Jan Mattsson and Marten J. den Haring
The importance of service encounters for the purpose of creating and maintaining good customer relationships is widely recognised. This study focuses on the quality of…
Abstract
The importance of service encounters for the purpose of creating and maintaining good customer relationships is widely recognised. This study focuses on the quality of face‐to‐face communication during service encounters between service providers and their customers at a help desk of a hotel conference department. Communication is believed to be influenced by the social activities that are pursued in a particular encounter. A stepwise method based on linguistic theory is developed to record, analyse and interpret transcriptions of verbal and non‐verbal behaviour by means of audio and video recordings. Utterances have been coded with regard to their function and content and are organised in a so called molecular coding scheme. This scheme models the dynamic interplay between communicators and makes it possible to analyse contextual influences on communication. It is believed that the approach advocated here could be of use for managers of service operations where communication is paramount.
Details
Keywords
Logan Reed Vallandingham, Luitzen De Boer and Heidi Carin Dreyer
The patient flow performance achievable by care pathways is constrained by competing flow and resource efficiency, which can negatively impact improvements. This paper probes the…
Abstract
Purpose
The patient flow performance achievable by care pathways is constrained by competing flow and resource efficiency, which can negatively impact improvements. This paper probes the divergence between resource and flow efficiency and how care pathways can lead to improved patient flow. By framing the problem through the lens of paradox theory, a set of design principles is proposed to assist decision-makers in care pathway implementation. Implications are derived for research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used conceptual research to develop design principles for care pathways based on a systematic review of relevant care pathway research. The initial search contained 515 unique articles, resulting in a final sample of 56 studies.
Findings
When applying care pathways, patient flow may be negatively affected in relation to the dimensions of bottlenecks, non-value-adding activities, and variability. However, the findings also indicate methods that can be applied to manage organizational paradoxes, which can contribute to more efficient patient flow along each of the three dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to care pathways and therefore could have missed relevant studies in similar fields, such as care coordination.
Practical implications
Health care managers, politicians, and IT developers can apply the proposed design principles when developing, implementing, and improving care pathways and supporting technologies.
Originality/value
While existing research has studied care pathways from a medical perspective, this is the first paper to the author’s knowledge that addresses care pathways directly by considering paradox theory and in light of the operations management literature.
Details
Keywords
Ir. Karen P. and Simon R. Bush
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and analyse the didactic model of a university course, which concerns an applied academic consultancy project and which focuses on skills…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and analyse the didactic model of a university course, which concerns an applied academic consultancy project and which focuses on skills related to crossing boundaries between disciplines and cultures, and between theory and practice. These boundary crossing skills are needed to develop sustainable solutions for complex environmental problems.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper evaluates the course based on recommendations for successful collaborative interdisciplinary research found in literature. Reflections of two cohorts of 30 students are used to analyse the four components that make up the didactic model of the course: organizational “matrix structure” in which students work, two week field‐trip, customized SharePoint web site, and teachers as facilitators rather than providers of information.
Findings
The course enhanced the students' awareness of disciplinary and cultural boundaries and added to their appreciation of using different disciplinary and cultural perspectives in developing sustainable solutions. Students learnt to deal with uncertainty in scientific research and realized that decisions in environmental management are based on partial knowledge. They also learnt how to overcome barriers in the design and implementation of interdisciplinary research projects.
Originality/value
The paper presents an innovative didactic model that proved to be successful in educating boundary crossing skills. It contributes to understanding how educational programmes at universities can better equip students to find sustainable solutions.
Details
Keywords
Yu Wang, Zulqurnain Ali, Aqsa Mehreen and Khawar Hussain
In this age of digitalization, organizations are generating large data from the organizations' manufacturing processes that are valuable for capturing a competitive edge. Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
In this age of digitalization, organizations are generating large data from the organizations' manufacturing processes that are valuable for capturing a competitive edge. Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can bring organizations radical innovation by investing in innovation projects (i.e. big data use; BDU) using the SMEs' scarce resources. Thus, the authors' research aims to predict Chinese SMEs' radical innovation (RI) through BDU using the theoretical lenses of the resource-based view. Moreover, the authors' study also pursues to realize the undermining mediating process of business strategy alignment (BSA) and the buffering role of information sharing in BDU–RI linkage.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 297 Chinese SMEs entrepreneurs and managers were recruited from the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China using a survey approach. In Mplus 7.4, the authors tested the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The sample of 297 shows that BDU is directly and indirectly (via BSA) related to RI. Further, information sharing moderates the linkage between BDU and BSA and BSA and RI. The association between BSA and RI is only significant and stronger when information sharing is high.
Practical implications
This research is beneficial for SME entrepreneurs/managers to enhance the understanding of BDU, eliminate challenges of BSA via BDU and align business strategies to bring RI to Chinese SMEs.
Originality/value
SMEs always search for new ways to enhance SMEs' productivity using scarce resources. This is the first research that advances big data and innovation literature by predicting firm RI through BDU using a resource-based view. Moreover, this study is novel because the study investigates the mediation role of BSA and the moderating role of information sharing in the linkage between BDU and firm RI in Chinese SMEs.