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Understanding customer satisfaction in the cruise industry has mainly focused on intangible attributes like dining and spa experiences. This study explores the impact of cruise-ship servicescape, shaped by physical characteristics such as size and width. Our research confirms the impact of servicescape on passenger satisfaction within the cruise industry. Specifically, passengers typically prefer newer, stable, and less crowded ships. We advocate for greater attention to servicescape design for a distinct, sustainable competitive advantage. Recognizing its significance can enhance customer experiences and market positioning. In addition to contributing to the research on the cruise industry and servicescape literature, this study provides valuable insights for industry stakeholders to enhance their understanding and management of customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conceptual model, based on innovation diffusion theory, for identifying internet non-user (INU), internet user (IU) and online buyer (OB), is developed through research. Implications of the model for target marketing are also discussed.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.02.003 Byline: Wenyu Dou (a), Sanjoy Ghose (b) Keywords: E-commerce; Catastrophe Model; Competition; Online retailing Abstract: While firms can take corrective actions to reverse gradually declining performance, sudden changes in performance are much more challenging to predict and handle. Specifically such patterns are difficult to model using traditional approaches. On the other hand, such incidents are likely to occur in complex economic systems such as the e-commerce domain. We propose a Catastrophe Theory model to capture the inherent nonlinearity and complexity that are associated with online retail competition. Theoretically and using numerical simulations, we identify conditions under which catastrophes can occur in the customer base of a less-established e-commerce firm (online retailer) competing with its more established competitor. We provide specific managerial guidelines about how the less-established e-commerce firm can strategically manage catastrophes in its customer base growth due to competition. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong (b) Marketing, School of Business of Administration, P.O. Box 742, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0742, United States Article History: Received 2 May 2005; Accepted 7 February 2006

A modeling framework is developed to examine the effect of retail-pricing policies on the choice between make-to-stock and make-to-order in operations management.

An analytical model is developed to analyze the influence of perceived benefits and the two kinds of perceived risks of online shopping in forming consumer preferences for online shopping. It is shown that the two dimensions of risks vary with respect to the segment characteristics, which are based on their sensitivity to the benefits and risks of internet shopping.

A latent class modeling approach is applied to segment web shoppers, based on their purchase behavior across several product categories. Consumers are more concerned about web attributes that are associated with perceived losses than with web attributes that consumers associate with gains and getting the lowest price does not appear to be a very important attribute for web shoppers.

A study on the role of design-philosophies shows that they can exist in mature industries and that such philosophies can be formalized in terms of design-philosophy envelopes. The design-philosophies presented can be applied to channel designers' creativity to be congruent with the commercial aims of a company. The total approach presented can save firms valuable product designing time, allow firms to make products that can be successfully manufactured and sold.

The PRETREE hierarchical choice model is a direct extension of the Elimination by Aspects model which is applied in capturing violations from assumptions pertaining to the Independence of Irrelevant Alternative (IIA). The application of the PRETREE aggregate model and a new modified PRETREE (MP) model for choice/preference modeling literature demonstrated the inferior (n-way) market share predictions of the PRETREE compared to MP. The superior n-way predictions of MP also incorporate more input information and eliminates partial IIA assumptions that are required by the PRETREE.

Byline: Ruiliang Yan, John Wang, Sanjoy Ghose With the rapid development of the internet, the population internet penetration rate plays a strategic importance in the dual-channel supply chain. In this research, we use a game-theoretic approach to examine the effect of the population internet penetration rate on the performances of the manufacturer and traditional retailer under the Stackelberg and Bertrand competitive models. Our results suggest that an increase in the population internet penetration rate always has a negative impact on the manufacturer and traditional retailer's profits. Furthermore, when the product is more suitable for the online market, the traditional retailer will be hurt more by the population internet penetration rate. For the manufacturer, although a larger product web fit can increase profits, the population internet penetration rate has a stronger impact on profitability, thus decreasing profits even as the product web fit increases. Our results also suggest that both the manufacturer and the retailer can adopt either of the Stackelberg and Bertrand competitive market structures in the dual-channel supply chain since their profits are unaffected by the two models. The managerial implications of our results are discussed and the probable paths of future research are identified.