Service convenience and social servicescape : retail vs hedonic setting

Purpose – While there have been numerous studies on the antecedents and consequences of service quality, there has been little investigation of the moderators of service quality. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of two moderators: service convenience and the social servicescape. The moderating effects are tested in two service settings: retail and hedonic (concert). Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 270 customers at kitchen display showrooms and 320 concert-goers was undertaken. The results were analysed using regression analysis. Findings – The results show support for ten of the 12 hypotheses. Service convenience moderated the relationships between perceived service quality and its three sub-dimensions (interaction, environment, and outcome quality), differently in different settings (retail vs hedonic). This supports the authors' general argument that the outcome dimension tends to be more important to customers in a retail setting, while interaction and environment quality dimensions tend to be more important in hedonic service consumption. Practical implications – These findings suggest that managers need to use different service management tactics in retail and hedonic service settings. Specifically managers in retail settings need to pay more attention to service convenience to achieve service quality and managers in hedonic settings should concentrate on the social servicescape. Originality/value – This paper is the first to test the moderating factors of service convenience and social servicescape on service quality.

Lateral movements in composite high-rise buildings under seismic action

Daring human nature has already led to the construction of high-rise buildings in naturally challenging geological regions and in worse environments of the world. However; literature review divulges that there is a lag in research of certain generic principles and rules for the prediction of lateral movement in multistorey construction. The present competitive trend orders the best possible used of available construction material and resources. Hence; the mixed used of reinforced concrete with structural steel is gaining prevalence day by day. This paper investigates the effects of Seismic load on composite multistorey building provided with core wall and trusses through FEM modelling. The results showed that increased rigidity corresponds to lower period of vibration and hence higher seismic forces. Since Seismic action is a function of mass and response acceleration, therefore; mass increment generate higher earthquake load and thus cause higher impact base shear and overturning movement. Whereas; wind force depends on building exposed, larger the plan dimension greater is the wind impact. Nonetheless; outriggers trusses noticeably contribute, in improving the serviceability of structure subjected to wind and earthquake forces.

Spot the differences in traditional and social entrepreneurial intention : highlighting the role of human and social capital

There is general agreement in the scientific community that entrepreneurship plays a central role in the growth and development of an economy in rapidly changing environments (Acs & Virgill 2010). In particular, when business activities are regarded as a vehicle for sustainable growth at large, that goes beyond mere economic returns of singular entities, encompassing also social problems and heavily relying on collaborative actions, then we more precisely fall into the domain of ‘social entrepreneurship’(Robinson et al. 2009). In the entrepreneurship literature, prior studies demonstrated the role of intentionality as the best predictor of planned behavior (Ajzen 1991), and assumed that the intention to start a business derives from the perception of desirability and feasibility and from a propensity to act upon an opportunity (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975). Recognizing that starting a business is an intentional act (Krueger et al. 2000) and entrepreneurship is a planned behaviour (Katz & Gartner 1988), models of entrepreneurial intentions have substantial implications for intentionality research in entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to explore the emerging practice of social entrepreneurship by comparing the determinants of entrepreneurial intention in general versus those leading to startups with a social mission. Social entrepreneurial intentions clearly merit to be investigated given that the opportunity identification process is an intentional process not only typical of for profit start-ups, and yet there is a lack of research examining opportunity recognition in social entrepreneurship (Haugh 2005). The key argument is that intentionality in both traditional and social entrepreneurs during the decision-making process of new venture creation is influenced by an individual's perceptions toward opportunities (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975). Besides opportunity recognition, at least two other aspects can substantially influence intentionality: human and social capital (Davidsson, 2003). This paper is set to establish if and to what extent the social intentions of potential entrepreneurs, at the cognitive level, are influenced by opportunities recognition, human capital, and social capital. By applying established theoretical constructs, the paper draws comparisons between ‘for-profit’ and ‘social’ intentionality using two samples of students enrolled in Economy and Business Administration at the University G. d’Annunzio in Pescara, Italy. A questionnaire was submitted to 310 potential entrepreneurs to test the robustness of the model. The collected data were used to measure the theoretical constructs of the paper. Reliability of the multi-item scale for each dimension was measured using Cronbach alpha, and for all the dimensions measures of reliability are above 0.70. We empirically tested the model using structural equation modeling with AMOS. The results allow us to empirically contribute to the argument regarding the influence of human and social cognitive capital on social and non-social entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, we highlight the importance for further researchers to look deeper into the determinants of traditional and social entrepreneurial intention so that governments can one day define better polices and regulations that promote sustainable businesses with a social imprint, rather than inhibit their formation and growth.

