Hans Jørn Juhl

Values, environmental attitudes, and buying of organic foods

Abstract Results from a study with Danish school teachers on their values, environmental attitudes, and buying of organic foods are reported. The objective was to investigate the applicability of the Schwartz value theory and measurement approach (Schwartz, 1992) in explaining specific aspects of consumer behaviour. This theory was developed within a general social psychology framework and has been tested cross-culturally for some 90 samples in 45 countries. Using smallest space analysis, cluster and discriminant analysis, the explanatory power of values for environmental attitudes, and the relationships between attitudes and buying of organic foods were assessed in order to determine which values are relevant for environmentally concerned versus unconcerned consumer behaviour.

Customer satisfaction in European food retailing

Abstract Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is becoming an increasingly important factor in modern retailing—a market characterized by slow growth and intense competition. Big non-European chains such as Walmart are already present in some countries and consider buying some of the retail chains in other countries, e.g. in the Scandinavian countries. This development will demand even more focus on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in order to stay in business and may also demand that existing actors on the market place form new coalitions. Promising new partners may be identified, partly based upon measures identifying how potential partners are perceived by the customers. Based on results from the European Customer Satisfaction study, a comparative analysis of customer satisfaction in Europe is conducted. Some specific Danish results are shown and the relationship between customer loyalty, supermarket type and ownership structure is studied. The relationship between results after taxes and customer loyalty is documented.

Quality management practices: a comparative study between East and West

This paper compares quality management practices in manufacturing companies in the East and the West. It uses data collected from three countries in the East, namely Japan, Korea and Taiwan and compares these with data collected from four countries in the West, namely Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Australia. Twenty‐five Japanese companies, 105 Korean companies, 48 Taiwanese companies, 65 Danish companies, 88 Swedish companies, 18 Finnish companies and 62 companies from Australia responded to the questionnaire. Comparison between the East and the West is carried out on the following: formulation and communication of a quality policy; education and training of employees in quality management; top management participation in quality activities, quality motivation and suggestions; and the use of quality tools and methods. The comparison shows that quality management practices are relatively more widespread in the Eastern companies than in the Western companies. The key differences between the East and the West are identified and suggestions made to close the gap.

The criterion weights of the EFQM excellence model

This paper examines the weight structure of the EFQM excellence model. This is done through a survey among 756 chief executive officers from Danish companies who responded to a self‐assessment questionnaire. The data from this survey have been analysed through factor score regression based on confirmatory factor analysis on 5,000 bootstrapped samples. The analysis shows that the perceived criterion weights vary from the current allocation in the EFQM excellence model. This deviation is so substantial that the allocation of weights between the enabler and the result block vary considerably from the actual allocation in the EFQM excellence model. Furthermore, it seems as if Danish companies perceive the enabler criteria as equally important but this is not the case for the result criteria.

The Drivers of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty. The Case of Denmark 2000–2002

This paper analyses the time dependency as well as industry differences of the drivers of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the EPSI rating framework. The analysis is carried out on data from Danish mobile phone companies, banks and supermarkets from 2000 to 2002. The analyses indicated that the model structure of the EPSI Rating framework is stable across industries as well as stable across time with respect to the overall effects on customer loyalty. The analyses furthermore revealed that there is an increasing effect of image on customer satisfaction over the three year time span and that service quality is more important for banks than for supermarkets. Finally the overall effect of expectation turned out to be insignificant.

Antecedents and effects of consumer involvement in fish as a product group.

The importance of the symbolic value and of the product utility for a consumers involvement in fish products was determined by applying a model to data collected in Denmark in 1999. The relative importance of these two antecedents of product involvement differed between two segments of consumers important to marketing strategies. However, the potential effects of involvement did not differ between the segments. Rather, the customers involvement ensures that sign value and utility have effects such as greater enjoyment of shopping and higher frequency of usage.

Private versus public sector excellence

This paper analyses the differences between private and public sector organisations in Denmark in relation to the penetration of holistic management models, how companies achieve excellent results and the empirical weight structure of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model. The results show that the penetration of holistic management models is greater among public organisations. Furthermore private and public organisations do not achieve excellent results in the same way. Private companies put higher emphasis on the systems dimension whereas public organisations put higher emphasis on the people dimension. In relation to the empirical weight structure of the EFQM excellence model two significant differences were found. Private companies put higher emphasis on the criteria “leadership” and “policy and strategy” than public organisations.

Quality guidance and quality formation

Abstract This paper presents an extension of the quality guidance model of Steenkamp and Van Trijp that includes consumer quality formation processes. Quality expectations and quality experiences are seen as antecedents of perceived overall product quality. The conceptual model is applied using LIS-REL to a data set on Danish butter cookies. Five plausible models of the relation between expectation, experience and perceived product quality are estimated. Finally one model is selected on the basis of three criteria: chi-square, RMSEA and AIC. The results show a model where expectations are indirectly related to perceived quality through experience.

Success and failure of product development in the Danish food sector

Abstract This paper introduces theoretical considerations on factors determining the success of new products in general, as well as a survey on the usage of customer information and product development activities in the Danish food sector carried out in 1996. The results from the survey presented in this paper, mainly focus on success criteria of new products in the Danish food sector and the establishment and testing of a model explaining the success rate of new products in Danish food production. The success rate is defined as the percentage of launched products that during the last three years have proved successful according to companies. The model for describing and testing the success rate in the individual companies is a multiple regression model, inspired by a literature review on product development success and based on experience obtained from qualitative surveys among Danish food processing companies. The initial model building starts with 21 explanatory variables, and the analyses result in a regression model with nine significant explanatory variables describing the success rate. The resulting determinants for success are grouped into marketing activities to promote new products, company competencies, management support, usage of customer information and calculations of the likelihood of success before introducing products to the market.

Customer satisfaction: some results for European Retailing

Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are becoming increasingly important factors in modern retailing—a market characterized by slow growth and intense competition. Big non-European chains such as Walmart are already present in some countries and are considering buying some of the retail chains in other countries, e.g. the Scandinavian countries. This development will demand even more focus on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in order to stay in business and may also demand that existing actors in the market-place form new coalitions. Promising new partners may be identified partly based upon measures identifying how potential partners are perceived by the customers. Based on results from the European Customer Satisfaction study, a comparative analysis of customer satisfaction in Europe is conducted. Some specific Danish results are shown and the relationship between customer loyalty, supermarket type and ownership structure is studied.