Customer satisfaction data utilization: identifying value drivers and information use practices

The objective of this master’s thesis was twofold: first to examine the concept of customer value and its drivers and second to identify information use practices. The first part of the study represents explorative research that was carried out by examining a case company’s customer satisfaction data that was used to identify sales and technical customer service related value drivers on a detailed attribute level. This was followed by an examination of whether these attributes had been commented on in a positive or a negative light and what were the reasons why the case company had received higher or lower ratings than its competitor. As a result a classification of different sales and technical customer service related attributes was created. The results indicated that the case company has performed well, but that the results varied on the company’s business segment level. The case company’s staff, service and the benefits from a long-lasting relationship came up in a positive light whereas attitude, flexibility and reaction time came up in a negative light. The reasons for a higher or lower score in comparison to competitor varied. The results indicated that a customer’s satisfaction with the company’s performance did not always mean that the company was outperforming the competition. The second part of the study focused on customer satisfaction information use from the viewpoints of information access, dissemination and reaction. The study was conducted by running an internal survey among the case company’s staff. The results showed that information use practices varied across the company and some units or teams had taken a more proactive approach to the information use than others.

Optimizing Customer Energy Invoice Calculation with Parallel Computation

Diplomityön tarkoituksena on optimoida asiakkaiden sähkölaskun laskeminen hajautetun laskennan avulla. Älykkäiden etäluettavien energiamittareiden tullessa jokaiseen kotitalouteen, energiayhtiöt velvoitetaan laskemaan asiakkaiden sähkölaskut tuntiperusteiseen mittaustietoon perustuen. Kasvava tiedonmäärä lisää myös tarvittavien laskutehtävien määrää. Työssä arvioidaan vaihtoehtoja hajautetun laskennan toteuttamiseksi ja luodaan tarkempi katsaus pilvilaskennan mahdollisuuksiin. Lisäksi ajettiin simulaatioita, joiden avulla arvioitiin rinnakkaislaskennan ja peräkkäislaskennan eroja. Sähkölaskujen oikeinlaskemisen tueksi kehitettiin mittauspuu-algoritmi.

Information integration and its impacts on logistics performance - Using information technology and systems to facilitate information integration

Fast changing environment sets pressure on firms to share large amount of information with their customers and suppliers. The terms information integration and information sharing are essential for facilitating a smooth flow of information throughout the supply chain, and the terms are used interchangeably in research literature. By integrating and sharing information, firms want to improve their logistics performance. Firms share information with their suppliers and customers by using traditional communication methods (telephone, fax, Email, written and face-to-face contacts) and by using advanced or modern communication methods such as electronic data interchange (EDI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), web-based procurement systems, electronic trading systems and web portals. Adopting new ways of using IT is one important resource for staying competitive on the rapidly changing market (Saeed et al. 2005, 387), and an information system that provides people the information they need for performing their work, will support company performance (Boddy et al. 2005, 26). The purpose of this research has been to test and understand the relationship between information integration with key suppliers and/or customers and a firm’s logistics performance, especially when information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) are used for integrating information. Quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used to perform the research. Special attention has been paid to the scope, level and direction of information integration (Van Donk & van der Vaart 2005a). In addition, the four elements of integration (Jahre & Fabbe-Costes 2008) are closely tied to the frame of reference. The elements are integration of flows, integration of processes and activities, integration of information technologies and systems and integration of actors. The study found that information integration has a low positive relationship to operational performance and a medium positive relationship to strategic performance. The potential performance improvements found in this study vary from efficiency, delivery and quality improvements (operational) to profit, profitability or customer satisfaction improvements (strategic). The results indicate that although information integration has an impact on a firm’s logistics performance, all performance improvements have not been achieved. This study also found that the use of IT and IS have a mediocre positive relationship to information integration. Almost all case companies agreed on that the use of IT and IS could facilitate information integration and improve their logistics performance. The case companies felt that an implementation of a web portal or a data bank would benefit them - enhance their performance and increase information integration.

