Volume 3 Issue 2

The purpose of the study is to investigate first, the relationship between the customer satisfaction and brand switching intention into the Saudi Arabian mobile-service market, and second, the association of service quality, customer service, service pricing, and value-added services with the customer satisfaction. Because of the difficulty of having a frame for the mobile-service customers from their providers, a convenience sample of 350 online respondents with the proper surveying techniques was used in data analysis and testing of the research hypotheses. The findings of the study confirm a significant negative relationship between customer satisfaction and brand switching intention. A 4% percent of the change in brand switching intention could be explained by the change in the customer satisfaction. Only three variables; customer service, service pricing, and service quality are critical determinants for mobile-service customer satisfaction. Customer service explained about 22%, whereas service pricing and service quality explained about 5% and 1% of the change in customer satisfaction respectively. The practical value of this study could be enabling the mobile-service providers in Saudi Arabia to well understand the determinants of the customer satisfaction and its negative relationship with brand switching intention. They may take these findings into account when setting marketing strategies to differentiate their brands to satisfy the customer needs and wants, to retain the existing customers and to attract new customers. These strategies have a positive effect on the company's customer satisfaction that deter brand switching intention, hence increase the company's competitiveness, market share and profitability.

This paper explores consumer reactions to a brand alliance, with perceptions of the parent brands, perceived fit between the brands and fit between product categories as the drivers. Drawing on previous work on co-brands (Simonin and Ruth, 1998; Baumgarth, 2000), two simultaneous studies of four consumer brand pairings were conducted in the UK (n=122) and Italy (n=125) using respondents from an online panel. Important differences between the studies are identified and possible cultural explanations for deviant outcomes are discussed.

The most important asset of any business is its employees. Given this fact, normally, every business should have a solid plan to make sure that its employees are satisfied professionally and are loyal to the company. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case. Many companies believe that if they have an excellent product or service that generates high incomes and employees should be content. Generally, employers try to guarantee that its employees will not leave by offering them different benefits, trainings and great compensation. But is that enough to ensure loyalty among staff members? According to different statistics: each year the average company loses 20-50% of its employee base, replacing a lost employee costs 150% of that person's annual salary. These numbers highlight how important the retention and engagement of the employees are for the profitability of a company.

This paper addresses the conceptualization, scale development and scale validation related to the study of consumer engagement in online settings. It first reviews this concept and draws attention to the multidimensionality of the construct, considering the underlying cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of consumer engagement. Then, it presents the foundation of this concept in relationship marketing and adds support to this proposition. Further, it proposes the construction and psychometric assessment of a 37 scales that examine all three dimensions, based on an international sample of 110 respondents who engage with a brand on a social media network. Based on multiple and successive applications of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, 11 scales are developed showing strong evidence of reliability and validity measurement of consumer engagement in online settings. The final section includes a discussion of the academic contributions, managerial, implications of the findings and directions for future research.