‘Never Let Me Down Again’1: Loyal customer attitudes towards ticket distribution channels for live music events: a netnographic exploration of the US leg of the Depeche Mode 2005–2006 World Tour

Ticket distribution channels for live music events have been revolutionised through the increased take-up of internet technologies, and the music supply-chain has evolved into a multi-channel value network. The assumption that this creates increased consumer autonomy and improved service quality is explored here through a case-study of the ticket pre-sale for the US leg of the Depeche Mode 2005–06 World Tour, which utilises an innovative virtual channel strategy, promoted as a service to loyal fans. A multi-method analysis, adopting Kozinets' (2002) Kozinets, R. V. 2002. The field behind the screen: using netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39: 61–72. [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®] netnography methodology, is employed to map responses of the band's serious fan base on an internet message board (IMB) throughout the tour pre-sale. The analysis focuses on concerns of pricing, ethics, scope of the offer, use of technology, service quality and perceived brand performance fit of channel partners. Findings indicate that fans behaviour is unpredictable in response to channel partners' performance, and that such offers need careful management to avoid alienation of loyal consumers.

The effectiveness of corporate Web in small and médiumsized business: an analysis of Web Usability

Internet and the Web have changed the way that companies communicate with their publics, improving relations between them. Also providing substantial benefits for organizations. This has led to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop corporate sites to establish relationships with their audiences. This paper, applying the methodology of content analysis, analyzes the main factors and tools that make the Websites usable and intuitive sites that promote better relations between SMEs and their audiences. Also, it has developed an index to measure the effectiveness of Webs from the perspective of usability. The results indicate that the Websites have, in general, appropriate levels of usability.

Evaluación de la calidad de un servicio de voluntariado en oncología: un Análisis Importancia-Valoración (IPA)

Objective: Using an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), this paper examined a Radiotherapy and Oncological Patient and Non-patient perceived importance and performance of ten Humanization Volunteer Program selection factors in the General Hospital in Spain.Methods: The authors identified a list of seven items from the Health-marketing literature reviews, and each item was rated using a 5-point Likert scale. Responses were obtained of 148 usable interviews.Results: The importance-performance patient grid was corrected with literature recommendations and, in the patient sample, shows three items fall in the “Keep up the good work” quadrant, four items fall into the “Low priority” quadrant, zero items fall into the “Possible overkill” quadrant, and no items fall in the “Concentrate here” quadrant. Non-patient (n=80) factors means shows statistical differences with patient (n=68) means in catering (t=-2.38; df.=146; p<0.05), and information (t=2.16; df146; p<0,05).Conclusions: The results are useful in identifying areas for strategic focus to help Health Services managers develop humanization programs with volunteer workers and different program users. Implication to volunteer programs managers and researchers were discussed.

Utveckling av lojalitetsprogram - individanpassade erbjudanden : Marknadsföring genom CRM-strategier

Den ökade konkurrenssituationen mellan företag är ett resultat på att handeln har globaliserats. Konsumenter är idag mer medvetna om vad företag har att erbjuda, och det är lätt att välja alternativa företag om ett specifikt företag inte lever upp till konsumentens förväntningar. Detta ställer krav på att företag ständigt måste arbeta med och utveckla sina strategier för att skapa konkurrensfördelar. Idag arbetar många företag med lojalitetsprogram som är ett typexempel på en CRM-strategi. CRM-strategier och lojalitetsprogram syftar till att göra konsumenten mer lojal, för att möjliggöra att konsumenten skall välja att göra återupprepande och mer frekventa köp. Lojalitetsprogrammen måste dock uppdateras och förändras, för att ständigt kunna vara konkurrenskraftiga. Företag arbetar därmed för att skapa ett mervärde, det vill säga erbjuda en servicelösning som är utöver vad konsumenten förväntar sig att få från företag. Kundlojalitet kan utvecklas genom att företag skapar långsiktiga relationer med konsumenterna, och en relation mellan parterna kan utvecklas genom att företag lyssnar på konsumenterna, för att få reda på dess behov och önskemål. Forskning indikerar att individanpassade erbjudanden kan bidra till att konsumenterna än mer tenderar att bli lojala, detta eftersom individanpassade erbjudanden är erbjudanden som baseras på konsumentens unika köpbeteende, vilket möjliggör för träffsäkerhet och relevans. Syftet med denna studie är att mäta konsumenters efterfrågan på individanpassade erbjudanden, för att undersöka om konsumenterna faktiskt efterfrågar och kommer ta till sig dessa erbjudanden. Frågeställningarna är; på vilket sätt kan efterfrågan på individanpassade erbjudanden bidra till ett företags konkurrensfördelar samt på vilket sätt skiljer sig efterfrågan på individanpassade erbjudanden beroende på butikernas geografiska placering. Studien är baserad på en kvantitativ surveyundersökning riktad till konsumenter, med en kvalitativ semi-strukturerad intervju för att erhålla viktig information vid utformandet av frågeformuläret. Resultatet för studien visade att konsumenter värdesätter att få individanpassade erbjudanden, och att dessa erbjudanden kan bidra till ett företags konkurrensfördelar eftersom erbjudandena möjliggör att servicekvaliteten kan öka vilket innebär att dessa erbjudanden kan upplevas ha ett mervärde. I denna studie återfanns dock inte några skillnader på efterfrågan av individanpassade erbjudanden beroende på butikernas geografiska placering.