Practical Framework for Monitoring the Performance of Agile IT Projects in an Output-Based Outsourcing Context

Over the past decade, organizations worldwide have begun to widely adopt agile software development practices, which offer greater flexibility to frequently changing business requirements, better cost effectiveness due to minimization of waste, faster time-to-market, and closer collaboration between business and IT. At the same time, IT services are continuing to be increasingly outsourced to third parties providing the organizations with the ability to focus on their core capabilities as well as to take advantage of better demand scalability, access to specialized skills, and cost benefits. An output-based pricing model, where the customers pay directly for the functionality that was delivered rather than the effort spent, is quickly becoming a new trend in IT outsourcing allowing to transfer the risk away from the customer while at the same time offering much better incentives for the supplier to optimize processes and improve efficiency, and consequently producing a true win-win outcome. Despite the widespread adoption of both agile practices and output-based outsourcing, there is little formal research available on how the two can be effectively combined in practice. Moreover, little practical guidance exists on how companies can measure the performance of their agile projects, which are being delivered in an output-based outsourced environment. This research attempted to shed light on this issue by developing a practical project monitoring framework which may be readily applied by organizations to monitor the performance of agile projects in an output-based outsourcing context, thus taking advantage of the combined benefits of such an arrangement Modified from action research approach, this research was divided into two cycles, each consisting of the Identification, Analysis, Verification, and Conclusion phases. During Cycle 1, a list of six Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was proposed and accepted by the professionals in the studied multinational organization, which formed the core of the proposed framework and answered the first research sub-question of what needs to be measured. In Cycle 2, a more in-depth analysis was provided for each of the suggested Key Performance Indicators including the techniques for capturing, calculating, and evaluating the information provided by each KPI. In the course of Cycle 2, the second research sub-question was answered, clarifying how the data for each KPI needed to be measured, interpreted, and acted upon. Consequently, after two incremental research cycles, the primary research question was answered describing the practical framework that may be used for monitoring the performance of agile IT projects delivered in an output-based outsourcing context. This framework was evaluated by the professionals within the context of the studied organization and received positive feedback across all four evaluation criteria set forth in this research, including the low overhead of data collection, high value of provided information, ease of understandability of the metric dashboard, and high generalizability of the proposed framework.

Linking supplier delivery risk to outbound delivery service performance improvement

Customer satisfaction should be the main focus for all of the parts of the business. Usually supply chain behind the business is in a key role when this focus is pursued especially in repair service business. When focusing on the materials that are needed to make repairs to equipment under service contracts, the time aspect of quality is critical. Do late deliveries from supplier have an effect on the service performance of repairs when distribution center of a centralized purchasing unit is acting as a buffer between suppliers and repair service business? And if so, how should the improvement efforts be prioritized? These are the two main questions that this thesis focuses on. Correlation and linear regression was tested between service levels of supplier and distribution center. Percentage of on-time deliveries were compared to outbound delivery service level. It was found that there is statistically significant correlation between inbound and outbound operations success. The other main question of the thesis, improvement prioritization, was answered by creating material availability based supplier classification and additional to that, by developing the decision process for the analysis of most critical suppliers. This was built on a basis of previous supplier and material classification methods.

Sustainable Development – the Key to Competitiveness CSR as an added value to Alstom’s corporate performance

Corporate social responsibility or CSR is today a widely recognized concept which is receiving in- creasing popularity extremely rapidly, especially in the business world. The pressure on companies to carry out their business practices in ethical manners, which promote the wellbeing of the environment and society, is coming from all directions and all stakeholders. Alstom, a French multinational conglomerate operating in the rail transport and energy industry, is no exception to this norm. This company, which will be used as the case example in this thesis, is being brought to bay in terms of engaging in CSR practices and practicing business with high ethics. It is surely not a negatively conceived phenomenon that CSR is being put on a pedestal – quite the opposite. Instead of corporations practicing CSR only to meet their stakeholder requirements through practicing window dressing, many corporations actually strive to benefit from the practice of corporate social business. In addition to bringing benefit to externals a corporation such as Alstom itself can benefit from being involved in CSR. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the current strategic values and the future perspectives of CSR at Alstom and moreover the added value which the practice of CSR could bring Alstom as a business. A set of perspectives from a futures studies viewpoint is looked at, with critical examination of the company’s current corporate practices as well as the CSR related studies and theories written for corporations. Through this, some solutions and practices will be suggested to Alstom in order for it to fully utilize the potential of corporate social business and the value it can bring in the most probable futures that the company is expected to face. By utilizing the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), a method mainly used in organizations to solve problematic issues in management and policy contexts, a process is developed to see what improvements could be of help in improving Alstom and its way towards involving CSR in its business practices even more than it currently does. Alstom is already deeply involved in the practicing of CSR and its vision has a strong emphasis on this popular concept of today. In order to stay in the game and to use CSR as a competitive advantage to the company, Alstom ought to embed corporate social practices even deeper in its organizational culture by using them as a tool to reduce risk and costs, increasing employee commitment and customer loyalty and to attract socially responsible investors, just to name a few. CSR as a concept is seen to have great potential in the future, an opportunity Alstom will not miss.

