Cunningham, Lawrence F., Young, Clifford E., Lee, Moonkyu & Ulaga, Wolfgang International Marketing Review Vol. 23, Issue 2, p. 192-210
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that examined how customers in the USA, France, and Korea perceived and classified a set of 13 services based on multidimensional scaling (MDS). Design/methodology/approach – A MDS framework was used to map service classifications and actual services in the USA, Korea and France. Results from each country were then compared to the other two countries to determine similarities and differences. Findings – Results from this research suggest that there are two underlying dimensions that explain approximately 80 percent of the total variance in service perceptions and classifications. Underlying dimensions of the classifications across the three cultures were virtually identical. Differences among the countries were based on relative positioning of classifications and/or services on the underlying dimensions. Research limitations/implications – Evidence from diverse cultures implies that consumers perceive services in a somewhat simplistic, two-dimensional fashion rather than the complex set of classifications proposed by researchers. Although the complex classifications may be of use to service providers in organizing the delivery of services, the presentation and positioning of those services is along a much simpler framework in the minds of customers. Originality/value – This is the first time consumer-based perceptions of services have been examined systematically across cultures using a MDS approach.
Walter, Zhiping & Scott, George Communications of the ACM Vol. 49, Issue 3, p. 87-91
Both rapid development and the ways they are used make managing Internet/Web systems different from managing traditional computer systems. Understanding the differences is important for developing and managing these systems
O’Connor, Edward J. & Fiol, C. Marlena Physician Executive Vol. 32, Issue 1, p. 72-74
Innovation is critical to long-term success in today’s health care environment. Change is accelerating, competition increasing and access to information expanding. Many health care providers try to ignore these changing demands while continuing to practice past behaviors. Others react by leaving the profession in order to avoid having to make the required adjustments. Neither strategy contributes much to generating the innovation required to effectively deliver care in today’s environment.
Scott, C.H. & Scott, Judy International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management Vol. 1, Issue 1/2, p. 88-102
Despite some initial setbacks, the online grocery business is viable and growing. In this paper, we discuss the industry’s value proposition, its business models, the various quality issues faced by an e-grocer and the trade-offs faced in the selection of a highly efficient fulfilment strategy. Brick and click grocers usually choose fulfilment from stores rather than distribution centres. However, store fulfilment is vulnerable to congestion and ‘trolley rage’ when pickers of online orders get in the way of traditional shoppers. We propose a management science model for efficient allocation of online grocery orders. The model shows the impact of delivery budget and overall utilisation on store congestion. Contrary to current practice, which typically allocates orders to the nearest store, our model shows the optimal solution. Practitioners can use the model to prevent customer dissatisfaction while researchers will find this study provides a basis for future model extensions and fine-tuning.
O’Connor, Edward J. & Fiol, C. Marlena Physician Executive Vol. 32, Issue 1, p. 18-33
The article presents information on the focused entrepreneurial thinking to provide quality medical care and strong financial health. Entrepreneurial focus is the key ingredient that may mean the difference between surviving and thriving as an organization. A physician executive needs to encourage taking the steps required to ensure that one’s reward must support the organization’s people’s commitment to quality, safety, and contribution. People throughout health care organizations often do not judge the potential of values and visioning processes.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 36, Issue 2, Pages 297-320
The present study examined two possible ways of increasing the predictive validity of personality measures: using observer (i.e., supervisor and coworker) ratings and work-specific self-ratings of the Big Five personality factors. Results indicated that among general self-ratings of the Big Five personality dimensions, Conscientiousness was the best predictor of in-role performance, and Agreeableness and Emotional Stability were the best predictors of extra-role performance. Observer ratings of personality accounted for incremental variance in job performance (in-role and extra-role) beyond that accounted for by general self-ratings. However, contrary to our expectations, work-specific (i.e., contextual) self-ratings of personality, generally did not account for incremental variance in job performance beyond that accounted for by general self-ratings.
John W. Bagby and John C. Ruhnka Journal of Digital Forensics Security and Law Vol. 1, Issue 1, p. 5-18
Most organizations and government agencies regularly become engaged in litigation with suppliers, customers, clients, employees, competitors, shareholders, prosecutors or regulatory agencies that nearly assures the need to organize, retain, find and produce business records and correspondence, e-mails, accounting records or other data relevant to disputed issues. This article discusses some high visibility cases that constrain how metadata and content is routinely made available to opposing parties in civil litigation, to prosecutors in criminal prosecutions and to agency staff in regulatory enforcement litigation. Public policy, as implemented in the rules of evidence and pretrial discovery, restrict electronic data discovery (EDD) as it becomes a predominant and potentially costly pre-trial activity pivotal to modern litigation. This article discusses these constraints while identifying opportunities for the interdisciplinary activities among litigators, forensic experts and information technology professionals.
Decision Support Systems, Vol. 41 Issue 2, pp. 449-471
Online auctions are proving themselves as a viable alternative in the C2C and B2C marketplace. Several thousand new items are placed for auction every day and determining which items to bid on or when and where to sell an item are difficult questions to answer for online auction participants. This paper presents a multi-agent Auction Advisor system designed to collect data related to online auctions and use the data to help improve the decision making of auction participants. A simulation of applied Auction Advisor recommendations and a small research study that used subjects making real purchases at online auctions both indicate that online auction buyers and sellers achieve tangible benefit from the current information acquired by and recommendations made by the Auction Advisor agents.
Walczak, Steven & Parthasarathy, Madhavan Information Systems and E-Business Management Vol. 4, Issue 1, p. 49 – 70
The internet and world wide web are an increasingly important resource, both as a market and as an information source, to both individual users and business entities. An estimated 120 million active web users exist in the United States alone. Access to these electronic marketplaces and information sources is accomplished through either a direct internet connection or through a service provider. Internet service providers (ISPs) enable internet and web access for most of these users either via dial-up modems (62.2 percent), or DSL connections (17 percent). Customers of ISPs frequently switch or discontinue service. The model selection perspective is used to extend previous work in this area through the development of a multi-agent system with neural network wrappers. The nonparametric (neural network) agents identify over 92 percent of those users that either stop or change service, which is a 15 percent increase over previous models.
Richard, E. M., Diefendorff, J. M., & Martin, J. H. Human Performance Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp. 67-87.
In response to recent debate regarding the direction of the relationship between self-efficacy and performance (Bandura & Locke, 2003; Vancouver, Thompson, Tischner, & Putka, 2002; Vancouver, Thompson, & Williams, 2001), the present investigation examines the within-person relationships between self-efficacy and performance over time in two different learning contexts. Study 1 examines the relationship using exam performance in a classroom context, and Study 2 examines the relationship using a computerized learning task in a lab setting. Both studies find a significant, positive within-person relationship between performance and subsequent self-efficacy. However, both studies fail to find the positive relationship between self-efficacy and subsequent performance predicted by social cognitive theory. Future research directions aimed at resolving the debate are discussed.