Variety Seeking Behaviour as a Measure of Enduring Loyalty

AbstractPurposeThe following paper aims to study how the variety seeking behaviour impacts the value creation process and in turn has implications on customer loyalty. It also tries to measure the success of the coalition loyalty programmes which satisfy the variety seeking behaviour. Design/Methodology/Approach: A structured questionnaire was developed and various aspects of the loyalty programme were studied. The data analysis consisted of exploratory factor analysis, chi-square analysis and Fisher's exact analysis test. Findings: The study reveals the importance of acceptance of variety seeking behaviour as a value which the customer derives by joining the coalition based loyalty programmes. It also reveals how the ease and simplicity of joining the coalition programme has an impact on the loyalty levels. Practical implications: We believe that this research will benefit the managers in strategizing for particular segments of their loyalty programme members. It will enable their understanding of the fact the greater customer co-creation, higher are the loyalty levels. Originality/Value: There has been little research on the variety seeking behaviour and its impact on the loyalty levels of the customer. This research paper tries to fill in this gap. It also tries to link Co-creation of the consumption experience and its impact on the loyalty levels. Limitations/Future research: This research was done in India and therefore a wider geographic and demographic reach and study across comparative coalition loyalty programmes will help to establish the model proposed

Analysis of bistable and oscillating reaction systems in presence of an external noise

The paper analyses a bistable and an oscillatory reaction system in the presence of an external noise. The analysis of a bistable system shows that in the normal way the inclusion of noise destroys all the deterministic solutions. In other words, the stochastic system does not admit any solution. With imposition of certain restraints it is possible, however, to get stochastic solutions in a certain region of parameter space, which in general shrinks with the extent of noise. The modality of diminishing the region of solutions is different for white and nonwhite noise and has been discussed The paper also evaluates the influence of white and nonwhite noise on the behavior of an oscillating system and illustrates it by considering two case examples. One example indicates the conflicting role of white and nonwhite noise in bringing about the transitions from the oscillatory behavior while the second example shows no influence of white and nonwhite noise on the oscillating solution The implications of the role of noise in analysing bistable and oscillatory systems is discussed

On associating Fast Radio Bursts with afterglows

A radio source that faded over six days, with a redshift of $z\approx0.5$ host, has been identified by Keane et al. (2016) as the transient afterglow to a fast radio burst (FRB 150418). We report follow-up radio and optical observations of the afterglow candidate and find a source that is consistent with an active galactic nucleus. If the afterglow candidate is nonetheless a prototypical FRB afterglow, existing slow-transient surveys limit the fraction of FRBs that produce afterglows to 0.25 for afterglows with fractional variation, $m=2|S_1-S_2|/(S_1+S_2)\geq0.7$, and 0.07 for $m\geq1$, at 95% confidence. In anticipation of a barrage of bursts expected from future FRB surveys, we provide a simple framework for statistical association of FRBs with afterglows. Our framework properly accounts for statistical uncertainties, and ensures consistency with limits set by slow-transient surveys.Comment: Accepted version (ApJL