Aviva Geva

Satisfaction measurement in guided tours

Abstract Companies offering guided tours dwell on participants satisfaction in controlling the tour quality. The responsibility for achieving participants satisfaction is mostly delegated to the guide who is in a good position to customize the tours quality to the individual needs and preferences. This article questions the widespread assumption that the tour companies are directly credited with the success of the guide and with the customers satisfaction of the tour performance. The findings of an empirical study, investigating 15 guided tours from Israel to Europe and the United States, highlight the vulnerability of the tour company in the tripartite company-guide-consumer relationship. The managerial implications of the findings are explored.

Duality in consumer post-purchase attitude

Abstract The paper discusses possible inconsistencies in consumers post-purchase attitude when faced with disconfirmed expectations. The main argument, based on an extension of cognitive dissonance theory, is that post-purchase attitude may be characterized by duality. It is argued that satisfaction with past purchase may not be closely related to intentions to repurchase because of the different functions they may fulfill. Whereas satisfaction reflects the need to justify past purchase behavior, intentions to repurchase, which are of instrumental importance, reflect learning from experience. This approach contrasts the prevalent satisfaction-intention paradigm which assumes a causal link from satisfaction with the purchase to intentions to repeat it. The specific conditions under which duality is likely to appear are specified and empirical support from a field study involving consumers who participated in guided tours abroad is presented and discussed.

Moral Decision Making in Business: A Phase-Model

The traditional model of ethical decision making in business suggests applying an initial set of principles to a concrete problem and if they conflict the decision maker may attempt to balance them intuitively. The centrality of the ethical conflict in the accepted notion of “ethical problem†has diverted the attention of moral decision modelers from other ethical problems that real-world managers must face—e.g., compliance problems, moral laxity, and systemic problems resulting from the structures and practices of the business organization. The present article proposes a new model for ethical decision making in business—the Phase-model—designed to meet the full spectrum of business-related ethical problems. Drawing on the dominant moral theories in business literature, the model offers additional strategies for tackling ethical issues beyond the traditional cognitive operations of deductive application of principles to specific cases and the balancing of ethical considerations. Its response to the problems of moral pluralism in the context of decision making lies in its structural features. The model distinguishes between three phases of the decision-making process, each having a different task and a different theoretical basis. After an introductory stage in which the ethical problem is defined, the first phase focuses on a principle-based evaluation of a course of action; the second phase provides a virtue-based perspective of the situation and strategies for handling unsettled conflicts and compliance problems; and the third phase adapts the decision to empirical accepted norms. An illustrative case demonstrates the applicability of the model to business real life.

Changes in the Perception of a Service during its Consumption: A case of Organised Tours

Changes in both content and structure of consumers′ perceptions of an organised tour over its duration are investigated. Participants in 15 organised tours evaluated various attributes describing the tour at its beginning and at its conclusion. A comparison of the factor structure underlying their evaluations showed a major change in perceptual structure. At the early stages of the tour perceptions are not well formed and the tour is mostly perceived in terms of one set of attributes. Over time, consumers′ experiences in the tour resulted in their forming a clearer view and an emphasis on different sets of attributes. The implications of these findings for tour operators and management are also discussed.

Myth and Ethics in Business

Business myth is generally treated in business ethics literature as a mental obstacle that must be removed in order to prepare the ground for rational thinking on the ethical aspect of business conduct. This approach, which focuses on the content of myth, does not explicate the nature and function of myth. Based on the study of myth in the fields of humanities and social sciences, this paper develops a theoretical framework and analytical tool—the revolving-door model—for researching myth in business. The proposed framework (1) offers new perspectives on myth: the consumer’s, the producer’s, the mythologist’s, and the ethicist’s; (2) explicates various distortion mechanisms of the myth; and (3) enables a redefinition of the relation of business myth to business ethics. The applicability of this framework is demonstrated by means of a real case which sets the stage for examining a set of common myths.

Moral Problems of Employing Foreign Workers

The employment of foreign workers is one of the most crucial problems today in the domain of work relations. Absorbing workers from abroad poses serious questions concerning the moral obligations of the employers as well as the government authorities in the migrant-receiving country. Unfortunately, the moral dilemmas of foreign labor have been largely neglected by business ethics researchers. This paper develops a conceptual framework based on the multinational corporation (MNC) ethical research to help examine the moral obligations of employers and states toward foreign workers, as opposed to citizens. The main argument is that domestic employers, who have the power to affect crucial aspects in the lives of migrant workers, incur obligations to these people and bear moral responsibility for their subsistence. As regards the host country in a universal social order based on the existence of nation-states, the employment of foreign workers poses a genuine ethical dilemma between two valid moral duties: the duty to improve the welfare of nationals and the duty to promote the interests of everyone, regardless of their nationality.