Őszinte pesszimisták? – A magyar kultúraszemélyiség a külföldiek percepciója szerint

Hazánk felsőoktatásának versenyképessége szempontjából egyre kiemelkedőbb szerepe van annak, hogy sikeresen jelenjen meg a nemzetközi piacokon, minél több nemzetközi diákot vonzzon Magyarországra és sikerüljön elégedettséget kiváltó teljesítményt nyújtani számukra, hogy elvigyék egyetemeink, főiskoláink jó hírnevét. A külföldi hallgatókban kialakult megítélést azonban befolyásolhatja az is, hogyan észlelik az adott kultúrát, amelyben vagy szakmai vagy turisztikai céllal hosszabb ideig tartózkodnak. Kutatásunk célja az volt, hogy felmérjük, hogy a külföldi megkérdezettek milyennek látják a magyar kultúra személyiségét legalább fél év nálunk töltött időszak után, és ez milyen hatással van a kultúránkkal szembeni attitűdjükre, értékelésükre. Cikkünk eredményei – egy online kérdőíves megkérdezésben részt vevő - 404 külföldi cserehallgató véleményét tükrözik, akik 2010 és 2013 között tanultak hazánkban. Az eredmények alapján elmondhatjuk, hogy a külföldi hallgatók a magyar kultúrát leginkább őszintének tartják, emellett meglehetősen erkölcsösnek, békésnek, humorosnak, becsületesnek és szorgalmasnak. Legkevésbé optimistának, perfekcionistának és jól szervezettnek érzékelnek bennünket. A látogatás céljától függően azonban más kultúraszemélyiség-jellemzők befolyásolják, hogy összességében milyen attitűd alakul ki bennük az adott kultúrával szemben.

Termékek és szolgáltatások vásárlása on-line. Vajon mások az elvárások?

Az on-line vásárlás a kiskereskedelem napjaink egyik legdinamikusabban fejlődő területe. Az elmúlt években számos tanulmány foglalkozott az elektronikus kiskereskedelem marketingszempontú vizsgálatával, azonban ez idáig kevesen foglalkoztak a termékeket és szolgáltatásokat vásárlók elkülönült vizsgálatával. A szerzők célja, hogy egy kvantitatív kutatás alapján a minőségészleléssel és elégedettséggel összefüggésben megvizsgálják az újravásárlási, illetve a továbbajánlási szándék alakulását konkrét e-kiskereskedelmi vásárlások – termékek vagy szolgáltatások vásárlása – esetében. Eredményeik alapján megállapítható, hogy a szolgáltatást on-line vásárlók esetében az elégedettség hatása a továbbajánlási és újravásárlási szándékra alacsonyabb szintet mutat, mint a terméket vásárlók esetében. A minőségészleléshez kapcsolódó dimenziók között is megfigyelhető egy releváns eltérés: a terméket vásárlók esetében az ügyfélszolgálat relevanciájában a minőségészlelés során, kvázi, azokban az esetekben, amikor a vásárlás után hátra van még a tényleges kiszállítás vagy kézhezvétel. A rendelkezésükre álló minta nagysága miatt elemzésük során a varianciaalapú modellezést (PLS-SEM) használták.

Eladói kompetenciák mérése próbavásárlással

Az ügyfélszolgálat a legértékesebb személyes kapcsolati és kommunikációs eszköz. Alkalmazásában és vizsgálatában a mennyiség helyett a minőség felé tolódott el a hangsúly. A próbavásárlás mint vizsgálati eszköz felhasználható a személyes értékesítés vagy az ügyfélkiszolgálás minőségének mérésére. A dolgozat célja a kompetenciák mérése érdekében végzett próbavásárlás lehetőségeinek és módszereinek feltárása. A kutatás eredményeinek főkomponens-elemzése során viszonylag stabil faktorstruktúrát sikerült kialakítani, melynek belső konzisztenciáját az alfa mutatóval mérték a szerzők. Kutatásukból kiderült, hogy a próbavásárlás mint mérési metodika életképes és továbbfejlesztésre érdemes módszer. Az életképesség egyik feltétele a megfigyelt jelenségek finom kategorizálása és megfelelő kalibrálása, vagyis a jól alkalmazható mértékegység-standardok kialakítása.

