Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro, Francisco J. Miranda and Michael Breazeale
The aim of this study is to determine whether the cumulative effects of satisfaction, trust, and perceived value may, under certain conditions, provide more explanatory power for…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to determine whether the cumulative effects of satisfaction, trust, and perceived value may, under certain conditions, provide more explanatory power for customer loyalty intentions than the often studied and more elusive customer delight. Herzberg's two-factor theory is used to explain why the frequent nature of grocery shopping, a primarily utilitarian experience, might introduce considerations that have not yet been addressed in the study of delight.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey is administered to a quota sample of Portuguese supermarket shoppers via phone, using a CATI system.
Findings
Research findings suggest that perceived value, trust, and satisfaction have a greater impact on behavioural outcomes than customer delight in the grocery shopping setting. In such a setting, cognitive drivers may be even more important for customers who are primarily concerned with hygiene factors (rather than motivators).
Research limitations/implications
Retailers are encouraged to focus on the more mundane factors that influence consumers' perceptions of value and trust rather than trying to invest in the substantial resources required to continually delight consumers. Future research may explore other determinants of loyalty intentions and test the extended model in different service sectors, cultural contexts and countries.
Originality/value
This study applies Oliver et al.'s consumer delight model in a utilitarian, frequent-use setting, finding previously undiscovered limitations to its validity.
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Francisco J. Miranda, Antonio Chamorro, Luis R. Murillo and Juan Vega
Service quality is an elusive and abstract construct, so that particular effort is required to establish a valid measure. Patients' perceptions of health services seem to have…
Abstract
Purpose
Service quality is an elusive and abstract construct, so that particular effort is required to establish a valid measure. Patients' perceptions of health services seem to have been largely ignored by health care providers. The purpose of this paper is to propose a modified approach to the measurement of service quality in a primary health care setting.
Design/methodology/approach
Through the use of the HEALTHQUAL scale adapted from the SERVQUAL scale to the context of primary health care centres, the authors measure the perceptions of service quality reported by both users and health centre managers in Spain. Taking service quality to be a construct of a formative nature, the authors propose a modification for its measurement using partial least squares (PLS) path modelling, as recommended in the literature for the modeling of formative constructs.
Findings
It is found that the model provides health centre managers with a tool for the measurement of functional quality in their organization. The results reveal the importance of health staff attributes and efficiency measures for the perception of health centre quality.
Research limitations/implications
The model can also be used to measure how health care centre managers believe that patients perceive the quality of their service. This allows the potential gap between the provider's view and the customer's view to be assessed and monitored.
Originality/value
The paper extends the previous literature in two directions. First, based on SERVQUAL, it presents a general framework for measuring primary health care service quality as a construct of a formative nature. Second, it is the first application of PLS path modeling to the simultaneous examination of both users' and health centre managers' perceptions in a European context.
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M. Isabel Sanchez‐Hernandez and Francisco J. Miranda
The purpose of this paper is to present the first empirically tested model showing that internal marketing (IM) is a factor of success in new services development. It attempts to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the first empirically tested model showing that internal marketing (IM) is a factor of success in new services development. It attempts to bridge internal market orientation (IMO) – the philosophical background of IM programs – with successful service innovations represented by new service performance (NSP).
Design/methodology/approach
To explore the link between IMO and NSP a structural equations model was designed considering service quality and time‐to‐market as mediator variables. Data were gathered from business service firms' senior managers in Spain and Portugal (74 service companies based on a questionnaire).
Findings
The results largely support the hypothesized theoretical relationship that organizational effort in the human resources area, supported by the marketing function and implemented through an IMO, is connected with increasing service quality and innovation success.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this study are context specific. In addition, surveys usually present data collection problems such as composing questions properly, key informant bias and non‐response bias. However, the actions undertaken – such as pre‐testing coupled with personal telephone contact with managers and the good results obtained in verifying the representativeness of the sample – suggested that every effort was made to obviate the limitations.
