Loyalty-based segmentation and the customer development process

As process management fast becomes recognised as the means by which customer value can be created, it is now equally well understood that the mechanism of value delivery is among the core processes. Without managing Customer Development as a core process, the implementation of strategic plans will lack clear focus. The author argues that the function of the Customer Development process is to build relationships with preferred customers. Working on the premise that all customers are not created equal, the priority for customer development in mature markets is to build these preferred relationships among existing customers. It is now accepted wisdom that these customer relationships deliver superior profits. How customer development management select these customers, or groups of customers, and build specific relationships is directed by the Principles of Loyalty Management.These principles acknowledge that customer loyalty is relative which means that customers as well as product and service brands need to be differentiated. The Diamond of Loyalty© provides a new management tool for this purpose by categorising customer purchasing styles according to their level of involvement (i.e. brand or company relationship) and their purchasing portfolio across suppliers.Finally, it is argued that customer development should discriminate in favour of supporting `high share' customers over `low share' customers in building preferred relationship among existing customers.     

ISO 9001 and ISO 14001: Towards a Research Agenda on Management System Standards*

Management system standards, also called meta‐standards, have been adopted by an increasing number of organizations across the world. Although these management system standards are based on the same type of management principles and institutional arrangements, the literature remains scattered, with diverse studies focused on specific standards and published in various journals. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the academic research on meta‐standards through an integrative review intended to shed light on the main conclusions and substantial advances made in this area. This integrative review focuses more specifically on the two main meta‐standards which have been adopted by more than 1.3 million organizations worldwide: ISO 14001 and ISO 9001. The paper contributes insights into the main streams of the literature and current knowledge gaps to be addressed in future research on the various issues related to meta‐standards: global governance, diffusion processes, motivations, benefits of adoption and impacts on performance, internalization, integration, consultancy and auditing.     

关于民族志的讨论已经足够?

如今在人类学以及相关研究中,民族志已经泛滥得失其本义。将“民族志主义”的出现归结于我们与报道人之间的遭遇或更广义上的田野工作,这折损了人类学的本体论承诺,并丧失了人类学作为一门学科的教育功能,同时也偏离了人类学主要的工作方式——参与观察。这样简单的归结使得人类学者与教授他们知识的田野对象之间的鸿沟愈发不可逾越,而后者不仅是我们学术上的引路人,也是学术之外生活上的导师。执着于民族志,其实削弱了人类学在公共领域的声音。解决这一问题的办法是重申人类学的价值,将其作为一门致力于弥合想象和日常生活之间的裂痕,且不断前进的学科,而非一个以民族志为主的学科。