Although the importance of a mandatory customer participation construct in service delivery has been much discussed in the literature, little research has been devoted to conceptualizing and measuring one. To fill this void, this study followed a seven-step process for creating and analyzing scales in order to develop a customer participation scale and evaluate its generalizability, reliability, and validity. In theoretical terms, this scale extends the service quality literature, which has heavily emphasized the service provider's responsibility for service quality, and will facilitate further studies in customer participation. In practical terms, the scale provides practitioners with useful mechanisms that could enhance their interactions with customers through facilitating the latter's mandatory role in service delivery.
This study was designed to investigate those variables that would provide a fuller description as well as a segmentation of the views of Chinese senior leisure travelers from the People's Republic of China. The empirical data of this study suggest that Chinese seniors comprise a collection of submarkets based on travel frequency, each with its own characteristics with respect to demographic variables, reasons or motivations for leisure travel, attitudes toward leisure travel, perceived barriers preventing them from taking leisure trips, activities they do during a leisure trip, criteria used to select a travel destination, and the use of the Internet in their travel behavior. The findings of this study provide a foundation for a variety of marketing strategies aimed at the market for Chinese senior leisure travel as well as for crosscultural comparisons. This study thus makes significant contributions to senior tourism by extending our understanding of senior travel behavior in an important, emerging market; it is also hoped that the study will provoke more discussion on senior leisure travel in developing countries as well as cross-cultural comparisons between developing and developed regions.
Purpose -Slot machines and other machine gaming generate between 65 percent and 90 percent of a US casino's revenue. This article aims to examine the motivations, behaviors, and preferences of slot machine customers, and to develop market segments. Design/methodology/approach -The study's objectives include: understanding the demographic, gambling motivation, and gambling behavioral characteristics of slot machine players; identifying important reasons for choosing one slot machine game over another; examining player attitudes and behaviors pertaining to progressive machines; and investigating player desire for theme-based games. This was accomplished through an online survey of slot machine players. Findings -Profiles of slot machine players are developed and the slot players are segmented into four clusters that explain motivations and game preferences. Practical implications -This article fills in some of the gaps in understanding the gambling behavior of slot players. This study can help gaming machine manufacturers design new products and features to serve existing machine gaming customers and to attract new customers. Casino and other gaming operators can use this information not only to select the right types of machines to provide on-site, but also to develop advertising and promotions to attract and retain new and existing customers for slot machines and other types of gaming machines. Originality/value -This is the first published study that segments slot machine players from a marketing perspective and identifies their preferences, behaviors, and demographic groupings.
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