Use of Customer Information: An Ethnography in Service Development

Service researchers have repeatedly claimed that firms should acquire customer information in order to develop services that fit customer needs. Despite this, studies that would concentrate on the actual use of customer information in service development are lacking. The present study fulfils this research gap by investigating information use during a service development process. It demonstrates that use is not a straightforward task that automatically follows the acquisition of customer information. In fact, out of the six identified types of use, four represent non usage of customer information. Hence, the study demonstrates that the acquisition of customer information does not guarantee that the information will actually be used in development. The current study used an ethnographic approach. Consequently, the study was conducted in the field in real time over an extensive period of 13 months. Participant observation allowed direct access to the investigated phenomenon, i.e. the different types of use by the observed development project members were captured while they emerged. In addition, interviews, informal discussions and internal documents were used to gather data. A development process of a bank’s website constituted the empirical context of the investigation. This ethnography brings novel insights to both academia and practice. It critically questions the traditional focus on the firm’s acquisition of customer information and suggests that this focus ought to be expanded to the actual use of customer information. What is the point in acquiring costly customer information if it is not used in the development? Based on the findings of this study, a holistic view on customer information, “information in use” is generated. This view extends the traditional view of customer information in three ways: the source, timing and form of data collection. First, the study showed that the customer information can come explicitly from the customer, from speculation among the developers or it can already exist implicitly. Prior research has mainly focused on the customer as the information provider and the explicit source to turn to for information. Second, the study identified that the used and non-used customer information was acquired both previously, and currently within the time frame of the focal development process, as well as potentially in the future. Prior research has primarily focused on the currently acquired customer information, i.e. within the timeframe of the development process. Third, the used and non-used customer information was both formally and informally acquired. In prior research a large number of sophisticated formal methods have been suggested for the acquisition of customer information to be used in development. By focusing on “information in use”, new knowledge on types of customer information that are actually used was generated. For example, the findings show that the formal customer information acquired during the development process is used less than customer information already existent within the firm. With this knowledge at hand, better methods to capture this more usable customer information can be developed. Moreover, the thesis suggests that by focusing stronger on use of customer information, service development processes can be restructured in order to facilitate the information that is actually used.

Developement of DSP based educational kit for power electronics and drives

The educational kit was developed for power electronics and drives. The need and purpose of this kit is to train engineers with current technology of digital control in power electronics. The DSP is the natural choice as it is able to perform high speed calculations required in power electronics. The educational kit consists of a DSP platform using TI DSP TMS320C50 starter kit, an inverter and an induction machine-dc machine set. A set of experiments have been prepared so that DSP programming can be learned easily in a smooth fashion. Here the application presented is open loop V/F control of three phase induction using sine pulse width modulation technique.

Towards the Breaking Day : An Ethnography of Belian Curing Rituals among the Luangans of Indonesian Borneo

Towards the Breaking Day is an ethnography of belian, an exceptionally lively tradition of curing rituals performed by the Luangans, a politically marginalized population of swidden cultivators of Indonesian Borneo. The principal purpose of the study is to explore the significance of belian rituals in practice. It asks what belian rituals do socially, politically, and existentially for particular people in particular circumstances. Departing from conventional conceptions of rituals as ethereal liminal or insulated traditional domains, it demonstrates the importance of understanding rituals as emergent within their specific historical and social settings, and highlights the irreducibility of lived reality to epistemological certainty. Each chapter of the book represents an analysis of a concrete ritual performance, exemplifying a diversity of ritual genres, stylistic modalities and sensual ambiences, ranging from low-keyed, habitual affairs to drawn-out, crowd-seizing community rituals and innovative, montage-like cultural experiments. The study is based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in non-Christian Central Luangan communities in which ritual and everyday life are complexly intermixed. It is intended as a contribution to the anthropological study of ritual and to the ethnography of Borneo religion in which the study of shamanistic life rituals has been overshadowed by a long-standing fascination with death and funerary rites.

Unraveling the helix of change : An activity-theoretical study of health care change efforts and their consequences