Industry Education: The Merger Continues

In the discussion - Industry Education: The Merger Continues - by Rob Heiman Assistant Professor Hospitality Food Service Management at Kent State University, the author originally declares, “Integrating the process of an on-going catering and banquet function with that of selected behavioral academic objectives leads to an effective, practical course of instruction in catering and banquet management. Through an illustrated model, this article highlights such a merger while addressing a variety of related problems and concerns to the discipline of hospitality food service management education.” The article stresses the importance of blending the theoretical; curriculum based learning process with that of a hands-on approach, in essence combining an in-reality working program, with academics, to develop a well rounded hospitality student. “How many programs are enjoying the luxury of excessive demand for students from industry [?],” the author asks in proxy for, and to highlight the immense need for qualified personnel in the hospitality industry. As the author describes it, “An ideal education program concerns itself with the integration of theory and simulation with hands-on experience to teach the cognitive as well as the technical skills required to achieve the pre-determined hospitality education objectives.” In food service one way to achieve this integrated learning curve is to have the students prepare foods and then consume them. Heiman suggests this will quickly illustrate to students the rights and wrongs of food preparation. Another way is to have students integrating the academic program with feeding the university population. Your author offers more illustrations on similar principles. Heiman takes special care in characterizing the banquet and catering portions of the food service industry, and he offers empirical data to support the descriptions. It is in these areas, banquet and catering, that Heiman says special attention is needed to produce qualified students to those fields. This is the real focus of the discussion, and it is in this venue that the remainder of the article is devoted. “Based on the perception that quality education is aided by implementing project assignments through the course of study in food service education, a model description can be implemented for a course in Catering and Banquet Management and Operations. This project model first considers the prioritized objectives of education and industry and then illustrates the successful merging of resources for mutual benefits,” Heiman sketches. The model referred to above is also the one aforementioned in the thesis statement at the beginning of the article. This model is divided into six major components; Heiman lists and details them. “The model has been tested through two semesters involving 29 students,” says Heiman. “Reaction by all participants has been extremely positive. Recent graduates of this type of program have received a sound theoretical framework and demonstrated their creative interpretation of this theory in practical application,” Heiman says in summation.

Beverage Ethics: Education for Alcohol Responsibility

The study looked at the processes in the development of an alcohol responsibility program for post-secondary students in the service management major at the University of Tennessee: he program has been certified by the State of Tennessee to satisfy the Alcohol Beverage Commission requirement for server training related to the handling and service of alcoholic beverages. A managerial viewpoint was adopted so as to provide the greatest benefit to service management graduate.

Using secret shopping to assess student assistant training

This paper aims to describe the results of three rounds of secret shopping conducted at the Hubert Library of Florida International University, and how the results affected and were affected by changes made to circulation desk student training programs.

The Mysteries of Secret Shopping and Student Training!

In 2011 the Reference Department at the Glenn Hubert Library (HL), Biscayne Bay Campus, Florida International University (FIU) moved to a joint ser-vice desk with the circulation desk. Shortly after the move reference librarians became concerned with the misinformation that the circulation department’s work-study students sometimes provided to patrons. As a result, we felt a Secret Shopping program would be a good method to evaluate the information provided. Furthermore, it was seen as a method of improving customer service and com-paring the self-perceptions of service to patrons’ perceptions.

