The authors examine the influence of a firm’s market orientation and salesperson customer orientation on buyer–seller relationships. Data from a national manufacturer’s sales force and retail trade customers were used to test the influence of sales managers’ perceptions on salesperson attitudes toward a firm’s market orientation and its salesperson customer orientation. The impact of salesperso...

In B2C Online services contexts where relationships between customers and service providers matter due to the lack of faceto-face interactions, uncertainty, intangibility, hyper competition, increasing risk of fraud and lack of trust. Relationship quality (RQ) is replacing service quality as a key source of superior performance and competitive advantage. Accordingly, this study investigates the...

We formulate a theoretical model in which we postulate that if a customers' behavior is perceived as not optimal, customers will adjust this behavior based on their current satisfaction and payment equity. Furthermore, customers will also include new experiences. In our empirical study we particularly investigate customer referrals and the amount of services purchased. Our results show positive...

The personalization of services and products offered to customers is becoming crucial for the success of companies. Firms that can maintain a personalized relationship with their customers will not only gain an advantage from competitors but will also benefit from having more loyal and valuable customers. The recent advances in technology and the associated cost reduction are allowing companies...

A good relationship between companies and customers is a crucial factor of competitiveness. Market segmentation is a key issue for companies to develop and maintain loyal relationships with customers as well as to promote the increase of company sales. This paper proposes a method for market segmentation in retailing based on customers’ lifestyle, supported by information extracted from a large...

Educational institutions increasingly adopt the students-as-customers concept to satisfy their students. Understanding students’ perspectives on the use of this business concept in educational institutions is necessary for the institutions to effectively align these perspectives with their management practice. The study investigates whether students in technology and business disciplines have s...

Software maintenance is a task that every development group has to face when the software is delivered to the customers’ site, installed and is operational. The time spent and effort required for keeping software operational consumes about 40-70% of cost of entire life cycle. This study proposes a four parameter integrated measure of software maintainability using a fuzzy model. The study also ...

Electronic Commerce is a significant, pervasive issue for businesses and customers. Kalakota and Whinston articulated eCommerce as being comprised of two relationship types: those between enterprises and customers; and those between and among enterprises. It is the former this minitrack addresses. However, it should be noted that a significant amount of research in traditional “Market Channels”...

1. ISO and QS introduced 2. The ISO and QS process: Levels, classifications, tiers, 9000-9004 3. ISO 9000 based requirements, QS focus 4. Launch systems for quality 5. Fundamental launch definitions, classifications, phases 6. The service function 7. Service as an upstream management function--value added 8. Capacity, SOP and other synchronous relationships to Kaizen in service 9. Understanding...