Ana María Gutiérrez Arranz

The role of loyalty programs in behavioral and affective loyalty

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to analyze the behavioral and affective loyalty of retailer customers in order to establish the role played by loyalty programs in the development of these variables.Design/methodology/approach – Research data were taken from a survey carried out on 750 customers from a Spanish supermarket chain. Several ANOVAs are employed to compare the two loyalty dimensions among participants and non participants in loyalty programs.Findings – The results show that participants in loyalty programs are more behavioral and affectively loyal than non participants. Nevertheless, most customers do not change purchase behavior after joining a loyalty program. The strategy is therefore to retain loyal customers and to achieve the reinforcement of affective bonds linking the customer to the retailer.Practical implications – Companies should focus their efforts on developing a reward plan as adapted as possible to concrete needs of each participant in the program to achieve true loyalty.Origi...

Determinants of internet use in the purchasing process

Purpose – Determinants of internet adoption in industrial purchase have rarely been paid attention in the literature. Considering this gap in the literature, the present study intends to approach the factors that determine the use of the internet as a source of information in procurement.Design/methodology/approach – This research analyzes whether different internet tools are used throughout the phases in the purchasing process and, at the same time, whether the characteristics of the buying situation determine the use of the internet in that process. The survey is based on an e‐mailed questionnaire sent to a sample of 103 Spanish firms.Findings – In general, different uses of the internet tools are not observed in the different stages of the buying process. However, the characteristics of purchasing situations (novelty, complexity, perceived risk, time pressure and personal stake) at each buying situation make possible an explanation of the use of different internet tools throughout the different phases ...

Designing effective websites: The moderating role of user internet experience

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of various aspects relating to execution of a Website: Presentation format, quantity and type of content. We developed experimental Websites and we found that in high-involvement context this effectiveness is not influenced as much by the format of presentation of the Website as by the quantity and type of content offered. The extension of the Website content generates more favorable, affective and behavioral responses only when such extension has an informative nature. Moreover, we found evidence of the moderating role of the individuals Web experience in the advertising persuasion process. Therefore, the results of this investigation can provide recommendations to the organizations on how to create effective Websites.