Uses and gratifications (U&G) is a media use paradigm from mass communications research that guides the assessment of consumer motivations for media usage and access. It has been used previously in research and decision making related to the promotion of emerging radio and television media. Recent adaptations of U&G research to the Internet are incomplete and have not identified important new Internet-specific gratifications. This paper empirically derives dimensions of consumer Internet use and usage gratifications among customers of a prominent Internet Service Provider (ISP). Results describe three key dimensions related to consumer use of the Internet, including process and content gratifications as previously found in studies of television, as well as an entirely new social gratification that is unique to Internet use. All three dimensions of gratification are relevant to managing the Internet as a commercial medium, and measures developed from the gratification profiles identified here can serve as trait-valid scales in future Internet and e-commerce research.

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In an exploratory study, two message appeals (rational and emotional) and two media (print and radio) were tested to determine whether certain message or media strategies are more appropriate than others for two broad categories of retail services. For both types of services, a rational appeal generated higher levels of attitude toward the ad than an emotional appeal and radio ads generated higher levels ofpatronage intention than print ads. In addition, a main effect for service type was found for two of the dependent variables, indicating that more experiential retail services may benefit more, overall, from radio and print advertising than utilitarian offerings.

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Service quality continues to be a significant issue in the banking industry. Because money and other financial services are generally undifferentiated products, banks are continually striving for increased service quality in order to achieve and maintain a competitive edge. Critical to the improvement of service quality is the determination of those service quality characteristics considered important by consumers. Moreover, it is necessary to understand which of those elements of service quality are more important to different groups of customers. Reports a study that identifies distinct elements of bank service quality and ascertains which of those elements are most important to different demographic groups.