According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

In this study, we consider the online consumer as both a shopper and a computer user. We test constructs from information systems (Technology Acceptance Model), marketing (Consumer Behavior), and psychology (Flow and Environmental Psychology) in an integrated theoretical framework of online consumer behavior. Specifically, we examine how emotional and cognitive responses to visiting a Web-based store for the first time can influence online consumers' intention to return and their likelihood to make unplanned purchases. The instrumentation shows reasonably good measurement properties and the constructs are validated as a nomological network.A questionnaire-based empirical study is used to test this nomological network. Results confirm the double identity of the online consumer as a shopper and a computer user because both shopping enjoyment and perceived usefulness of the site strongly predict intention to return. Our results on unplanned purchases are not conclusive. We also test some individual and Web site factors that can affect the consumer's emotional and cognitive responses. Product involvement, Web skills, challenges, and use of value-added search mechanisms all have a significant impact on the Web consumer. The study provides a more rounded, albeit partial, view of the online consumer and is a significant steptowards a better understanding of consumer behavior on the Web. The validated metrics should be of use to researchers and practitioners alike.

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Applying the Technology Acceptance Model and Flow Theory to Online Consumer Behavior

Understanding customer experience and the customer journey over time is critical for firms. Customers now interact with firms through myriad touch points in multiple channels and media, and customer experiences are more social in nature. These changes require firms to integrate multiple business functions, and even external partners, in creating and delivering positive customer experiences. In this article, the authors aim to develop a stronger understanding of customer experience and the customer journey in this era of increasingly complex customer behavior. To achieve this goal, they examine existing definitions and conceptualizations of customer experience as a construct and provide a historical perspective of the roots of customer experience within marketing. Next, they attempt to bring together what is currently known about customer experience, customer journeys, and customer experience management. Finally, they identify critical areas for future research on this important topic.

/pdf/understanding-customer-experience-throughout-the-customer-52i6qreyzk.pdf

Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey

This article develops and discusses the concept of customer engagement behaviors (CEB), which we define as the customers’ behavioral manifestation toward a brand or firm, beyond purchase, resulting from motivational drivers. CEBs include a vast array of behaviors including word-of-mouth (WOM) activity, recommendations, helping other customers, blogging, writing reviews, and even engaging in legal action. The authors develop a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences — customer, firm, and societal — of CEBs. The authors suggest that firms can manage CEBs by taking a more integrative and comprehensive approach that acknowledges their evolution and impact over time.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2340164_code1783641.pdf?abstractid=2340164&mirid=1&type=2

Customer Engagement Behavior: Theoretical Foundations and Research Directions

/pdf/shopper-eye-cue-understating-the-in-store-decision-process-2u33kuhw6e.pdf

Shopper Eye-Cue: Understating the In-Store Decision Process With Field Eye-Tracking Data

A growing number of people wish to do no harm to the earth and leave a stable living environment for future generations. In response to the growing concern with carbon emissions’ impact on the marketplace, this paper investigates the emerging field of sustainable development through the typical manner in which it is measured, carbon emissions. Firms are beginning to address this demand by reducing their carbon footprint, the carbon dioxide emissions created by a product throughout its life cycle. Simultaneously, carbon footprint labels have begun to appear on products in North America, Asia, and Europe. We examine both the potential impact of carbon footprint labels and their informational content from the perspectives of firms and consumers. Specifically, we lay the groundwork for future carbon footprint research by proposing how industry, firm, consumer, and label attributes affect firm action, content of carbon footprint labels, consumer preferences, and financial outcomes.

/pdf/carbon-footprints-in-the-sand-marketing-in-the-age-of-8vuvjpb87b.pdf

Carbon Footprints in the Sand: Marketing in the Age of Sustainability

Knowledge-based potentials can be used to decide whether an amino acid sequence is likely to fold into a prescribed native protein structure. We use this idea to survey the sequence-structure relations in protein space. In particular, we test the following two propositions which were found to be important for efficient evolution: The sequences folding into a particular native fold form extensive neutral networks that percolate through sequence space. The neutral networks of any two native folds approach each other to within a few point mutations. Computer simulations using two very different potential functions, M.Sippl's PROSA pair potential and a neural network based potential, are used to verify these claims. Submitted to Prot.Sci.

Exploring Protein Sequence Space Using Knowledge-Based Potentials

When making food choices, consumers sometimes decide between simultaneously presented options, such as when choosing from items in a self-serve display case at a convenience store or coffee shop (i.e., Starbucks). However, in many instances, consumers choose from sequentially presented items, such as when navigating up and down the aisles of a supermarket or when progressing through the food line at a cafeteria/buffet. As these examples suggest, it is not only common for consumers to choose between sequentially presented food options, it is also practically relevant (Biswas et al. 2014; Biswas et al. 2010; O’Brien and Ellsworth 2012).

Making Choices for a Sequence of Healthy and Unhealthy Options

/pdf/how-friends-promote-consumer-spending-38ga3leinv.pdf

J. Jeffrey Inman

Papers

Shopper Eye-Cue: Understating the In-Store Decision Process With Field Eye-Tracking Data

Carbon Footprints in the Sand: Marketing in the Age of Sustainability

Exploring Protein Sequence Space Using Knowledge-Based Potentials

Making Choices for a Sequence of Healthy and Unhealthy Options

How Friends Promote Consumer Spending