The literature on perceived value overlooks the perspective of children, yet this represents an important aspect of their consumer socialization. This paper fills the void by examining value perception as part of the decision to purchase from the perspective of the child consumer. A two-stage qualitative investigation using diaries and interviews investigated perceptions of children aged 7–14years. Findings indicate that perceived value among children is an important concept in consumer decisions comprising benefits and sacrifices; however the nature of these factors and the way they contribute to value perception varies in a domain specific manner as children grow older. Understanding the temporal aspects of value creation from a child's perspective extends perceived value theory and contributes to consumer socialization theory. In addition this knowledge is crucial for practitioners marketing to child customers as well as those developing policy to protect them as consumers.

More and more service firms are using structured scripts to educate their employees and customers about their roles in service delivery. One of the management challenges for the service firms is effective implementation of the scripts. Using a grounded theory methodology, this research identifies three potential gaps in the implementation process of scripts: communication gaps, variability gaps and follow-up gaps. Service organisations often fail to use effective communication modes and follow-up practices that can ensure adequate rehearsal before implementation. In this study, initial steps identifying the gaps in the implementation process of service scripts and variables explaining those gaps has been taken that may prove useful for further studies to refine the gap model with elimination of less important and addition of new variables suggested by further research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to better understand the sensemaking strategies of managers involved in making decisions concerning arts sponsorship. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, multiple case method is employed, using multiple informants in ten arts sponsorship decisions. Within and between case analyses were conducted and examined iteratively, along with literature to generate themes to guide future research. Findings – This study finds art sponsorships may be seen as ambiguous, cueing sensemaking; the sensemaking strategies of senior managers involve response to pro-social cues while middle managers draw on commercial benefit cues; sensebreaking and sensegiving are part of the process; and the actors and their interpretations draw from cues in the organisational frames of reference which act as filters, giving meaning to the situations. Research limitations/implications – This study presents a novel perspective on these decisions, focusing on the micro-level actions and interpretations of actors. It extends current understanding of sponsorship decision making, contributing to a perspective of managers responding to cues, interacting and making sense of their decisions. Practical implications – For arts managers, this perspective provides understanding of how managers (potential sponsors) respond to multiple cues, interpret and rationalise arts sponsorships. For corporate managers, insights reveal differences in sensemaking between hierarchical levels, and the role of interaction, and organisational frames of reference. Originality/value – This study is unique in its approach to understanding these decisions in terms of sensemaking, through the use of multiple informants and multiple case studies.

In recent years Relationship Marketing (RM) has been widely promoted as a means of retaining customers. The aim of this study was to gain retail customers' perspective on RM. Particularly; the study was designed to identify types of goods and services with whom retail customers see value in building relationship. Findings are based on results of structured interviews with 180 retail customers. The study reveals that retail customers see most value in building relationships with intangible service marketers, particularly, ones with high credence quality, such as medical and legal services. They see moderate value in such relationships with marketers of products with high experience quality, such as vacation and restaurant and low value in relationships with providers of tangible products with high search quality, such as clothing and furniture. However, retail customers do see value in building relationships with marketers of some tangible products with high search quality that has ongoing post sale service requirements, such as motor vehicles. Overall, the findings of the study show that retail customers see value of RM selectively and predictions can be made about relational value from customers' perspective on the basis of the type of service.

Support from the corporate sector is an important revenue source for many nonprofit organizations. In this article, we consider individual-level influence within the decision-making processes of companies as they make decisions concerning nonprofit arts sponsorship. These decisions have often been linked to the influence of a single high-level executive, and the research contained here seeks to better understand the role of the individual in influencing these decisions. Through qualitative multiple-case research the authors find that a single individual, termed the advocate, is in fact influential. Furthermore, the advocate is determined not by their title or official ranking but by their possession of expert power, a combination of knowledge and the belief of others in that knowledge. In addition, how individuals influence these decisions relates to their application not of gut instinct, but of informed intuition. The article closes in suggesting new perspectives that will assist in better understanding this role.