As práticas comunicacionais do pós-venda: o SAC na era das redes sociais on-line

Estudo sobre as práticas comunicacionais da área de pós-vendas nas redes sociais on-line, com relação ao atendimento das empresas e os canais por elas disponibilizados para interação com o consumidor. Dentre as etapas, realizou-se uma análise sobre os hábitos dos consumidores de realizar buscas nas redes socais on-line; com o intuito de chamar a atenção das empresas sobre problemas de pós-venda nestes canais (reclamações, dúvidas técnicas, sugestões etc.). O objetivo principal foi elaborar de forma cronológica e estruturada a práticas de comunicação no pós-venda por meio dos diversos canais do SAC; resgatando as fases evolutivas do SAC, a lei de proteção do consumidor, desde a era analógica (sem acesso à internet e espontânea), até a chegada das redes sociais on-line. Para tal estudo foram realizados: levantamento bibliográfico, exploratório e documental sobre a área de pós-venda, marketing de relacionamento e de resultados de pesquisas sobre os hábitos dos consumidores conectados à internet; apresentação de casos que exemplificam as práticas comunicacionais do mercado; entrevista aplicada com oito especialistas do mercado; e formulário eletrônico aplicado com gestores das centrais de atendimento. Com todas essas análises, foi possível traçar um diagnóstico sobre a realidade atual da área de atendimento ao cliente das empresas selecionadas, nas redes sociais on-line, além de reforçar sensivelmente a ideia do consumidor produtor de conteúdo (prosumer) e a mudança no fluxo comunicacional consumidor versus empresa.

Gestão do software de CRM para definição de limites de crédito

Ao longo dos anos, a análise de risco de crédito tem vindo a assumir um papel decisivo na análise do financiamento das empresas, sendo este um elemento fundamental para os órgãos de gestão. O financiamento é um elemento muito importante de suporte à atividade empresarial, uma vez que as empresas não detendo capital para realizar o investimento ou atividades correntes, recorrem ao crédito. Para que as empresas possam diminuir o risco de perdas, elas têm de seguir políticas de análise de crédito e de cobranças muito rigorosas. Este controlo será mais eficaz e eficiente se a organização mantiver relações de proximidade com os seus clientes. Um dos métodos cada vez mais utilizados para se conseguir manter relações estáveis e duradouras passa por adotar estratégias de CRM – Customer Relationship Management. A presente dissertação tem como objetivo desenvolver um modelo de análise de risco de crédito para os clientes da empresa inCentea. Este modelo permitirá perceber se o cliente reúne as condições necessárias para atribuição de crédito, e assim diminuir os risco para a inCentea. Conclui-se que a utilização de um maior número de variáveis na avaliação do risco permite uma minimização do risco. Através da integração do modelo de análise de crédito no software de CRM, a inCentea poderá fundamentar a sua decisão de concessão ou não de crédito com base em indicadores económicos e financeiros.

Consumer Behavior and Firm Competition

Understanding consumer behavior is critical for firms' decision making. How consumers make decisions about what they want and buy directly affect the profits of firms. Therefore, it is important to consider consumer behaviors and incorporate them into the model when studying the optimal strategy of firms and competition between firms. In this dissertation, I study rich and interesting consumer behaviors and their impact on firms' strategy in two essays. The first essay considers consumers' shopping cost which leads to their preference for one-stop shopping. I examine how store visit costs and consumer knowledge about a product affect the strategic store choice of consumers and, in turn, the pricing, customer service and advertising decisions of competing retailers. My analysis offers insights on how specialty stores can compete with big-box retailers. In the second essay, I focus on a well-established psychology phenomenon, cognitive dissonance. I incorporate the idea of cognitive dissonance into a model of spatial competition and examine its implications for selling strategy. I provide new insight on the profitability of advance selling and spot selling as well as the pricing of bundle and its components. Collectively, two essays in this dissertation introduce novel ways to model consumer behaviors and help to understand the impact of consumer behaviors on firm profitability and strategy.

The paradox of competition for airline passengers with reduced mobility (PRM)

Airline competition with customer service as product differentiator has forced down costs, air fares and investor returns. Two passenger markets operate in aviation: (a) able-bodied passengers for whom airlines compete and (b) passengers with reduced mobility (PRMs) – disabled by age, obesity or medical problems – for whom airlines do not compete. Government interference in the market intended to protect a minority of narrowly-defined PRMs has had unintended consequences of enabling increasing numbers of more widely-defined PRMs to access complimentary airline provisions. With growing ageing and overweight populations and long-haul travelling medical tourists such regulation could lead to even lower investors’ returns. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) (2013) examined the air transport value chain for competitiveness using Porter’s (2008) five forces but did not distinguish between able-bodied passengers and PRMs. Findings during an investigation of these two markets concurred with IATA-Porter that the markets for the bargaining powers of PRM buyers and PRM suppliers were highly competitive. However, in contrast to the IATA conclusions, intensity of competition, and threats from new entrants and substitute products for PRM travel were low. The conclusion is that airlines are strategically PRM defensive by omission. Paradoxically, the airline which delivers the best PRM customer service could become the least profitable.

