Ann Mitsis

An empirical model of home internet services quality in Thailand

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the antecedents to service quality and their relationship with affective evaluations of customers of internet service providers (ISPs) in Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve the research objectives, a model is proposed. The literature review and formulation of hypotheses related to each construct are then discussed. Findings – The findings reveal that service quality is influenced by network quality, customer service, information support, privacy and security. Service quality in turn also impacts customer loyalty attributes, including satisfaction, value, trust and commitment. Satisfaction is a determinant of customer trust, whereas the direct relationship between value and customer commitment is not supported. Research limitations/implications – The model in this study was tested in the Thai ISP context which may be different in other service industries as well as in other countries. Practical implications – By enhancing service quality, fi...

Do Business Students’ Culturally Anchored Values Shape Student-Driven or Teacher-Driven Learning Style Preferences?

University education is part of a globally competitive service industry and contributes more to Australia’s export earnings than agriculture. This article argues that a deeper understanding of diverse cultural student groups is important for Australian and other universities that wish to differentiate their education service offerings by customizing them to different segments. International and domestic students are commonly seen to have different learning style preferences. This study empirically explores whether an understanding of culturally anchored values provides a better customer segmentation measure to predict learning style preferences than existing domestic and international student measures. Three questions are empirically addressed: Do business students’ culturally anchored values explain variation in learning style preferences? Do students’ culturally anchored values predict a preference for a more student- or teacher-driven learning environment? and Can an understanding of culturally anchored values provide a better customer segmentation variable to identify learning style preferences than the more commonly used categories of domestic and international? This study found that culturally anchored values provided stronger predictors of learning style preferences than domestic and international student categorizations. Implications for marketing undergraduate business programs are identified.

Generation Y's athlete role model perceptions on PWOM behaviour

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the Generation Y segment in Australia perceive athletes as role models, and if so, do they engage in positive word‐of‐mouth (POWM) recommendation behaviour. This paper also explores the influence of gender and English language enculturation on PWOM recommendation behaviours of Generation Y.Design/methodology/approach – Interviewer administered questionnaires were conducted on members of Generation Y in Melbourne, Australia. A series of correlation and OLS regression analyses were performed on a sample of 221 Generation Y consumers.Findings – This study found that Generation Y generally perceives athletes as role models and this influenced the Generation Y segment to engage in POWM recommendation behaviours for products/services/brands endorsed by the athlete role model. The results indicate that gender does not play a significant role in this process. However non‐English language enculturated members of Generation Y were found to be more likely t...

Achieving customer loyalty through service excellence in internet industry

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the antecedents to attitudinal and behavioural loyalty of customers of Internet service providers (ISPs). In addition, this study endeavours to identify the relationship between overall service quality and cognitive as well as affective evaluations of customers. An assessment of service quality dimensions is also included to fill the void of research on modelling service quality in high tech services. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the most cited articles on the topic published in academic journals with a view to identify dimensions that customers use to evaluate the quality of a service providers, and to determine loyalty formation through customer cognitive and affective evaluations in Internet industry. Findings – The exogenous constructs of the conceptual model include influential factors such as network quality, customer service, information support and security which make up the perception of overall service quality. The endogenous constructs...

Validating and extending the sport brand personality scale

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to validate Tsiotsou’s (2012) sport team brand personality scale in a new country (Australia) and segment (Generation Y) and extend its use from sport teams to individual athletes. This paper also explores the scale’s predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence. Design/methodology/approach – An online panel survey with 560 responses from Australian Generation Y consumers was obtained. Structural equation modelling was used to test and validate the scale. Findings – This paper confirmed the sport team brand personality scale can be applied to an individual athlete. Three dimensions of the scale, namely, competitiveness, morality and authenticity, were found to have predictive power in an athlete’s role model influence. Authenticity was the strongest predictor, followed by morality and competitiveness. Practical implications – Individual athlete brand personality is powerful in influencing how Australian Generation Y consumers identify with their favourite at...

Redeveloping a Business Undergraduate Honours Research Degree to Improve Educational Outcomes: Implications for PhD Supervision.

There are many challenges that undergraduate students face when studying an honours research degree. Honours programmes though traditionally considered within the business discipline as a loss leader, nevertheless, form a direct entry requirement for PhD programmes. The honours degree can be considered a formative research programme for student development. This paper specifically provides an outline of the honours degrees redevelopment and improved learning outcomes that were achieved and discusses the proposed PhD supervisory framework. The student benefits identified from the honours programmes redevelopment include a more sophisticated understanding of research paradigms; a faster cycle of learning and development, which resulted in lower student stress levels and better grades; and increases in both peer-reviewed co-authored publications and students transitioning to PhD.

Culture, generational membership and perceptions of educational excellence: counterintuitive implications for marketing education across cultures

Universities are increasingly teaching and marketing to students from diverse cultural backgrounds, which have implications for teaching marketing and the marketing of education. This study explored whether business students’ culturally-anchored values have a greater affect on educational excellence than their demographic characteristics, and this was supported.

EVALUATING SPECIFIC SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS WHICH IMPACT ON CUSTOMERS’ BEHAVIOURAL LOYALTY IN HIGH-TECH INTERNET SERVICES

This study aims to investigate the antecedents to customer retention and brand loyalty of Internet Service Providers in Thailand. The findings reveal that customers’ commitment and value are influenced by information support, privacy and security. Additionally, the positive relationships between information quality and privacy and behavioural loyalty were revealed. Customers’ commitment and value were positively associated with behavioural loyalty. However, surprisingly, there was no support for the hypothesised positive association between customers’ value with behavioural loyalty. Practical implications that can be drawn from this research will form a foundation for service providers in the residential internet market to develop new retention strategies. These providers would l be able to reduce the current issues relating to the high customer churn rate. By making customers more central in company operations, these strategies can potentially reduce the expenses associated with acquiring new customers.

Customer loyalty in high-tech internet services

This study aims to investigate the antecedents to customer retention and brand loyalty of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Thailand. Overall service quality of an ISP is determined by network quality, customer service, information support, privacy and security. The findings reveal that the positive relationships between service quality and consumers’ affective evaluations (satisfaction, trust, commitment, and value) were revealed. Overall customers’ satisfaction and commitment were positively associated with both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. However, surprisingly, there was no support for the hypothesised positive association between customers’ trust and value with attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Practical implications that can be drawn from this research will form a foundation for service providers in the home ISP to develop new retention strategies. By making customers more central in company operations, these strategies can potentially reduce the expenses associated with acquiring new customers.