Orthogonality defect and reduced search-space size for solving integer least-squares problems

In the context of ambiguity resolution (AR) of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), decorrelation among entries of an ambiguity vector, integer ambiguity search and ambiguity validations are three standard procedures for solving integer least-squares problems. This paper contributes to AR issues from three aspects. Firstly, the orthogonality defect is introduced as a new measure of the performance of ambiguity decorrelation methods, and compared with the decorrelation number and with the condition number which are currently used as the judging criterion to measure the correlation of ambiguity variance-covariance matrix. Numerically, the orthogonality defect demonstrates slightly better performance as a measure of the correlation between decorrelation impact and computational efficiency than the condition number measure. Secondly, the paper examines the relationship of the decorrelation number, the condition number, the orthogonality defect and the size of the ambiguity search space with the ambiguity search candidates and search nodes. The size of the ambiguity search space can be properly estimated if the ambiguity matrix is decorrelated well, which is shown to be a significant parameter in the ambiguity search progress. Thirdly, a new ambiguity resolution scheme is proposed to improve ambiguity search efficiency through the control of the size of the ambiguity search space. The new AR scheme combines the LAMBDA search and validation procedures together, which results in a much smaller size of the search space and higher computational efficiency while retaining the same AR validation outcomes. In fact, the new scheme can deal with the case there are only one candidate, while the existing search methods require at least two candidates. If there are more than one candidate, the new scheme turns to the usual ratio-test procedure. Experimental results indicate that this combined method can indeed improve ambiguity search efficiency for both the single constellation and dual constellations respectively, showing the potential for processing high dimension integer parameters in multi-GNSS environment.

Sustainable transportation development : a framework to determine transportation disadvantaged

Urban sprawl combined with low density development causes unsustainable development patterns including accessibility and mobility problems, especially for those who do not have the capacity to own a vehicle or access to quality public transport services. Sustainable transportation development is crucial in order to solve transport disadvantage problems in urban settlements. People who are affected by these problems are referred to as ‘transportation disadvantaged’. Transportation disadvantage is a multi-dimensional problem that combines socio-economics, transportation and spatial characteristics or dimensions. However, a substantial number of transportation disadvantage studies so far only focus on the socio-economic and transportation dimensions, while the latter dimension of transportation disadvantage has been neglected. This chapter investigates the spatial dimension of transportation disadvantage by comparing the travel capabilities of residents and their accessibility levels with land use characteristics. The analysis of the study identifies significant land use characteristics with travel inability, and is useful for identifying the transportation disadvantaged population.

What young children say about art : a comparative study

Given the opportunities, young children can be prolific in their productions of drawings and paintings. In the study reported in this paper, we had two questions about this. Why do young children draw and paint? And, what does this prolific activity do? We consider that particular ways of seeing art position children, and children use their artistic activities to position themselves, producing their identities. We interviewed a group of children in Hong Kong, aged between 4 and 5 years, (n=27), and a group of children in Brisbane, Australia, who were of similar ages (n=15). The cross-cultural dimension added another dimension to our thinking and conversations around art and young children.

Bear With Me

This project investigates musicalisation and intermediality in the writing and devising of composed theatre. Its research question asks “How does the narrative of a musical play differ when it emerges from a setlist of original songs?”, the aim being to create performance event that is neither music nor theatre. This involves composition of lyrics, music, action and spoken text, projected image: gathered in a script and presented in performance. Scholars such as Kulezic-Wilson(in Kendrick, L and Roesner, D 2011:34) outline the acoustic dimension to the ‘performative turn’ (Mungen, Ernst and Bentzweizer, 2012) as heralding “…a shift of emphasis on how meaning is created (and veiled) and how the spectrum of theatrical creation and reception is widened.” Rebstock and Roesner (2012) capture approaches similar to this, building on Lehmann’s work in the post-dramatic under the new term ‘composed theatre’. This practice led research draws influence from these new theoretical frames, pushing beyond ‘the musical’. Springing from a set of original songs in dialogue with performed narrative, Bear with Me is a 45 minute music driven work for children, involving projected image and participatory action. Bear with Me’s intermedial hybrid of theatrical, screen and concert presentations shows that a simple setlist of original songs can be the starting point for the structure of a complex intermedial performance. Bear with Me was programmed into the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s Out of the Box Festival. It was first performed in the Tony Gould Gallery at the Queensland in June 2012. The season sold out. A masterclass on my playwriting methodology was presented at the Connecting The Dots Symposium which ran alongside the festival.