Practical implications
The results suggest that managers must ensure that internal aspects of management, such as internal communication and employee commitment, are taken into account in order to implement successful new services. Managers need to be more proactive, trying to include the marketing function in human capital issues. Understanding internal clients' wants and needs and selling company goals internally would make external efforts in developing a new service much more likely to succeed.
Originality/value
Reflecting the literature which highlights the importance of the internal relationship between service employees and the company in service innovation, the paper pays particular attention to the role of IMO linkages and their effect on service innovation success. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time this relationship has been empirically tested.
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Salvador Antón i Clavé, Francisco López Palomeque, Manuel J. Marchena Gómez, Sevilla Vera Rebollo and J. Fernando Vera Rebollo
The Geography of Tourism in Spain is now at a par in terms of its scientific production with other European countries. Since the middle of the '80s the quality and volume of…
Abstract
The Geography of Tourism in Spain is now at a par in terms of its scientific production with other European countries. Since the middle of the '80s the quality and volume of contributions is analogous to the rest of the European Union, although as a part of University Geography in Spain it has not achieved the level of dedication reached by other subjects considering the importance of tourist activities to the economy, the society and the territory of Spain. It could be said that the Geography of Tourism in Spain is in the international vanguard in dealing with Mediterranean coastal tourism, with the relationships between the residential real estate and tourism sectors and with aspects related to tourism and leisure in rural and protected areas.
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Mornay Roberts-Lombard and Daniël Johannes Petzer
This study aims to investigate the extent to which the satisfaction/delight experienced by customers of cell phone network service providers is influenced by their perceptions of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the extent to which the satisfaction/delight experienced by customers of cell phone network service providers is influenced by their perceptions of the networks’ employee service delivery skills and the value that the customers derive from the networks’ offerings. In turn, the influence of the extent of their satisfaction/delight on future behavioural intention (BI) is determined.
Design/methodology/approach
A descripto-explanatory research design is followed and data are collected from satisfied/delighted cell phone network service provider customers using self-administered questionnaires. A total of 593 responses were suitable for analysis. An exploratory factor analysis is used to uncover the interrelationships between the items measuring the study’s constructs. Furthermore, the measurement and structural models are assessed.
Findings
Perceived employee service delivery skills (PESDS) and value significantly and positively influence customer satisfaction/delight experiences, whereas customer satisfaction/delight experiences significantly and positively influence their BIs.
Research limitations/implications
The model tested confirms the hypothesised relationships between PESDS, perceived value, customer satisfaction/delight experiences and BIs of cell phone network customers. Customer satisfaction/delight experiences are linked to their two antecedents (PESDS and value) and their outcome, BI.
Practical implications
The findings assist cell phone network service providers in understanding how PESDS and value can foster customer delight, ultimately leading to positive BIs from customers.
Originality/value
This study focuses only on satisfied customers and determines the interrelationships of the extent to which they encounter customer satisfaction/delight experiences and related constructs. Few research studies, however, have examined how customer satisfaction/delight experiences relate to its antecedents and outcome.
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For the past several decades, the field of global leadership has made noteworthy theoretical and empirical progress. The role of a global follower, however, has not been addressed…
Abstract
For the past several decades, the field of global leadership has made noteworthy theoretical and empirical progress. The role of a global follower, however, has not been addressed to date. This chapter focuses on global followers and global followership as vital elements of a global leadership process supporting a traditional followership view that “leadership can only occur if there is followership” (Uhl-Bien, Riggio, Lowe, & Carsten, 2014, p. 83). Two assumptions ground the arguments: global leaders and global followers are engaged in a partnering process of global leadership, and followers and global followers have distinctive characteristics influenced by their specific environments. To explore those assumptions, we start by introducing the followership theory and relevant followership characteristics. Subsequently, we address the role of context in global leader–follower dynamics, extrapolate global followership characteristics from relevant multidisciplinary literature, and offer an example of a global leader–follower partnership. Next, we examine mentions of global followers and global followership in academic and nonacademic literature, and define a global followership construct. The conceptual framework, global followership model, research agenda, and practical implications conclude the manuscript.
