Impact of Financial and Nonfinancial Constructs on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): U.S. Retailer’s Perspective

Purpose: This customer lifetime value (CLV) study developed and refined an instrument to measure CLV from a retailer’s perspective using both financial and nonfinancial constructs. Design/methodology/approach: The authors created scale items to measure the financial (monetary value and marketing costs) and nonfinancial constructs (trust, loyalty, purchase frequency, recency, and churn rate). They assessed composite reliability as well as discriminant and convergent validity. Findings: A varimax rotation indicated strong items for trust and recency under the nonfinancial factors as well as monetary value and marketing costs under the financial factors. Additionally, the measurement model indicated a strong model fit. Practical implications: The findings reinforce the notion of using financial factors to determine CLV. However, nonfinancial factors are also relevant for explaining CLV. These findings fundamentally shift the argument about the determinants of CLV as well as open the door for further research about the financial factors of CLV. Originality: This is the first study to create scale items for measuring the financial and nonfinancial constructs of CLV. The research provides useful theoretical and managerial insights regarding the consideration of nonfinancial factors for refocusing marketing and retailing efforts toward consumers. The study findings reinforce the notion that all customers are not equally valuable

Why some health and social care workers resisted compulsory COVID vaccination

The UK planned to make COVID vaccination compulsory for frontline NHS and social care staff, but ultimately did not. Sian Moore (University of Greenwich), Christina Clamp (Southern New Hampshire University), and Eklou R Amendah (University of Southern Maine) and colleagues look at vaccine hesitancy among this group in the UK and US, many of whom are BME, and how employers and trade unions tackled it

Understanding vaccine hesitancy in US and UK frontline workers – The role of economic risk

Drawing upon a comparative qualitative study of frontline workers in the US and UK this research confirms Bazzoli and Probsts’ (2022) emphasis on employment instability as a limiting boundary condition for effective implementation of a strong safety climate. It suggests that there is no positive relationship between risk of Covid-19 infection and frontline worker attitudes toward the vaccine because of their exposure throughout the pandemic. The notion of moral disengagement is problematic because of the tension between the vaccine hesitancy of frontline workers and the pro-social roles they fulfilled in the pandemic. Their exposure, underpinned by dependence on non-standard contracts and limited access to sick pay, informed vaccine hesitancy. Trust in management, but also perceptions of economic risk and safety in the work environment, shape vaccine behaviour and point to the importance of workplace health and safety policies. The research suggests the necessity of work-related variables in exploring vaccine hesitancy, but also consideration of the wider political economy of legal, health and welfare systems in both countries, including hostile migration environments. While vaccination was more politicised in the US, the intersection of race and class were key factors in both countries because of the predominance of BME and BIPOC workers in essential work during the pandemic and disproportionate exposure to the virus

The Attitude of Chinese Consumers Toward Illegal Downloading of Music, Movies and Software in the United States

Piracy of intellectual property, and especially unauthorized downloading of music, movies and software programs, causes significant loss of revenue to US firms. While the illegal downloading of intellectual properties by Chinese consumers has been the focus of various reports published in the popular press, not much academic work on the topic has been published. This paper, based on a review of the extant literature on this topic, is an attempt to further our understanding of this phenomenon. This paper proffers several testable propositions covering a whole gamut of downloading behavior by Chinese consumers and the causes thereof. The paper concludes with a discussion on the limitations of the study followed by directions for future research that could potentially deepen our understanding of this topic

M-payment service: Interplay of perceived risk, benefit, and trust in service adoption. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries

This study aimed to examine the effects of perceived risk, perceived benefits, and trust on consumers’ intention to use mobile payment, or m‐payment. In addition, different effects of some demographic factors (e.g., income, age, education) on m‐payment usage were examined. The sample of 457 respondents was used to analyze the causal relationships between the variables and the mean differences of demographic factors in consumer intention to use m‐payment. The results supported the negative relationship between perceived risk, trust, and consumer intention to use m‐payment. A positive relationship between perceived benefits and trust was found. This study revealed that trust mediated consumer intention to use m‐payment. In individual differences of m‐payment adoption, education influenced the relationship between perceived risk and intention to use m‐payments as well as the relationship between trust and intention to use m‐payment. This study provided insights into consumer differences regarding m‐payment adoption and the mediating role of trust between perceived benefits, perceived risk, and intention to use m‐payment

Shared Service Cooperatives: A Qualitative Study Exploring, Applications, Benefits and Potentials

The story of shared services cooperatives is compelling for the breadth and depth of its utility across multiple sectors of the US economy. Shared services cooperatives are member associations formed to meet a variety of institutional needs for economies and efficiencies of scale through collaboration in areas such as purchasing, marketing, processing and distribution. They are organized and operate as for-profit or not-for-profit business entities and appear in a broad array of industry and public service sectors, providing a variety of benefits, services and opportunities today in rural, suburban and urban communities throughout the US. This qualitative study sets out to describe the ways in which shared services cooperatives are organized, who are the members, how shared services cooperatives benefit their members and why the members formed a cooperative as opposed to other forms of collaboration (joint ventures, subsidiaries or collaborative agreements). Shared services cooperatives in all the cases studied have led to long-term impacts in addressing organizational needs. All the cooperatives in this study have effectively served their members’ needs. Whether it was a cooperative designed to enhance competitiveness, or to lower risks, to acquire new sources of funding or to allow the cooperative members to scale up or sustain the organization, the story has been the same. The shared services cooperative works very well as a way to meet these varied needs.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1509/thumbnail.jp

A Look at Collaborative Service Provision: Case for Cosmetic Surgery Medical Tourism at Korea for Chinese Patients

Consumers admiring the beauty standards of other countries are approaching cosmetic surgery medical tourism. This study examines the roles of hospitals and facilitating agents as the main entities of cosmetic surgery medical tourism. 334 Chinese patients who underwent cosmetic surgery in Korea were collected and structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data. The results show that a hospital’s service quality in terms of tangibles, assurance, and empathy affect customers’ attitudes toward medical tourism for cosmetic surgery, which in turn, influences satisfaction with medical tourism. More importantly, facilitating agents’ service quality moderates the effects of hospitals’ service quality dimensions on service satisfaction. Findings extend the existing literature on medical tourism by identifying the roles of hospitals and facilitating agents to enhance customers’ attitudes and satisfaction with respect to collaborative service provision. Moreover, this research provides the first empirical evidence for the facilitating agents’ role in determining satisfaction with medical tourism

Understanding vaccine hesitancy in US and UK frontline workers – The role of economic risk

Drawing upon a comparative qualitative study of frontline workers in the US and UK this research confirms Bazzoli and Probsts’ (2022) emphasis on employment instability as a limiting boundary condition for effective implementation of a strong safety climate. It suggests that there is no positive relationship between risk of Covid-19 infection and frontline worker attitudes toward the vaccine because of their exposure throughout the pandemic. The notion of moral disengagement is problematic because of the tension between the vaccine hesitancy of frontline workers and the pro-social roles they fulfilled in the pandemic. Their exposure, underpinned by dependence on non-standard contracts and limited access to sick pay, informed vaccine hesitancy. Trust in management, but also perceptions of economic risk and safety in the work environment, shape vaccine behaviour and point to the importance of workplace health and safety policies. The research suggests the necessity of work related variables in exploring vaccine hesitancy, but also consideration of the wider political economy of legal, health and welfare systems in both countries, including hostile migration environments. While vaccination was more politicised in the US, the intersection of race and class were key factors in both countries because of the predominance of BME and BIPOC workers in essential work during the pandemic and disproportionate exposure to the virus.</p