Cultura organizacional e qualidade dos serviços turísticos :um estudo no setor de restaurantes

The present study seeks to describe the features and peculiarities of the relationship between organizational culture and the quality of tourism services, specifically in the restaurant sector, attempting to contribute toward maintaining the tourism sector of the city of Natal/RN. Thus, a descriptive and correlational study, with qualitative and quantitative approaches, of thirty-seven restaurants that are located in areas that compose the tourism corridor of Natal was undertaken. To collect the quantitative dada, the Organizational Culture Evaluation instrument of Cameron and Quinn (2006) was applied and the SERVPERF instrument of Cronin and Taylor (1992) was used to measure the quality of the services. The results suggest that the Clan and Innovation Cultures are associated with better levels of quality of services than those of the Market and Hierarchy Cultures. The relationships that were identified in this study are consistent with results found in other studies and the information reported here can serve as a basis for managers of the restaurant sector to reach excellence in their services, satisfying their customers and contributing to maintaining the tourism sector

Essays on Omnichannel Sale

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Gerenciamento de impressões e qualidade dos serviços em hotéis da Paraíba

The present study has got as its aim to show how the impressions management is being used by the hotels in Paraiba State. For that, the dramma or role play perspective has been adopted as a model for service management. From the theater metaphor, the physical environment and its components can be seen as a scenery of the service show. We conduct the reader to notice the importance of the consummer about the service quality demand and its influence on his satisfaction. A methodology with exploring and qualifying nature has been adopted by using the analyses of content technique in interviews applied to hotel managers lebeled as having 4 and 5 stars in the State, trying to check how impression management takes place, identifying impression management tools used in relation to the physical evidences and to contacting people, as well as checking managers views in the survey about the use of impression management for client satisfaction make. The information revealed that managers, maybe for being unaware about impression management theory, haven t considered neither the physical evidences yet, nor contacting people as marketing tools. About the physical evidences, we could see that hotels take actions in a pulverized way referring to environment decoration and colors, however there isn t a global usage of physical evidences to highlight the service. Contacting people by their turn, receive better importance and attention. It was possible to make sure that managers are aware about the influence of the employee over the attendance quality. This way, we may come into a conclusion that impression management at Paraiba hotels has been under used, as long as managers seem to be, most times, turned to actions related to contacting people, not having realized the planning importance and national-wide use of service scenery in a genaral way yet

Contribution à la planification tactique et opérationnelle du transport forestier