Customer Value Creation in Born Global Companies

The purpose of this master's thesis is to study customer value creation in born global companies. The main objective is to identify the types of value enabling customer value creation in born global companies, and to establish their relative importance. After an introduction to the born global academic literature and the customer value creation literature, the empirical part consists of a multiple case study, examining the state of customer value creation in the case companies, along with the subsequent analysis. The results of this research indicate that high-tech born global companies perceive customer value creation as a crucial function of their operations, but their value creation thinking is often one-dimensional. Technology based born globals often place high value on the product and the technology behind it, mainly striving to incorporate performance- and relationship value in their value offerings, but they're unable to utilize their opportunity creation to the fullest, and they lag behind their more established competitors that are able to diversify their value offerings.

Is more information always good? : investigating the impact of website interface features on e-retailer's sales performance

A number of frameworks have been suggested for online retailing, but still there exists little consensus among researchers and practitioners regarding the appropriate amount of information critical and essential to the improvement of customers' satisfaction and their purchase intention. Against this backdrop, this study contributes to the current practical and theoretical discussions and conversations about how information search and perceived risk theories can be applied to the management of online retailer website features. This paper examines the moderating role of website personalization in studying the relationship between information content provided on the top US retailers' websites, and customer satisfaction and purchase intention. The study also explores the role played by customer satisfaction and purchase intention in studying the relationship between information that is personalized to the needs of individual customers and online retailers' sales performance. Results indicate that the extent of information content features presented to online customers alone is not enough for companies looking to satisfy and motivate customers to purchase. However, information that is targeted to an individual customer influences customer satisfaction and purchase intention, and customer satisfaction in tum serves as a driver to the retailer's online sales performance.

Customer Recovery Controlling

Die langfristige Sicherung bestehender (profitabler) Kundenbeziehungen erweist sich für Unternehmen zunehmend als eine wichtige und zugleich immer schwieriger zu bewältigende Herausforderung. Vor dem Hintergrund hoher Kosten für die Neukundengewinnung und sinkender Kundenloyalität auf gesättigten, wettbewerbsintensiven und transparenten Märkten – verbunden mit tendenziell steigenden Abwanderungsraten – rücken die Früherkennung und Prävention von Kundenabwanderungen sowie die Kundenrückgewinnung verstärkt in den Fokus. Der Aufwand für derartige Anstrengungen muss in einem sinnvollen Verhältnis zum Ertrag stehen. Letztlich wird also für den Komplex „Kundenabwanderung“ ein ergebnisgesteuertes Gesamtsystem der Früherkennung, Prävention und Rückgewinnung benötigt. An dieser Stelle setzt das Customer Recovery Controlling an. Auf Basis des kontributionsorientierten Controllingansatzes wird ein ganzheitliches Controllingsystem für das Customer Recovery Management entwickelt. Dabei werden die führungsunterstützenden Controllingprinzipien der Entscheidungsfundierung, -reflexion und Koordinationsentlastung einschließlich zentraler Controllinginstrumente in den Gesamtzusammenhang des Customer Recovery Managementprozesses gestellt. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass mit einem professionellen Customer Recovery Controlling große Nutzenpotenziale verbunden sind, die sich auf der Customer Recovery Managementebene (z.B. verbesserte Entscheidungsqualität, höhere Präventions- bzw. Rückgewinnungsraten) wie auch auf der Ebene der Gesamtunternehmung (z.B. Sicherung bzw. Erhöhung des Kundenstammwertes) auswirken. Die Erfolgsmodellierung zählt zu den wesentlichen Aufgaben des Controlling. Diesbezüglich bedarf es eines mehrdimensionalen Controllinginstruments, das neben Ergebnisindikatoren auch Leistungstreiber berücksichtigt: die Customer Recovery Scorecard. Ihre Perspektiven – Finanz-, Kunden-, Prozess-, Potenzial- und Wettbewerbsperspektive – sichern eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung der strategisch relevanten Erfolgsfaktoren und darüber hinaus gewährleisten die Kennzahlen eine systematische Planung, Steuerung und Kontrolle des Customer Recovery Management Erfolgs. Für die Erfolgsgrößen werden kausale Abhängigkeiten in Form von Ursache-Wirkungs-Beziehungen innerhalb und zwischen den Perspektiven erfasst (Strategy Maps), wodurch gewissermaßen eine Modellierung der Wertschöpfungskette im Customer Recovery Management erfolgt. Unsere durchgeführte Studie zum Status Quo des Customer Recovery Controlling in der deutschen (groß-)unternehmerischen Dienstleistungspraxis hat gezeigt, dass der präventive Umgang mit Kundenabwanderung zukünftig an Bedeutung gewinnen wird. Obwohl die Mehrheit der befragten Unternehmen über ein organisatorisch verankertes Controlling verfügt, sind bezüglich des allgemeinen Controllingentwicklungsstandes inkl. des Instrumenteneinsatzes Defizite zu konstatieren. In Bezug auf Letzteres hat sich herausgestellt, dass rein ökonomische Aspekte eine dominante Stellung einnehmen; Finanzkennzahlen werden gegenüber den Markt-, Prozess und Potenzialkennzahlen zum einen häufiger eingesetzt und zum anderen auch in ihrer Bedeutung höher eingeschätzt. Darüber hinaus ist der Einsatz von Kennzahlensystemen im Customer Recovery Management noch nicht weit verbreitet und auch hier ist ein finanzwirtschaftlicher Fokus festzustellen. Der Erfolg von Customer Recovery Maßnahmen wird zu einem großen Ausmaß durch die Nutzung des Synergiepotenzials von Customer Recovery Management (Führung vom Markt bzw. Kunden her) und Controlling (Führung vom Erfolg her) determiniert.

