Bruno Giuseppe Busacca

Understanding the relationship between attribute performance and overall satisfaction

Purpose – There is a pressing need for practitioners to adopt viable analytic procedures that may help them optimize resource allocation to strengthen customer satisfaction. This paper reviews a range of procedures used for measuring customer satisfaction that are identified in the literature and tests which procedures might be more useful to practitioners.Design/methodology/approach – Customer satisfaction measurement procedures developed in the literature are reviewed to assess the non‐linear and asymmetric relationship between attribute performance and overall satisfaction. A convergent validity test between the two measurement procedures that the review suggests are the most suitable for application in practice is then conducted to discover the relative merits of each. The test is based on an empirical investigation carried out in the mobile communication industry.Findings – Two measurement procedures were identified as the most appropriate to practitioners, “regression with dummy variables” and the “...

Rejuvenating importance‐performance analysis

Purpose – Importance‐performance analysis (IPA) is a simple marketing tool commonly used to identify the main strengths and weaknesses of a value proposition. The purpose of this paper is to propose a revision of traditional IPA prompted by intuitions arising from the three‐factor theory of customer satisfaction. The ultimate goal is to propose a decision support method, which is as simple and intuitive as the original IPA, but more precise and reliable than the solutions proposed thus far.Design/methodology/approach – In order to estimate indirect measures of attribute importance, the study uses the coefficients of a multiple regression with overall satisfaction ratings as the dependent variable. Additional calculations are then introduced in order to manage non‐linear effects.Findings – Using empirical data from a survey among 5,209 customers of a European bank, the authors show how the proposed method can be more accurate than other solutions, especially as disregarding non‐linear effects can prompt su...

The asymmetric impact of price‐attribute performance on overall price evaluation

Purpose – To investigate the theoretical foundations of price as a multi‐dimensional component of value and to examine the nature of the relationship between price‐attribute perception and overall price evaluation.Design/methodology/approach – The economic theory of the distribution of surplus across customers and the equity theory are used to develop the hypotheses about the multi‐dimensional nature of the price construct. Prospect theory is used to predict the relationship between price‐attribute performance and overall price evaluation. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire regarding mobile communications operators in Italy. After carrying out a principal factor analysis, several regression models were run to test the hypotheses.Findings – The results confirm that price is a multi‐dimensional construct (i.e. made up of cheapness, fairness and variety), yet they do not fully support the prospect theory predictions.Research limitations/implications – Multi‐item price measurement scales n...

Trust in market relationships: An interpretative model

The paper deals with the role of trust in market relationships. The concept of trust is discussed by referring to a large extent of literature. A computer aided content analysis was carried out on a set of thirty definitions of trust and the outputs allowed for a summary to be made of the variety of the definitions proposed by the literature. The role of trust in the process of value creation is explained and the antecedents and consequences of trust are identified. A final model is presented aiming at understanding the evolutionary dynamics of trust in market relationships.

Customer Value Metrics

This paper focuses on customer value analysis and measurement, framing customer value management as one of the main antecedents of the company value-creation process. The paper builds on three main pillars. First, the paper highlights the critical role of customer value in business-to-business markets, focusing on the links between the companys ability to manage customer value-creation processes and the positive financial and economic outcomes generated by loyalty effects. Secondly, the paper develops key analytical stages for an understanding of customer value. The focus is on the customer value-chain concept, including consideration of the customer information and acquisition process and its decision rules. Third, the paper illustrates the measurement process, offering an organizational framework for selecting the most suitable method for measuring perceived customer value. The methodological alternatives range from desk measures (e.g., technical computation of the total cost of ownership (TCO)) to field analysis, like those considered under both compositional and the decomposition approaches (e.g., conjoint analysis). The paper concludes with remarks on the managerial implications of these measures, as well as offering suggestions for further research on value for the customer.

Corporate museums and brand authenticity: Explorative research of the Gucci Museo

Abstract In this paper we explore the role played by a fashion company’s museum as a driver of brand authenticity. The museum could offer to its visitors a holistic view of the brand’s original culture and values, in a synthesis that integrates past and present, reinforcing the visitors’ connection to the brand. Drawing on the existing literature, this paper explores the attributes that, according to the objective and subjective dimensions of brand authenticity, characterize the role of corporate museums in the individual quest of authentic brands. Furthermore, in addition to the objective and subjective dimensions, the paper aims to understand how the brand’s authentication tools (pioneering, protagonist in history, stylistic continuity, geographic roots, personalization and characterization) may have been influenced by the perceptions of authenticity that the museum has preserved. Finally, according to the self-expressive dimension of brand authenticity, the paper explores how the brand’s authentication tools may have been influenced by the perceptions of authenticity of visit experience. This paper will focus on the museum created by Gucci. After a synthetic overview of the literature on brand authenticity, the methodology of explorative research will be explained, and finally the results obtained will be presented.

