scholarly journals Consumers Preferences for Plant Size, Type of Plant Material and Design Sophistication in Residential Landscaping

2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Hardy ◽  
Bridget K. Behe ◽  
Susan S. Barton ◽  
Thomas J. Page ◽  
Robert E. Schutzki ◽  
...  

Abstract How much value do consumers place on a good landscape? Self-selected attendees to a Detroit, MI, flower show indicated that plant size was the most important factor in the perceived value of a landscape. Holding other factors equal, increasing from the smallest size plant generally available for installation to the largest size defined in our study increased perceived home value by 5.0%. Design sophistication was almost as important as size. Holding other factors equal, upgrading from a traditional foundation planting to a sophisticated design that incorporated multiple bed and curved bedlines increased perceived home value by 4.5%. The type of plant material used was the least important. The relative importance of plant material selection as a factor contributing value added to the home by the landscape was almost half that of plant size and over 40% less than design sophistication. The conjoint model produced from 158 survey responses predicted that from the least valued landscape to the most valued landscape the perceived value of the home increased 12.7%.

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Behe ◽  
J. Hardy ◽  
S. Barton ◽  
J. Brooker ◽  
T. Fernandez ◽  
...  

Abstract Little consumer research is available to help landscape design and installation businesses develop service marketing strategies. We investigated the effect of three components of a landscape design on the perceived value of a home. This information would be useful in marketing lawn and landscape services to prospective clients. Our objective was to provide a consumer perspective on the value of the components in a ‘good’ landscape and determine which attributes of a landscape consumers valued most. Using conjoint design, 1323 volunteer participants in seven states viewed 16 photographs that depicted the front of a landscaped residence. Landscapes were constructed using various levels of three attributes: plant material type, design sophistication, and plant size. Results showed that the relative importance increased from plant material type to plant size to design sophistication. Across all seven markets, study participants perceived that home value increased from 5% to 11% for homes with a good landscape.


HortScience ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 555B-555
Author(s):  
Karl J. Muzii ◽  
M. Haque ◽  
R.T. Fernandez ◽  
B. Behe ◽  
S. Barton

The research contained in this thesis quantifies the difference between actual landscape value and perceived value on the part of homeowners. Pertinent information and necessary data were gathered by surveys interviewing consumers over the age of 18, who evaluated a set of 16 home landscape photographs. These surveys were conducted at two sites in South Carolina. The study involved three levels of landscape design with varying complexity and cost factors. Four plant material and hardscape combinations were developed for use in each cost design. Finally, the plant material size was categorized as small, medium, or large. Thirty-six design combinations were created. A subset of 16 computer-generated images was selected to simplify the evaluation. Participating respondents answered a questionnaire providing personal demographic information and their evaluations of the 16-image subset. Participants were supplied a base starting price and a photo of the home without landscaping. Responses were analyzed to determine consumer perceptions of value influenced by landscape design style, plant material, and hardscape selection; plant size; and by the difference between perceived value and actual cost to install. Consumer responses for all landscape designs were positive and indicate that consumers consider landscaping an asset to residential value. Participants valued the home on average between.95% to 11.3%, depending on the complexity of design, plant material, hardscape, and size combinations. The variance between consumer perception and actual cost of material and labor indicates that consumers undervalue the price of a newly installed landscape where all material and labor costs are priced consistent with professional landscaping averages.


HortScience ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 485B-485
Author(s):  
Jill Hardy ◽  
Bridget Behe ◽  
Susan Barton ◽  
Thomas Page ◽  
R. Thomas Fernandez ◽  
...  

For most residential home improvements, excluding landscapes, professionals can document return on investment. Our objective was to compare costs of installing landscapes with perceived home value, and determine return on investment. We administered surveys in eight selected U.S. cities in 1999. Self-selected participants from home and garden shows were asked to examine a photograph of a home without landscaping (base home), and were given its value estimated by local realtors. Participants were asked to view 16 additional photographs of the base home with different landscapes. Cost estimates for landscape materials and installation were calculated. Results showed that a sophisticated landscape with large and diverse plant material added up to 13% to the perceived value of a new $200,000 home. On average, any level of landscaping added value to the home. The increase in perceived value as a percentage of project cost was greatest for simple designs with small evergreen plant material. Complicated designs that included hardscapes and large, diverse plant material returned the least. In general, we found that return on investment for landscaping is comparable to the returns gained on several major home improvements, yet differed with respect to geographic region. We found that colored hardscape, developed from a red brick paver walkway, returned less than color from flowering annuals. Return on investment was greatest for annual plants added for color.


Author(s):  
Celal Taşdoğan ◽  
Bilgen Taşdoğan

Turkey has realized high growth rates during the period of 2002-2011, except in 2008 and 2009 years. It is thought that the rapidly growing in the country may cause a lot of environmental damage, especially air pollution problems. In other words, the productive sectors have produced two outputs which are economic value added and air pollutants. This study used input output matrixes are to find out the strategically important sectors as it is known key sectors and weak sectors caused the environmental effects in the country. For this purpose, it has been tried to investigate air pollutant quantities which caused by the production process of the sectors in the period of 2002-2011 and performed the input-output tables for Turkey constructed in the World Input Output Database (WIOD) Project. These input-output tables include the emission satellite accounts, which are CO2 emissions and other air pollutants, respectively N2O, CH4, N2O, NOx, SOx, CO, NMVOC and NH3, disaggregated for the 34 sectors. It is expected that the outcomes of the study may contribute to sustainable growth debates and environmental policy implementations in Turkey.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Gurtner ◽  
Nadine Hietschold ◽  
María Vaquero Martín

