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Abstract:
Over the past years "yield management" (also called "revenue management") has become increasingly applied in the hotel sector. However, little research has investigated the effects of these practices on the relationships between hotels and their customers.

The paper firstly examines the nature and the various aspects of the client perceptions regarding yield management techniques, focusing especially on perceptions of fairness. Secondly, the paper analyses the variety of actions that hotel companies may design and implement in order to properly anticipate, face and manage customer conflicts resulting from unfairness. Thirdly, the relationships with distribution channels and hotel human resources are considered. Finally, these managerial techniques adopted by the hotel companies are evaluated in the framework of a business ethics approach.

yield management, revenue management, hotel, fairness

Abstract:
Today's fast changing environment, characterised by the increasing importance of flexibility, knowledge and performance, forces corporations to rethink their organisation, how they have traditionally structured their production and their relations with markets and suppliers. To reduce costs, remain flexible and technologically competent companies have increasingly come to rely upon other corporations, whose core competencies are expertise in each specific business. Outsourcing is rapidly growing in all business functions because of its benefits, but it may also imply several risks for the enterprise. Within outsourcing operations and their management, the role of knowledge and trust is critical, especially with the growth of strategic outsourcing. Therefore the article focuses on the concept of trust, trying to analyse its roots and its implications as a source of competitive advantage. As companies outsource more and more activities they could evolve into a network of independent businesses working together. So, the concept of virtual enterprise according to the diverse interpretations of virtuality (functional organisational and operational virtuality) and the basic factors for their success is analysed. The virtual company can create a synergism by the combination of core competence between the participants, but it must rely on open communication and total trust.

Outsourcing, virtual company, trust, knowledge

Abstract:
Key processes to generate customer retention have been concerned by a large number of studies. The purpose of research in this field was to review, define and evaluate the specific roles played by the various forms, channels and techniques of firm's communication in an economy evolving, interdependent and increasingly innovative. In this challenging context, however, the subject word-of-mouth had received for years little attention indeed. Recently, the growing emphasis given, both by scholars and practicians, to major marketing topics as customer satisfaction and brand equity and the significant improvements achieved in communicational processes by the use of new technologies, have contributed to a new interest in the theme. The article examines firstly the nature and the various aspects of word-of-mouth, putting in evidence the importance of firm's performances, especially in the case of negative effects (poor quality of services), as the origin of interaction among individuals and stressing the need of an absolute coherence of these performances with all the communication policies pursued by the management. The second step of the paper is devoted to focus on the variety of actions that companies may design, adopt, implement and develop in order to face and properly manage the word-of-mouth. Eventually, other major concepts as viral marketing and network marketing are analysed.

word-of-mouth, customer satisfaction, brand equity, viral marketing

Abstract:
Marketing studies originally emerged and developed within the commercial environment; however in the past decades this discipline broadened its focus to explicitly include public issues. There was much initial debate over the appropriateness of using marketing frameworks, set up for the business world, within the public sector context. Then, the discussions have moved away from this philosophical approach to attain pragmatic issues. The study was conducted over three phases. Firstly it focuses on the role of the public sector of a country in the new globalized environment. Here there is a crucial need to increase substantially both effectiveness and efficiency in all the activities carried out by this sector. Secondly the study examines the development of the concept of marketing and the related concepts of exchange and value. Finally, the different uses (strategic and operational) and approaches of marketing in the public sector are explored and the specific "markets" or "audiences" of the public system (citizens, electors, taxpayers, etc.), in part ovellapping, are listed and analysed.

public sector marketing

Abstract:
This paper focuses on the concept of product quality. Although the term quality seems self-explanatory, in practice there are many different definitions and point of views of its meaning. No one definition of quality fits in every situation because each definition has both strengths and weaknesses in relation to criteria such as managerial usefulness and consumer relevance. In this article, several concepts of quality like objective (quantitative) quality, perceived quality, expected quality, desired quality, fitness for use, conformance to specifications, are introduced and discussed.

Firstly the point of view of consumers is analysed, in relation to the purchase process. From this perspective, product quality is determined by what the customers want and are willing to pay for. Since consumers have different product needs, they will have different quality expectations.

Then the point of view of firms is examined as well. All the business activities should work in order to achieve the desired quality and attain a competitive advantage. The links and the gaps existing among the different concepts of quality are analysed in a model, which put in evidence the different roles of the business activities involved (market research, product development, communication, production & logistics, etc.), with the aim of reducing the gap between desired and perceived quality.

Product quality