Craving : a research update [Editorial to a special issue]

Craving has long been associated with addictive disorders. It has received much attention over the last two decades, partly through the advent of pharmacotherapies that attempt to address it (Jonson, 2008; Yahyavi-Firouz-Abadi & See, 2009). More recently, craving for substances has attained increased prominence, with the inclusion of “Craving or a strong desire or urge” in the draft of DSM-5 (APA, 2012). Studies generally support craving as occurring on a single diagnostic dimension alongside existing dependence criteria (Hasin, et al., 2012; Keyes, et al., 2011). Some (e.g. Keyes, et al., 2011) demonstrate that the addition of craving to DSM-IV alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence criteria contributes novel variance in predicting severity, and improves discrimination above that offered by existing DSM-IV criteria. Within the current volume, the paper by Agrawal et al. confirms that craving strongly loads on a single dimension that also incorporates DSM-IV alcohol dependence criteria. Craving was a relatively severe symptom: It was least often endorsed, and did not exceed 50% endorsement until 6 of the remaining 7 criteria were present...

Perceptions of over-accommodation used by nurses in communication with the elderly

The aim of the study was to determine how aspects of communication between nurses and the elderly were perceived by elderly people, future nurses, and uninvolved observers. Respondents (elderly women and nursing and psychology students) rated videotapes of interactions between a nurse and an elderly woman on three dimensions: patronizing, status, and solidarity. Three communication strategies and their combinations were represented in the vignettes. Because the strategies presented were perceived as patronizing by all three groups, no group effect was found for the patronizing dimension. The results show clear group differences particularly between the nursing students and the elderly, with the elderly rating many of the strategies more positively than did the nursing students. The results are discussed in relation to previous evaluations of overaccommodation, and implications of the different perceptions are considered.

Towards a typology of structural arrangements for shared services : evidence from the higher education sector

Shared services are increasingly prevalent in practice, their introduction potentially entailing substantive and highly consequential organizational redesign. Yet, attention to the structural arrangements of shared services has been limited. This study explores types of structural arrangements for shared services that are observed in practice, and the salient dimensions along which those types can be usefully differentiated. Through inductive attention to the shared services literature, and content analysis of 36 secondary case studies of shared services in the higher education sector, three salient dimensions emerged: (1) the existence or not of a separate organizational entity, (2) an intra- or inter-organizational sharing boundary, and (3) involvement or not of a third party. Each dimension being dichotomous yields 23 combinations, or eight shared services structural arrangement types. Each of the eight structural arrangement types is defined and demonstrated through case examples. The typology offers clarity around shared services structural arrangements. It can serve as a useful analytical tool for researchers investigating the phenomenon further, and for practitioners considering the introduction or further development of shared services arrangements. Important follow on research is suggested too.

A viable and sustainable key management approach for a national e-health environment

To protect the health information security, cryptography plays an important role to establish confidentiality, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation. Keys used for encryption/decryption and digital signing must be managed in a safe, secure, effective and efficient fashion. The certificate-based Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) scheme may seem to be a common way to support information security; however, so far, there is still a lack of successful large-scale certificate-based PKI deployment in the world. In addressing the limitations of the certificate-based PKI scheme, this paper proposes a non-certificate-based key management scheme for a national e-health implementation. The proposed scheme eliminates certificate management and complex certificate validation procedures while still maintaining security. It is also believed that this study will create a new dimension to the provision of security for the protection of health information in a national e-health environment.

Transmission X-ray microscopy : a new tool in clay mineral floccules characterization

Effective flocculation and dewatering of mineral processing streams containing clays are microstructure dependent in clay-water systems. Initial clay flocculation is crucial in the design and for the development of a new methodology of gas exploitation. Microstructural engineering of clay aggregates using covalent cations and Keggin macromolecules have been monitored using the new state of the art Transmission X-ray Microscope (TXM) with 60 nm tomography resolution installed in a Taiwanese synchrotron. The 3-D reconstructions from TXM images show complex aggregation structures in montmorillonite aqueous suspensions after treatment with Na+, Ca2+ and Al13 Keggin macromolecules. Na-montmorillonite displays elongated, parallel, well-orientated and closed-void cellular networks, 0.5–3 μm in diameter. After treatment by covalent cations, the coagulated structure displays much smaller, randomly orientated and openly connected cells, 300–600 nm in diameter. The average distances measured between montmorillonite sheets was around 450 nm, which is less than half of the cell dimension measured in Na-montmorillonite. The most dramatic structural changes were observed after treatment by Al13 Keggin; aggregates then became arranged in compacted domains of a 300 nm average diameter composed of thick face-to-face oriented sheets, which forms porous aggregates with larger intra-aggregate open and connected voids.