Innovations in health care are costly and risky, but they also provide the opportunity for hospitals to increase quality of care, to distinguish themselves from competitors and to attract patients. While numerous hospitals strive to increase their innovativeness by adopting a costly innovation leader strategy, the question of whether this actually influences the patient’s choice remains unanswered. To understand the role of innovativeness from the patient perspective, this study conceptualizes the construct of innovativeness reputation of hospitals and determines its relevance in patients’ hospital choice decisions. In the pretest, we identified six dimensions of innovativeness reputation such as progressive work procedures and value added services. We then used three different quantitative multi-criteria decision-making methods to evaluate the relative importance of innovativeness reputation in patient choice. We collected data from 355 former German patients who had undergone elective non-emergency surgery. Overall, innovativeness reputation accounts for 11.6%–16.8% of the patient decision. Innovativeness reputation has a moderate influence on hospital choice and should be taken into account by managers. Since technical innovations are costly, hospitals should use other means to enhance their innovative image. Strategies such as emphasizing value added services can enable hospitals to increase their innovativeness reputation efficiently.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Muñoz ◽  
Mounu Prem

We study whether differences in management can explain variation in productivity and how more effective managers can be recruited in absence of high-powered incentives. To investigate this, we first extend the canonical teacher value-added model to account for school principals, and we document substantial variation in their ability to improve students’ learning. Teachers’ survey responses and quasi-experimental designs based on changes in school management validate our measure of principal effectiveness. Then, we leverage the timing of adoption of a civil service reform and show that despite having relatively rigid wages, public schools were able to attract more effective managers after increasing the competitiveness and transparency of their personnel selection process.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santi Gopal Maji ◽  
Mitra Goswami

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on Indian traditional sector and compare the relative importance of IC on corporate performance of Indian knowledge-based sector (engineering sector) and traditional sector (steel sector). Design/methodology/approach Secondary data on 100 listed Indian firms, comprising of 44 firms from the engineering sector and 56 from the steel sector, are collected from “Capitaline Plus” Corporate database for a period of 14 years from 1999-2000 to 2012-2013. IC and its components are computed using Pulic’s value-added intellectual coefficient model and firm performance is measured by return on asset. Fixed effect regression model is used to investigate the hypothetical relationship between IC and firm performance. Further, quantile regression is used to check the robustness of the results. Findings The results indicate that IC efficiency and physical capital efficiency are positively and significantly associated with the firm performance for both the sectors. Regarding the components of IC, the coefficient of human capital efficiency is positive and significant, but the present effort fails to disentangle any significant influence of structural capital efficiency on firm performance. However, the results indicate that the influence of IC efficiency on firm performance is significantly greater in case of knowledge-based sector than that of traditional sector. Practical implications The findings of the study are useful for the decision makers, as the results indicate that the IC plays crucial role in value creation not only for knowledge-based firms but also for the firms belonging to the traditional manufacturing sector. Originality/value In the Indian context, this is the first study to examine the relative importance of IC in a knowledge-based sector and a traditional sector using appropriate methodology.


Author(s):  
Alvin Y.C. Yeo ◽  
Michael K.M. Chiam

Increasingly, businesses are beginning to understand the profit potential of loyal customers (Oliver, 1999). Marketers endowed with such consumers can expect repeat patronage to remain high until competitors can find a way to: (1) close the gap in attitude among brands, (2) increase the differentiation of their own brand, or (3) encourage spurious loyalty from consumers (Dick & Basu, 1994). Loyalty leads to higher retention. According to one study, a 5% increase in customer retention rates increases profits by 25% to 95% (Reicheld & Schefter, 2000). It is thus heartening to note that “one of the most exciting and successful uses of [the Internet] … may be the Internet’s role in building customer loyalty and maximizing sales to your existing customers” (Griffin, 1996, p. 50). Given its relative importance in cyberspace, it is surprising that relatively little has been done in conceptualizing and validating e-loyalty models (Luarn & Lin, 2003). Parasuraman and Grewal (2000) argue for more research pertaining to the influence of technology on customer responses, such as perceived value and customer loyalty. Besides customer trust, our study also incorporates two constructs—corporate image and perceived value—that have been poorly explored in online environments despite their recognized importance in off-line contexts. Consequently, a primary objective of this article is to discuss the impact of three constructs (i.e., customer trust, corporate image, and perceived value) on e-loyalty in a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce context. In doing so, our model is expected to offer useful suggestions on how to manage customer trust, corporate image, and perceived value as online loyalty management tools. This article is generally divided into three sections. The first section will discuss the constructs of interest and clarify what they mean. In the second section, we will propose hypotheses explaining these relationships. And in the final section, we introduce actionable strategies for online loyalty management based on the proposed framework.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 (1) ◽  
pp. 1436-1454
Author(s):  
C. R. Taylor ◽  
P. B. Hook ◽  
C. A. Zabinski ◽  
O.R. Stein

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. A1-A14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Fontaine ◽  
Soumaya Ben Letaifa ◽  
David Herda

SUMMARY Audit firms are concerned that clients perceive the audit service as a commodity, with little value added, resulting in clients switching to firms that offer lower fees. However, the auditing literature lacks qualitative insight from clients on the reasons that they change audit firms and their perceptions of the value of audit services. To better understand the client's perspective, we conducted interviews with 20 financial managers who participate in audit firm appointment decisions. Our results suggest that the quality of the auditor-client relationship is the key determinant of auditor switching and audit value. Interestingly, price becomes an important factor only when the auditor-client relationship is mismanaged (e.g., when clients perceive that their auditor is not available to them).


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