Cette thèse est une contribution à la modélisation, la planification et l’optimisation du transport pour l’approvisionnement en bois de forêt des industries de première transformation. Dans ce domaine, les aléas climatiques (mise au sol des bois par les tempêtes), sanitaires (attaques bactériologiques et fongiques des bois) et commerciaux (variabilité et exigence croissante des marchés) poussent les divers acteurs du secteur (entrepreneurs et exploitants forestiers, transporteurs) à revoir l’organisation de la filière logistique d’approvisionnement, afin d’améliorer la qualité de service (adéquation offre-demande) et de diminuer les coûts. L’objectif principal de cette thèse était de proposer un modèle de pilotage améliorant la performance du transport forestier, en respectant les contraintes et les pratiques du secteur. Les résultats établissent une démarche de planification hiérarchique des activités de transport à deux niveaux de décision, tactique et opérationnel. Au niveau tactique, une optimisation multi-périodes permet de répondre aux commandes en minimisant l’activité globale de transport, sous contrainte de capacité agrégée des moyens de transport accessibles. Ce niveau permet de mettre en œuvre des politiques de lissage de charge et d’organisation de sous-traitance ou de partenariats entre acteurs de transport. Au niveau opérationnel, les plans tactiques alloués à chaque transporteur sont désagrégés, pour permettre une optimisation des tournées des flottes, sous contrainte des capacités physiques de ces flottes. Les modèles d’optimisation de chaque niveau sont formalisés en programmation linéaire mixte avec variables binaires. L’applicabilité des modèles a été testée en utilisant un jeu de données industrielles en région Aquitaine et a montré des améliorations significatives d’exploitation des capacités de transport par rapport aux pratiques actuelles. Les modèles de décision ont été conçus pour s’adapter à tout contexte organisationnel, partenarial ou non : la production du plan tactique possède un caractère générique sans présomption de l’organisation, celle-ci étant prise en compte, dans un deuxième temps, au niveau de l’optimisation opérationnelle du plan de transport de chaque acteur.

Qualidade percebida do autosserviço online: validação da escala e-SELFQUAL no contexto brasileiro

Diante de um mercado virtual mais competitivo, impulsionado pelo crescimento das compras online e pelo aumento do número de varejistas nessa modalidade, mensurações para avaliar a qualidade do serviço online tornam-se importantes, sobretudo pela identificação de relação positiva entre a qualidade do serviço e a performance do serviço. Nesse sentido, Ding, Hu e Sheng (2011) propuseram uma medida consistente sobre a qualidade percebida do serviço no comércio eletrônico, sob a perspectiva do autosserviço: e-SELFQUAL. Este artigo apresenta resultados da replicação da e-SELFQUAL no contexto brasileiro. Duas coletas de dados foram realizadas, na primeira, para uma amostra final de 106 estudantes, observou-se uma inadequação em um constructo da escala, e uma nova tradução foi proposta. Uma segunda coleta foi aplicada a uma amostra de 175 pessoas. A confiabilidade e a validade (convergente e discriminante) da escala foram atestadas, mantendo os itens originais do instrumento. Desse modo, os resultados indicam possível uso da e-SELFQUAL para mensurar a qualidade do autosserviço online no Brasil.

The role of emotions in value creation for families in pediatric health care

The purpose of this study was to analyze emotions related to a child’s critical illness from the perspective of the family and discuss the link those emotions might form with value creation. High quality service is of paramount importance in hospital care, especially when a child is diagnosed with critical illness. Through the analysis of patient family emotions and their triggers, the study was aiming to deepen the understanding of value creation for customer. Therefore, the research sought to find answers to the following three sub-questions: 1. What are the emotions experienced? 2. What triggers them? 3. How are the emotions linked to amelioration or aggravation of value for patient and family? The theoretical background of this research is built on two core concepts: emotions and value creation. As both concepts are wide and multifaceted, the research concentrates on viewing emotions from the applicable cognitive angle, identifying and categorizing emotions in a general level. Value creation is studied from the service perspective, discussing the possible relations between emotions and value creation. Moreover, the suitability of views regarding customer value co-creation to health care encounters is analyzed. Qualitative approach was selected as the most appropriate methodology for conducting the empirical research. The empirical data was collected from public blogs, for which a total of 18 blogs were reviewed. Five blogs were selected for the analysis, which had the intent of identifying the emotions experienced by patient families and deepening the knowledge of their role in value creation during health care service encounters. The empirical study of this research discovered a wide range of positive and negative emotions, which denotes that a severe life situation does not prevent the feeling of positive emotions. Furthermore, by combining the empirical findings to the theoretical background, this study concludes that recognizing and treating the patient family as a partner and value creator is essential. The high quality technical aspect of care is vital, but it is not the sole attribute for service quality, as the interpersonal communication plays a large role in the customer’s overall assessment of the health care performance. The patients and their families largely evaluate the service encounter based on their perceptions, thus emotions play a significant role. Depending on the service experience, value maybe created or destructed. Hence, this study posits emotion at the core of the service encounter, indicating towards the importance of active assessment of customer perceptions and the recognition of the emotional states

