Customer loyalty and administrative management of e-commerce in the telecommunications sector in Latin America

From a global perspective, the business environment has become highly dynamic, unpredictable, and competitive due to external forces – mostly technology – that generate change. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of digital technologies on South African business sectors. The sample includes small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the KwaZulu-Natal province. Being qualitative by design, the study used semi-structured interviews for data collection, with eight interviews in the Durban area. SME managers were purposefully selected as participants based on their management positions in the business/company and that they oversee the business operation and understand the influence of digital transformation in the business. The interviews were then transcribed after data collection to determine any recurring themes. In the effectiveness of digital transformation, the study identified themes such as “gaining exposure” and “gaining effective sales figures” as a result of implementing digital transformation, which was indicated by six of eight participants. The findings showed that digital transformation significantly affects building customer relationships and ensuring easy accessibility of the business. The results further indicate online selling and digital marketing as the leading digital platforms successfully implemented by most South African SMEs. Lastly, the study revealed digital maintenance and rapid changes in technology as challenging factors. Moreover, the study recommends that South African SMEs implement more available digital technologies to gain additional exposure.

Making intellectual capital the strategic resource of an innovation-oriented organization under post-industrial economy formation requires improving the decision-making quality while choosing its development strategies. To a large extent, the effectiveness of strategic intellectual capital management depends on its methodological principles development, which determines the relevance of the subject chosen.
The purpose of the article is to form a methodical tool for substantiating the strategies of intellectual capital development in a research organization based on multi-criteria analysis.
As a methodological platform, the following methods for conducting research were chosen: an aggregated structural approach, in particular, the method of audit-evaluation by Brooking, to evaluate intellectual capital; SWOT analysis – to determine the strategic position of the company regarding its intellectual capital. To confirm the expert opinions consistency within the empirical studies framework, the concordance coefficient, estimated on the Pearson criterion, was calculated. The key to research is the multi-criteria analysis (SAW, TOPSIS, COPRAS) methods for evaluating, ranking and selecting strategic alternatives for the intellectual capital development of the research company.
Thus, the article takes a new view of using the scenario approach to the formation of an intellectual capital strategy. The strategy development stages are outlined, and the peculiarities of their methodological support are determined. In particular, the necessity to include into the test program for intellectual capital the estimation of its management efficiency is proved. The authors present an example of adapting SAW, TOPSIS, COPRAS methods for the evaluation and ranking of strategic alternatives to human, structural and market capital development.
Consequently, the results allowed to mathematically formalize the rating task and to form the optimal strategies portfolio of human, structural, market capital of organization, as well as to combine factors of the internal and external environment. Thus, the suggested methodological approach can be used by the heads of research organizations to develop and substantiate strategic management decisions to optimize their intellectual capital development.

Commodities are products with low economic value, but when related to experience, they can turn into profitable businesses. In the present work, the authors seek to understand consumer behavior in the coffee industry, guided by the following research question: How can customer experience affect price perception? To answer this question, the researchers conducted an analysis using the four realms of experience from Pine and Gilmore (1999, 2011) – entertainment, education, esthetics, and escapist – and how they behave according to different kinds of customer experience, as well as their relation to price perception. To understand this, the authors conducted qualitative research with 40 consumers in two important coffee companies: Starbucks and Costa Coffee. The coffee shops analyzed are located in the city of Marbella, Spain. The results of this research show that customers are aware of the price discrepancy, but still frequenting coffee shops for different experiences according to their interests. This work is groundbreaking because of the analysis of the four realms of experience and its correlation with the price perception. The authors also introduced to the customer experience field the analysis of the four realms in the coffee shop industry. Finally, from the research results, the authors suggest various managerial practices that can improve customer experience and the perception of prices.