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This article serves as a follow‐up to an article published in Collection Building (Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 129‐133) entitled, “Inventory: catalyst for collection development” which discussed the direct outcomes of an inventory project as they related to effective collection development in a curriculum materials center. This article aims to discuss significant outcomes of change and improvement in a collection based on the inventory outcomes.

Featuring a case study of the East Carolina University Joyner Library Teaching Resources Center, application of the shelf analysis data is used to develop a long‐range plan for implementing changes and improvements in the collection development process. Outcomes are discussed and explained.

Through assessment, budgeting and collaborative collection development, successful outcomes were accomplished significantly improving and increasing services and resources for users.

The results of an initial inventory project conducted in the East Carolina University Teaching Resources Center improved the relevancy, accuracy, reliability and circulation of the curriculum collection. Using the data from the initial inventory to conduct further assessments, this case study discusses significant outcomes that were accomplished by implementing long‐range strategic planning. This article substantiates that a collection inventory provided the catalyst for instigating major changes in the curriculum collection development of the Joyner Library Teaching Resources Center.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

While the customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction literature is extensive and continually expanding, there has been little focus on pre‐purchase satisfaction of first‐time buyers and its likely impact on buying behaviour. Applies a field‐based approach to examine and assess the nature of pre‐purchase satisfaction and investigate its impact on first‐time buyer behaviour. Indicates that pre‐purchase satisfaction can be distinguished from anticipated satisfaction and that it helps to predict first‐time purchases. Discusses the implications of the findings and provides directions for further research.

The aim of this study is examine customer relationship management (CRM) effect on enhancing customer satisfaction and on improving customer retention. In this study, the impact of CRM on loyalty in the pharmaceutical sector in Tunisia is studied. Service quality perception, customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention and firm profitability have been tested as independent variables. This study highlights the importance of CRM and service quality perception in maintaining a sustainable and profitable relationship with customers.

A survey research design was used to collect data. In total, 221 respondents from 5 pharmaceutical companies in Tunisia were involved in the study. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were adopted to examine the effect of CRM technology on profitability. Structural equation modeling was used to validate results.

The results show that there are significant relationships between CRM and quality perception, satisfaction and loyalty. However, there are no significant relationships either between CRM and retention or between CRM and profitability.

Fitting CRM scale with the context of the study and the number of the survey companies was the limitation of this research.

This study provides significant results to practitioners to understand the role of establishing a CRM strategy and to understand the selected factors affecting customer satisfaction and retention as well.

This study was conducted in Tunisia to contribute to enrich literature in the implementation of information technology and customer satisfaction.

This paper reports the development of the Hong Kong consumer satisfaction index (HKCSI) – a new type of consumer‐oriented economic performance indicator representing the quality of products (commodities and services) sold in Hong Kong as evaluated by Hong Kong consumers – as well as the findings of HKCSI from 1998 to 2000, each year with more than 10,000 successful telephone interviews on about 60 products. According to Hong Kong's special economic structure, the HKCSI is constructed from a consumption point of view concentrating on products and the products’ consumers, rather than from the popular production point of view focusing on firms and the firms’ customers. Key features of HKCSI include: the direct introduction of consumer characteristics (such as age, education, and income) in model construction; the wide coverage of services, especially free services; and the adoption of a product weighting system based on consumer price index (CPI), not on gross domestic product (GDP). In this paper, a theoretical framework of consumer satisfaction is first presented after investigating the relevant literature, and then the large‐scale consumer survey scheme adopted to collect the data and the structural equation modeling technique employed to estimate the indexes are discussed. New considerations in the HKCSI in such areas as model structure, indicator and questionnaire design, and product classification are elaborated upon. Next, the estimated results are analyzed focusing on the reliability and validity of the model, on the relationships among consumer satisfaction and its antecedents and consequences, and especially on the effects of consumer characteristics on consumer satisfaction and the implications of such effects for marketing practice. The results are generally consistent across different products, broadly acceptable and in agreement with previous findings, and are also relevant to Hong Kong's special situation. The paper concludes with a summary and some remarks on problems in the present study and future research directions.