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Rasmus Koss Hartmann, Andre Spicer and Anders Dahl Krabbe
Why is the quality of innovation-driven entrepreneurship seemingly declining? We argue the growing Entrepreneurship Industry and the way it has transformed entrepreneurship as an…
Abstract
Why is the quality of innovation-driven entrepreneurship seemingly declining? We argue the growing Entrepreneurship Industry and the way it has transformed entrepreneurship as an activity are important, under-appreciated explanations. By leveraging the Ideology of Entrepreneurialism to mass-produce and mass-market products, the Entrepreneurship Industry has made possible what we term Veblenian Entrepreneurship. This is entrepreneurship pursued primarily as a form of conspicuous consumption, and it is fundamentally different from the innovation-driven entrepreneurship that it emulates and superficially resembles. Aside from lowering average entrepreneurial quality, Veblenian Entrepreneurship has a range of (short-run) positive and (medium- and long-run) negative effects for both individuals and society at large. We argue that the rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur might contribute to creating an increasingly Untrepreneurial Economy. An Untrepreneurial Economy appears innovation-driven and dynamic but is actually rife with inefficiencies and unable to generate economically meaningful growth through innovation.
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Francisco Meneses and Kenzo Asahi
What are the factors that affect social mobility? How are early adulthood educational and labour trajectories correlated with intergenerational mobility? This chapter presents…
Abstract
What are the factors that affect social mobility? How are early adulthood educational and labour trajectories correlated with intergenerational mobility? This chapter presents three contributions to the intergenerational mobility literature. First, this chapter develops one of the first attempts to measure intergenerational mobility using administrative panel data sets in a developing country. A panel data set was created using a national educational test and surveys and follows students, starting in 8th grade, and analyzes their intergenerational income mobility in their late twenties. Second, this chapter uses social class and role model proxies and shows that college educational outcomes are related to initial social and educational environments. Third, a detailed analysis of academic and labour market trajectories is used, indicating that students with irregular educational and labour market trajectories show lower intergenerational income mobility. The results of this research open a new approach for analyzing life decisions and expect to provide further guidance for public policies that intend to promote social mobility among low-income individuals.
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Annemarieke Hoekstra, Fred Korthagen, Mieke Brekelmans, Douwe Beijaard and Jeroen Imants
The purpose of this paper is to explore in detail how teachers' perceptions of workplace conditions for learning are related to their informal workplace learning activities and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore in detail how teachers' perceptions of workplace conditions for learning are related to their informal workplace learning activities and learning outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
From a sample of 32 teachers, a purposeful sampling technique of maximal variation was used to select two cases described in this paper. In a mixed methods design quantitative data are used to position the two teachers in relation to their peers. Qualitative data are used to describe the two cases in depth.
Findings
The findings show how the diverging ways in which the two teachers perceive and actively shape their workplace conditions help to explain differences in the teachers' learning activities and learning outcomes.
Originality/value
Scholars have argued that informal workplace learning is embedded in interdependent practices that arise from the interaction between social practices and individual agency. The case studies provide insight into how workplace conditions for learning are shaped in this interaction and how perceptions of these conditions enable or constrain teachers' informal workplace learning.
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Rowan Miranda and Natalee Hillman
This article illustrates the application of business process reengineering (BPR) to capital budget process redesign. The case of the City of Pittsburgh is used to argue that…
Abstract
This article illustrates the application of business process reengineering (BPR) to capital budget process redesign. The case of the City of Pittsburgh is used to argue that capital budgeting processes in many large cities often pose barriers to effective financial management. Design principles of BPR are presented; implications for capital budget management are then discussed. Pittsburgh’s capital expenditure/encumbrance process is used to illustrate implications of BPR for public financial management. By identifying shortcomings in current maps, “future” maps can be constructed that rely on organizational redesign and technology to eliminate steps that do not add value.