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Factors that influence the game attendance and attitudinal loyalty of sports fans have been researched quite extensively in Anglo-American countries, but rather less in Germany. Brand image is held to be an important antecedent of fan loyalty. This study therefore investigates the relationship between these constructs, using a sample of 1,300 fans of German Bundesliga soccer teams. In addition to the verification of this link, causal modelling reveals a relationship between the major facets of a club's brand image, namely attributes and benefits. Non-product-related attributes of the brand are more important to the fans' loyalty than product-related attributes.

In the internet economy, the business model of web portals has spread rapidly over the last few years. Despite this, there have been very few scholarly investigations into the services and characteristics that transform a web site into a portal as well as into the dimensions that determine the customer's evaluation of the portal's service quality.

Based on an empirical study in the field of e‐banking, the authors validate a measurement model for the construct of web portal quality based on the following dimensions: security and trust, basic services quality, cross‐buying services quality, added value, transaction support and responsiveness.

The identified dimensions can reasonably be classified into three service categories: core services, additional services, and problem‐solving services.

The knowledge of these dimensions as major determinants of consumer's quality perception in the internet provides banks a promising starting point for establishing an effective quality management for their e‐businesses.

Outlines awareness of political marketing in Germany and argues that there is a need for the German political parties to market themselves. Discusses some of the essential aspects of political marketing, with particular reference to the institutions, ingredients and instruments involved. Concentrates on an analysis of party membership as a form of system transaction, in the light of the sharp decline in the membership of the major parties.

This research sets about discovering if it is possible to identify distinct, practice‐relevant and addressable clusters by means of selected criteria for constructing typologies – such as psychographic, culturally‐specific and purchasing behaviour‐relevant features – which permit an online supplier to efficiently and effectively focus on attractive consumer segments.

To answer the research question, the study conducted an online survey with 1,011 participants. The respondents were from three countries, each with culturally‐distinct features: France, Germany and the US. Underpinning the research are theoretically‐secured constructs of purchasing behaviour on the internet.

Cluster analysis confirmed the outstanding validity of a three‐cluster‐solution (97.7 per cent score) – risk‐averse doubters, open‐minded online shoppers, and reserved information‐seekers. Discriminant analysis shows that certain constructs, particularly “neuroticism”, “willingness to buy” and “shopping pleasure”, separate the clusters best.

An extension of our clustering approach to more countries and especially non‐western cultures promises interesting results. Furthermore, researchers are encouraged to enlarge the catalogue of clustering variables to allow an even more specific fine‐tuning of the main clusters identified in this research.

The classification created provides the potential for a much closer fit between a company's goods and services and heterogeneous customer needs.

The principal contribution of the paper is the identification of three different clusters of internet users. This can be of good use for shaping internet marketing, particularly by virtue of the likely stability over time from cultural and personality characteristics.

Market demarcation is based on the idea that a sales market is not an undifferentiated set of products, but that it rather embodies an entity made up of separate groups of products which differ with regard to certain demand‐relevant characteristics. The term market demarcation is defined first as a market structure explained by drawing boundaries. Carrying on from this idea, describes a procedure for demarcating markets. The procedure comprises three steps: the first aim is to define the products which make up the overall market that has to be structured. The second task is to determine the centre on the basis of which the overall market can be divided up into different submarkets. Finally, these submarkets must be identified using statistical methods.

The paper aims to refine existing customer‐based brand equity models for the team sport industry and examine the importance of brand equity in the professional German soccer league Bundesliga.

After assessing brand equity on the basis of actual consumer responses, we relate the brand equity measure on an aggregate level to objective means of economic success. Online sampling with a total database of 1,594 usable questionnaires is utilized for analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (including multi‐group analysis) as well as structural equation modeling and regression analysis are applied.

Results highlight the adequacy of a parsimonious brand equity model in team sport (BETS) model and the importance of the brand in team sport for economic success.

The main limitations of this research are sample constraints; test persons are highly involved in and knowledgeable about the product category under research. Future research should address a more diverse population.

Teams and their management have to realize the relevance of their brand in economic success. They have to recognize the significance of the stadium visit and the individual spectators in the stadium.

First, a parsimonious BETS model is presented. Second, it was found that special attention should be devoted to the brand equity‐component “brand awareness” when researching brand equity. Third, this is one of the few studies that uses actual economic data to show the impact of brand equity based on direct consumer responses on company success.

Synthesis of the customer lifetime value and the shareholder value (SHV) approach in order to develop an integrated, marketing‐based method for corporate valuation.

Discusses the limitations and assumptions of existing methods to estimate customer value components and examines the limitations of the SHV concept. By linking the customer equity (CE) and the SHV approach, a formal model to calculate corporate value is developed. The discounted cash flow method is used for modelling the profit streams.

Provides formulas for the estimation of both the individual lifetime value of a customer and CE. Provides a comprehensive model to estimate corporate value based on customer‐related cash flows and traditional financial metrics. Introduces typical cases, in which the use of a customer‐based valuation seems beneficial. Illustrates how our approach can be applied by using a simple case study on M&A in the telecommunication industry. Gives suggestions on how to obtain the necessary data, partially even from publicly available sources.

Advancement of the quantitative techniques for modelling the customer value components would allow for relaxing some restrictive assumptions. The explicit modelling of the future growth of the customer base (the acquisition rate) would increase the applicability of the model. Additionally, taking into account heterogeneity within the customer cohorts is a task for future research. Finally, our model needs to be applied more extensively using real data for the input variables.

A CE‐based valuation approach can guide marketing investments and helps to avoid misallocation of resources. Based on an example in the field of M&A, we demonstrate the usefulness of the approach for obtaining a realistic indicator of firm value. It helps to assess whether an acquisition is economically sensible. We provide evidence for the superiority of a customer‐based approach over traditional financial methods.

While the traditional SHV method considers cash flows at a highly aggregated level, our approach employs disaggregated cash flows on the level of individual customers. Thereby we do incorporate the lifetime values of future customers by considering different cohorts. We do capture customer defection by incorporating retention rates. Our model enables a more detailed and valid estimation of corporate value by accounting for the single customer activities that drive marketing actions. This enables a better forecasting of the free cash flow. Incorporating customer‐related drivers into financial valuation models makes easier to assess the return on marketing investments.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.