Björn Frank

Does economic growth enhance life satisfaction? The case of Germany

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether economic growth enhances life satisfaction. It provides a conceptual solution to the heavily debated Easterlin paradox which states that aggregate income positively relates to life satisfaction in one‐time international comparisons but not in longitudinal analyses. First empirical results are presented for Germany.Design/methodology/approach – The present study uses path analysis to capture not only direct but also mediated effects of economic growth on life satisfaction. Findings – The paper finds that economic growth does enhance life satisfaction over time. The effect is not direct but mediated via consumer confidence, customer satisfaction, income satisfaction, health satisfaction and job satisfaction. Modeled by consumer confidence, adaptive expectations reduce this effect but cannot entirely compensate for it, as suggested by literature. In addition to this negative compensatory effect which is mediated by customer satisfaction, consumer conf...

Economic drivers of dwelling satisfaction: Evidence from Germany

Purpose - Sociologists are discussing whether or not economic growth enhances subjective well-being. To complement their research from a housing perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether aggregate income enhances dwelling satisfaction over time. While cross-sectional studies have only examined the direct influence of income on dwelling satisfaction, this paper suggests that there are additional influences mediated by other social indicators. Design/methodology/approach - Based on data from Germany, correlation and regression analyses examine the impacts of aggregate income and other social indicators on dwelling satisfaction. Path analysis is used to test for the existence of mediated relationships. Findings - The paper finds that aggregate income positively influences dwelling satisfaction. Environmental satisfaction, customer satisfaction and satisfaction with family relations also positively impact dwelling satisfaction and mediate influences of aggregate income. The mediated effects are stronger than the direct effect of aggregate income on dwelling satisfaction. Research limitations/implications - The longitudinal availability of aggregate customer satisfaction data is still limited. Future research on dwelling satisfaction is encouraged to account for customer satisfaction and to reexamine the analyses of this study with future data. Practical implications - Stimulating economic growth is a good strategy to improve dwelling satisfaction. Policies improving the environment, family support and shopping opportunities are also effective. Originality/value - This paper is original in that it examines the impacts of economic growth and customer satisfaction on dwelling satisfaction. While the extant literature has only analysed direct effects of income on dwelling satisfaction, this study also accounts for mediated effects.

Self‐Preservation vs. Collective Resilience as Consumer Responses to National Disasters: A Study on Radioactive Product Contamination

This article extends the literature on consumer reactions to national disasters. Because of the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japanese consumers face the long‐term risk of radioactive product contamination as products come from contaminated regions. When facing this risk in purchase situations, Japanese consumers have the choice of reducing their purchases to protect personal health from perceived risk or increasing their purchases to economically support suffering Japanese regions. Based on analysis of variance and regression analysis of data on mobile phones and fast food restaurants from 99 consumers in Japan and 677 consumers in the United States, this study confirms that consumers respond to the risk of radioactive product contamination by reduced or increased purchase intent. Moreover, it finds that purchase intent reductions (vs. increases) vary by consumer age and are more pronounced for fast food restaurants than mobile phones, for non‐Japanese consumers in Japan and the United States than for Japanese consumers in Japan, and for more health‐conscious consumers. While purchase intent reductions only weakly depend on cultural values, they tend to be positively influenced by uncertainty avoidance and negatively influenced by individualism, masculinity values and long‐term orientation. This article thus informs policy makers and marketing managers on how to more effectively address psychological needs of different consumer segments to support the economic reconstruction of disaster‐stricken regions.

Interpreting time series of patient satisfaction: macro vs. micro components.

Recent research discovered that economic processes influence national averages of customer satisfaction. Using time-series data from Japanese and South Korean hospitals, we conducted principal component regression analyses to examine whether these findings are transferable to patient satisfaction. Our results reveal that aggregate income has a positive impact and economic expectations have a negative impact on patient satisfaction. Further analyses demonstrate that these strong economic influences make it difficult for hospital managers to use patient satisfaction scores to assess the performance impact of their customer-oriented actions. In order to improve performance evaluations based on patient surveys, we thus recommend managers to remove economic influences from time-series of patient satisfaction.

