This case describes how Varian Medical Systems, the successor to one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley, created a business with $11.6 billion in market cap by listening to dreams…
Abstract
Purpose
This case describes how Varian Medical Systems, the successor to one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley, created a business with $11.6 billion in market cap by listening to dreams of its physician customers and their scientist colleagues and finding ways to fulfill them over several decades.
Design/methodology/approach
A key business opportunity that spurred the company was to identify the most perceptive thought-leader customers, then bring them into a long-term, system-building partnership.
Findings
If companies envision the future and work with perceptive, far-sighted customers and others who will benefit from high-value innovation, together they stand a real chance of achieving a desired future.
Practical implications
Establish forums where perceptive, visionary customers meet with executives, marketers and key developers to identify what you should deliver in the immediate future and in years beyond.
Originality/value
The case described the practical steps the company took to implement customer participation in the innovation process over many decades.
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New technologies may offer special opportunities for others to achieve very large returns with approaches to technology development like those of Amazon, Tesla, and Walmart. This…
Abstract
Purpose
New technologies may offer special opportunities for others to achieve very large returns with approaches to technology development like those of Amazon, Tesla, and Walmart. This paper summarizes those firms' overall approach and offers guidelines for carrying out similar efforts.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a multi-firm case study, examining long-term technology development processes of Amazon, Tesla, Walmart, Varian Medical, and Deere.
Findings
The firms were able to create huge amounts of value (or in Deere's case, seems to be creating a huge amount of value today) because their leaders recognized a huge problem that limited customers greatly and spent decades solving it with digital technology. The approach appears to be replicable by others.
Research limitations/implications
This is an initial review. Further study of these firms and others that have similar long-term digital achievements is warranted.
Practical implications
The paper describes a practical approach to achieving sustained competitive advantage that may be effective for those willing to pursue solution to a large problem over many years.
Originality/value
The most successful users of digital technology have followed a difficult but straightforward path to revolutionizing customer experience: Focus for decades on making something important work really well. This paper identifies similarities among the long-term strategies of the greatest producers of long-term value for the first time and identifies a path through which others may follow them.
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Andrew Moreo, Robert Woods, Gail Sammons and Christine Bergman
As a service segment, the food and beverage industry has great potential for intensive interface between the consumer and the service provider and between the service provider and…
Abstract
Purpose
As a service segment, the food and beverage industry has great potential for intensive interface between the consumer and the service provider and between the service provider and the back of the house staff. Given the significance of the perception of the provision of service to the consumer, it is important to study every aspect of the interaction. With this in mind, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between emotional labor, service quality, purpose of consumption, satisfaction and customer loyalty as seen through the perceptions of the consumer.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 400 respondents using an online market research firm in the USA. This research used three independent variables (emotional labor, service quality and purpose of consumption), each with two levels in a between-subjects 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experimental design. Eight scenarios were used to represent the eight different combinations of variables to test their effects.
Findings
Two very interesting findings emerged from this study. The first was that consumers’ purpose of consumption, whether dining for leisure or business, had no significant impact on their satisfaction or loyalty, either independently or in conjunction with emotional labor or service quality. The second most interesting finding was that the interaction of service quality and emotional labor did have a significant impact on satisfaction but not loyalty.
Practical implications
A restaurants’ standards of service should be the same, regardless of the business or leisure demographic being served. Authenticity matters, and therefore, employers should incorporate personality evaluation into the hiring process. Perhaps, focusing more on attitude and less on skill would lead to great customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Originality/value
This article furthers the relatively young research stream examining the impacts of emotional labor on the consumer.
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Catherine Coy and Marni Ludwig
Contemporary poetry is a rich landscape of voices and visions. With over 1,300 new poetry titles to choose from each year, how can librarians make the best acquisitions for their…
Abstract
Contemporary poetry is a rich landscape of voices and visions. With over 1,300 new poetry titles to choose from each year, how can librarians make the best acquisitions for their communities? Two resource lists from Poets House ‐ a 35,000 poetry library and literary center ‐ offer a starting point. “1996 Poetry Publication Showcase Suggested Titles” highlights a wide variety of selections from Poet House’s annual exhibit of all the year’s new poetry books. “Where To Find Poetry Reviews” gathers information on directories, literary journals and Web sites that review poetry on a regular basis. These materials were originally distributed at the 1997 American Library Association Conference, where Poets House exhibited the entire 1996 showcase and presented poetry readings and a panel discussion entitled “Building Poetry Audiences in Community Libraries”.
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Dennis R. McDermott and James F. Robeson
In recent years, the problem of transporting small shipments of general freight by motor carrier within an urban centre has surfaced to be, in the words of a Traffic World…
Abstract
In recent years, the problem of transporting small shipments of general freight by motor carrier within an urban centre has surfaced to be, in the words of a Traffic World editorial, “the most important US transportation problem of the 1960s”. The chairman of the Transportation Association of America's Transport Technology Committee recently concluded, “Our metropolitan areas are being strangled by the inefficient movement of goods—the lifeblood of any city.”
Jing Zheng, Chuan‐You Deng, Shao‐Min Cheng, Wen‐Ya Liu and A‐Tao Wang
The purpose of this paper is to examine the great contributions made by the American library expert, Mary Elizabeth Wood, to Chinese library development.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the great contributions made by the American library expert, Mary Elizabeth Wood, to Chinese library development.
Design/methodology/approach
As a pioneer of the modern library movement Mary Elizabeth Wood devoted herself to a Chinese library career. It was structured according to the following theme: setting up the Boone Library and introducing the modern American public library into China; establishing Boone Library School and initiating Chinese library science education; raising money and appealing for China's library development; helping forward the foundation of the Library Association of China; as well as promoting Chinese library intercommunion and cooperation with the West.
Findings
With the background of underdeveloped Chinese librarianship, Mary Elizabeth Wood introduced modern American public library spirit into China, opened the gate of Chinese library science, and promoted Chinese library science.
Research limitations/implications
The paper discusses the library history of China and the role of an American librarian in Chinese library history; thus, it should be of wide interest to researchers involved in library history.
Originality/value
Mary Elizabeth Wood devoted herself to a Chinese library career, and promoted Chinese library science greatly, but research on her is limited. This paper considers her contribution to Chinese library science.
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The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music…
Abstract
The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music subcultures. Given its durability and resilience, this subculture offers an opportunity to explore subcultural development and maintenance. I employ a contemporary, symbolic interactionist approach to trace the development of deadhead subculture and subcultural identity. Although identity is a basic concept in subculture research, it is not well defined: I suggest that the co-creation and maintenance of subcultural identity can be seen as a dialectic between collective identity and symbolic interactionist conceptions of individual role-identity.