Application of the european customer satisfaction index to postal services. Structural equation models versus partial least squars

Customer satisfaction and retention are key issues for organizations in today’s competitive market place. As such, much research and revenue has been invested in developing accurate ways of assessing consumer satisfaction at both the macro (national) and micro (organizational) level, facilitating comparisons in performance both within and between industries. Since the instigation of the national customer satisfaction indices (CSI), partial least squares (PLS) has been used to estimate the CSI models in preference to structural equation models (SEM) because they do not rely on strict assumptions about the data. However, this choice was based upon some misconceptions about the use of SEM’s and does not take into consideration more recent advances in SEM, including estimation methods that are robust to non-normality and missing data. In this paper, both SEM and PLS approaches were compared by evaluating perceptions of the Isle of Man Post Office Products and Customer service using a CSI format. The new robust SEM procedures were found to be advantageous over PLS. Product quality was found to be the only driver of customer satisfaction, while image and satisfaction were the only predictors of loyalty, thus arguing for the specificity of postal services

Operations strategy in perspective: the means for achieving superior performance

Manufacturing strategy has been widely studied and it is increasingly gaining attention. It has a fundamental role that is to translate the business strategy to the operations by developing the capabilities that are needed by the company in order to accomplish the desired performance. More precisely, manufacturing strategy comprises the decisions that managers take during a certain period of time in order to achieve a desire result. These decisions are related to which operational practices and resources are implemented. Our goal was to identify the relationship between these two decisions with operational performance. We based our arguments on the resource-based view for identifying sources of competitive advantage. Hence, we argued that operational practices and resources affect positively the operational performances. Additionally, we proposed that in the presence of some resources the implementation of operational practices would lead to a greater performance. We used previous scales for measuring operational practices and performance, and developed new constructs for resources. The data used is part of the High Performance Manufacturing project and the sample is composed by 291 plants. Through confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regressions we found that operational practices to a certain extant are positively related to operational performance. More specifically, the results show that JIT and customer orientation practices have a positive relationship with quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost performances. Moreover, we found that resources like technology and people explain a great variance of operational performance.

The influence of the supply chain agents on the new product development's performance: an analysis based on the multi-group moderation