Does aggregate income influence satisfaction with the standard of living

Sociologists have been arguing whether aggregate income enhances subjective well-being and, more specifically, satisfaction with the standard of living. The empirical results were mixed. This article suggests that aggregate income affects standard-of-living satisfaction not only directly but also indirectly. Using path analysis and a dataset from Germany, this study finds that absolute income, short-term income fluctuations, and income inequality do not have direct impacts on standard-of-living satisfaction. However, they have indirect impacts mediated by income satisfaction, aggregate customer satisfaction, and satisfaction with the household role. Hence, public policy can rely on economic growth to enhance standard-of-living satisfaction. Government must ensure that economic growth translates into more satisfactory consumption experiences and that growing economic activity rather strengthens than divides families. Future sociological research should account for mediated effects of aggregate income on subjective well-being and no longer ignore the role of customer satisfaction.

Consumer desire for personalisation of products and services: cultural antecedents and consequences for customer evaluations

In order to satisfy customers, marketers increasingly provide customers with the means to personalise their products and services. Based on the social identity approach and international consumer data, this article explores the antecedents and consequences of consumer desires for internal personalisation (perceiving a distinctive identity) and external personalisation (communicating a distinctive identity) of products and services. In terms of antecedents, the results show that desire for (both internal and external) personalisation tends to be influenced negatively by age and positively by both individualism (vs. collectivism) and uncertainty avoidance. In terms of consequences, the results indicate that desire for personalisation moderates the formation of affective, but not cognitive, customer satisfaction. Moreover, desire for personalisation enhances the relative importance of perceived usage benefits, compared with physical performance, in customer evaluations of products and services. These results have important implications for the design and marketing of products and services.

How Should Foreign Retailers Deal With Chinese Consumers? A Cross-National Comparison of the Formation of Customer Satisfaction

China is becoming one of the worlds most attractive retail markets. Though the literature lacks a comprehensive theory on country differences in the formation of customer satisfaction, such knowledge would enable foreign retailers to better adapt their marketing strategies to Chinese consumers. This study creates such a theory and tests it with data from seven countries. Hierarchical linear modeling shows that country differences in economic development and culture influence both (a) the level of customer satisfaction and (b) how customer satisfaction is influenced by its antecedents. Additional analyses specifically inform foreign retailers about how to adapt to Chinese consumer needs.

Economic influences on customer satisfaction: an international comparison

The marketing literature has extensively analysed firm-level influences on customer satisfaction. Since macro-level customer satisfaction data have not become available until recently, researchers have just taken first steps towards analysing economic influences on customer satisfaction. Identifying economic influences is important because their existence would impair the interpretability of corporate customer satisfaction surveys. Using principal component and regression analyses, we examine economic influences on customer satisfaction across a number of countries: Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and the USA. Our analyses reveal that economic expansion exerts a positive influence on customer satisfaction, whereas economic expectations exert a negative influence. As a measure to improve todays quality management practices, we thus recommend that firms correct the scores of multiperiod customer satisfaction surveys for economic influences.

Sustainable innovation: A consumer perspective

In order for innovation to become sustainable, consumers need to actually purchase innovative products and services, even when these happen to be expensive. For these cases, this study addresses a gap in the literature by developing the concept of sustainable consumer innovativeness and by seeking to understand its determinants across countries. Based on data collected from more than 3,000 consumers across five countries, this study finds that sustainable consumer innovativeness tends to be influenced negatively by female sex and savings orientation, whereas it appears to be influenced positively by income satisfaction, financial expectations, curiosity, uncertainty avoidance, and status importance. It does not seem to depend on age. While most of these effects are generally valid, their magnitude tends to differ by country. These results may enable managers of innovative firms to identify lead users and thus to improve marketing strategy during the launch phase of innovative products and services.

Economic influences on customer satisfaction: Variation by product function

Based on longitudinal customer satisfaction data from three durable goods industries in Japan, this study analyzes how economic processes influence customer satisfaction and how these effects vary by product function. Our research hypotheses are based on a conceptual extension of the disconfirmation of expectations theory of customer satisfaction formation. Using principal component and regression analyses, we show that customer satisfaction is positively influenced by economic growth and negatively by economic expectations. These effects, especially the influence of economic expectations, are much stronger for customer satisfaction with peripheral product functions than with core product functions. Quality managers should be aware of misinterpretations when measuring customer satisfaction to evaluate business performance. Variations in customer satisfaction are not only caused by variations in corporate performance but also by external economic influences.