voluntary tipping and the selective attraction and retention of service workers in the USA: an application of the ASA model

Gratuities paid by consumers are widely used to compensate workers in the service industry despite the fact that this practice permits and even encourages a variety of negative practices – from customer–employee collusion against the interests of the firm to service discrimination against consumers thought to be poor tippers. Such negative effects of tipping raise a question about why it exists – what benefits (if any) do firms receive from tipping to justify this practice? One common explanation for tipping is that it is the most efficient way to provide service workers with performance-contingent rewards and to motivate them to deliver good service. In this paper, we draw upon the attraction–selection–attrition model to describe and test another benefit to firms of this practice, namely that it helps to selectively attract and retain better service workers. Data from a survey of restaurant servers support this selection effect. Concluding discussion calls for more research on this interesting and understudied form of employee compensation.     

不同加工方式对胡萝卜中胡萝卜素保留率的影响

为科学高效地利用胡萝卜中的胡萝卜素,设计了以不同季节、不同部位的胡萝卜为原料研究其胡萝卜素的含量及分布,及以不同的烹饪和干制方式对其胡萝卜素保留率的影响。并采用索氏抽提及分光光度法提取测定胡萝卜中胡萝卜素的保留率。实验结果表明,冬季产的胡萝卜中胡萝卜素是春季的1.67倍,整根胡萝卜中胡萝卜素含量的分布:纵向是上段>中段>下段,横向则是外皮层>肉质层>内芯层。不同加工方式中烹饪对胡萝卜中胡萝卜素保留率的影响顺序是水蒸>鲜创丝>打浆渣>炒制>油炸>水煮,且加盐与不加盐对胡萝卜素保留率几乎没有影响,水蒸烹饪较水煮的胡萝卜素保留率高12倍;干制中则是微波干燥>减压热风烘干>常压热风烘干>自然晒干,且微波干制较自然晒干保留率高2.2倍。经L(934)正交试验优化得到微波干制的最佳工艺条件为:微波时间5 min、微波功率400 W,间隙式微波方式。在此条件下胡萝卜素的保留率可达325.9%。     

Cost-effectiveness of hydrophilic-coated intermittent catheters compared with uncoated catheters in Canada: a public payer perspective

Study design: A Markov model was used to analyze cost-effectiveness over a lifetime horizon.

Objective: To investigate the cost-effectiveness of hydrophilic-coated intermittent catheters (HCICs) compared with uncoated catheters (UCs) among individuals with neurogenic bladder dysfunction (NB) due to spinal cord injury (SCI).

Setting: A Canadian public payer perspective based on data from Ontario; including a scenario analysis from the societal perspective.

Methods: A previously published Markov decision model was modified to compare the lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for the two interventions. Three renal function and three urinary tract infection (UTI) health states as well as other catheter-related events were included. Scenario analyses, including utility gain from compact catheter and phthalate free catheter use, were performed. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to evaluate the robustness of the model.

Results: The model predicted that a 50-year-old patient with SCI would gain an additional 0.72 QALYs if HCICs were used instead of UCs at an incremental cost of $48,016, leading to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $66,634/QALY. Moreover, using HCICs could reduce the lifetime number of UTI events by 11%. From the societal perspective, HCICs cost less than UCs, while providing superior outcomes in terms of QALYs, life years gained (LYG), and UTIs. The cost per QALY further decreased when health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) gains associated with compact HCICs or catheters not containing phthalates were included.

Conclusion: In general, ICERs in the range of CAD$50–100,000 could be considered cost-effective. The ICERs for the base case and sensitivity analyses suggest that HCICs could be cost-effective. From the societal perspective, HCICs were associated with potential cost savings in our model. The results suggest that reimbursement of HCICs should be considered in these settings.     

Targeted employee retention: Performance‐based and job‐related differences in reported reasons for staying

What makes employees stay with a particular employer? To find out, we developed a content model of 12 retention factors in the context of previous theory and research and analyzed open‐ended responses from 24,829 employees in the leisure and hospitality industry. Our coding of their comments supported the identified framework and revealed that job satisfaction, extrinsic rewards, constituent attachments, organizational commitment, and organizational prestige were the most frequently mentioned reasons for staying. High performers and nonhourly workers were more likely to cite advancement opportunities and organizational prestige as reasons for staying, whereas low performers and hourly employees were more likely to cite extrinsic rewards. These findings highlight the importance of differentiating human resource management practices when the goal is to retain valued employees. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.