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The New Trends in Consumer Behavior and Business Sustainability: From Customer Satisfaction to Businesses Performance

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2024) | Viewed by 11773

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Diogo Cunha Ferreira

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CERIS, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: performance assessment; benchmarking; risk analysis; project management; tourism management; governance; public policy; public administration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Consumer behavior and sustainability trends are influencing corporate performance, resulting in a shift in how businesses approach customer happiness and overall success. Customer experience, conscious consumption, digital transformation, omni-channel experiences, transparency and authenticity, personalization through data-driven insights, social media and influencer marketing, and an emphasis on employee well-being and workplace culture are among these themes. Businesses may build customer loyalty, strong word of mouth, and long-term partnerships by providing unique and personalized experiences. Consumers are becoming more aware of the social and environmental ramifications of their purchases, and they are looking for firms that encourage sustainability, ethical sourcing, fair trade practices, and social responsibility. Companies are incorporating sustainability into their business strategies, implementing environmentally friendly practices, and publicly revealing their ethical principles. Consumers appreciate firm transparency and authenticity, and they want up-to-date information about items, ingredients, manufacturing methods, and supply chains. Companies are reacting by making clear and accessible information available, being upfront about their operations, and engaging in genuine engagement. Advances in data analytics allow businesses to collect and analyze customer data, allowing them to generate customized marketing plans, product recommendations, and targeted communications. Businesses may boost consumer satisfaction, develop brand loyalty, and achieve long-term success by aligning their strategy with these trends.

We are pleased to invite you to submit a research article or a literature review in one or more of those following topics:

  • Consumer behavior;
  • Customer satisfaction;
  • Business sustainability;
  • Business performance;
  • Focus on customer experience;
  • Rise of conscious consumerism;
  • Digital transformation and omnichannel experience;
  • Demand for transparency and authenticity;
  • Data-driven-based personalization;
  • Social media and influencer marketing;
  • Employee well-being and satisfaction and workplace culture;
  • Mathematical design and development of models to study any of the topics above.

We are particularly interested in works dealing with two or more of those topics, especially those linking customer/consumer satisfaction with business performance/sustainability. Nonetheless, this is not a sine qua non condition and other articles dealing with other topics will also be considered, as long as they are aligned with this Special Issue focus.

Dr. Diogo Cunha Ferreira
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • consumer behavior
  • customer satisfaction
  • business sustainability
  • business performance