M.A. (Educ.) Anu Kajamaa from the University of Helsinki, Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE), examines change efforts and their consequences in health care in the public sector. The aim of her academic dissertation is, by providing a new conceptual framework, to widen our understanding of organizational change efforts and their consequences and managerial challenges. Despite the multiple change efforts, the results of health care development projects have not been very promising, and many developmental needs and managerial challenges exist. The study challenges the predominant, well-framed health care change paradigm and calls for an expanded view to explore the underlying issues and multiplicities of change efforts and their consequences. The study asks what kind of expanded conceptual framework is needed to better understand organizational change as transcending currently dominant oppositions in management thinking, specifically in the field of health care. The study includes five explorative case studies of health care change efforts and their consequences in Finland. Theory and practice are tightly interconnected in the study. The methodology of the study integrates the ethnography of organizational change, a narrative approach and cultural-historical activity theory. From the stance of activity theory, historicity, contradictions, locality and employee participation play significant roles in developing health care. The empirical data of the study has mainly been collected in two projects, funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund. The data was collected in public sector health care organizations during the years 2004-2010. By exploring the oppositions between distinct views on organizational change and the multi-site, multi-level and multi-logic of organizational change, the study develops an expanded, multidimensional activity-theoretical framework on organizational change and management thinking. The findings of the study contribute to activity theory and organization studies, and provide information for health care management and practitioners. The study illuminates that continuous development efforts bridged to one another and anchored to collectively created new activity models can lead to significant improvements and organizational learning in health care. The study presents such expansive learning processes. The ways of conducting change efforts in organizations play a critical role in the creation of collective new practices and tools and in establishing ownership over them. Some of the studied change efforts were discontinuous or encapsulated, not benefiting the larger whole. The study shows that the stagnation and unexpected consequences of change efforts relate to the unconnectedness of the different organizational sites, levels and logics. If not dealt with, the unintended consequences such as obstacles, breaks and conflicts may stem promising change and learning processes.

Young Actors in Transnational Agoras : Multi-sited Ethnography of Cosmopolitan Micropolitical Orientations

This study examines young people s political participation in transnational meetings. Methodologically the study aims to shed light on multi-sited global ethnography. Young people are viewed here as a social age group sensitive to critical, alternative and even radical political participation. The diversity of the young actors and their actions is captured by using several different methods. What is more, the study spurs us coming from the Global North to develop social science research towards methodological cosmopolitanism and to consider our research practices from a moral cosmopolitan perspective. The research sites are the EU Presidency Youth Event (2006 Hyvinkää, Finland), the Global Young Greens Founding Conference (2007 Nairobi, Kenya), the European Social Forum (2008 Malmö, Sweden) and three World Social Forums (2006 Bamako, Mali; 2007 Nairobi Kenya and 2009 Belém, Brazil). The data consists of participant observation, documents and media articles of the meetings, interviews, photos, video, and internet data. This multidisciplinary study combines youth research, development studies, performative social science and political sociology. In this research the diverse field of youth political participation in transnational agoras is studied by using a cross-table of cosmopolitan resources (or the lack of them) and everydaymakers expert citizen dichotomy. First, the young participants of the EU Presidency youth event are studied as an example of expert citizens with cosmopolitan resources (these resources include, for example, language skills, higher education and international social network). Second, the study analyses those everyday-makers who use performative politics to demonstrate their political missions here and now. But in order to make the social movement global they need cosmopolitan resources to be able to use the social media tools and work globally. Third, the study reflects upon the difficulties of reaching those actors who lack cosmopolitan resources, either everyday-makers or expert citizens. The go-along method and the use of the interpreters are shown as ways to reach these young people s political missions. Fourth, the research underlines the importance of contact zones (i.e. spaces or situations where the aforementioned orientations and their differences temporarily disappear or weaken) for deeper democracy and for boosted dialogue between different kinds of participants. Keywords: political participation, young people, multi-sited ethnography, youth research, political sociology, development studies, performative social science

Factors Facilitating Successful Educational Innovation with ICT in Schools

[EN]This paper proposes an approach to the concept of ICT-based innovation in schools, from the perspective of the factors that facilitate the innovative use of ICT. To this end, a scale has been developed and validated to identify these factors through the participation of 195 teachers from 16 schools considered by the Basque educational authorities as innovators in ICT. The results obtained attest to the validity and reliability of both the scale and the 5 key factors that influence innovation in technology-based teaching. This factor-based structure enables a holistic view of ICT innovation in schools across 3 key areas: school context, teachers and the education authorities.

The development of the South Carolina Coastal Information Network and portal site: Bringing training opportunities and educational resources to coastal community officials and the public

The South Carolina Coastal Information Network (SCCIN) emerged as a result of a number of coastal outreach institutions working in partnership to enhance coordination of the coastal community outreach efforts in South Carolina. This organized effort, led by the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and its Extension Program, includes partners from federal and state agencies, regional government agencies, and private organizations seeking to coordinate and/or jointly deliver outreach programs that target coastal community constituents. The Network was officially formed in 2006 with the original intention of fostering intra-and inter- agency communication, coordination, and cooperation. Network partners include the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control – Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and Bureau of Water, S.C. Department of Natural Resources – ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve, North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service and Carolina Clear, Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments, Urban Land Institute of South Carolina, S.C. Department of Archives and History, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Coastal Services Center and Hollings Marine Laboratory, Michaux Conservancy, Ashley-Cooper Stormwater Education Consortium, the Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium, the S.C. Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Lowcountry Council of Governments. (PDF contains 3 pages)

