Suchergebnisse

Aim of the study is to develop a model delineating customer perceptions on wedding marketing strategies in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Main objective of this paper is to analyse a category of special events: the wedding market sector in Kaohsiung, Taiwan by examining how they attract consumers regarding their marketing strategies using the method of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Based on a survey to married, in relationship and singles local citizens of Taiwan the relationships between impressions, importance, push factors with decision making was explored. To test the hypotheses of the proposed model a primary research study was conducted employing a mall intercept technique via distribution of a self-administered questionnaire within a cross sectional on-site field research context. A fsQCA modelling approach technique was employed in order to measure, estimate and confirm the different casual paths constructs, as well as to test the significance of the paths between different segments of the wedding industry. Our findings reveal that the presence of importance, push factors and decision making determines the level of consumer perception performance. However, impressions do not show significant impact on consumer perceptions.

Purpose: This study analyzes employee turnover in the under-researched context of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Methods: This study uses a qualitative approach to examine the reasons for turnover and strategies adopted within the hotel sector to reduce this turnover. Results: The findings reveal that turnover reasons are organization- and employee-specific. Strategies to reduce turnover include promoting a good work environment, providing transfer opportunities, talent and development planning, and implementing exit strategies to find out employees' reasons for leaving. These findings will benefit the hotel industry's human resource planning, as most employees are expatriates, and will reduce costs in terms of new recruitment. Implications: From a context based perspective cultural differences between employees' nationalities are a reason for turnover linked to differences in salary and benefits. "Social" and "economic" value are key elements for human resource professionals to consider when developing employee benefits.

Tourism, with its related subsectors, is a highly fragmented sector with most tourism organizations being SMEs. Small Tourism Businesses are the backbone of the economy of many countries around the world, and Italy is certainly not an exception. Considering their varied activities, specialized services, and integration in the society, SMEs are certainly the economic lifeblood of the tourism sector, especially in developing countries, rural and remote/unprivileged areas. The aforementioned considerations contribute to explain why SMEs literature have been attracting huge attention from academics working in several disciplines such as business and management, marketing, sociology, anthropology and politics. Despite this, the engagement by academicians in research relating to SMEs in tourism can be still considered to be limited. Many research areas still need to be further investigated and deepened. This special issue was launched to call for research papers aiming to deepen our understanding about the emerging challengesin Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises.

Visitor behavior can determine athletic events structure making it an important consideration for managers. In this study visitor behavior is analyzed using a new managerial tool called "TiCoSa - Time, Cost, and Satisfaction Activity Blocks" which permits managers to see the time, cost and satisfaction distribution of visitor activities. Through this tool time periods were classified and used as a means of describing visitor flow and behavior in various time blocks within a day. Expenditure patterns were also identified in relation to specific cost blocks relating to the consumption of preferred products and services. Afterword satisfaction was evaluated for each attribute. The recording of information is achieved by a descriptive data collection instrument which reflects time, satisfaction and cost distribution of visitors' activities. Data collection will be accomplished by means of a diary-type semi-structured questionnaire which will be administered in face-to-face interviews with visitors. Despite limitations, the present research provides useful suggestions for grouping visitor activities (i.e. based on time distribution analysis of activities), which could constitute a basis for better managerial decision making.

Purpose
Many research findings depicted corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategic tool for influencing customer behavior, especially customer trust. Nevertheless, rare is research that considered a business ecosystem infested by a low level of cultural trust, political and economic problems, perceived corruption and low level of CSR awareness and engagement as obstacles that may prevent companies from influencing their customers' behavior. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate whether CSR activities positively influence consumer/user trust toward companies operating within a low-cultural-trust context and also the consistency of empirical finds on CSR regardless of the cultural context.


Design/methodology/approach
The model of this study consisted of four variables: perceptions of CSR, customer trust, service quality and customer satisfaction. The target sample constituted respondents belonging to six different occupational categories namely health-care services, media services, law and public security, agriculture and earth sciences, training and education services and administrative sciences. This study used a quantitative approach based on a paper–pencil questionnaire to collect the data.


Findings
The results of this study indicated that perceptions of CSR correlated positively with service quality, customer satisfaction and customer trust. The results also indicated that perceptions of CSR, service quality and customer satisfaction are good predictors of customer trust.


Originality/value
This study is significant because it was conducted in a developing country (Haiti) that has long been struggling with political instability, systemic corruption, serious environmental damages and continuous economic crises and inequality along with a low level of CSR engagement and awareness.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a comparison between the traditional methods for the calculation of customer relationship performance and the modern metrics suggested by the current literature in business-to-business (B2B) markets using the Greek maritime shipping industry as an example.


Design/methodology/approach
The primary research was conducted in two phases: quantitative analysis of actual measurements and qualitative evaluation of the results. More specifically, in the first phase, the measures used were a collection of traditional and modern customer relationship management (CRM) metrics applied to actual historical data along with statistical data for actual customers of a company supplying services for maritime transportation of containers in the Greek international trade market. For the qualitative evaluation of these results, a semi-structured interview was carried out with seven "specialists/experts" in this business sector, who provided an assessment of the relative worth of each set of CRM measures.


Findings
The use of modern customer-centred metrics (Share and Size of Wallet, recency, frequency, monetary value) in the shipping sector of Greek industrial activity is the most profitable and efficient means of decision-making. The qualitative research showed that the customer-centred metrics were judged to be more effective and useful, as they provided a multi-dimensional and multi-layered picture of the current and future situation for the company and its customer base.


Research limitations/implications
To ensure confidentiality of personal information, the research did not use, examine or evaluate the individualized data to preserve the anonymity of the survey sponsor and their specific customers.


Originality/value
This is the first study that examines the effectiveness of different types of CRM metrics in the B2B market, which has, until now, suffered a dearth of empirical studies in the field, especially in the context of national economies that face intense international trading problems and significant reductions in activity in their maritime shipping industry due to the economic recession.

Purpose: The current COVID-19 pandemic has created an extremely dynamic and uncertain environment in which businesses find it very difficult to operate, particularly those in the hospitality industry. It is therefore very important to understand which actions hospitality businesses think the private and public sectors should adopt in order to cope with the pandemic and its impact. To facilitate this, this research adopted chaos theory to investigate Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the hospitality sector.
Methods: A mixed method approach, based on a convergent parallel design data validation variant, was adopted. A survey with open and closed questions was developed and sent to a sample of businesses. 1,040 completed questionnaires were collected and analysed through descriptive statistics; in addition to these usable surveys, 361 open-ended answers were analysed thematically.
Results: The results showed that Italian entrepreneurs and managers were over-relying on interventions from the public sector and that there was a lack of business actions being made, thus evidencing a deficit in terms of long-term strategic thinking and the innovation required during such turbulent times.
Implications: Although these results cannot be generalised to the whole of the hospitality industry, they shed light on important elements that industry associations should take into account.