Reserva de recursos MSRP para o switch de tempo-real HaRTES

Os mecanismos e técnicas do domínio de Tempo-Real são utilizados quando existe a necessidade de um sistema, seja este um sistema embutido ou de grandes dimensões, possuir determinadas características que assegurem a qualidade de serviço do sistema. Os Sistemas de Tempo-Real definem-se assim como sistemas que possuem restrições temporais rigorosas, que necessitam de apresentar altos níveis de fiabilidade de forma a garantir em todas as instâncias o funcionamento atempado do sistema. Devido à crescente complexidade dos sistemas embutidos, empregam-se frequentemente arquiteturas distribuídas, onde cada módulo é normalmente responsável por uma única função. Nestes casos existe a necessidade de haver um meio de comunicação entre estes, de forma a poderem comunicar entre si e cumprir a funcionalidade desejadas. Devido à sua elevada capacidade e baixo custo a tecnologia Ethernet tem vindo a ser alvo de estudo, com o objetivo de a tornar num meio de comunicação com a qualidade de serviço característica dos sistemas de tempo-real. Como resposta a esta necessidade surgiu na Universidade de Aveiro, o Switch HaRTES, o qual possui a capacidade de gerir os seus recursos dinamicamente, de modo a fornecer à rede onde é aplicado garantias de Tempo-Real. No entanto, para uma arquitetura de rede ser capaz de fornecer aos seus nós garantias de qualidade serviço, é necessário que exista uma especificação do fluxo, um correto encaminhamento de tráfego, reserva de recursos, controlo de admissão e um escalonamento de pacotes. Infelizmente, o Switch HaRTES apesar de possuir todas estas características, não suporta protocolos standards. Neste documento é apresentado então o trabalho que foi desenvolvido para a integração do protocolo SRP no Switch HaRTES.

Creating and measuring customer value in digital businesses

Most economic transactions nowadays are due to the effective exchange of information in which digital resources play a huge role. New actors are coming into existence all the time, so organizations are facing difficulties in keeping their current customers and attracting new customer segments and markets. Companies are trying to find the key to their success and creating superior customer value seems to be one solution. Digital technologies can be used to deliver value to customers in ways that extend customers’ normal conscious experiences in the context of time and space. By creating customer value, companies can gain the increased loyalty of existing customers and better ways to serve new customers effectively. Based on these assumptions, the objective of this study was to design a framework to enable organizations to create customer value in digital business. The research was carried out as a literature review and an empirical study, which consisted of a web-based survey and semi-structured interviews. The data from the empirical study was analyzed as mixed research with qualitative and quantitative methods. These methods were used since the object of the study was to gain deeper understanding about an existing phenomena. Therefore, the study used statistical procedures and value creation is described as a phenomenon. The framework was designed first based on the literature and updated based on the findings from the empirical study. As a result, relationship, understanding the customer, focusing on the core product or service, the product or service quality, incremental innovations, service range, corporate identity, and networks were chosen as the top elements of customer value creation. Measures for these elements were identified. With the measures, companies can manage the elements in value creation when dealing with present and future customers and also manage the operations of the company. In conclusion, creating customer value requires understanding the customer and a lot of information sharing, which can be eased by digital resources. Understanding the customer helps to produce products and services that fulfill customers’ needs and desires. This could result in increased sales and make it easier to establish efficient processes.

LABOUR MARKET AND TRAINING LIBRARIANS

Forty years ago began in Medellin, Colombia the officers of study on the training of librarians and the improvement of library service in Latin America. It was the first time was a regional effort of this nature.Reviewing the documents we see that concern for the subsequent employment of graduates are handled in a "serene". The library moved into a more stable labor market and institutionally defined. The challenges facing those who were far from threatening the stability of employment, the very meaning of the profession and survival. The race was expanding, had begun to trickle out of the national libraries of some countries to join full of expectations to the academic university.