This paper reports research on the impact of mass communication and the passage of time on consumer satisfaction and loyalty in a high‐involvement service setting. The study was based on a survey of two groups of individuals. A short‐time lag group consisted of individuals who were surveyed immediately after receiving a service and one year later. A long‐time lag group consisted of individuals who were surveyed immediately after they received a service and two years later. Satisfaction and loyalty decreased from the initial time of the service encounter for both the short‐time and long‐time groups. While satisfaction and loyalty declined over time for both groups, the results revealed no difference in the change in satisfaction between the two groups. In addition, exposure to mass communication did not influence the change in satisfaction and intention to return over time.

Contingency and institutional theories of organizational development are used to describe and interpret the 100‐year history of a health science university and to then make a case for teaching organizational sociology in administrative preparation programs.

Primary and secondary documents were analyzed to delineate the university's history.

Results indicated that organizational development was the result of complex institutional commitments that were challenged by and reinterpreted in the face of controversial and unanticipated contingencies. Both contingency and institutional theories help explain organizational processes. Organizational sense‐making theories from Karl Weick explain conflicting findings related to the tensions between old and new, the known and unknown, and the set and novel environmental and organizational processes.

This research shows the usefulness of organizational theory in helping administrators develop more elaborate ways of thinking about their schools. The process of theory crafting and testing encourages essential openness and curiosity in administrators.

Administrative candidates should be introduced to the content and processes of organizational sociology as a way of thinking about their leadership and organizational processes.

Organizational theory, including organizational sociology, contingency theory, institutional theory, and sense‐making remain viable in the study of educational organizations and can provide new administrators with a guide for their own meaning construction.

In research on customer loyalty in services, satisfaction has often been mentioned as an important determinant. However, empirical evidence concerning the relationship between loyalty and satisfaction has remained equivocal. This may be even more so for services that are delivered over an extended period of time in which consumers actively take part. We propose that for the extended service experience consumers are motivated by the realisation of values and that attainment of these values affects patronage decisions. Moreover, as the service delivery process is extensive we argue that consumer mood during the service delivery is another important factor that may have an impact on loyalty deliberations. Therefore, in this paper we examine the simultaneous effect of satisfaction, value attainment and positive mood in an extended service setting. The results reveal that the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty with respect to extended services is moderated by value attainment and positive mood. More specifically, the satisfaction‐loyalty association is strongest when consumers perceive that the service does not help them in the attainment of instrumental values and when low positive moods are experienced. In contrast, the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty is weakest when the service helps consumers in attaining their values and when they experience a positive mood. This signifies that value attainment and positive mood do indeed play an additional role in explaining customer loyalty. An important implication is that value attainment and positive mood may function as a buffer for diminishing loyalty as a result of lower levels of service satisfaction.

This paper aims to measure outcome quality in banks in India and to make a comparative assessment of its influence on customer service quality perceptions. Though both functional quality (i.e. how service is delivered) and outcome quality (i.e. what is delivered) are important aspects of service quality, it is the functional quality which has primarily been the focus of past studies.

The data used in the study are based on a survey of bank customers located in Delhi and National Capital Region. Using the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, validity and dimensionality of the multi-item functional and outcome quality scales used in the study were assessed. A structural model of relationships of functional and outcome quality with overall service quality was tested through use of the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.

The study finds outcome quality as being a significant and major determinant of customer service quality perceptions in banks. Inclusion of outcome quality in the analysis is, moreover, found to be helpful in capturing more exhaustively the variations present in customer overall service quality perceptions.

Both the functional and outcome quality in the study have been measured through scales adapted from past studies. But the same have not been found able to fully capture variations in customer service quality perceptions. More psychometrically sound scales to measure functional and outcome quality are needed. Studies in both the developing and developed countries and additional service sectors are called for to increase the generalizability of the study findings. Furthermore, nomological validity of the outcome quality scale needs to be investigated by relating it with other anent constructs, such as customer satisfaction and their behavioral intentions.

Instead of simply remaining preoccupied with functional quality, i.e. process or how part of service delivery, bank management also needs to gauze customer outcome quality perceptions (i.e. what the customers think they are eventually getting out of their transactions with the service provider) and exercise due care to see that customers in fact are getting the core banking tasks performed for which they approach the banks in the first instance.

Present study is first of its kind in investigating role of outcome quality in banking services sector in the context of an emerging market like India. Use of SEM for analyzing both the measurement and structural models constitutes another noteworthy feature of the study.