Suchergebnisse

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a substantial firm investment. However, the firm value implications of CSR, i.e., whether doing good aligns with doing well, are still a topic of hot debate in practice and research alike. More than three decades of research have only produced equivocal results. To deliver new insight into what constitutes the heterogeneity of the firm value effects of CSR, this dissertation centers on the examination of the firm value effects of unique CSR types under consideration of contingency factors. Study 1 focuses on CSR as a means for compensating st...

Purpose – Synthesis of the customer lifetime value and the shareholder value (SHV) approach in
order to develop an integrated, marketing-based method for corporate valuation.
Design/ methodology/ approach – Discusses the limitations and assumptions of existing
methods to estimate customer value components and examines the limitations of the SHV concept.
By linking the customer equity (CE) and the SHV approach, a formal model to calculate
corporate value is developed. The discounted cash flow method is used for modelling the profit
streams.
Findings – Provides formulas for the estimation of both the individual lifetime value of a customer
and CE. Provides a comprehensive model to estimate corporate value based on customer-related cash
flows and traditional financial metrics. Introduces typical cases, in which the use of a customer-based
valuation seems beneficial. Illustrates how our approach can be applied by using a simple case study
on M&A in the telecommunication industry. Gives suggestions on how to obtain the necessary data,
partially even from publicly available sources.
Research limitations/ implications – Advancement of the quantitative techniques for modelling
the customer value components would allow for relaxing some restrictive assumptions. The explicit
modelling of the future growth of the customer base (the acquisition rate) would increase the
applicability of the model. Additionally, taking into account heterogeneity within the customer cohorts
is a task for future research. Finally, our model needs to be applied more extensively using real data for
the input variables.
Practical implications – A CE-based valuation approach can guide marketing investments and
helps to avoid misallocation of resources. Based on an example in the field of M&A, we demonstrate
the usefulness of the approach for obtaining a realistic indicator of firm value. It helps to assess
whether an acquisition is economically sensible. We provide evidence for the superiority of a
customer-based approach over traditional financial methods.
Originality/ value – While the traditional SHV method considers cash flows at a highly aggregated
level, our approach employs disaggregated cash flows on the level of individual customers. Thereby
we do incorporate the lifetime values of future customers by considering different cohorts. We do
capture customer defection by incorporating retention rates. Our model enables a more detailed and
valid estimation of corporate value by accounting for the single customer activities that drive
marketing actions. This enables a better forecasting of the free cash flow. Incorporating
customer-related drivers into financial valuation models makes easier to assess the return on
marketing investments.

Firms operating multiple channels as parallel routes to market face intense pressure to ensure superior customer satisfaction in their entire channel system. Relying on the structural alignment framework, the authors argue that to address this challenge, providers of concurrent channels should give priority to alignable channel attributes—attributes that have corresponding or "mirror" attributes in the other channels. These features are more salient to customers than nonalignable features and likely represent the origin of satisfaction evaluations in concurrent channel environments. Applying multigroup nested models using data from off-line and online shoppers, the authors empirically validate choice (assortment breadth and depth), charge (availability of fair prices), convenience (efficiency of the purchase process), confidence (security of transactions), and care (assurance of promised quality) as alignable channel facets. The resulting 5C model is superior to existing models in that it enables the unified capture of both off-line and online satisfaction, allowing a meaningful comparison across formats. Using alignable satisfaction facets enables managers to trace true differences in the satisfaction levels between channels. In particular, a channel's share of investment should match its share of unexploited satisfaction potential. The 5C model also supports within-channel decisions by revealing the impact of the five facets on overall satisfaction with each format.

Profitability considerations lead service providers to divest from customer service contracts, either by service contract demotion (cutting back services) or by service contract termination (ending service provision). Such initiatives have been associated with customer revenge. The pressing question for practitioners is which divestment approach has a stronger or weaker effect on customer revenge. Drawing on justice and appraisal theories, the authors suggest that the answer depends on customers' predivestment satisfaction and on the provision of financial compensation or apology. Three experiments and a critical incident study reveal that for previously satisfied customers, service termination entails a stronger effect on customer revenge, while for previously dissatisfied customers, service demotion entails a stronger effect. The findings further demonstrate that offering financial compensation or an apology can mitigate or exacerbate the effect, highlighting the need to align these divestment handling instruments with the divestment approach chosen and customers' predivestment satisfaction. The findings also show that the effect can be explained by customer anger. Overall, this article provides guidance on how to divest whom in order to mitigate detrimental effects.

Existing e-service quality scales mainly focus on goal-oriented e-shopping behavior excluding hedonic quality aspects. As a consequence,
these scales do not fully cover all aspects of consumer's quality evaluation. In order to integrate both utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality
elements, we apply a transaction process model to electronic service encounters. Based on this general framework capturing all stages of the
electronic service delivery process, we develop a transaction process-based scale for measuring service quality (eTransQual). After conducting
exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, we identify five discriminant quality dimensions: functionality/ design, enjoyment, process,
reliability and responsiveness. All extracted dimensions of eTransQual show a significant positive impact on important outcome variables like
perceived value and customer satisfaction. Moreover, enjoyment is a dominant factor in influencing both relationship duration and repurchase
intention as major drivers of customer lifetime value. As a result, we present conceptual and empirical evidence for the need to integrate both
utilitarian and hedonic e-service quality elements into one measurement scale.

Purpose – In the internet economy, the business model of web portals has spread rapidly over the
last few years. Despite this, there have been very few scholarly investigations into the services and
characteristics that transform a web site into a portal as well as into the dimensions that determine
the customer's evaluation of the portal's service quality.
Design/ methodology/ approach – Based on an empirical study in the field of e-banking, the
authors validate a measurement model for the construct of web portal quality based on the following
dimensions: security and trust, basic services quality, cross-buying services quality, added value,
transaction support and responsiveness.
Findings – The identified dimensions can reasonably be classified into three service categories:
core services, additional services, and problem-solving services.
Originality/ value – The knowledge of these dimensions as major determinants of consumer's
quality perception in the internet provides banks a promising starting point for establishing an
effective quality management for their e-businesses.

Geringere Wechselkosten für Kunden und
niedrigere Markteintrittsbarrieren für neue
Konkurrenten verschärfen den Wettbewerb
für Finanzdienstleister im Internet erheblich.
Daher wird es für Banken immer wichtiger, ihre
Kunden durch eine hervorragende Servicequalität
im Internet-Banking zu überzeugen
und zu binden. Traditionelle Messmodelle
der Servicequalität, die auf persönlich erbrachte
Dienstleistungen ausgerichtet sind,
können nicht ohne weiteres angewendet werden,
um die Qualität elektronischer Dienstleistungen
zu erfassen. Dieser Beitrag versucht,
die vorhandene Lücke in diesem Bereich
zu schließen, indem das SERVQUALModell
als ein empirisch fundierter Ansatz zur
Bestimmung der Servicequalität an die Besonderheiten
von Internet-Transaktionen angepasst
wird. Anhand einer exploratorischen
und konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalyse wird
das so entwickelte Messmodell der E-Servicequalität
validiert. Im Ergebnis lassen sich
fünf Qualitätsdimensionen identifizieren. Anschließend
wird mittels einer Kausalanalyse
der Zusammenhang zu den zentralen Marketingzielen
Kundenzufriedenheit und Kundenbindung
untersucht.