Vesna Zabkar

Comprehension of relationship quality in the retail environment

Purpose – After almost a decade of relationship quality studies in the retail industry, high consensus exists regarding the dimensions that define the construct. Disregarding epistemological depth of the concept of commitment, however, has led only to its unidimensional operationalization. To improve the retail relationship quality operationalization, this paper seeks to provide theoretical and empirical support that calculative and emotional commitment should be included as dimensions of relationship quality in addition to trust and satisfaction in the retail environment.Design/methodology/approach – Cross‐sectional telephone interviews with members of a retail loyalty club were conducted in two waves. The first wave included 116 respondents to purify the measurement instrument. The second wave included 416 respondents to estimate the parameters in SEM.Findings – Empirical findings suggest that in the retail environment, relationship quality as a second‐order factor influences emotional commitment, calcu...

Values, trust, and commitment in business‐to‐business relationships

Presents the results of an international marketing research, in which they integrate culture with manifestation of values, trust, and commitment as vital components of business‐to‐business relationships. Analyses trust, relationship commitment, and values in the context of business relationships in two former Yugoslav markets, Serbia and Croatia. The results from a survey of over 400 large‐ and medium‐sized companies show that Serbian firms evaluate trust and relationship commitment as more important than Croatian companies. Differences in evaluations of values, trust, and commitment for business‐to‐business relationships are explained as outcomes of culture and market situations. These findings provide companies with action menus of potential advantages to pursue for maintaining and developing business relationships.

Responsive and proactive market orientation and innovation success under market and technological turbulence

The study investigates how market and technological changes in an organizations business environment moderate the relationships between responsive and proactive market orientation, innovation success, and market success of the organization. The respondents in the study were senior managers of companies operating in a Central European country. The Internet survey resulted in 441 usable questionnaires. Data were analyzed using a non-linear structural equation models with MPLUS5. The results provide support for distinguishing between the two complementary forms of market orientation, proactive and responsive. While proactive market orientation is a determinant of both innovation and market success of the organization, the impact of responsive market orientation on the innovation and market success is positive and significant only in a rapidly changing market environment. Companies can improve their innovation success and in turn market success by improving their proactive market orientation, i.e. by investing resources in exploring customer needs, customer problems with existing products and latent customer needs. The study contributes to the literature by examining the entire chain of relationships between market orientation, innovation success and market success by adopting both a responsive and proactive market orientation. It is the first study that examines these relationships in the context of companies from a European country and with consideration of market turbulence/changes.

Modelling In-Store Consumer Behaviour Using Machine Learning and Digital Signage Audience Measurement Data

Audience adaptive digital signage is a new emerging tech- nology, where public broadcasting displays adapt their content to the audience demographic and temporal features. The collected audience measurement data can be used as a unique basis for statistical analysis of viewing patterns, interactive display applications and also for further research and observer modelling. Here, we use machine learning methods on real-world digital signage viewership data to predict consumer behav- iour in a retail environment, especially oriented towards the purchase decision process and the roles in purchasing situations. A case study is performed on data from a small retail shop where demographic and audience data of 1294 store customers were collected, manually verified and analysed. Among all customers, 246 store customers were involved in a buying process that resulted in an actual purchase. Comparison of different machine learning methods shows that by using support vector machines we can predict with 88.6 % classification accuracy whether a customer will actually make a purchase, which outperforms classification accuracy of a baseline (majority) classifier by 7.5%. A similar approach can also be used to predict the roles of an individual in the purchase decision process. We show that by extending the audience measurement dataset with additional heuristic features, the support vector machines classifier on average improves the classification accuracy of a baseline classifier by 15 %.

Hold me responsible: The role of corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation for client-perceived value

Purpose Corporate communication practices are becoming ever more important for business service clients, as they signal quality and hence are related to client-perceived value. The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate reputation and client-perceived value, and to assess the moderating role of strategic orientation in business service relationships. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual framework based on the corporate communication framework, signaling theory and relationship marketing theory has been tested on a survey sample of 228 client firms, using covariance-based SEM and additional procedures for assessment of mediation and moderated mediation. Findings This paper reveals that communication practices concerning CSR positively and significantly influence client-perceived value. The authors show that reputation fully mediates the effect of CSR on client-perceived value. Finally, the effect of CSR on value is stronger if the client firm has a short-term strategic orientation, while long-term strategic orientation boosts the effect of corporate reputation on customer-perceived value. Research limitations/implications Further research on the topic may involve developing links between other elements of the corporate communication framework and client-perceived value. Originality/value The originality of the paper lies in better understanding the effects of CSR and corporate reputation on client-perceived value. The authors provide empirical evidence of the mediating role of reputation between the CSR (seen as “actions”) and client-perceived value.

Traumatized Economies – and Marketing Paths to Recovery

Over the course of the past three decades we have witnessed a number of shocks that have profoundly traumatized a large number of economies and the consumers who often continue to struggle in them. Several trauma-producing events immediately come to mind: the demise of communism and ensuing “shock therapy”, war and genocide, tsunamis, earthquakes, global financial collapse, food shortage, festering religious and ethnic tensions, and the growing conflict between local traditions and burgeoning forces of globalization. One or more of these events has/have devastated many nations, traumatized economies, globally, regionally, nationally and locally, and have distressed billions of consumers.

Is Management Involvement in Integrated Marketing Communications Reasonable

From 1989, when researchers at Northwestern University developed the first definition of integrated marketing communications (IMC), this concept evolved from tactical coordination of marketing communication activities to strategic, measurable, customer-oriented approach in integrated communication planning.

The effect of general consumer attitudes and personality traits on attitudes towards domestic and multinational products in the Balkan region

This study examines consumer attitudes toward products of multinational and domestic companies in the Balkan region. In four ex-Yugoslav countries, various variables (general consumption attitudes, personality traits, and demography) were compared and analyzed as determinants of consumer attitudes towards domestic and multinational products. The data for the analysis was derived from a representative sample of 7450 Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian consumers by means of a syndicated field survey (PGM-Valicon 2008). The results in general do not support the assumption that regions are homogeneous in terms of consumer attitudes. The key findings at the regional level indicate that attitudes towards domestic products are driven by a different set of predictors than are attitudes towards products of multinational companies (MNC).

Partnership in the Forefront: Advertising Agencies’ Roles and Business Clients’ Loyalty

It has long been known that ensuring loyalty of every business relationships is a key to the long-term success. Hence, it does not come as a surprise that researchers are interested in explaining loyalty and in achieving relevant and robust recommendations for practitioners (e.g. Russo, Confente, Gligor and Autry, 2015).

Going Beyond Green: Exploring Sustainability in Slovenia

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to explore sustainability research and findings in Slovenia, including Slovenia’s paths toward sustainable future on three different levels: situational or macro-level, transformational or mezzo-level and action formation or micro-level. Changes toward sustainability can only be made through the interaction of all levels. Besides the economic situation, both environmental and social dimensions are also important parts of sustainability. Slovenian consumers tend to be aware of sustainability issues and have formed positive attitudes about this concern, which is also reflected at the macro-level indices, indicating Slovenia’s sustainable position compared to other countries in Eastern and Southern Europe. Some sustainability guidelines, albeit not necessarily systematic activities, are adopted by companies and thus are moving the Slovenian economy forward in this area. This chapter can serve as a basis to develop some general pointers of how sustainability in Slovenia can be further addressed and developed.