We study the influence of an explicit appeal to reciprocity as a design element in communication campaigns. We conduct an experiment based on a real campaign run by Deutsche Post, the German postal service, in which German citizens could participate in a sweepstakes and vote for their mail...

We suggest that a customer's option to switch suppliers, and to wait and see before switching, adds to customer value in uncertain markets, and affects the customer's switching behavior. We use a real options model to examine the value of this option and conduct sensitivity analyses based on...

The consumer goods market is characterized by strong competition. Thus, to bind customers to the company, a higher priority needs to be attributed to customer retention measures. Such measures include the loyalty card, but the use of the physical card is declining. To counteract this decline,...

Unter Rückgriff auf ausgewählte Prämissen der Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) werden die Erkenntnisse der etablierten modernen und der soziokulturellen Markenforschung strukturiert. Da die SDL eine Integration dieser Ansätze ermöglicht, entsteht eine neue, holistische Perspektive auf das...

Current literature argues that firms should have strong ties to customers to benefit from increased customer retention and loyalty. Strong ties, however, have also been shown to prevent innovation, suggesting that firms should also develop weak ties to other customer groups. This paper focuses...

Since the 1950s, mineral water has been a ubiquitous mass consumer commodity in Germany. This was due to higher incomes and changing consumer behaviour, which manifested itself in rising consumption. From 1958 onwards, the mineral water industry surveyed its customers by employing qualitative...

Drawing on a data set containing 371,082 observations on new and used cars from 2008, this study employs a hedonic model to estimate the determinants of prices in the primary and secondary car markets in Germany. We are specifically interested in identifying those vehicle attributes that are...

Integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV) models represent a promising new class of models which merge classic choice models with the structural equation approach (SEM) for latent variables. Despite their conceptual appeal, to date applications of ICLV models in marketing are still rare. The...

Comparing groups with respect to hypothetical constructs requires that the measurement models are equal across groups. Otherwise conclusions drawn from the observed indicators regarding differences at the latent level (mean differences, differences in the structural relations) might be severly...

In developing and transition economies, microlending has become an effective instrument for providing micro businesses with the necessary financial resources to launch operations. In the industrialized countries, with their highly developed banking systems, however, there has been ongoing debate...