Este estudo buscou verificar a influencia dos agentes da cadeia de suprimentos no desempenho do desenvolvimento de novos produtos quando os agentes são analisados em conjunto. A motivação desta pesquisa veio de estudos que alertaram para a consideração da integração da cadeia de suprimentos como um constructo multidimensional, englobando o envolvimento da manufatura, fornecedores e clientes no desenvolvimento de novos produtos; e devido à falta de informação sobre as influencias individuais destes agentes no desenvolvimento de novos produtos. Sob essas considerações, buscou-se construir um modelo analítico baseado na Teoria do Capital Social e Capacidade Absortiva, construir hipóteses a partir da revisão da literatura e conectar constructos como cooperação, envolvimento do fornecedor no desenvolvimento de novos produtos (DNP), envolvimento do cliente no DNP, envolvimento da manufatura no DNP, antecipação de novas tecnologias, melhoria contínua, desempenho operacional do DNP, desempenho de mercado do NPD e desempenho de negócio do DNP. Para testar as hipóteses foram consideradas três variáveis moderadoras, tais como turbulência ambiental (baixa, média e alta), indústria (eletrônicos, maquinários e equipamentos de transporte) e localização (América, Europa e Ásia). Para testar o modelo foram usados dados do projeto High Performance Manufacturing que contém 339 empresas das indústrias de eletrônicos, maquinários e equipamentos de transporte, localizadas em onze países. As hipóteses foram testadas por meio da Análise Fatorial Confirmatória (AFC) incluindo a moderação muti-grupo para as três variáveis moderadoras mencionadas anteriormente. Os principais resultados apontaram que as hipóteses relacionadas com cooperação foram confirmadas em ambientes de média turbulência, enquanto as hipóteses relacionadas ao desempenho no DNP foram confirmadas em ambientes de baixa turbulência ambiental e em países asiáticos. Adicionalmente, sob as mesmas condições, fornecedores, clientes e manufatura influenciam diferentemente no desempenho de novos produtos. Assim, o envolvimento de fornecedores influencia diretamente no desempenho operacional e indiretamente no desempenho de mercado e de negócio em baixos níveis de turbulência ambiental, na indústria de equipamentos de transporte em países da Americanos e Europeus. De igual forma, o envolvimento do cliente influenciou diretamente no desempenho operacional e indiretamente no desempenho de mercado e do negócio em médio nível de turbulência ambiental, na indústria de maquinários e em países Asiáticos. Fornecedores e clientes não influenciam diretamente no desempenho de mercado e do negócio e não influenciam indiretamente no desempenho operacional. O envolvimento da manufatura não influenciou nenhum tipo de desempenho do desenvolvimento de novos produtos em todos os cenários testados.

Does absorptive capacity affect project performance? A study based on project management practices, organization learning, and knowledge

The literature has emphasized that absorptive capacity (AC) leads to performance, but in projects its influences still unclear. Additionally, the project success is not well understood by the literature, and AC can be an important mechanism to explain it. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of absorptive capacity on project performance in the construction industry of São Paulo State. We study this influence through potential and realized absorptive capacity proposed by Zahra and George (2002). For achieving this goal, we use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research is based on 15 interviews with project managers in different sectors to understand the main constructs and support the next quantitative phase. The content analysis was the technique used to analyze those interviews. In quantitative phase through a survey questionnaire, we collected 157 responses in the construction sector with project managers. The confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical linear regression were the techniques used to assess the data. Our findings suggest that the realized absorptive capacity has a positive influence on performance, but potential absorptive capacity and the interactions effect have no influence on performance. Moreover, the planning and monitoring have a positive impact on budget and schedule, and customer satisfaction while risk coping capacity has a positive impact on business success. In academics terms, this research enables a better understanding of the importance of absorptive capacity in the construction industry and it confirms that knowledge application in processes and routines enhances performance. For management, the absorptive capacity enables the improvements of internal capabilities reflected in the increased project management efficiency. Indeed, when a company manages project practices efficiently it enhances business and project performance; however, it needs initially to improve its internal abilities to enrich processes and routines through relevant knowledge.

Detection and Identification of Abnormalities in Customer Consumptions in Power Distribution Systems

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Coating residual stress effects on fatigue performance of 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy

The tendency of the aircraft industry is to enhance customer value by improving performance and reducing environmental impact. In view of availability, aluminum alloys have a historically tendency to faster insertion due to their lower manufacturing and operated production infrastructure. In landing gear components, wear and corrosion control of many components is accomplished by surface treatments of chrome electroplating on steel or anodizing of aluminum. One of the most interesting environmentally safer and cleaner alternatives for the replacement of hard chrome plating or anodizing is tungsten carbide thermal spray coating, applied by the high velocity oxy fuel (HVOF) process. However, it was observed that residual stresses originating from these coatings reduce the fatigue strength of a component.An effective process as shot peening treatment, considered to improve the fatigue strength, pushes the crack sources beneath the surface in most of medium and high cycle cases, due to the compressive residual stress field induced. The objective of this research is to evaluate a tungsten carbide cobalt (WC-Co) coating applied by the high velocity oxy fuel (HVOF) process, used to replace anodizing. Anodic films were grown on 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy by sulfuric acid anodizing, chromic acid anodizing and hard anodizing. The influence on axial fatigue strength of anodic films grown on the aluminum alloy surface is to degrade the stress-life performance of the base material. Three groups of specimens were prepared and tested in axial fatigue to obtain S-N curves: base material, base material coated by HVOF and base material shot peened and coated.Experimental results revealed increase in the fatigue strength of Al 7050-T7451 alloy associated with the WC 17% Co coating. on the other hand, a reduction in fatigue life occurred in the shot peened and coated condition. Scanning electron microscopy technique and optical microscopy were used to observe crack origin sites, thickness and coating/substrate adhesion. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.