Exploring the links between relational bonds and customer loyalty : the case of loyal Arabic guests at five-star hotels

Relationship marketing aims to build and maintain relationships between customers and organizations. While building strong bonds is a key objective of relationship marketing, limited empirical attention has been paid to the role of relational bonds on enhancing loyalty. This study explores the impact of financial, social and structural bonds on consumer loyalty, using a sample of loyal Arabic hotel guests. The results of this study suggest that structural bonds increase loyalty, although financial and social bonds were not found to have a significant impact on loyalty.

The star and celebrity confessional

In this book the different manifestations, meanings, and processes of the star and celebrity confessional will be explored.

The confessional is taken to be any moment in which a star, celebrity, or fan engages in revelatory acts that are considered to be authentic, heart-felt, and honest. These confessional encounters can take place in an interview, through performance and presentation events, online, and in ‘unscripted’ encounters. A star may break down in tears, or reveal a previously unknown truth about their private life. However, this authenticity is often found to have been manufactured, or is timed to occur against a new release or product launch. Alternatively, the desire to confess may be seen to draw attention to the centrality of pseudo forms of emotion in contemporary culture and the obsessional behaviour it produces. In this book authors consider acts of confession by celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, Jade Goody, Britney Spears, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tracey Emin, and Russell Crowe.

Portrait of a star : National Gallery of Victoria

Museums are an important segment of the creative industries arena. A "star" art museum in Melbourne, Australia, is the National Gallery of Victoria, whose mission is to illuminate life by collecting and presenting great art. This gallery operates in an increasingly competitive landscape. It is becoming more competitive and is continuously striving to achieve its own ambitions and meet the expectations of multiple stakeholders. The present case study uses a brand orientation lens to evaluate the Gallery in order to address a gap in both the brand orientation and the museum marketing literature. It is crafted from interviews, surveys and internal documents. The case study is an exemplar for other institutions to identify how brand orientation manifests itself within their institution.

Design of a compact microfludic device for controllable cell distribution

A compact microfluidic device with 96 microchambers allocated within four circular units was designed and examined for cell distribution. In each unit, cells were distributed to the surrounding chambers radially from the center. The circular arrangement of the chambers makes the design simple and compact. A controllable and quantitative cell distribution is achievable in this device. This design is significant to the microfluidic applications where controllable distribution of cells in multipule microchambers is demanded.

Six sigma approach to improve quality in E-services : an empirical study in Jordan

In the last two decades, Six Sigma approach has found its success in manufacturing sectors. The relevance of Six Sigma methodologies in service sector has been realised more recently. This paper investigates the application of Six Sigma approach to improve quality in electronic services (e-services) as more and more countries are adopting e-services as a means of providing services to their community and people through the Web. In particular, this paper presents a case study about the use of Six Sigma model to measure the customer satisfaction and quality levels achieved in e-services that were recently launched by public sector organisations in a developing country, such as Jordan. An empirical study consisting of 280 participating customers of Jordan‘s e-services is conducted and the problems are identified through the DMAIC phases of Six Sigma. The service quality levels are measured and analysed using six main criteria, namely, Website Design, Reliability, Responsiveness, Personalization, Information Quality, and System Quality. The overall result of the study indicating a 74% customer satisfaction with a Six Sigma level of 2.12 has enabled the Greater Amman Municipality to identify the usability issues associated with their e-services offered by public sector organisations and to take the leads from the results of the study to improve customer satisfaction. The aim of the paper is not only to implement Six Sigma as a measurement-based strategy for improving e-customer service quality in a newly launched e-service programme, but also to help widen its scope in investigating other service dimensions and perform comparative studies in other developing countries as future research.

Occupant satisfaction of Star Rated Houses in Victoria, Australia

The Victorian government implemented legislation for all new houses to achieve a 6 star rating since May 2011. It is found that having a higher star rating would provide financial and environmental benefits, however the question remains- is this sufficient to satisfy the occupants living in such houses? Are the occupants actually satisfied with the amount of money they have invested in their home? This study investigates the level of satisfaction of occupants living in different star rated houses, and explores if there is a link between the star rating of the house and the satisfaction of the occupants living in such houses.

Compact stacked planar inverted-F antenna for passive deep brain stimulation implants

A compact meandered three-layer stacked circular planar inverted-F antenna is designed and simulated at the UHF band (902.75 – 927.25 MHz) for passive deep brain stimulation implants. The UHF band is used because it offers small antenna size, and high data rate. The top and middle radiating layers are meandered, and low cost substrate and superstrate materials are used to limit the radius and height of the antenna to 5 mm and 1.64 mm, respectively. A dielectric substrate of FR-4 of εr= 4.7 and δ= 0.018, and a biocompatible superstrate of silicone of er= 3.7 and d= 0.003 with thickness of 0.2 mm are used in the design. The resonance frequency of the proposed antenna is 918 MHz with a bandwidth of 24 MHz at return loss of −10 dB in free space. The antenna parameter such as 3D gain pattern of the designed antenna within a skin-tissue model is evaluated by using the finite element method. The compactness, wide bandwidth, round shape, and stable characteristics in skin make this antenna suitable for DBS. The feasibility of the wireless power transmission to the implant in the human head is also examined.