The paradox of competition for airline passengers with reduced mobility (PRM)

Airline competition with customer service as product differentiator has forced down costs, air fares and investor returns. Two passenger markets operate in aviation: (1) able-bodied passengers for whom airlines openly compete and (2) passengers with reduced mobility (PRMs) – disabled by age, obesity or medical problems – for whom airlines do not compete. Government interference in the market intended to protect a minority of narrowly-defined PRMs has had unintended consequences of enabling increasing numbers of more widely-defined PRMs to access complimentary airline provisions. With growing ageing and overweight populations and long-haul travelling medical tourists such regulation could lead to even lower investors’ returns. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) (2013) examined the air transport value chain for competitiveness using Porter’s (2008) five forces but did not distinguish between able-bodied passengers and PRMs. Findings during an investigation of these two markets concurred with IATA-Porter that the markets for the bargaining powers of PRM customers and PRM suppliers were ‘highly competitive’. However, in contrast to the IATA conclusions the threats posed by new entrants, substitute products and intensity of competition for PRM passengers were all ‘low’. The conclusion is that airlines are strategically PRM defensive by omission. Paradoxically, the airline which delivers the best PRM customer service could become the least profitable.

Avvägning mellan arbetsmiljö och effektivitet med hjälp av multikriterieanalys : Hur komplettering av kundtjänst påverkar kundnöjdhet och effektivitet

A public organization has a section for customer service which is responsible of order entry from customers concerning errands within real estate and business equipment, cleaning, transport operations and handicap appliance. According to the co-ordinators in hospitals within the organisation the customers are requesting for staff to talk to physically, meaning a person to speak with face to face. The customers experiencing that it’s sometimes difficult to call customer service or use the web form, which is the only communication paths in the current situation. Proposed changes presented claim that a complement to customer service with local service centers in every hospital. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a change proposition by weigh between efficiency and working environment, this by using multi-criteria analysis. To achieve the goal a decision model is designed in the decision tool DecideIT. The aim of the study is to recommend decision makers to choose one of the options based on as rational grounds as possible. The result of the study showed that the preferred alternative is not to supplement customer service with local service centers. For the most part, the result depending on the survey (represented result from working environment criteria) which showed that the majority of customers do not request a person to speak with face to face at all.

Den växande dagligvaruhandeln på internet : En fallstudie om MatHem i Sverige AB

Bakgrund Dagligvaruhandel på internet växer och efterfrågas från fler kunder än någonsin tidigare. De större aktörerna märker att efterfrågan finns och inser att de behöver utöka sina försäljningskanaler, samtidigt som de mindre företagen som varit med och bidragit till denna efterfrågan behöver arbeta för att hålla sina kunder lojala och inte förlora marknadsandelar när marknadssituationen förändras av de stora aktörerna. Den förändrade konkurrenssituationen innebär att företag behöver lägga större fokus på kunden genom strategi och framförallt uppbyggnaden av lojalitet. Syfte Syftet är att få en ökad kunskap om hur ett företag som var tidigt ute på en marknad håller sina kunder lojala i samband med att konkurrenssituationen förändras. Metod För att besvara syftet har en kvalitativ fallstudie om företaget MatHem gjorts, för att slutligen kunna dra en generaliserad slutsats. Där insamling av primärdata och sekundärdata har analyserats för att slutligen nå en slutsats. Slutsats Det undersökta företaget håller sina kunder lojala genom att ha en hög generell kvalitet. Vilket betyder att de har hög kvalitet på produkterna, väl fungerande kundservice, överträffar kundens förväntningar och ett brett sortiment. När konkurrenssituationen förändras har företaget inga speciella strategier för att hålla sina kunder lojala, eftersom att företaget inte ser de andra aktörerna som konkurrenter. Företaget är den dyraste aktören på marknaden, men differentierar sig med ekologiska produkter för att erhålla lojala kunder.