Christine Storer

Exploration of customer horizons to measure understanding of netchains

The importance of a market orientation as the basis for meeting customer expectations is well known in marketing. In applying this concept to networks or netchains, the concept “customer horizon” is proposed to measure the ability to name or identify downstream customers and their requirements. A case study of five organizations in a netchain is examined to determine each companys customer horizon in terms of “breadth” and “length”. Based on the findings, it is suggested that companies can choose between alternative configurations of customer horizons. It is argued that it may be important to watch out for narrow and short customer horizons – especially when customer satisfaction is low, end consumer requirements are changing and/or these changes are not being communicated upstream to suppliers.

ARE ALL MY VOLUNTEERS HERE TO HELP OUT? CLUSTERING EVENT VOLUNTEERS BY THEIR MOTIVATIONS

Posed as a question that an event organizer might contemplate in terms of how best to attract and retain event volunteers, this study adds to the event volunteering literature by cluster analyzing volunteers sampled at four sports events using items from the Special Event Volunteer Motivation Scale (SEVMS). The 28 items were first subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis resulting in four factors (Solidary, Purposive, External Traditions/Commitments, and Spare Time), followed by a two-step clustering procedure and a series of post hoc tests to describe and validate the clusters. As a result of this procedure, three distinct clusters were formed: the Altruists, Socials, and Indifferents. The Altruists and Socials were primarily driven by two distinct internal factors, which respectively represented the Purposive and Solidary factors. The Indifferents appeared to be pushed into volunteering by external forces, rather than intrinsic motivations. Validation revealed that the Indifferents were significantly less satisfied with their volunteer experience than the other two clusters and were also less likely to volunteer in the future. Across the four events sampled, there were distinct patterns of cluster representation, with one event in particular substantially overrepresented by the more negatively inclined Indifferents. The management and research implications of these findings are discussed.