This research aims to empirically determine which factors best explain business to business adoption of a radical, high-tech innovation early in the diffusion process. Early lifecycle data collection provides insights about the differences in determinants of adoption at different times in the product diffusion process. The results indicate that differences do exist between the determinants of early adoption, intent to adopt later, and unawareness of the innovation. The influencers of earliest adopters appear to be innovation-focused: the perceived benefits of the innovation as well as the strength of the producer network positively relate to early adoption; early adopters also tend to perceive the technology in the innovation as less different than previous technology than do those who intend to adopt later. The influence of a champion within the adopting firm, the ability of the firm to sense and respond to new technology, and the depth of technology knowledge within the adopting firm are significant influencers across multiple stages of diffusion, showing that firm-internal traits are particularly important influencers of adoption. Laggard firms are missing the critical firm traits that lead to information gathering and understanding of innovations. In addition to contributing to adoption research theory and methodology, this research has implications for innovation-marketing and innovation-adopting firms.

The importance of the alignment between information systems (IS) and the business has been emphasized for over a decade. To date, no empirical study has explored the impact of the alignment of IS and marketing, despite initial indications that such an alignment could impact favorably upon business performance. This study reports on a new conceptualization of alignment, together with the development and testing of a parsimonious model which addresses this issue. Data from a survey of 415 respondents from medium-large New Zealand companies were used to test the model. It was found that IS-marketing alignment had a positive impact on both business performance and marketing performance, and that marketing performance in turn had a modest but positive impact on business performance.

Customer loyalty is increasingly seen to be crucial to the success of business organisations, with the growing realisation that attracting new customers is far more expensive than retaining existing ones. It has been suggested that a way of increasing customer retention is through secure relationships between buyers and sellers. Surprisingly, however, and despite the growing body of literature on relationship marketing issues, little empirical research has been conducted on the link between relationship marketing and customer loyalty in a retailing context. This paper attempts to address this gap by presenting and testing a conceptual model of the process by which the implementation of relationship marketing can enhance such loyalty. A dyadic exploratory study of clothing store managers and their customers was conducted. Findings reveal that customers' perceptions of clothing stores' relationship marketing efforts are crucial to enhanced commitment and loyalty. Implications are drawn from these results, a...

PurposeThis study aims to extend previous research on the relationship between role stressors and symptoms of burnout by examining the influence of job resourcefulness as a situational personality trait in the burnout process, and its impact on service recovery performance. Using data from call centre frontline employees (FLEs) in New Zealand, it seeks to investigate the moderating influence of job resourcefulness on the relationships between role stressors, burnout symptoms and FLE service recovery performance.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, call centre FLEs completed a self‐administered online survey questionnaire on role stressors, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, job resourcefulness and service recovery performance. Data were analyzed using structural equations modelling (SEM) by means of LISREL 8.53.FindingsThe results show that job resourcefulness buffers both the dysfunctional effects of role stressors on symptoms of burnout and the effects of role stressors on FLE service recovery performance.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of the study include the generalisability of the findings within one organisational context. Suggestions for future research include an examination of other personality traits specific to FLE jobs such as customer orientation.Practical implicationsThe research advances understanding of the relationships between role stressors, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, job resourcefulness as a situational personality trait and FLE service recovery performance in a call centre environment. The findings highlight the value of job resourceful FLEs, and suggest a number of practical implications for the identification, recruitment and retention of call centre FLEs.Originality/valueNo attention has been given to examining the role of situational personality traits and their effect on the burnout process. By extending previous research on the relationship between role stressors and burnout symptoms, this study investigates the impact of job resourcefulness in the burnout process and in influencing the service recovery performance efforts of call centre FLEs directly.