Satisfação dos utentes de uma unidade de cirurgia de ambulatório de um hospital central : contributo para melhor cuidar

Enquadramento: O carácter inovador da Cirurgia de Ambulatório reside no seu modelo organizativo específico, centrado no doente, que o envolve num circuito independente do de internamento, procurando-se ganhos em eficiência e em qualidade e obtendo-se níveis de maior humanização e satisfação dos utentes e seus familiares. Objetivos: Analisar de que forma as variáveis sociodemográficos influenciam a qualidade percebida dos utentes de uma Unidade de Cirurgia de Ambulatório de um Hospitalar Central; verificar se existem efeitos significativos das variáveis circunstanciais na qualidade percebida dos utentes de uma Unidade de Cirurgia de Ambulatório de um Hospitalar Central; verificar a existência de efeitos significativos das variáveis sociofamiliares na qualidade percebida nos utentes. Métodos: Estudo quantitativo, com corte transversal, descritivo e correlacional; enquadra-se num estudo descritivo analítico-correlacional porque o mesmo tem por objetivo explorar as relações entre variáveis e descrevê-las. Os dados foram colhidos junto dos utentes tendo como base escalas e questionários. A amostra é não probabilística por conveniência, constituída por 140 utentes de uma Unidade de Cirurgia de Ambulatório de um Hospitalar Central, na maioria, do sexo masculino (60,7%), com uma idade mínima de 19 anos e uma máxima de 94 anos, ao que corresponde uma idade média de 58,01 (±19.26 anos). Foi aplicado um Questionário de caracterização sociodemográfica e sociofamiliar, incluindo-se o Questionário (Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey) MOS-SSS (Fachado et al., 2007) e o Questionário Service Quality (SERVQUAL) (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Resultados: Os utentes do sexo feminino manifestam mais satisfação em relação à UCA (cortesia/empatia p=0.000; compreensão do utente p=0.000; fiabilidade p=0.005; acessibilidade p=0.010; qualidade global p=0.001; os utentes idosos obtiveram valores mais elevados em quase todas as dimensões e na qualidade global (aspetos físicos p=0.006); os participantes com o ensino básico manifestaram mais satisfação (fiabilidade p<0,016); os que possuem um rendimento familiar até 1000€ apresentaram maior nível de satisfação (cortesia/empatia p=0,033); os utentes que não se deslocam em meio de transporte próprio atribuem mais qualidade à UCA (fiabilidade p=0,028); aqueles cuja residência está situada a uma distância superior a 15 km do hospital revelam índices mais elevados de qualidade (cortesia/simpatia p=0.037; compreensão do utente p=0.044; fiabilidade p=0.022; acessibilidade p=0.001; qualidade global p=0.013); os participantes cuja distância de casa ao centro de saúde é superior a 9 km revelam mais satisfação (fiabilidade p=0.038); os utentes com tempos de espera para a cirurgia entre 6-12 meses atribuem mais qualidade à UCA (cortesia/empatia p=0.000; compreensão do utente p=0.011; fiabilidade p=0.007; acessibilidade p=0.001; qualidade global p=0.001). Conclusão: A maioria dos utentes atribui qualidade à UCA, tendo em conta a cortesia/empatia, a compreensão do utente, fiabilidade, acessibilidade e aspetos físicos, pode afirmar-se que a referida Unidade adequa os serviços prestados às suas necessidades, garantindo, deste modo, a satisfação dos utentes. Palavras-chave: Cirurgia de Ambulatório; Satisfação dos utentes; Qualidade; Atendimento.

Cultura organizacional e qualidade dos serviços turísticos :um estudo no setor de restaurantes

The present study seeks to describe the features and peculiarities of the relationship between organizational culture and the quality of tourism services, specifically in the restaurant sector, attempting to contribute toward maintaining the tourism sector of the city of Natal/RN. Thus, a descriptive and correlational study, with qualitative and quantitative approaches, of thirty-seven restaurants that are located in areas that compose the tourism corridor of Natal was undertaken. To collect the quantitative dada, the Organizational Culture Evaluation instrument of Cameron and Quinn (2006) was applied and the SERVPERF instrument of Cronin and Taylor (1992) was used to measure the quality of the services. The results suggest that the Clan and Innovation Cultures are associated with better levels of quality of services than those of the Market and Hierarchy Cultures. The relationships that were identified in this study are consistent with results found in other studies and the information reported here can serve as a basis for managers of the restaurant sector to reach excellence in their services, satisfying their customers and contributing to maintaining the tourism sector