Effect of aging time and Al substitution on the morphology of aluminous goethite

Goethite and Al-substituted goethite were synthesized from the reaction between ferric nitrate and/or aluminum nitrate and potassium hydroxide. XRF, XRD, TEM with EDS were used to characterize the chemical composition, phase and lattice parameters, and morphology of the synthesized products. The results show that d(020) decreases from 4.953 to 4.949 Å and the b dimension decreases from 9.951 Å to 9.906 Å when the aging time increases from 6 days to 42 days for 9.09 mol% Al-substituted goethite. A sample with 9.09 mol% Al substitution in Al-substituted goethite was prepared by a rapid co-precipitation method. In the sample, 13.45 mol%, 12.31 mol% and 5.85 mol% Al substitution with a crystal size of 163, 131, and 45 nm are observed as shown in the TEM images and EDS. The crystal size of goethite is positively related to the degree of Al substitution according to the TEM images and EDS results. Thus, this methodology is proved to be effective to distinguish the morphology of goethite and Al substituted goethite.

Fans teaching fans how to consume : the role of ritual in the consumption of entertainment

The status of entertainment as both a dimension of human culture, and a booming global industry is increasing. Given more recent consumer-centric definitions of entertainment, the entertainment consumer has grown in prominence and is now coming under closer scrutiny. However viewing entertainment consumers as always behaving in a similar fashion towards entertainment as to other products may be selling them short. For a start, entertainment consumers can exhibit a strong loyalty towards their favourite entertainment products that is the envy of the marketing world. Academic researchers and marketers who are keen to investigate entertainment consumers would benefit from a theoretical base from which to commence. This essay therefore, takes a consumer-oriented focus in defining entertainment and conceptualises a model of entertainment consumption. In approaching the study of entertainment one axiomatic question remains: how should we define it? Richard Dyer notes that, considering that the category of entertainment can include – by its own definition in the song ‘That’s entertainment!’ – everything from Hamlet and Oedipus Rex to ‘the clown with his pants falling down’ and ‘the lights on the lady in tights’, it doesn’t make much sense to try to define entertainment as being marked by particular textual features (as is done, for example, by Avrich, 2002). Dyer’s position is rather that ‘entertainment is not so much a category of things as an attitude towards things’ (Dyer, 1973: 9). He traces the modern conception of entertainment back to the writings of Molière. This writer defended the purpose of his plays against attacks from the church that they were not sufficiently edifying by insisting that, as entertainments he had no interest in edifying audiences – his ‘real purpose …was to provide people pleasure – and the definition of that was to be decided by “the people”’(Dyer, 1973: 9). In my own discipline of Marketing this approach has been embraced – Kaser and Oelkers, for example, define entertainment as ‘whatever people are willing to spend their money and spare time viewing’ (2008, 18). That is the approach taken in this paper, where I see entertainment as ‘consumer-driven culture’ (McKee and Collis, 2009) – a definition that is closely aligned with the marketing concept. Within a marketing framework I explore what the consumption of entertainment can tell us about the relationships between consumers and culture more generally. For entertainment offers an intriguing case study, and is often consumed in ways that challenge many of our assumptions about marketing and consumer behaviour.

Collective sampling and analysis of high order tensors for chatroom communications

This work investigates the accuracy and efficiency tradeoffs between centralized and collective (distributed) algorithms for (i) sampling, and (ii) n-way data analysis techniques in multidimensional stream data, such as Internet chatroom communications. Its contributions are threefold. First, we use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test to show that statistical differences between real data obtained by collective sampling in time dimension from multiple servers and that of obtained from a single server are insignificant. Second, we show using the real data that collective data analysis of 3-way data arrays (users x keywords x time) known as high order tensors is more efficient than centralized algorithms with respect to both space and computational cost. Furthermore, we show that this gain is obtained without loss of accuracy. Third, we examine the sensitivity of collective constructions and analysis of high order data tensors to the choice of server selection and sampling window size. We construct 4-way tensors (users x keywords x time x servers) and analyze them to show the impact of server and window size selections on the results.