Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2016 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 8 Articles
Manufacturing sector is known for the total quality management effort that helped increase productivity and operational efficiency and improve the quality of finished products. Not every service organization has been successful in imbibing these quality philosophies that have been successful in manufacturing. Services are people dependent and this adds to the complexity while implementing quality philosophies that have been tried and tested in manufacturing. The principles of lean manufacturing initially adopted by automaker Toyota have been imbibed by manufacturing organizations across the world. Researchers have explored the application of lean in services. Insurance is one service sector which has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years following the opening up of the insurance sector in India. However, there is a vast difference between the overall organizational productivity observed in public sector and private sector insurance companies. The private insurers adopt a more professional approach and they have taken maximum mileage out of the market-based pricing mechanism approved by insurance regulator in India, namely IRDA. The situation is such that national insurance companies can no longer sustain with their low levels of productivity in a fiercely competitive market. This case documents the experiences of an insurance company called Achmea that implemented lean principles and achieved operational efficiency. This can be a good starting point for insurance companies in India to adopt lean. Even though private insurance companies are backed by processes and a professional work atmosphere, they too can adopt lean to achieve greater productivity and improved functional excellence....
Because service failures are difficult to avoid in the services context due to their characteristics,\nfirms need to offer an adequate service recovery to compensate customers. Customer behavior\nmay be affected either by the failure or its recovery. The purpose of this study is to explore the\nimpact of service failure severity in customers� post-recovery behavior. The study comprises a\nsample of 40,813 customers, representing customers who had experienced a problem with the\nservice provider and customers who had not. Empirical results showed that service failure\nseverity has a significant negative influence in customers� post-recovery repurchase behavior.\nNevertheless, the influence differs across customers� relationship age with the\nservice. Additionally, they also provide evidence of when service recovery paradox is more\nlikely to occur. This study contributes with relevant insights for practitioners. Since failure\nseverity affects negatively customers� post-recovery repurchase behavior, the classification of\nservice failures by degree of severity is commended. Hence, firms should adopt different service\nrecovery strategies depending on failures severity degree and customers� relationship age with\nthe firm. Customers� segmentation should consider these characteristics in order to enhance\ncomplaints management and customer loyalty....
In spite of a long history of promotion and development, Ethiopia�s tourism industry is in its initial stages of\ndevelopment. Changes in governance systems have resulted in different social constructions of the role of tourism in\nnational development. Since 1990s, the partial opening up of the economy to private investment, the liberalization of\nnational economic management and a modicum of political decentralization of administration and decision-making\nhave contributed to significant growth in both the number of inbound tourists and the generation of foreign exchange.\nThis research examines the opportunities and challenges of tourism development in the Upper Rift Valley corridor\nextending from Addis Ababa, the capital city, to Nazret-Sodere, Shashemene-Hawasa and Debre Berhan-Ankober.\nBased on field visits and semi-structured interviews of key private-public stakeholders and archival research, the\nstudy argues that the corridor has tremendous opportunities for developing a spatial/geographical pattern of tourist\ndestinations ranging from single destinations, to en-route, base camp, regional tour and trip chasing ones....
This study intends to investigate whether or not using highly illustrative pedagogical practice, through the use of\ncomputer and related technologies can indeed motivate students to learn and put into practice what they are taught inside\nthe classroom. For students to grow fully as human persons, they should develop their minds through effective learning.\nEffective learning however is possible only if students are truly motivated to learn. Computer based instruction (CBI) can\nhelp in motivating students to learn and even put into practice what they are taught in class. Following Kellerââ?¬â?¢s ARCS\nmotivational model in pedagogical practice, CBI is said to ââ?¬Ë?intrinsicallyââ?¬â?¢ motivate students by drawing their attention while\nencouraging them to relevantly apply what they learn in class. Students also develop sense of confidence and satisfaction\nin their learning process through CBI. A survey of Saint Dominic College of Asia (SDCA) students was conducted. Results of\nthe survey showed that majority of the students had absorbed better teaching materials when CBI was used than when CBI\nwas not used. Results also revealed that CBI as an approach to teaching was preferred by students than non-CBI approach\nto teaching, confirming the hypothesis in this study....
We know of the development of the online channel in the tourism distribution system, due to the intensive\napplication of ICT. This seems announce like a revolution in the industry, with structural changes in production, and in\nthe behaviour of the involved agents. However, more advances in the literature are needed in order to gain theories\nto the body of knowledge. With this aim, qualitative research is done through in-depth interviews driven to a selection\nof experts in the field; managers of multi-channel distribution systems as well as of online channel in exclusive.\nApplying the triangulation of data methodology provides results which reveal certain types of changes, derived from\nthe adoption of ICT, that tourism companies adopters consider as significant competitive advantages, with capability\nto affect companies� results and increase its power within the distribution channel. This offers great potential for the\nfuture development of the online channel and for the companies that use it exclusively....
The present research aims to investigate the effect of intellectual capital on innovation in Zanjan Science and\nTechnology Park (STP) during 2013. This study was conducted based on the quality-correlation method. The research\nquestionnaire was distributed between employees who worked for any of the firms inside the STP. In general, 220\nemployees work in Zanjan Science and Technology Park, 139 of whom were selected using the Cochran�s formula to\nreply to the questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results of the correlation test\nrevealed a significant positive relationship between intellectual capital and innovation. The elements of structural capital\nand human capital did not indicate any significant relationship with innovation. However, it was found that the elements\nof intellectual capital (i.e. human capital, structural capital, and relational capital) can be used as predictors of innovation\nin our case study....
The European funded projects are mainly aimed at the development of the activity sector where\nthey are implemented. In tourism, these projects aim most of the time either at developing some\ntourist destinations, rehabilitation of certain tourist sights, or at developing certain elements that\ncontribute to the improvement of the activity at the destination level. The investments made in\nthis sector often lead to the modification of the marketing activities performed at the destination\nlevel. This paper aims to determine the importance of European funded projects in the\ndevelopment of a tourist region. The research aims to determine the tourists� opinion regarding\nhow the results obtained from the current projects at the North-West Region of Romania\n(Northern Transylvania) are used. The multivariate analysis was aimed at determining the main\nfeatures considered by the respondents to be relevant when considering the role of EU projects in\ndeveloping the tourist destination. The data were processed using IBM program SPSS Statistics 20....
This article adopts empirical research methods to measure the content of Chinese film attractiveness.\nExploratory and confirmatory factor analysis is used to extract and verify 5 dimensions:\nmoral education, plot, satisfaction of curiosity, entertainment and reputation. Then it analyzes the\neffect of the perception of film attractiveness on the audience satisfaction, intention, investment\nand the mediating effect of satisfaction. The findings demonstrate that: 1) satisfaction mediates\nfilm attractiveness and intention, and it also mediates film attractiveness and investment; 2) the\npath of film attractiveness affects audience is: perception of film attractiveness ââ? â?? satisfaction ââ? â??\nintention ââ? â?? investment; and 3) mind purification, logic and inspiration are main factors to improve\nsatisfaction. Overall, this research provides insightful theoretical and practical implications\nto the product strategy of the film industry in China....
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