How customer satisfaction with respect to price and quality affects customer retention: an integrated approach considering nonlinear effects

There is consensus in the marketing literature that satisfaction of customers concerning the perceived quality and pricing of products or services is critical for customer retention. In contrast, there is lack of empirical evidence about the exact functional relationship. Using parametric and nonparametric regression, this contribution empirically investigates whether and to what extent nonlinear effects of and interaction effects between both satisfaction dimensions affect customer retention. The empirical results do not only reveal complex nonlinear effects for those satisfaction-retention relationships, respectively, but also indicate strong interaction effects of both satisfaction dimensions on customer retention. Furthermore, nonparametric approaches prove to be more flexible than parametric approaches to model complex interactions.     

Technology's Four Roles in Understanding Individuals' Conservation of Natural Resources

An overview is presented of four ways in which human beings and technology interact with respect to the conservation of natural resources. The four roles technology plays are: (1) as intermediary, (2) as amplifier, (3) as determinant, and (4) as promoter of environmentally significant behavior. A review of pertinent literature supports the conclusion that behavioral scientists can contribute considerably to reducing overall environmental impact by analyzing human behavior and technology in concert. Problems and opportunities for interventions aimed to enhance resource conservation are discussed, such as rebound effects, allocation of control, and communication with users through technological-environmental and sensory inputs. A major conclusion is that well-designed technical environments, systems, and products have a great potential for supporting environmentally sustainable behavior.     

Correction to: Persuasion under ambiguity

Theory and Decision - In Proposition 4, lines 3, 4 and 8, 9 were scrambled by mistake during the pagination process of the online published article.     

Index of Authors Volume 59, 2002

Authors Index

Index of Authors Volume 59, 2002     

Using Implied Probabilities to Improve the Estimation of Unconditional Moment Restrictions for Weakly Dependent Data

In this article, we investigate the use of implied probabilities (Back and Brown, 1993) to improve estimation in unconditional moment conditions models. Using the seminal contributions of Bonnal and Renault (2001 Bonnal, H., Renault, E. (2001). Minimal Chi-Square Estimation with Conditional Moment Restrictions, Document de Travail, CESG, September 2001. [Google Scholar]) and Antoine et al. (2007 Antoine, B., Bonnal, H., Renault, E. (2007). On the efficient use of the informational content of estimating equations: Implied probabilities and euclidean empirical likelihood. Journal of Econometrics 138(2):461–487.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we propose two three-step Euclidian empirical likelihood (3S-EEL) estimators for weakly dependent data. Both estimators make use of a control variates principle that can be interpreted in terms of implied probabilities in order to achieve higher-order improvements relative to the traditional two-step GMM estimator. A Monte Carlo study reveals that the finite and large sample properties of the three-step estimators compare favorably to the existing approaches: the two-step GMM and the continuous updating estimator.     

When 'Choice' and 'Choice' Are not the Same: Institutional Frameworks of Choice in the German Welfare System

The creation and strengthening of welfare markets in Germany means that citizens can increasingly choose among competing providers of welfare goods and services. However, the conditions under which citizens may exercise choice in various fields of social policy are quite different. A major reason for these differences can be found in the public institutions that frame citizens' choice in welfare markets. This article analyses welfare markets in German health care, long-term care, pensions and employment policies, paying special attention to the respective public institutional frameworks. It will be argued that differences between frameworks of choice can be categorized by means of four parameters representing different aspects of public involvement in welfare markets. Depending on the kind and the degree of public involvement, welfare markets may be compatible with 'traditional' notions of public responsibility for citizens' social security.     

Urban culture and physical and sports activities. The "sportification" of parkour and street golf as cultural mediation

The article explores the process of "sportification"--i.e., processing physical activity in a sport regulated by a set of rules and standards, legitimized by supervisory institutions--from two originals practices, parkour and urban golf. To study these practices, we crossed the contributions of urban sociology and of the contemporary sociology of sport while respecting the methodological principles of qualitative sociology. A first point concerns the process of"sport" itself, its definition, its various stages, and the role played by communication of stakeholders on public space. The cultural mediation shows us how to institutionalize the movement that represents the "sports" resulted in the same time reconfiguration of physical practices themselves. Recent events illustrate the ongoing reconfiguration, we will detail them. Finally, we show the effects produced by the process on the definition of urban culture and sports: setting sight of activities, enhanced cooperation with the media-cultural, polarization between different types of practical in the case of parkour, around a confrontation between two of the founders.