The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is…
Abstract
The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is especially relevant in the context of Indonesian Airline companies. Therefore, many airline customers in Indonesia are still in doubt about it, or even do not use it. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for e-services adoption and empirically examines the factors influencing the airlines customers in Indonesia in using e-services offered by the Indonesian airline companies. Taking six Indonesian airline companies as a case example, the study investigated the antecedents of e-services usage of Indonesian airlines. This study further examined the impacts of motivation on customers in using e-services in the Indonesian context. Another important aim of this study was to investigate how ages, experiences and geographical areas moderate effects of e-services usage.
The study adopts a positivist research paradigm with a two-phase sequential mixed method design involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. An initial research model was first developed based on an extensive literature review, by combining acceptance and use of information technology theories, expectancy theory and the inter-organizational system motivation models. A qualitative field study via semi-structured interviews was then conducted to explore the present state among 15 respondents. The results of the interviews were analysed using content analysis yielding the final model of e-services usage. Eighteen antecedent factors hypotheses and three moderating factors hypotheses and 52-item questionnaire were developed. A focus group discussion of five respondents and a pilot study of 59 respondents resulted in final version of the questionnaire.
In the second phase, the main survey was conducted nationally to collect the research data among Indonesian airline customers who had already used Indonesian airline e-services. A total of 819 valid questionnaires were obtained. The data was then analysed using a partial least square (PLS) based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to produce the contributions of links in the e-services model (22% of all the variances in e-services usage, 37.8% in intention to use, 46.6% in motivation, 39.2% in outcome expectancy, and 37.7% in effort expectancy). Meanwhile, path coefficients and t-values demonstrated various different influences of antecedent factors towards e-services usage. Additionally, a multi-group analysis based on PLS is employed with mixed results. In the final findings, 14 hypotheses were supported and 7 hypotheses were not supported.
The major findings of this study have confirmed that motivation has the strongest contribution in e-services usage. In addition, motivation affects e-services usage both directly and indirectly through intention-to-use. This study provides contributions to the existing knowledge of e-services models, and practical applications of IT usage. Most importantly, an understanding of antecedents of e-services adoption will provide guidelines for stakeholders in developing better e-services and strategies in order to promote and encourage more customers to use e-services. Finally, the accomplishment of this study can be expanded through possible adaptations in other industries and other geographical contexts.
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Joan H. Johnston, C. Shawn Burke, Laura A. Milham, William M. Ross and Eduardo Salas
A key challenge for cost-effective Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) is the ability to create generalizable domain, learner, and pedagogical models so they can be re-used many…
Abstract
A key challenge for cost-effective Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) is the ability to create generalizable domain, learner, and pedagogical models so they can be re-used many times over. Investment in this technology will be needed to succeed in developing ITSs for team training. The purpose of this chapter is to propose an instructional framework for guiding team ITS researchers in their development of these models for reuse. We establish a foundation for the framework with three propositions. First, we propose that understanding how teams develop is needed to establish a science-based foundation for modeling. Toward this end, we conduct a detailed exploration of the Kozlowski, Watola, Jensen, Kim, and Botero (2009) theory of team development and leadership, and describe a use case example to demonstrate how team training was developed for a specific stage in their model. Next, we propose that understanding measures of learning and performance will inform learner modeling requirements for each stage of team development. We describe measures developed for the use case and how they were used to understand teamwork skill development. We then discuss effective team training strategies and explain how they were implemented in the use case to understand their implications for pedagogical modeling. From this exploration, we describe a generic instructional framework recommending effective training strategies for each stage of team development. To inform the development of reusable models, we recommend selecting different team task domains and varying team size to begin researching commonalities and differences in the instructional framework.
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This chapter will examine ideological debates currently taking place in academics. Anthropologists – and all academic workers – are at a crossroads. They must determine what it…
Abstract
This chapter will examine ideological debates currently taking place in academics. Anthropologists – and all academic workers – are at a crossroads. They must determine what it means to “green the academy” in an era of permanent war, “green capitalism,” and the neoliberal university (Sullivan, 2010). As Victor Wallis makes clear, “no serious observer now denies the severity of the environmental crisis, but it is still not widely recognized as a capitalist crisis, that is, as a crisis arising from and perpetuated by the rule of capital, and hence incapable of resolution within the capitalist framework.”
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Élodie Allain and Michel Gervais
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the particularities of the time consumption of transactions performed in an insurance firm and the prospective impact on costing.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the particularities of the time consumption of transactions performed in an insurance firm and the prospective impact on costing.
Design/methodology/approac
This paper uses the results of an archival study conducted on data collected in an insurance firm.
Findings
The results suggest that the reasons underlying the heterogeneity of transactions’ time consumption are multiple and rule out a systematic and unique explanation. They lend support to the importance of the “human effect” in explaining the time consumption of service transactions and support the need for more research into the evolution of marketing thought that subordinates the concept of transaction to the concept of relationship. In addition, our results not only suggest that the drivers of time consumption and their importance are contingent on the type of service activity performed within the same firm, but also that inside a generic service activity, deviations in time consumption remain due to the provision of specific services.
Originality/value
Services have their own characteristics which make it difficult to trace their resource consumption. Yet limited research has focused on examining the impact of services’ characteristics on predicting costs. Our findings contribute to our understanding of such impact and cast doubt on the possibility of obtaining accurate costs for very detailed transactions for an acceptable cost-benefit trade-off.