Purpose - There is limited published work addressing factors that influence responses to internet surveys. This is due in part to lack of an agreed upon set of relevant theories. Albaum, Evangelista and Medina (AEM) and Evangelista et al. made a step toward filling this gap when they studied the relevance of four theories of survey response behaviour. The AEM study included a survey from a population of survey researchers. Based on their survey, they concluded that all four theories contribute to explaining survey response behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to provide an exploratory extension of AEM by using an extended set of theories in an exploratory content analysis of qualitative feedback to a large internet-based experiment.Design/methodology/approach - An internet-based survey using an experimental design was sent to essentially the entire population of student e-mail addresses at a New Zealand university. The 12,000 questionnaires distributed included open-end questions that asked about factors related to conducting surveys over the internet, especially potential barriers to response. A total of 841 comments are collected. An extended version of the four theories identified by AEM are used to organise and summarise the feedback provided.Findings - Cost is the most highly mentioned factor and commitment the least-mentioned factor. Overall, cost, reward, and trust are the most significant factors in survey response, leading to the conclusion that social exchange appears to the most prominent theory for internet-based surveys and commitment is the least prominent theory.Originality/value - This is the first study to use qualitative research to assess the applicability of the major theories of survey response behaviour. In addition; the study is the first to apply these theories to internet-based surveys.

PurposeThe paper's aim is to illustrate the use of a technique that can help researchers choose which techniques, and at what level, to employ in an internet‐based survey.Design/methodology/approachA screening experiment, designed as a Plackett‐Burman design, is used to study main effects of 11 techniques for increasing survey response. Three measures of effect used are click rate, completion rate, and response rate. A convenience sample of students at a large university in New Zealand is used.FindingsFollow‐up had significant impact on click rate; incentive and pre‐notification had a significant impact on completion rate; no technique had significant effect on response rate.Research limitations/implicationsMain effects are examined. Also, a limited number of approaches for each technique are studied.Originality/valueThis paper illustrates the use of a methodology that researchers, practitioner, and academics alike, can use to select techniques to employ in an internet survey. This is the first known application of the technique for selecting data collection techniques in marketing.

The importance of the strategic alignment of information systems (IS) with business has been emphasized for over a decade. To date, no study has empirically explored the impact of the strategic alignment of IS and marketing, despite indications of the relevance of IS-marketing alignment to business performance. This study reports on the development and testing of a parsimonious model which addresses this issue. Data were gathered by conducting a survey of 281 medium-large New Zealand companies. It was found that IS-marketing alignment had a significant positive impact on both business performance and marketing performance, and that marketing performance had a modest but positive impact on business performance.

This study explores the linkage between CRM technology adoption and B2B relationships. CRM technology adoption is considered as a possible antecedent to relationship strength and relationship performance. Ten marketing and sales managers, and their respective customers, from a variety of New Zealand companies were interviewed. Their perspectives on the relationship between CRM technology and relationships were recorded and analysed. In addition, their views of what are elements of strong relationships and relationship performance were explored. Findings indicate that CRM technology does have a role to play in sustaining and maintaining B2B relationships, but it is the customer communications and people aspect that may be most important. Customers have expectations of CRM technology and are generally more optimistic that CRM will provide benefits to the customer in terms of customer satisfaction and service. Respondents were in agreement that the important elements of relations include trust, commitment and communications. Relationship performance is generally measured using customer satisfaction, loyalty and/or customer retention. Future research will focus on developing a CRM technology adoption instrument and empirically testing the conceptual model with larger samples.

The importance of alignment between information systems and the business has been referred to in both the practitioner literature and in academic research for some years. A number of rigorous studies have ascertained the relevance of IS-business alignment as an important matter. The alignment of information systems with other business functions – such as the marketing function – has been alluded to as well, but not previously empirically examined in depth. This study uses data from 175 large New Zealand companies to show that strategic alignment between IS and marketing can be reliably measured, and that this alignment exerts a significant and material impact on (a) marketing performance, and (b) business performance.

A conceptual model, grounded in the literature, that depicts the impact of the level of CRM technology adoption on business‐to‐business (B2B) relationships is developed and explored. A firm's CRM technology adoption is considered as an antecedent to relationship strength and relationship performance. The model depicts both market and technology orientation of the firm as impacting the level of CRM technology adoption within a firm. The authors propose that the level of CRM technology adoption subsequently affects B2B relationship strength and performance.

This paper addresses the challenge of measuring alignment. Two different approaches are developed: one based on seven dimensions of strategic orientation; and one based on eight dimensions of market orientation. A formula is developed for the calculation of alignment. The formula is applied to a survey of 175 large New Zealand companies. Analyses of the results suggest overall similarity between the strategic orientation and market orientation approaches, yet with distinct differences which might impact on business performance.