Social Identity and the Service-Profit Chain

The conventional service profit chain (SPC) proposes that a firm’s financial performance can be improved via a path that connects employee satisfaction, customer orientation, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In this paper, a complementary SPC is introduced which is built on both a conventional path as well as a social identity-based path. The latter SPC part centrally builds on customer and employee company identification as a core construct. On the basis of a large scale triadic data set that included data from employees, customers and firms, we find strong support for the extended SPC, which accounts for important customer (loyalty and willingness to pay) and firm outcomes (financial performance). Also, the effects of company identification exist incrementally beyond the effects of the conventional SPC path

How to get lost customers back? : a study of antecedents of relationship revival

Most research in the field of customer relationship management has focused on keeping existing customers. However, some companies also systematically address lost customers and try to revive these relationships. This facet of customer relationship management has been largely neglected by academic research. Our study provides a theoretical discussion and an empirical analysis of factors driving the success of relationship revival activities. Drawing on equity theory we find that the customer’s perceived interactional, procedural, and distributive justice with respect to revival activities positively affect his or her revival-specific satisfaction which in turn has a strong impact on revival performance. Furthermore, revival performance depends on customer characteristics (variety seeking, involvement, age), and the overall customer satisfaction with the relationship

Distribution and second messenger coupling of four somatostatin receptor subtypes expressed in brain

AbstractThe mRNA distribution in the brain and the coupling to cellular effector systems of four somatostatin receptors (SSTR1-4) was studied. All four SRIF receptor subtypes were expressed in cortex and hippocampus. In addition, SSTR1 mRNA was relatively abundant in the spinal cord whereas SSTR2 mRNA was also present in the striatum. The SSTR3 gene was predominantly expressed in the olfactory bulb and in the cerebellum. Conflicting results about the effector coupling of SSTR1-3 have been published previously. We have stably expressed human SSTR1-4 in HEK 293 human embryonal kidney cells. Agonist binding to the receptor subtypes, including the recently cloned SSTR4, inhibited the formation of forskolin-induced cAMP. Is is concluded that, in an appropriate cellular environment, all four receptor subtypes can functionally couple to the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase

The Châtelperronian of Germolles (Grotte de la Verpillière I, Mellecey, Saône-et-Loire, France)

The Grotte de la Verpillière I in Germolles (Saône-et-Loire, France) has yielded an archaeological sequence from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Gravettian period. This contribution focusses on the Châtelperronian lithic industry, covering 150 years of research. From a techno-typological point of view, all known lithic objects presumably dating to this period are subject of this investigation. This study includes in-situ observations of Châtelperronian layers, as part of our own recent excavations. The lithic assemblage is put into context with other Châtelperronian samples in Southern Burgundy and Eastern France

Le Châtelperronien de Germolles (Grotte de La Verpillière I, commune de Mellecey, Saône-et-Loire, France)

La grotte de La Verpillière à Germolles, commune de Mellecey (Saône-et-Loire), a produit une séquence archéologique allant du Paléolithique moyen jusqu’au Gravettien. Cette contribution se focalise sur l’industrie lithique châtelperronienne, en prenant en considération 150 ans de recherches dans la cavité. D’un point de vue techno- et typologique, cette étude tend à inclure la totalité des pièces de ce site appartenant probablement au complexe châtelperronien. Elle comprend également les observations de nos propres fouilles, incluant un niveau châtelperronien en place. La série lithique de Germolles est placée dans le contexte du Châtelperronien en Bourgogne méridionale et dans l’Est de la France.The Grotte de la Verpillière I in Germolles (Saône-et-Loire, France) has yielded an archaeological sequence from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Gravettian period. This contribution focusses on the Châtelperronian lithic industry, covering 150 years of research. From a techno-typological point of view, all known lithic objects presumably dating to this period are subject of this investigation. This study includes in-situ observations of Châtelperronian layers, as part of our own recent excavations. The lithic assemblage is put into context with other Châtelperronian samples in Southern Burgundy and Eastern France

Meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy studies with multiple thresholds – comparison of different approaches

Methods for standard meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies are well established and understood. For the more complex case in which studies report test accuracy across multiple thresholds, several approaches have recently been proposed. These are based on similar ideas, but make different assumptions. In this article, we apply four different approaches to data from a recent systematic review in the area of nephrology and compare the results. The four approaches use: a linear mixed effects model, a Bayesian multinomial random effects model, a time-to-event model and a nonparametric model, respectively. In the case study data, the accuracy of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin for the diagnosis of acute kidney injury was assessed in different scenarios, with sensitivity and specificity estimates available for three thresholds in each primary study. All approaches led to plausible and mostly similar summary results. However, we found considerable differences in results for some scenarios, for example, differences in the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of up to 0.13. The Bayesian approach tended to lead to the highest values of the AUC, and the nonparametric approach tended to produce the lowest values across the different scenarios. Though we recommend using these approaches, our findings motivate the need for a simulation study to explore optimal choice of method in various scenarios