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Lode De Waele, Liselore Berghman and Paul Matthyssens
The discussion about public sector performance is still present today, despite the profound research that has already tried to address this subject. Furthermore, theory links…
Abstract
Purpose
The discussion about public sector performance is still present today, despite the profound research that has already tried to address this subject. Furthermore, theory links negative effects on organizational performance with increased levels of organizational complexity. However, literature thus far did not succeed to put forward a successful theory that explains why and how public organizations became increasingly complex. To answer this question, we argue that increased organizational complexity can be explained by viewing public organizations as the hybrid result of different institutional logics, which are shaped by various management views. However, former research mainly concentrated on the separate study of management views such as traditional public management (TPM), NPM, and post-NPM. Although appealing, research that approaches hybridity from this perspective is fairly limited.
Methodology/approach
We conducted a literature review in which we studied 80 articles about traditional public management, NPM, and post-NPM.
Findings
We found that these management views essentially differ on the base of three fault lines, depending on the level of the organizational culture. These fault lines, according to the management view, together result in nine dimensions. By combing dimensions of the different management views, we argue that a public organization becomes hybrid. Furthermore, in line with findings of contingency theory, we explain the level of hybridity might depend on the level of tight coupling for a given organization. Finally, we developed propositions that explain hybridity as the result of isomorphic forces, organizational change, and organizational resistance to change and that link hybridization with processes of selective coupling.
Originality/value
The value of this chapter lies in its real-life applicability.
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Leslie W. Young and Robert B. Johnston
There are a number of traditional business strategy theories that have been used to discuss business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commerce strategy: Transaction Cost Economics…
Abstract
There are a number of traditional business strategy theories that have been used to discuss business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commerce strategy: Transaction Cost Economics, Resource‐Based View, Porter’s Market Forces Theory, and Channel Theory. However, there currently exists no comprehensive framework linking these theories into a method to rigorously assess value delivery strategies, and in particular to determine how to maximise the impact of the Internet as a value delivery channel. This paper answers this shortcoming by introducing a framework that draws together the main theories of strategic choice in a systematic fashion. In particular, the paper examines how different ways of delivering the same form of value (rather than particular products) from producer to customer may allow exploitation of the desirable features of the Internet to different degrees. By using a novel distribution business model from a real‐life case study to illustrate this framework, the paper uncovers several novel ways the Internet can enhance B2B strategy. The main contribution of the paper is the development of a formal, semi‐quantitative model of value delivery strategy evaluation, which can be used as a starting point for practical evaluation of strategy choices in particular settings, and also as a theoretical tool for discussing the role of the Internet in B2B e‐commerce in a more rigorous way.
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The role of tourism/hospitality industry management in ensuring service quality is now generally regarded as being of considerable importance. Notwithstanding this, relatively…
Abstract
The role of tourism/hospitality industry management in ensuring service quality is now generally regarded as being of considerable importance. Notwithstanding this, relatively little is known about the preconceptions and expectations regarding the management role that potential tourism/hospitality industry employees bring to the workplace. This study has examined the expected problem‐solving styles of hospitality industry management when faced with a complaint about visitor‐staff conflict. The sample was drawn from school leavers in a major district community, many of whom would soon seek employment and careers in the tourism/hospitality industry. Two major problem‐solving styles were identified, one involving Investigation of the complaint, and one involving Avoidance and possibly rudeness. Major Service Quality Ideals were also identified as predictors of each management problem‐solving style. Finally, the implications of these findings for tourism/hospitality industry management and for employees are explored.
IN the progress of a course of lectures on Elementary Bibliography, I found some difficulty in obtaining for my students, a brief and satisfactory list of some of the leading and…
Abstract
IN the progress of a course of lectures on Elementary Bibliography, I found some difficulty in obtaining for my students, a brief and satisfactory list of some of the leading and most typical bibliographies. There are a number of bibliographies of bibliographies published, general and select, but none of them are available in handy form for class purposes. The following list of books on bibliographical subjects, represents the works which I described in detail to my students as representative and useful examples of books about books, and I also exhibited nearly the whole of them, so as to familiarize the students with the physical appearance and contents of the majority of the books. I have reprinted this list through the courtesy of the editor of the Library World, because it has been suggested that it may be useful to many librarians whose stock of bibliography is small, and to assistants who are studying the elements of practical bibliography. The list makes no pretence either to fulness or accuracy, and must be taken for what it really is, a working list of bibliographies prepared as a series of suggestions. Neither sections three or four are more than the barest outlines, but they contain representative books well worth study. I found difficulty in obtaining specimens of some of the older bibliographies like Mattaire, Panzer, Hain, &c., and as these works are becoming very scarce and costly, it will be a matter of impossibility for the municipal libraries to obtain copies either for love or money. Most of the British municipal libraries are poorly equipped with the leading bibliographical works of reference, and but for the kindness of Mr. Thomas Greenwood and others, I should not have been able to borrow for exhibition one half of those I was able to show. This seems to me a strong reason why the library of the Library Association should be equipped with all the necessary books for the study and teaching of bibliography and library economy. Bibliographical works are becoming so scarce, that students who have to work away from the large old established libraries, will find it difficult to make satisfactory progress.