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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33 pages, 1475 KiB  
Article
Exploring Mobile Application User Experience Through Topic Modeling
by Olivera Grljević, Mirjana Marić and Rade Božić
Sustainability 2025, 17(3), 1109; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17031109 - 29 Jan 2025
Viewed by 417
Abstract
Exploring user satisfaction and experience is the first step of software product improvement and business sustainability. The primary goal of this research is to investigate how companies can use topic modeling to understand mobile application user experience and offer methodological steps for identifying [...] Read more.
Exploring user satisfaction and experience is the first step of software product improvement and business sustainability. The primary goal of this research is to investigate how companies can use topic modeling to understand mobile application user experience and offer methodological steps for identifying factors shaping it. SalesForce was selected for this case study as it was the most widely used CRM application in 2023. This study aims to uncover factors influencing positive and negative user experience, to compare and systematize them, and to indicate the business implications of topic modeling findings. For this study, authors collected 9081 online reviews of the SalesForce application from Google Play Store. The corpus is divided into three subsets based on the associated star ratings, where four and five stars indicate positive sentiment, three mixed sentiment, and two and one negative. Each subset is analyzed using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm, hyper-parameters were fine-tuned, and the experimental models were evaluated with coherence measures to determine the model with the optimal number of topics. The results indicate that the driving factors of positive experience are seamless functionality and reliability, design flaws and performance issues shape negative experiences, and mixed experiences arise from inconsistencies in usability and authentication challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The New Trends in Consumer Behavior and Business Sustainability: From Customer Satisfaction to Businesses Performance)
16 pages, 851 KiB  
Article
The Impact of COVID-19 on the Value Relevance of Customer Satisfaction
by Ha-Yeon Park and Cheong-Kyu Park
Sustainability 2024, 16(18), 8090; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16188090 - 16 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1187
Abstract
This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on customer satisfaction and the value relevance of customer satisfaction. COVID-19 is an unprecedented pandemic that has changed all areas of business. Customer relations are one of the biggest paradigm shifts of this period. Companies have [...] Read more.
This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on customer satisfaction and the value relevance of customer satisfaction. COVID-19 is an unprecedented pandemic that has changed all areas of business. Customer relations are one of the biggest paradigm shifts of this period. Companies have placed more attention on customer relations than on any other areas, and customer relations are an essential element in corporate sustainability. The value relevance directly represents the sustainability of corporations. It is very important for firms to retain their customers in the market, create a potential demand, and, thus, increase the firm value. We investigate whether companies financially benefit from customer relations. Employing the value relevance model, we regress firm value on the customer satisfaction scores with other control variables. We find that the customer satisfaction score has increased throughout the sample period, and that the value relevance of customer satisfaction has declined after the COVID-19 outbreak. Together, we interpret the results as indicating the impact of COVID-19 on the value relevance of customer satisfaction, especially the decreasing trends in value relevance. The results are robust even after controlling endogeneity and outliers. This study has several implications for practitioners and academia regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the value relevance of customer satisfaction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The New Trends in Consumer Behavior and Business Sustainability: From Customer Satisfaction to Businesses Performance)
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22 pages, 3683 KiB  
Article
Mapping the Terrain of Open Innovation in Consumer Research: Insights and Directions from Bibliometrics
by Chukiat Siriwong, Siwarit Pongsakornrungsilp, Pimlapas Pongsakornrungsilp and Vikas Kumar
Sustainability 2024, 16(15), 6283; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16156283 - 23 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1704
Abstract
Mapping the Landscape of Open Innovation in Consumer Research: Insights and Directions from Bibliometrics examines how publications in the fields of consumer behavior research (Cons) and open innovation (OI) have developed over time. Terms that frequently appear together are explored to elucidate potential [...] Read more.
Mapping the Landscape of Open Innovation in Consumer Research: Insights and Directions from Bibliometrics examines how publications in the fields of consumer behavior research (Cons) and open innovation (OI) have developed over time. Terms that frequently appear together are explored to elucidate potential future research directions and thematic areas that influence academic writing. Bibliometric maps are created using VOSviewer v1.6.19, and 184 publications are analyzed using high-quality metadata and citation information from the Scopus database. The findings highlight patterns in publications, networks of citations, dynamics in collaboration, and future directions for Open Innovation and Consumer research. Co-word analysis is applied to extract data, and publication density analysis is used to identify popular terms. Eighty-two authors are represented in the dataset, and author collaborations are highlighted through co-citation analysis. The study concludes by outlining potential directions for future research based on component-based, keyword, and publication analyses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The New Trends in Consumer Behavior and Business Sustainability: From Customer Satisfaction to Businesses Performance)
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39 pages, 3194 KiB  
Article
An Assessment of Container Seaport Efficiency Determinants
by Paulo Caldas, Maria Isabel Pedro and Rui Cunha Marques
Sustainability 2024, 16(11), 4427; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114427 - 23 May 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1496
Abstract
Maritime transport plays a pivotal role in the global economy, facilitating the majority of international trade and serving as a cornerstone for efficient and expansive logistics networks. The proliferation of economic globalisation has resulted in a significant upsurge in intercontinental transactions, thereby fostering [...] Read more.
