How about integration: the impact of online activities on store satisfaction and loyalty

Although there has been widespread support for the concept of integrating the Internet with other channels, relatively little empirical research has been conducted in this area. This paper examines the effects of integrated online activities on customer perceptions, i.e., satisfaction and loyalty, as well as customer behavior, i.e., purchases. As this study focuses on a nontransaction site, the purchases only take place in the store. Through structural equation modeling, we test a model that determines the relationships between loyalty and satisfaction in two channels – the store and the web site –, as well as the antecedents of both store and site satisfaction. The results provide evidence for synergy effects between the store and the site. Site satisfaction and site loyalty are both positively and significantly related to their offline counterparts. Store loyalty and site loyalty are also positively and significantly related to each other, but the relationship between store satisfaction and site satisfaction is not significant. The online activities do not directly influence offline purchases, but there is an indirect effect via store loyalty. However, the magnitude of this effect is rather small.

Exploring the concept of web site customization: applications and antecedents

While mass customization is the tailoring of products and services to the needs and wants of individual customers, web site customization is the tailoring of web sites to individual customers? preferences. Based on a review of site customization applications, the authors propose a model with four different levels standardization, adaptation, passive personalization, and active personalization). Each of these levels requires a different level of involvement of both the supplier and the customer. Based on an extensive review literature the authors then develop conceptual models of the determinants of site customization from both a customer?s and a supplier?s point of view. Both models contain the factors that determine the willingness of a party (customer or supplier) to get actively involved in web site customization. Some factors have a positive impact on the willingness to customize while others have a negative impact. Managers engaged in site customization projects should realized that site customization is not an undisputed topic. Its success will be context dependent. The presented conceptual models can be used to analyze the essentials of a particular context and to assess the potential of web site customization.

Of Hubs and Hinterlands: Cyprus as an Insular Space of Overlapping Diasporas

This paper uses the metaphor of diasporic hubs and hinterlands to document and analyse the various diasporic formations that overlap and encounter each other on the divided island of Cyprus. After a review of the various ways that islands interface with migration processes and some essential historical and statistical background on Cyprus and its population, the paper considers a number of migrations/diasporas that are based on or affect the island. They include the emigration from the diasporic hub of Cyprus during the 1950s-1970s; return migration, both of the original emigrants and their descendants; the British military/colonial settlement of Cyprus; retirees and ‘lifestyle migrants’; and various categories of recent immigrants, for whom Cyprus is a diasporic hinterland. We draw both similarities and differences between migratory dynamics in the northern, Turkish Cypriot part of the island and the southern, Greek Cypriot part. In the final part of the paper we describe recent fieldwork on various spaces of inter-diasporic encounter in Cyprus

Multichannel management : de stand van zaken

Dit rapport geeft een overzicht van multichannel management (MCM) vanuit drie verschillende invalshoeken, namelijk vanuit het perspectief van de klant, de organisatie en de technologie. Alvorens elk van de invalshoeken toe te lichten, is er eerst een introductie over MCM op basis van verschillende wetenschappelijke onderzoeksgebieden. Bij het klantperspectief zijn vooral aspecten als kanaalkeuze, gebruik en beïnvloeding van het kanaalgedrag van belang. In het organisatieperspectief staat het huidige beleid van overheidsinstellingen op het gebied van MCM centraal. Tot slot geeft dit rapport een overzicht van de huidige technologische oplossingen voor MCM. Bij elk van deze invalshoeken worden inzichten uit de wetenschap en de praktijk meegenomen

Erfolgreiche Implementation schulischer Innovationen

Besonders nach den unbefriedigenden Ergebnissen der international vergleichenden Schulleistungsuntersuchungen sehen sich Schulen mit verschiedenen Innovationen konfrontiert. Diese haben zumeist das Ziel, Schule als Lerngelegenheit für die Schülerinnen und Schüler zu verbessern. Die schulische Implementationsforschung untersucht unter anderem, welche Faktoren eine Implementation fördern, wobei bisher vor allem einzelne Aspekte und Ebenen untersucht sowie bestehende Befunde nicht anhand weiterer Studien überprüft wurden. Auf Grundlage eines integrativen Modells, das aus dem betriebswirtschaftlichen Change Management und der Bildungsforschung adaptiert wurde, wurden im Rahmen von drei Forschungsartikeln sowie zusätzlichen Analysen Strukturen und Prozesse in einem schulischen Implementationsprozess untersucht, wobei mehrere Aspekte simultan überprüft, verschiedene Ebenen berücksichtigt und die Ergebnisse im Rahmen einer Sekundäranalyse anhand einer weiteren Stichprobe teilweise überprüft wurden. Die Befunde der vorliegenden Arbeit zeigen, dass kommunikative und emotionale Aspekte sowie das affektiv-kognitive Erleben der Beteiligten eine zentrale Rolle im Implementationsprozess spielen und über die Diffusion der Veränderung in der jeweiligen Schule schlussendlich auch die Kompetenzen der Schülerinnen und Schüler vorhersagen (Artikel 1 & 2). Dabei sind vor allem die individuell wahrgenommene Kooperation sowie die Motivation der Beteiligten und deren Zufriedenheit mit der Innovation auf individueller Ebene für die Entwicklung ebendieser im Implementationsprozess relevant, während das kommunikative und emotionale Schulklima auf Organisationsebene die Diffusion der Veränderung bedingt (Artikel 3). Die Ergebnisse aus Artikel 3 konnten teilweise anhand einer weiteren Stichprobe bestätigt werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit verweist auf die Wichtigkeit kommunikativer und emotionaler Aspekte sowie des affektiv-kognitiven Erlebens der Beteiligten in einem Implementationsprozess

The 'return' of British-born Cypriots to Cyprus: a narrative ethnography

My thesis is the product of an in-depth qualitative study of the ‘return’ of British-born Cypriots to Cyprus. By specifically focusing on the second generation, my thesis seeks to rectify the lacuna in research on the second generation’s connections to the ethnic homeland, capitalising on these migrants’ positionalities with respect to questions of home and belonging. The thesis consists of eight chapters: Chapter 1 introduces the context in which the research was conducted; Chapter 2 provides the historical and geographical background for the Cypriot migration experience; Chapter 3 presents the methodological and ethical context in which my research was conducted; Chapters, 4, 5, 6 are the main empirical chapters, discussing the British-born Greek-Cypriot returnees’ experiences, motives and viewpoints, from childhood memories to today’s adult experiences; Chapter 7 provides an additional comparative angle through the inclusion of a subsample of British-born Turkish Cypriots; and finally, Chapter 8, my concluding chapter, revisits the research questions, draws comparisons with other empirical studies on second-generation return, and re-evaluates my methodological framework. Through the voices and life-narratives of second-generation British-Cypriot ‘return’ migrants – following a biographical timeline – the multifaceted perspectives in which notions of ‘return’, ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ can be viewed and experienced in a migratory context are revealed. My study shows the complexities and ambivalences involved when exploring ideas of ‘identity’ and ‘return’, views of ‘home’, and feelings of ‘belonging’ in the ancestral homeland – demonstrating how boundaries of such notions are blurred, eroded and re-established by a new generation of migrants, reflecting their time, experiences, choices and ideologies. My findings deconstruct the meaning of ‘return’, move beyond the primordial cultural confines of notions of ‘belonging’, and challenge the simple dichotomy of ‘home’ versus ‘away’, revealing new similarities (and differences) beyond such predefined labels and categories, which form the building blocks for new, contemporary, ways and spaces of belonging