Celebrity endorsement, brand extension, brand loyalty

Obiettivo del paper : l’articolo si prefigge di indagare l’effetto che il celebrity fit (ossia la consonanza fra la marca e il personaggio famoso utilizzato nella comunicazione pubblicitaria a sostegno di tale brand) puo esercitare sulla fedelta dei consumatori nei confronti di una marca protagonista di un’estensione. Metodologia : l’analisi si basa su una sperimentazione, condotta con riferimento a una nota marca operante nel settore del lusso, che ha coinvolto un campione di 130 consumatori possessori di tale marca. Risultati : oltre a confermare la criticita del concetto di consonanza percettiva, dall’analisi svolta emerge la rilevanza di una nuova tipologia di fit (quello fra marca e celebrita), in grado di agire sulla fedelta alla marca sia direttamente sia mediante effetti di moderazione. Limiti della ricerca : il lavoro presenta i consueti limiti delle indagini sperimentali. Implicazioni manageriali : la tipologia di consonanza esaminata assume particolare rilevanza, in quanto in grado di attenuare i vincoli derivanti dalla natura delle categorie di prodotto coinvolte nella strategia di brand extension. Originalita del lavoro : il tema affrontato, sul quale non risulta letteratura specifica, contribuisce ad arricchire la letteratura sulle strategie di estensione della marca. Parole chiave: marca; estensione della marca; testimonial; consonanza

Contrapposizioni inutili e nodi da sciogliere

Il paper si sofferma sulla sterilita di alcune tipiche contrapposizioni che stanno caratterizzando il dibattito sull’evoluzione della ricerca e dell’insegnamento universitario in campo manageriale. Quindi evidenzia tre problematiche centrali ai fini del loro superamento. Parole chiave: rigore, rilevanza, ricerca, didattica, universita.

Brand between Global Standardization and Local Resonance: Cif in Brazil

The growing globalization of markets requires brands to face the challenge of internationalization. In this paper, we address firstly the issue related to the branding strategies that firms could implement considering the diversity of the geographic markets in the world. In essence, these strategies originate from the decision: a) to adopt a pure global approach, addressing consumers who present a substantial homogeneity in terms of culture, tastes and lifestyles; b) to highlight local differences, targeting an increasing variety of segments, in line with the number of countries where the brand is present. On this basis, we then focus on a case study concerning the strategy implemented by Unilever to improve the market share of Cif brand in the Brazilian Household Cleaners market, which is the fourth biggest in the world. In conclusion, we outline some considerations regarding the development of a «strong» brand internationally.

The Effect of Budget Constraints on Creativity

This article analyzes the effects of financial constraints and of their interaction with individual novelty-seeking traits on the outcome of different types of creative tasks such as product ideation and product repair. Three experimental studies examine the effect of financial constraints on creativity of the outcome of a product ideation task, compare the effect of financial constraints with the effect of another type of constraint (i.e., input restriction) on creativity of products ideated, on the amount of resources invested in the development of the creative solution, and on the type of creative process adopted, and following re¬cent recommendations on the adoption of an interactionist perspective for the study of creativity, analyze the effect of financial constraints in interaction with an individual difference such as novelty-seeking, which embraces more remote determinants of creative performance, on the creativity of the outcomes to a product ideation task. The results suggest that constrained financial resources may be beneficial to creativity. Specifically, results suggest that financial constraints lead to the ideation of more creative products, even though these products make use of fewer inputs and of a lower budget. Furthermore, while yielding outcomes as creative as the ones generated under input constraints, financial constraints induce the use of fewer resources and activate a top down rather than a bottom up processing strategy in the solution of the problem solving task. In addition, the results show that the effect of financial constraints is stronger for individuals with inherent tendencies toward novelty-seeking, because their stock of experiences and perspectives to put them under stress when facing an unconstrained problem space.