Purpose -There is a pressing need for practitioners to adopt viable analytic procedures that may help them optimize resource allocation to strengthen customer satisfaction. This paper reviews a range of procedures used for measuring customer satisfaction that are identified in the literature and tests which procedures might be more useful to practitioners. Design/methodology/approach -Customer satisfaction measurement procedures developed in the literature are reviewed to assess the non-linear and asymmetric relationship between attribute performance and overall satisfaction. A convergent validity test between the two measurement procedures that the review suggests are the most suitable for application in practice is then conducted to discover the relative merits of each. The test is based on an empirical investigation carried out in the mobile communication industry. Findings -Two measurement procedures were identified as the most appropriate to practitioners, "regression with dummy variables" and the "Importance Grid". These were compared using a convergent validity test, which revealed a lack convergent validity between the two. Discussion about the reliability of the two procedures and the implications for practice is provided. On balance, the regression with dummy variables was identified as the better approach. Originality/value -The paper highlights the importance that recognition is given to the non-linear and asymmetric response of customer satisfaction to the performance of different product/service attributes if appropriate decisions are to be made for allocating marketing resources. While research on customer satisfaction has emphasized the need to account for the non-linear and asymmetric relationship between attribute performance and overall satisfaction, no effort has been made to disseminate these insights fully among practitioners. Since understanding the relationship between attribute performance and overall satisfaction is paramount if resource allocation to improve attribute performance is to be prioritized correctly, there is a pressing concern to move customer satisfaction programs closer to the theory predictions. A range of measurement procedures is reviewed and compared. Through this work, academics and practitioners may gain further insight into procedures for measuring customer satisfaction and an understanding of the relative benefits and limitations of the procedures that may be adopted.

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. 3 Permanent repository link How Do Financial Constraints Affect Creativity?ABSTRACT This article investigates the effects of financial constraints on the outcome of different types of creative tasks such as product ideation and product repair. Four experimental studies examine the effect of financial constraints on creativity of the outcome of a product ideation task, and compare the effect of financial constraints with the effect of another type of constraint (i.e., input restrictions) on creativity of products ideated and on the amount of resources invested in the development of the creative solution. Furthermore, these studies explore the type of creative process ignited by financial constraints and analyze the effect of financial constraints in interaction with an individual difference such as novelty seeking, which embraces more remote determinants of creative performance, on the creativity of the outcomes to a product ideation task, as well as on the creativity of the outcomes to a more constrained task such as repairing an existing product.The results suggest that constrained financial resources may be beneficial to creativity. Financial constraints lead to the ideation of more creative products. Yet, these products are generated using fewer inputs and a lower budget than products generated in an unconstrained condition. Furthermore, while yielding outcomes as creative as the ones generated under input constraints, financial constraints induce a parsimonious mindset reflected in the use of less costly resources. More interestingly, financial constraints activate a top down rather than a bottom up processing strategy in approaching the creative task. Finally, the results show that the effect of financial constraints is stronger for individuals with inherent tendencies toward novelty seeking, because their stock of experiences and perspectives puts them under stress when facing an unconstrained problem space. This interaction effect holds not only for product ideation tasks, but also when the problem space is already constrained in nature, as in the case of repairing a product.These findings, which are quite counterintuitive from the perspective of classic new product development (NPD) literature, suggest that, at least under certain conditions, the use of financial constraints might constitute a promising approach to foster new ideas' generation, one that leads to more creative outcomes despite using less costly inputs. In addition, our results suggest that, when dealing with a creative task, companies should modulate the adoption of this kind of constraint on the individual characteristics of their employees, specifically on their innate tendency to seek novelty.4

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Purpose -Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is a simple marketing tool commonly used to identify the main strengths and weaknesses of a value proposition. The purpose of this paper is to propose a revision of traditional IPA prompted by intuitions arising from the three-factor theory of customer satisfaction. The ultimate goal is to propose a decision support method, which is as simple and intuitive as the original IPA, but more precise and reliable than the solutions proposed thus far. Design/methodology/approach -In order to estimate indirect measures of attribute importance, the study uses the coefficients of a multiple regression with overall satisfaction ratings as the dependent variable. Additional calculations are then introduced in order to manage non-linear effects. Findings -Using empirical data from a survey among 5,209 customers of a European bank, the authors show how the proposed method can be more accurate than other solutions, especially as disregarding non-linear effects can prompt sub-optimal marketing decisions. Research limitations/implications -While the procedure in this study is applicable to any service business, the paper does not claim external validity for the numerical results of the empirical application: the authors acknowledge that only one dataset has been used. The authors' goal is merely to demonstrate a revised approach to IPA. Originality/value -First, the authors assert the need for an explicit distinction between the use of IPA for customer acquisition vs customer retention purposes. These two cases refer to distinct moments in the customer relationship life cycle and thus require separate analyses. The authors then propose a specific method for customer retention IPA. On this basis, they generate two priority charts: one for the purpose of maximizing customer satisfaction and one for the purpose of minimizing customer dissatisfaction.