Forms of Adjustment

ABSTRACT

In the increasingly competitive field of tertiary education in New Zealand, characterised by strong levels of institutional competition for a numerically limited pool of students, there has been an almost belated recognition of the importance of student retention strategies. In this context, the literature indicates that transition to the tertiary institute lifestyle can often result in a period of major personal re-adjustment for first year students, which sometimes manifests itself in early academic results that are below expectations-these twin factors can contribute to early perceptions of alienation and, in some instances, can result in unac-ceptably high dropout rates. This paper describes an intervention that attempted to increase rates of retention in a tourism study programme, through a process designed to facilitate easier assimilation into the tertiary education culture, and to consequently improve the academic results obtained in early course assessment. The nature of this approach, intended to alleviate adjustment problems and provide students with appropriate coping mechanisms, is described in outline, and the results of subsequent student evaluations discussed. The paper concludes by assessing the benefits of this intervention, and by highlighting the implications for future student intakes.     

Diversification Strategies for the Service Sector

No abstract available for this article.     

Customer retention and price matching: The AFPs case

Understanding the long-term price matching effects on CLV is important in evaluating the effectiveness of these policies in stimulating customer retention. In industries with low brand differentiation and low customer involvement (e.g., private pension system), it can be seen that choosing a brand is based on inertia. The objective of this article is to analyze the convenience for the firm of improving customer retention, by matching the lowest price in the Chilean private pension system. Results suggest that matching the industry's price leader reduces the firm's CLV, thus diminishing firm incentives to make this marketing effort.     

How to Encourage Customers to Use Legal Software

This study attempts to identify customer retention strategies for legal software and discusses their effectiveness for three consumer groups (stayers, dissatisfied switchers, and satisfied switchers). Although previous studies propose several antipirating strategies, they do not discuss how to enhance customer intentions to use legal software, which is crucial for software companies. The authors provide four generic retention strategies developed from both antipiracy and customer loyalty literature. The results indicate lower-pricing, legal, communication, and product strategies all enhance customer purchase intentions toward legal software. The lower-pricing strategy is more useful for stayers and dissatisfied switchers, and the communication strategy is most useful for dissatisfied switchers. Both the legal and product strategies have similar impacts on purchase intentions across the three segments. From a firm perspective, a product strategy is most worthwhile and useful across all segments.     

Marketing Culture and Business Performance in the Airline Industry

Abstract

In recent years the airline industry has witnessed increased emphasis on the cultivation of a culture which fosters the effective implementation of marketing programmes. This growing attention stems from the belief that sound marketing practices provide an important source of competitive advantage in the service sector which is characterised by high levels of interaction between firms and their customers. Moreover, marketing academics and managers proclaim that a strong marketing culture leads to customer retention, which in turn, yields higher profitability. In this study an attempt is made to investigate empirically the relationship between UK airline firms' marketing culture and business performance. Our results indicate a strong relationship between marketing culture and business performance. To conclude, implications of the findings for airline managers and avenues for future research are discussed.     

压缩沧州西站货物作业停留时间的对策

货物作业停留时间是衡量货车使用效率和运输组织效率的一项综合性指标。鉴于沧州西站停时居高不下的现状,通过对车站实际作业过程的分析,指出了影响停时的八大因素,并提出了优化运输方案、加强设备管理、进行站场改造、严格奖罚措施等对策。     

A comprehensive effort to recruit and retain accounting students

This paper describes a series of coordinated and proactive recruitment and retention efforts within the accounting department of a southeastern university. Each semester, recruitment of successful students in Principles of Accounting classes is a departmental priority. The intention is to encourage Principles students to declare a major in accounting. For accounting majors in the junior and senior years, a series of programs is offered for professional development. Each year students are surveyed to gauge the perceived value of the time spent out-of-classroom. The results indicate that the time spent out-of-classroom is beneficial. Most important, the results of our efforts to recruit to the major from Principles classes correlate to previous research that indicates contacting potential majors in the introductory course is crucial.     

顾客投诉及其管理研究

顾客投诉是每一个企业皆遇到的问题,它是顾客对企业管理和服务不满的表达方式,也是企业有价值的信息来源,它为企业创造了许多机会,因此正确看待顾客投诉,管理顾客投诉对企业有着特别重要的意义。本文分析了顾客投诉对企业的意义、顾客投诉的行为及心理特点,以及管理顾客投诉的方法。     

Loyalty in e-Tailing

Abstract

Internet retailers that attempt to establish a steady customer base by offering the lowest price are not basing their expectations on firm ground. An alternative to low-price strategies is to develop and maintain a loyal customer base. In this paper, we present a framework for developing loyalty via the Internet. Internet strategies should be developed based upon the firm's competencies and an analysis of the current loyal customer base. The components of the Internet exchange-such as site content, design, navigation and interactivity-are linked to convenience and risk perceptions. These in turn affect the satisfaction/loyalty and performance. Continuous evaluation of customers' perceptions of value determines the adjustments that need to be made to the existing retention activities. The benefits of Internet loyalty are discussed, along with directions for future research.     

Halal tourism: travel motivators and customer retention

This research was designed to identify halal-friendly travel motivation factors and unearth their role in Muslim customer retention process in Korea. Qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to achieve research objectives. A comprehensive structural model was developed to distinguish the role of all proposed indicators. Our results revealed that halal-friendly travel motivations are significantly associated with customer return on investment and satisfaction, and that such relationships contribute to improving customer retention. The effectiveness of higher-order structure of halal-friendly travel motivations was demonstrated. The formation of Muslim customers’ post-purchase decisions was significantly moderated by the sense of belonging to a tourist destination.