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MKT421 MARKET AND SOCIAL RESEARCH

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

JANUARY 2013

NAME :

PROGRAMME : BMAUH

LECTURER : MR. ARASAN

DUE DATE : WEEK 14

COMMENTS :

TITLE : CRM software applications and business performance (Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management (2006) 14, 4–16)

AUTHOR : Lawrence Ang and Francis Buttle.

The research approach

The research approach used in this is the quantitative research approach and questionnaires were distributed to sample size of 170 companies.

The data collection procedure

The data were collected through questionnaires. The questions were directly related to CRM software applications and business performance that required respondents to answer according to their opinion where there is no biasness. The questionnaires were mailed to the sample size. There were no right or wrong answers to minimise possible response bias.

The sampling procedure and sample size

Our population of interest is Australian industry and commerce. A stratified random sample of 732 companies was contacted from the Dun and Bradstreet database of the top 1,000 companies in Australia. The population was stratified into three annual turnover groups: $50–$99 million, $100–$500 million, and above $500 million. The invitation to participate was addressed to the person in charge of customer relations. The incentive was a summary report of the study, which has now been fulfilled. The total sample size of the research is 170 companies.

The unit of analysis

The unit of analysis for this research was Australian industry and commerce. The respondents were being tested on the use of CRM software to support three customer management activities through acquisition, retention and development.

The measures and source

Overall result was measured with the ROI of the software was measured using a 7-point Likert scale, as was the extent to which the software met respondent expectations in supporting the three management goals of customer acquisition, retention and development. The ultimate dependent variable was whether the CRM software had made a contribution to company profitability, again measured on 7-point scale with 7 anchored as 'a critical contribution' and 1 as 'no contribution'.

A. The analysis approach

Items in the instrument were developed from a literature review, piloted and refined over several iterations. Some of the questions measuring independent variables were nominal in nature. These focussed on the use of CRM software to support three customer management activities through acquisition, retention and development.

TITLE : Determinants of loyalty and recommendation: The role of perceived service quality, emotional satisfaction and image (Journal of Financial Services Marketing (2011) 16, 111–124.)

AUTHOR : Riadh Ladhari, Nizar Souiden and Ines Ladhari.

The research approach

The research approach method used in this research is quantitative. The tool used to measure the research is mall-intercept method where potential respondents were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire.

The data collection procedure

Data were collected in 2009 using a convenience sample of 229 bank customers in Tunisia using the mall-intercept method where potential respondents were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire.

The sampling procedure and sample size

Mall intercept method was used in terms of sampling. Out of the 229 bank customers only 222 questionnaires were collected for analysis, other was eliminated due to incomplete response.

The unit of analysis

The unit of analysis were the bank customers of Tunisia where the majority of respondents were male (57.3 per cent). In terms of revenue, 16.9 per cent of respondents had an annual income of less than TND 6000 (approximately USD 4500); 33.3 per cent had an annual income between TND 6000 and TND 8999; 42.6 per cent between TND 9000 and TND 17 999; and 7.2 per cent had an annual income of TND 18 000 and above. In terms of education, 65.9 per cent of respondents had a university degree.

The measure and source

The research was measured using the SERVQUAL model, which is widely applied in the banking sector. Considering the critics associated with the use of the gap scores, the current research uses perception-only scores (SERVPERF scale).The SERVPERF scale includes 22 items representing five dimensions: tangibles, measured by four items (for example, ‘XYZ bank employees are neat-appearing’); reliability, measured by five items (for example, ‘XYZ bank provides its services when it promises to do so’); assurance, measured by four items (for example, ‘The behaviour of employees of XYZ bank instils confidence in customers’); responsiveness, measured by four items (for example, ‘employees of XYZ bank tell you exactly when services will be performed’); and empathy, measured by five items (for example, ‘XYZ bank has employees who give your personal attention’). Respondents were asked to rate each of the 22 items on a 7-point Likert-type scale, from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (7). In this study, perceived service quality does not refer to a specific service encounter, but is an aggregation of all previous transaction-specific judgements. Following

Ladhari, emotional satisfaction was measured using three items (joyfulness, pleasantness and happiness) and respondents indicated their feelings on a 7-point Likert scale (1=‘not at all joyful/pleasant/happy’ and 7=‘joyful/pleasant/happy’).

Image was measured using three items adapted from Nguyen and LeBlanc.17 These include: ‘I have always had a good impression of XYZ bank’, ‘XYZ bank has a good image in the minds of consumers’, ‘XYZ bank has a better image than its competitors’. A 7-point Likert-type scale (1=‘strongly disagree’; 7=‘strongly agree’) was used for the three items.

Recommendation was measured by one item: ‘I will certainly recommend XYZ bank to friends and acquaintances’. Loyalty was measured by one item: ‘XYZ bank is always my first choice’. A 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1=‘strongly disagree’ to 7='strongly agree’, was used for the two items.

A. The analysis approach

The analysis approach used us reliability analysis. Cronbach's α coefficients were calculated for each of the multi-item measures, including: ‘tangibles’ (0.840), ‘reliability’ (0.887), ‘responsiveness’ (0.836), ‘assurance’ (0.871), ‘empathy’ (0.818), ‘image’ (0.884) and ‘emotional satisfaction’ (0.954). These values are all greater than the recommended level of 0.70, indicating the measures are reliable.