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Article
Publication date: 3 April 2017

Reza Dabestani, Arash Shahin and Mohammad Saljoughian

The purpose of this paper is to identify customers’ critical demands through evaluating and prioritizing service quality dimensions (SQDs) based on service quality (SQ) gaps.

1952

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify customers’ critical demands through evaluating and prioritizing service quality dimensions (SQDs) based on service quality (SQ) gaps.

Design/methodology/approach

The customers of four-star hotels were asked to report on their expectations and perceptions about the service they were receiving. Afterwards, the gap between the customers’ expectations and perceptions was calculated. Eventually, the three sets of data were exploited to prioritize SQDs through analytic network process (ANP).

Findings

Findings suggest that security and confidentiality, price, and tangibles are the most crucial factors.

Practical implications

The results can provide hotel managers with insightful hints about those aspects of service that form their customers’ perception of SQ in order to assign their invaluable, but restricted, resources appropriately to offer a more competitive service to the customers through paying attention to those dimensions.

Originality/value

The innovativeness of the methodology was in that the authors proposed a noble method in filling out the difficult-to-complete ANP matrix. The authors also managed to consider the mutual relationship between SQD criteria, which is difficult to do in ordinary methods.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 2016

Reza Dabestani, Arash Shahin, Mohammad Saljoughian and Hadi Shirouyehzad

The purpose of this paper is to prioritize service quality dimensions (SQDs) using importance-performance analysis (IPA) and to compare the results for the customer groups…

2221

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to prioritize service quality dimensions (SQDs) using importance-performance analysis (IPA) and to compare the results for the customer groups segmented by data envelopment analysis (DEA).

Design/methodology/approach

Customers of three four-star hotels located in Isfahan have been asked to report on their expectation of service prior to receiving it as well as their perception of the service after receiving it. Afterwards, DEA has been used to assign the customers into two groups of fastidious (with relatively high expectations but low perceptions) and ordinary (with relatively low expectations but high perceptions). Next, IPA has been exploited for prioritizing SQDs in each group. Eventually, the prioritized SQDs in each group have been compared and insightful information has been extracted for further research and practical purposes.

Findings

Findings imply that despite occasional similarities, there is a significant difference in the way the two groups value SQDs. Also, the segmented groups have different priorities of SQDs.

Research limitations/implications

Findings revealed that in order to decrease the ambiguity of customer voice in prioritizing SQDs, it might be helpful to first segregate the participants based on their attitudes towards the quality of service to have a more congruent sample and then, to analyze the data.

Practical implications

In this study, a smarter approach for prioritizing SQDs based on the data of two major groups of customers has been proposed, which can help hoteliers in devoting their resources more efficiently.

Originality/value

The combination of DEA and IPA in homogenizing the sample and prioritizing SQDs for each homogenized group within the sample seems relatively novel.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 8 February 2016

Reza Dabestani, Nasim Nahavandi and Mohammad Saljoughian

The purpose of this study is an attempt to identify the most crucial factors and their influence on one another, which can result in predicting the country’s next phase of…

265

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is an attempt to identify the most crucial factors and their influence on one another, which can result in predicting the country’s next phase of progress based on these factors’ variation patterns.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors proposed a model based on the existing literature and then ran a system dynamics analysis on the data obtained from the World Bank official Web site. The factors including “Research and development expenditure (% of GDP)”, “Scientific and technical journal articles”, “Patent applications”, “Trademark applications”, “Industry value added”, “Researchers in R & D (per million people)” and “High technology export” were considered as the related factors with science and technology.

Findings

The findings can also reveal what aspects require more attention and investment if the government demands to facilitate and accelerate the development process. The results show that the most intense increase refers to the number of patent applications and trademark applications, and the lowest increase is related to research and development expenditure and researchers in R & D.

Practical implications

The authors hope that tracking the changes of those factors leads practitioners and scholars to have a better understanding of the trends of science and technology development in a country, which in turn leads them to foresee the country’s upcoming opportunities as well as challenges.

Originality/value

Proposing a system dynamic model for predicting science and technology trend in a country is relatively novel.

Details

Journal of Modelling in Management, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5664

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 8 February 2016

Mohammad Mehdi Tavakoli, Hadi Shirouyehzad and Reza Dabestani

The purpose of this study is to present a hybrid analytic network process (ANP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) method for ranking organizational units as well as prioritizing…

569

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to present a hybrid analytic network process (ANP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) method for ranking organizational units as well as prioritizing organization’s human capital management criteria.

Design/methodology/approach

In the proposed DEA model, human capital management criteria are considered as the inputs and organizational commitment considered as the output of DEA model. Afterward, the organizational unit’s efficiency and the weight of human capital management criteria are evaluated through DEA and the data are considered as the basis of ANP model.

Findings

The results of prioritizing the drivers of human capital management were showed that leadership practices, human capital management and learning capacity are the most important ones. Also, the findings proved that the proposed integrated DEA/ANP can be helpful in managerial issues.

Research limitations/implications

Filling the super-matrix and designing the questionnaire of ANP have always been the challenge of scholars because of the large number of data it requires. One of the main advantages of the proposed hybrid method in this research is that it resolves the above-mentioned problem of ANP.

Practical implications

The results of the proposed method may provide managers this opportunity to better analyze the condition of organizational units from human capital management perspective and focus on the most important activities in this context. Moreover, the proposed hybrid method can help scholars to better use both DEA and ANP techniques and obtain more reliable findings.

Originality/value

In this study, DEA efficiency measures of units, and the weights of inputs and outputs of DEA model are used to fill the super-matrix of ANP. In addition to having a logical approach, this method provides more reliable results and enjoys the advantages of both ANP and DEA techniques.

Details

Journal of Modelling in Management, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5664

Keywords

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