Impact of customer loyalty and service operations on customer behaviour and firm performance: empirical evidence from UK retail sector

Abstract

Retail networks are striving to achieve competitive advantage by increasing value through loyalty and efficiency with a focus on service operations. As sales promotions have become an integral part of the retail supply chain planning, customer behavioural aspects based on loyalty and service operations have been challenged greatly. Subsequently, management capabilities, such as planning and timely replenishment, have become complicated tasks for many retail store managers. This study develops a model integrating retail network value and efficiencies with customer behaviour and performance. We validate the model using survey data from prominent U.K. retail store customers. Our data analysis shows that both loyalty and service operation attributes have positive significant impact on customer behaviour, while the service operation mediates the relationship between loyalty and customer behaviour. This result gives a new outlook to build managerial capability based on customer loyalty and service operations. Our results specifically show that the service operation attributes will indirectly influence the customers’ buying behaviour even in the presence of loyalty attribute such as promotion schemes. This result sends a strong signal to retail supply chain managers to offer customised promotions considering local community rather than having uniform sales promotion nationwide.     

A reduced form of the Workplace Bullying Scale – the EAPA-T-R: A useful instrument for daily diary and experience sampling studies

The need for more longitudinal studies (i.e. daily diary and experience sampling studies) focused on counterproductive work behaviours such as bullying requires shorter scales that at the same time do not compromise their content validity. Our main objective is to develop and validate a reduced version of the Workplace Bullying Scale (Escala de Abuso Psicológico Aplicado en el Lugar de Trabajo): the EAPA-T-R. Two studies (Study 1: 1506 and Study 2: 932 employees, respectively) were conducted to evaluate its psychometric properties and to ensure the external validity of the EAPA-T-R. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to reduce the current 12-item scale to a more parsimonious 4-item scale. Moreover, the psychometric properties of potential models were compared. Subsequently, the new scale was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Likewise, statistically significant relationships were found between the EAPA-T-R and other dimensions evaluated, such as job characteristics, transformational leadership, engagement, job satisfaction, and subjective performance. Moreover, bullying mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and burnout. To sum up, the EAPA-T-R showed good reliability and validity across studies, supporting its use in future research. The benefits of this short scale for daily diary and experience sampling studies and when using large surveys are discussed.     

Network domains in social networking sites: expectations,meanings, and social capital

This paper examines why the use of social networking sites (SNSs) leads to different results in cultivating bridging and bonding social capital for different groups of people. Based on in-depth interviews of 45 university students in Hong Kong, I find that Mainland Chinese students studying in Hong Kong actively use SNSs for seeking practical information about offline matters, and they obtain substantial enacted support from other Mainland students of the same university through SNS use. As a result, they accumulate both bridging and bonding social capital. Local Hong Kong students, however, use SNSs mainly for social information seeking and are only able to accrue limited bridging social capital through SNS use. Drawing on the theory of network domains, I argue that the different offline network structures in which students are located – namely, homogeneous and closed networks versus heterogeneous and open networks – explain this difference. Students with closed offline networks have defined expectations of online ties; they think of their online activities as practical and leading to real changes in their status among peers. Those with open networks have indefinite expectations of their online audience; thus, they interpret online activities differently, thinking of them as recreational, and they are playful in their online behaviour. These different outcomes of online activities consequently lead to diverse results in social capital accrual.     

和谐视角观照下的幼儿适应行为

幼儿的适应行为是幼儿社会化的前奏，也是幼儿逐渐融入新环境的必备条件。在和谐视角观照下，影响幼儿不适应行为主要有三方面因素：幼儿身心发展不平衡、社会适应能力欠缺、自然适应能力薄弱。据此，教师和家长可依据 “和合观”、“和处观”以及“和生观”等培养策略来加强幼儿适应行为，从而促使幼儿自身身心、幼儿与社会以及幼儿与自然界的和谐共处。     

On tail behaviour of kth upper order statistics under fixed and random sample sizes via tail equivalence

For a fixed positive integer k, limit laws of linearly normalized kth upper order statistics are well known. In this article, a comprehensive study of tail behaviours of limit laws of normalized kth upper order statistics under fixed and random sample sizes is carried out using tail equivalence which leads to some interesting tail behaviours of the limit laws. These lead to definitive answers about their max domains of attraction. Stochastic ordering properties of the limit laws are also studied. The results obtained are not dependent on linear norming and apply to power norming as well and generalize some results already available in the literature. And the proofs given here are elementary.     

The meaning of agency in processes of desisting from delinquent behaviour in prison: an exploratory study among juvenile inmates in Germany

The impact of youth prisons and other repressive measures is subject to public and scientific debates for years. The meaning of individual agency has, however, been largely neglected in the context of understanding processes of desistance among juvenile inmates. This text addresses differences in perceiving the institutional setting, interrelations with other inmates and the authorities as well as participation in educational training. Based on a larger study of qualitative, retrospective interviews in German youth prisons, three exemplary cases are presented illustrating different developments during incarceration. Overall, three cases document several obstacles and requirements that are supportive in the individual process of developing agency, rethinking prior behaviour and maintaining modified ways of behaviour. The three cases also provide some explanations why many young inmates maintain delinquent behaviour.     

Asymptotic behaviour of a test statistic for detection of change in mean of vectors

The paper gives an asymptotic distribution of a test statistic for detecting a change in a mean of random vectors with dependent components. The studied test statistic has a form of a maximum of a square Euclidean norms of vectors with components being standardized partial cumulative sums of deviations from means. The limit distribution was obtained using a result of Piterbarg [1994. High deviations for multidimensional stationary Gaussian processes with independent components. In: Zolotarev, V.M. (Ed.), Stability Problems for Stochastic Models, pp. 197–210].     

Disability and going green: a comparison of the environmental values and behaviours of persons with and without disability

Some studies have suggested that socially excluded groups exhibit different environmental values and behaviours from mainstream society. To consider this in the context of disability, a survey was implemented to investigate environmental values and ecological behaviour. A high percentage of participants considered themselves to have a disability, long‐standing illness or infirmity. Over half of the sample had restricted physical mobility. The study used the revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale, a widely used measure of pro‐environmental orientation, and the General Ecological Behaviour scale to assess ecological behaviours. No significant differences were found between respondents with/without disability for either their general environmental attitudes or their general ecological behaviour. However, a positive correlation was found between level of physical mobility and general ecological behaviour. The results also show significant differences in the ecological behaviours of those respondents living dependently and those living independently; respondents living in care scored lower on the ecological behaviour scale.     

学习探究的认识反映论基础——学习观、教学策略与互动式课堂三维一体理念再解读

在汉、英双语并存的语言环境中,英语教学需要研究行为、意识与反映的联系机制。关注教学中普遍存在的“母语干扰”现象,要认识到母语干扰的本身也是一种母语促进,是一种可资利用的潜在教学情境资源;整合孤立语与屈折语的比较学习,在比较中完成识记与学习掌握;探索互动式教学的意识反映,利用其在行为活动与意念发生的课堂应答机制。这些,都具有教学实践价值。