Maritime transport plays a pivotal role in the global economy, facilitating the majority of international trade and serving as a cornerstone for efficient and expansive logistics networks. The proliferation of economic globalisation has resulted in a significant upsurge in intercontinental transactions, thereby fostering the utilisation of ports and shipping enterprises as cost-effective and expeditious means of accessing a wide range of destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. The objective of this study is to evaluate the significance of five exogenous variables, namely, GDP per capita, water depth, commodity-type diversification, management model, and European directional division, in relation to the performance of seaports. Measuring the impact of exogenous variables in seaport performance is crucial for understanding how external factors influence efficiency, enabling informed decision-making, and facilitating the development of targeted policies for sustainable and effective port operations. This assessment will be conducted using robust benchmarking analysis methods, specifically the nonparametric order-α model. Several findings suggest that there is a negative relationship between GDP per capita and the performance of seaports when GDP per capita reaches very high levels. However, seaports located in regions with lower GDP per capita tend to exhibit superior performance. The inefficiency of southern seaports is evident, whereas seaports located in Central/Eastern Europe exhibit superior performance, irrespective of their model orientation. These findings underscore the importance of considering economic context and regional factors in understanding seaport performance and highlight potential areas for improvement in southern seaports. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The New Trends in Consumer Behavior and Business Sustainability: From Customer Satisfaction to Businesses Performance)
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16 pages, 1614 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Influencer Marketing on the Consumers’ Desire to Travel in the Post-Pandemic Era: The Mediation Effect of Influencer Fitness of Destination
by Chih-Ming Tsai and Shih-Peng Hsin
Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 14746; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014746 - 11 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3619
Abstract
Social media has become an important part of most people’s lives since the pandemic and lockdowns. With little to do during lockdowns, some people created and managed social media accounts and became influencers. Following this trend, companies, governments, and individuals related to the [...] Read more.
Social media has become an important part of most people’s lives since the pandemic and lockdowns. With little to do during lockdowns, some people created and managed social media accounts and became influencers. Following this trend, companies, governments, and individuals related to the leisure and hospitality industry turned to social media and influencer marketing to promote tourism in specific destinations in hopes of spurring an economic recovering. Since the pandemic, consumers have turned to social media to gather information and ideas for travel plans. To better understand the connection between what consumers read online and their desire to travel, this study aims to analyse the impacts of influencers, including their content and the fitness of destination, on consumers, who have their own perceived value and desire for the destination. A total of 332 Taiwanese respondents aged 18 to 55 were sampled to conduct a data analysis using the structural equation model (SEM). The results showed that content has a positive impact on the fitness of destination and the desire to travel, with no significant impact on perceived value, and the fitness of destination has a positive impact on perceived value and the desire to travel; in contrast, perceived value has a negative impact on the desire to travel. The mediation effect of influencer fitness of destination was also investigated through the bootstrap method. Fitness of destination acts as a full mediator between content and perceived value. Finally, the findings and managerial implications are further discussed to examine how the desire to travel among consumers can be affected by influencer marketing in the post-pandemic era. Practical suggestions for applying influencer marketing strategies based on the results are also proposed to help the tourism industry boost tourism revenue and achieve sustainable development goals after the pandemic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The New Trends in Consumer Behavior and Business Sustainability: From Customer Satisfaction to Businesses Performance)
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16 pages, 1511 KiB  
Perspective
Vertical Integration in Healthcare and Patient Satisfaction: An Exploratory Analysis of Portuguese Reforms
by Alexandre Nunes
Sustainability 2024, 16(3), 1078; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16031078 - 26 Jan 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2110
Abstract
The performances of public corporate hospital units are being influenced by user behaviour, delayed service responses, and sustainability risks. Consequently, there is a need for these units to adopt a different approach to user care in order to attain overall success and mitigate [...] Read more.
The performances of public corporate hospital units are being influenced by user behaviour, delayed service responses, and sustainability risks. Consequently, there is a need for these units to adopt a different approach to user care in order to attain overall success and mitigate discontent arising from delays and waiting lists. The faults within the public system are becoming increasingly apparent as a result of the growing emphasis on the transparency and authenticity of information. The reform of the Portuguese health system aims to enhance coordination among public, private, and social services. Additionally, it prioritises the integration of various levels of care within the Portuguese National Health Service, specifically by promoting the amalgamation of hospital business entities with primary care under single organisations known as Local Health Units. The objective of this study was to utilise the SWOT framework to examine the reform from the standpoint of citizens, as they are the focal point of the system and its long-term sustainability. The study revealed several benefits associated with the reform. However, it is crucial to address potential risks and opportunities in order to achieve the intended outcomes. If health managers and policy-makers effectively utilise the available opportunities, it can be inferred that there exists a favourable circumstance to implement a Local Health Unit model that seeks to integrate comprehensive care. This approach, by addressing the health issues of citizens, will create a larger scope for improvement and enhance citizen contentment. Moreover, it will ensure the long-term viability, ethical conduct, transparency, and genuineness of health outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The New Trends in Consumer Behavior and Business Sustainability: From Customer Satisfaction to Businesses Performance)
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