Tornar-se aluno: identidade e pertencimento um estudo etnográfico

Os processos de tornar-se aluno, mediados pelas identidades e pertencimentos, é o objeto desse estudo. O desenvolvimento desse estudo voltou-se para compreender esses processos e melhor informar, principalmente, aos que dela participam na construção de espaços e saberes que privilegiem o sujeito aluno e, possivelmente, redimensionar o papel da escola e dos professores no atual contexto sócio-educacional brasileiro. A partir dos aspectos teórico-epistemológicos, bem como dos dados metodológico-empíricos pretende-se propor uma teoria sobre o tornar-se aluno baseada no paradigma dialético de construção do conhecimento. Buscou-se compreender o cenário da escola como um espaço de inclusão que conflita com as práticas de interação socioculturais de sala de aula pela utilização de normas e ideologias distantes das propostas das políticas de uma escola inclusiva. Através da abordagem etnográfica de pesquisa objetivou-se estudar, analisar a natureza dos processos de tornar-se aluno, descrita por três grupos de participantes da pesquisa, em diferentes momentos de transição de suas vidas acadêmicas (educação infantil, ensinos fundamental e superior). Considera-se que a etnografia na educação tem um potencial dialético e sócio-interativo para explicar a perspectiva do aluno e outros sujeitos da escola sobre a escolarização e os processos de tornar-se aluno. Nesse sentido, buscou-se identificar e descrever as características das diferentes etapas do processo de escolarização a partir da vivência das práticas educacionais pelos alunos e das relações e interações dos atores escolares intermediadas pelo deveres, fazeres e saberes observados na ação pedagógica em sala de aula. Procurou-se, ainda, entender e explicitar o papel da memória na construção individual e coletiva dos alunos sobre o tornar-se aluno para o desenvolvimento acadêmico e profissional. Nesse sentido, pretende-se, com a apresentação dos resultados desse estudo, contribuir para ampliar o entendimento sobre como o aluno torna-se aluno.

Isabel na escola: desafios e perspectivas para a inclusão de uma criança com síndrome de down numa classe comum

Esta tese analisa a concepção de uma professora sobre o processo ensino-aprendizagem de uma criança com Síndrome de Down incluída em uma classe comum de Educação Infantil. Também foi objeto de estudo a busca, junto à referida professora, de procedimentos favoráveis ao desenvolvimento social, afetivo e cognitivo da aluna. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, combinando um estudo de caso de cunho etnográfico com uma pesquisa-ação. Como procedimentos de coletas de dados foram utilizadas entrevistas abertas e semiestruturadas, observação participante e a autoscopia. A análise dos dados foi feita com base na análise de conteúdo, conforme proposta por Bardin (1977). Os dados obtidos, que vêm ao encontro com outros estudos, mostraram as dificuldades de implementação das políticas públicas de inclusão no âmbito do sistema educacional, em geral, e especificamente no caso da escola foco. O processo de inclusão torna-se complexo em virtude de variáveis como: despreparo dos professores em lidar com alunos com deficiência, ausência de conhecimento por parte de professores sobre flexibilização de estratégias de ensino aprendizagem e de organização escolar que não levam em conta a diversidade do alunado. Vimos que a presença da aluna na classe não garantia sua participação nas atividades e que seu processo de escolarização era dificultado pela falta de conhecimentos da professora sobre o desenvolvimento de sujeitos com deficiência intelectual e práticas pedagógicas alternativas. A partir da pesquisa-ação, constatamos mudanças positivas por parte da menina com relação ao desenvolvimento social e afetivo e que a professora, mesmo diante de limitações pedagógicas, contribuiu para esses avanços. Os dados revelaram que os conhecimentos pedagógicos que a professora demonstrava ter, com base nas atividades propostas para os alunos, estavam baseados no ensino tradicional, com uma concepção de educação infantil voltada para a prontidão para a alfabetização, evidenciando uma dificuldade em desenvolver o trabalho pedagógico numa perspectiva sócio-histórica.

Cibercultura, Juventude e Alteridade: aprendendo-ensinando com o outro no Facebook

As dinâmicas comunicacionais da cibercultura em sua fase atual são possíveis devido à revolução do processo de digitalização, que fez com que imagem, vídeo e som pudessem ser produzidos e compartilhados em/na rede, e pela possibilidade de todo e qualquer internauta ser emissor e receptor em potencial de informação. Diante disso, a pesquisa se dedicou a investigar a relação de jovens usuários do software social Facebook com os saberes que circulam na referida interface. Para interpretar os dados construídos com os sujeitos da pesquisa busquei auxílio nas contribuições de autores de diversas áreas do conhecimento, principalmente do campo da comunicação. A abordagem da etnografia virtual (ou netnografia) também forneceu aporte teórico-metodológico imprescindível ao estudo. As considerações finais sistematizam os achados do estudo que ressaltam a relevância da dinâmica cibercultural do Facebook na constituição de processos de ensino-aprendizagem interativos e co-autorais que colocam em xeque as práticas educativas individuais e autorais próprias da cultura tipográfica. Isso proporcionou refletir sobre a criação de metodologias de ensino baseadas numa perspectiva alteritária, considerando as dinâmicas da interação e da colaboração, próprias da cibercultura.