Communication services are currently confronted with large changes due to the price erosion of services and entering new service providers. The gap is filled with different services that are hoped to be successful in the near future. The problem, however, is that firms do not necessarily know what their customers value. One solution to the problem is building a customer value model. This paper ...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a clustering approach to segment supply chain partners in the automobile industry and prioritize services offered by third party logistics service (3PL) providers. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 98 automobile and auto-parts manufacturers are surveyed to identify service needs, preferences, and outsourcing commitments. By applying a two-...

Why are product prices in online markets dispersed in spite of very small search costs? To address this question, we construct a unique dataset from a Japanese price comparison site, which records price quotes offered by e-retailers as well as customers' clicks on products, which occur when they proceed to purchase the product. The novelty of our approach is that we seek to extract useful infor...

Companies have made their best efforts to sustain ongoing relations with their customers and thus generate as much revenue and profits as possible through CRM (Customer Relationship Management). One of the key marketing tools of CRM is target marketing. Target marketing is a marketing strategy that analyzes certain goods and services preferred by existing customers, develops new goods and servi...

A method for representing and manipulating imprecise and vague information in engineering design is described. Designers and customers preferences are captured with Fuzzy sets. Formal methods for including noise, trade-o strategies and design iteration are included. Introduction Imprecision and vagueness are intrinsic aspects of engineering design. If (at the start of a design process) a propos...

Mass-customization challenges the one-size-fits-all assumption of mass production, allowing customers to specify the options that best fit their requirements when choosing a product or a service. In business process management, to achieve mass-customization, providers offer to their customers the opportunity to customize the way in which a process will be enacted. We focus on monitoring as a sp...

Group-deal websites, where customers purchase products or services in groups, are an interesting phenomenon on the Web. Each purchase is kicked off by a group initiator, and other customers can join in. Customers form communities with people with similar interests and preferences (as in a social network), and this drives bulk purchasing (similar to online stores, but in larger quantities per or...

In today’s increasingly competitive business environment companies can, and indeed must, respond more rapidly to customers’ changing demands, desires, and preferences. In today’s information-rich environment customers can comparison shop, get product reviews from other customers, and, in general, become very well informed about what is available in the market. • If your offerings are not differ...