PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of service quality and satisfaction on three consumer behavioral intentions, namely word‐of‐mouth, site revisit, and purchase intentions in the context of internet shopping.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this objective 240 online interviews were carried out (response rate 24 percent) from a randomly generated sample of 1,052 online shoppers using the database of a leading Internet provider in Greece as the sample frame.FindingsData analysis involved the comparison of three rival models using structural equations modeling. The prevailed model reveals that e‐service quality has a positive effect on e‐satisfaction, while it also influences, both directly and indirectly through e‐satisfaction, the consumer's behavioral intentions, namely site revisit, word‐of‐mouth communication and repeat purchase.Research limitations/implicationsThe results confirm that cognitive evaluations precede emotional responses and that quality is a strong antecedent of satisfaction. However, the findings highlight the importance of the interaction experience with the e‐shop on perceived quality. Moreover, the study underlines the crucial impact of the four key e‐service quality drivers on the entire cycle of buying, including post‐purchase behavior, confirming existing evidence in both off‐ and on‐line context.Practical implicationsPractitioners should carefully consider their web site's attributes. They should make their sites easy‐to‐use and easy‐to‐navigate and place extra emphasis on providing fast, accurate, and uncluttered information through their web sites. Also they should direct marketing activities with the aim to enhance satisfaction from e‐shopping, particularly regarding the service encounter incidents.Originality/valueThe paper makes a scholar contribution by examining the notion of e‐service quality and how it relates with e‐satisfaction while exploring unexamined consumers' behavioral intentions and both their direct and indirect antecedents.

Investigates the behavioural consequences of customer satisfaction. More specifically, the authors examine the impact of customer satisfaction on customers' behavioural responses. The results support the notion of direct effects of customer satisfaction on three criterion variables (decision to stay with the existing service provider, engagement in word-of-mouth communications, and intentions to switch service providers). Implications for practice, study limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

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The topic of management control systems has received limited attention in the marketing literature. Though previous research has tended to view each organizational control in isolation, the authors argue that research should examine the simultaneous use of multiple controls. On the basis of previous work, a conceptual framework for combinations of controls is constructed with associated research hypotheses. Four alternative combinations or “systems” of controls are identified: (1) a traditional bureaucratic management control system with a primary emphasis on formal controls, (2) a clan system with a primary emphasis on informal controls, (3) a low control system, and (4) a high control system. The findings indicate that SBU characteristics and task complexity variables predict the type of system that is likely to be emphasized. In turn, the results indicate that the high control system is associated with highest job satisfaction followed sequentially by the clan, bureaucratic, and low control systems. The high control system also produced the lowest levels of person-role conflict and ambiguity. No significant relationship is found between the four systems and job performance. Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Using empirical data derived from the Greek banking sector, the authors attempt to model the influence of bank-specific (market orientation) and customer-specific (comparison shopping, influence by word-of-mouth-communication and personal relations with banks' employees) parameters on the customer's perception of service quality. The latter is conceptualised and examined as a multidimensional concept comprising employee competence, the bank's reliability, the innovativeness of the bank's products, its pricing (value for money), the bank's physical evidence and the convenience of the bank's branch network. As the findings suggest, the various dimensions of the quality of service offered by a bank are not influenced by all the antecedents examined in this study. Moreover, the gravity of the influence that each of the examined parameters exercises on the customer's perception of the various dimensions of quality was also found to vary considerably, with certain dimensions being more influenced by the same parameter than others. Based on these findings, the authors suggest specific implications for both the academia and practitioners in the banking industry.

Small and medium size enterprises in both business to business and consumer markets are particularly vulnerable to economic downturns. Concentrating on the Greek economic crisis, one of the toughest and most prolonged on a global scale, the present research sheds light on both anthropocentric and business-centric factors that helped SMEs survive, therefore, providing a valuable survival manual. Per findings of two studies performed under the given economically intense conditions, it is evidenced that the right answer to survival rests upon: (a) the entrepreneurs' personality traits and skills that affect the market and entrepreneurial orientations of SMEs, (b) the adoption of such orientations that keep impacting the firms' performance, and finally (c) the implementation of strategy relevant to reaching higher quality standards for products and services, combined with tactics relevant to downsizing, marketing actions, extroversion, and financial management.

In the international marketing literature the issue of advertising standardization has ignited a lively and heated debate among academics and managers alike. However, the decision whether to standardize or not cannot be considered a dichotomous one. Develops a comprehensive framework to capture the relevant factors that determine the selection of the appropriate international advertising strategies and tactics. More specifically, first identifies three broad sets of factors (“local”, “firm” and “intrinsic”) which influence international advertising decisions. Then proposes that the standardization and adaptation of international advertising strategies represent the polar ends of a continuum of transitional stages. Finally, discusses the ways and the degree to which international advertising strategies can be adapted to different situations.