Service guarantees: A strategic mechanism to minimise customers' perceived risk in service organisations

Service offerings are largely intangible in nature. Customers are thus unable to assess the purchase outcome prior to experience, rendering the risk of possible customer dissatisfaction very high. It is argued that the concept of service guarantees proposed by services management theory can be effectively utilised to reduce the perceived risk of dissatisfaction for the customer in service organisations. Additionally, it is suggested that service guarantees force management to undertake activities which elevate the superiority of the organisation in the eyes of the customer and, thus, the opportunity to transform one-time customers into loyal ones. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to illustrate how customers’ behavioural intentions can be influenced by the use of a service guarantee; and second, to outline a systematic process that can help service business managers to develop and implement an effective service guarantee. This research highlights the numerous benefits available to service organisations by utilising the service guarantee as a strategic tool. Some of the important management implications are also outlined.

Service quality and consumers' experience: Towards an interpretive approach

As marketers and researchers we understand quality from the consumer's perspective, and throughout contemporary service quality literature there is an emphasis on what the consumer is looking for, or at least that is the intention. Through examining the underlying assumptions of dominant service quality theories, an implicit dualistic ontology is highlighted (where subject and object are considered independent) and argued to effectively negate the said necessary consumer orientation. This fundamental assumption is discussed, as are the implications, following a critical review of dominant service quality models. Consequently, we propose an alternative approach to service quality research that aims towards a more genuine understanding of the consumer's perspective on quality experienced within a service context. Essentially, contemporary service quality research is suggested to be limited in its inherent third-person perspective and the interpretive, specifically phenomenographic, approach put forward here is suggested as a means of achieving a first-person perspective on service quality.

Combining the analyses of introgressive hybridisation and linkage mapping to investigate the genetic architecture of population divergence in the lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis, Mitchill)

Adaptation and reproductive isolation, the engines of biological diversity, are still elusive when discussing the genetic bases of speciation. Namely, the number of genes and magnitude of selection acting positively or negatively on genomic traits implicated in speciation is contentious. Here, we describe the first steps of an ongoing research program aimed at understanding the genetic bases of population divergence and reproductive isolation in the lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis). A preliminary linkage map originating from a hybrid cross between dwarf and normal ecotypes is presented, whereby some of the segregating AFLP markers were found to be conserved among natural populations. Maximum-likelihood was used to estimate hybrid indices from non-diagnostic markers at 998 AFLP loci. This allowed identification of the most likely candidate loci that have been under the influence of selection during the natural hybridisation of whitefish originating from different glacial races. As some of these loci could be identified on the linkage map, the possibility that selection of traits in natural populations may eventually be correlated to specific chromosomal regions was demonstrated. The future prospects and potential of these approaches to elucidate the genetic bases of adaptation and reproductive isolation among sympatric ecotypes of lake whitefish is discussed.

Expert system application on preliminary design of water retaining structures

Design of liquid retaining structures involves many decisions to be made by the designer based on rules of thumb, heuristics, judgment, code of practice and previous experience. Various design parameters to be chosen include configuration, material, loading, etc. A novice engineer may face many difficulties in the design process. Recent developments in artificial intelligence and emerging field of knowledge-based system (KBS) have made widespread applications in different fields. However, no attempt has been made to apply this intelligent system to the design of liquid retaining structures. The objective of this study is, thus, to develop a KBS that has the ability to assist engineers in the preliminary design of liquid retaining structures. Moreover, it can provide expert advice to the user in selection of design criteria, design parameters and optimum configuration based on minimum cost. The development of a prototype KBS for the design of liquid retaining structures (LIQUID), using blackboard architecture with hybrid knowledge representation techniques including production rule system and object-oriented approach, is presented in this paper. An expert system shell, Visual Rule Studio, is employed to facilitate the development of this prototype system. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Simulation of insect movement with respect to plant architecture and morphogenesis

Developments in computer and three dimensional (3D) digitiser technologies have made it possible to keep track of the broad range of data required to simulate an insect moving around or over the highly heterogeneous habitat of a plant's surface. Properties of plant parts vary within a complex canopy architecture, and insect damage can induce further changes that affect an animal's movements, development and likelihood of survival. Models of plant architectural development based on Lindenmayer systems (L-systems) serve as dynamic platforms for simulation of insect movement, providing ail explicit model of the developing 3D structure of a plant as well as allowing physiological processes associated with plant growth and responses to damage to be described and Simulated. Simple examples of the use of the L-system formalism to model insect movement, operating Lit different spatial scales-from insects foraging on an individual plant to insects flying around plants in a field-are presented. Such models can be used to explore questions about the consequences of changes in environmental architecture and configuration on host finding, exploitation and its population consequences. In effect this model is a 'virtual ecosystem' laboratory to address local as well as landscape-level questions pertinent to plant-insect interactions, taking plant architecture into account. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The work of fracture in uniaxial and biaxial oriented unplasticised polyvinylchloride pipes

In oriented unplasticised polyvinylchloride (uPVC) pipes, cracks propagate tangentially rather than through the wall as in conventional pipe. Notched impact, a modified peel test and the specific work of fracture approach have been used to measure fracture toughness of a conventionally extruded, a uniaxially oriented and a biaxially oriented uPVC pipe in different directions. The different failure mode for the oriented pipes was found to result from an order of magnitude increase in the fracture toughness for cracks propagating perpendicular to the orientation direction. Differences in the fracture toughness between the oriented pipes were also related to their molecular orientation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Polarised infrared and differential scanning calorimetry studies on oriented vinyl pipe materials

The molecular orientation in a conventionally extruded PVC pipe, a uniaxially oriented PVC pipe and a biaxially oriented PVC pipe has been studied via Infrared dichroism. The degree of order or crystallinity has also been studied by Differential Scanning Calorimetry and also via Infrared Spectroscopy. The fundamental structural difference between the conventional and oriented pipes was that polymer chains were preferentially aligning in the hoop direction for oriented pipes whereas they were fairly isotropic in the conventional pipe with a slight preferential alignment in the axial direction. Analysis of the C-Cl stretching mode indicated that the uniaxially oriented pipe had much higher alignment of the C-Cl bond in the axial direction than the biaxial pipe, which correlates with higher fracture toughness for circumferential cracking in the biaxial pipe. Both DSC and Infrared spectroscopy detected little change in the crystallinity or order in the oriented pipes compared to the conventionally extruded pipes. (C) 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

In the vernacular: On the architecture of the National Museum of Australia

This Article does not have an abstract.