Evangelos Grigoroudis, Panagiotis Kyriazopoulos, Yannis Siskos, Athanasios Spyridakos and Denis Yannacopoulos
Internet service providers (ISPs) constitute a highly competitive market, while the unstable market conditions directly affect customer preferences and make ISPs to develop a…
Abstract
Purpose
Internet service providers (ISPs) constitute a highly competitive market, while the unstable market conditions directly affect customer preferences and make ISPs to develop a “mass customization” strategy, individualizing services and approaching every customer in an individual way. However, customization requires an in‐depth analysis of current customer preferences and an evaluation of future behavior. The main objective of the paper is to present a framework for analyzing changes of customer preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents detailed results of independent customer satisfaction surveys conducted in different time periods in the Greek ISP market. The analyses are based on non‐parametric statistical techniques and the multicriteria satisfaction analysis method, which is a multicriteria preference disaggregation approach.
Findings
Results are mainly focused on the evaluation of potential trends of e‐customer preferences. Furthermore, results of a benchmarking analysis are also presented, based on the evolution of satisfaction levels for the quality characteristics of the provided services.
Research limitations/implications
Future research in the context of the presented study may be focused on satisfaction benchmarking analysis, given the rapid changes of the market conditions. An extended satisfaction survey will give the ability to analyze customer preferences in comparison with the main ISP competitors.
Practical implications
The presented study may help organizations in highly competitive markets dominated by rapid technological progresses to track short‐term changes of customer preferences.
Originality/value
The analyses presented are based on the combination of multicriteria analysis and non‐parametric statistics. The main advantage of these methods is that they respect the qualitative (ordinal) form of collected survey data.
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Evangelia Sandalidou, George Baourakis and Yannis Siskos
Consumers’ increasing need for safe and quality food has motivated this market research study. A customer satisfaction approach is followed to examine whether the quality of…
Abstract
Consumers’ increasing need for safe and quality food has motivated this market research study. A customer satisfaction approach is followed to examine whether the quality of organic olive oil, the most important biological product that has recently entered the Greek food market, could affect consumers’ purchasing behavior. For this purpose a survey was conducted in the region of Thessaloniki, Greece. The implemented methodology is called MUlticriteria Satisfaction Analysis (MUSA) and takes into account that customers’ global satisfaction for organic olive oil depends on five criteria. The analysis showed that the average global satisfaction index was almost 78 percent. Health was considered to be the competitive advantage of organic olive oil. On the contrary, promotion and disposition seemed to be its greatest weaknesses. The price, along with the package, was also found to be significant. Finally, gives some recommendations for the continuing improvement of information and advertising, label information and image of the package, which are the weak characteristics of organic olive oil.
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Nancy Bouranta, Yannis Siskos and Nikos Tsotsolas
The ability of the police to decrease victimization rates, protect human rights and social capital, to generate feelings of safety and to respond to citizens’ calls helps generate…
Abstract
Purpose
The ability of the police to decrease victimization rates, protect human rights and social capital, to generate feelings of safety and to respond to citizens’ calls helps generate positive citizen feelings about the legitimacy of police as a law enforcement institution. Police approaches to reduce crime and violence are based mainly on objective measures, neglecting to assess its performance based on subjective perceptions. The conception that the citizens’ fear of being victims is not always reflective of the actual prevalence of crime highlights the importance of social surveys to assess the public’s perception of police performance. It is also important to assess employee satisfaction, since research indicates that the performance of first-line employees is influenced by their satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to provide the first comparative study of both citizen and police officer satisfaction and evaluates their relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a dyadic survey that measures citizens’ evaluation of police service quality as well as policemen’s job satisfaction. The data were analysed using the multicriteria methodology of multicriteria satisfaction analysis.
Findings
The results showed that policemen seem to be unsatisfied with their jobs, while citizens are quite satisfied with police performance. Specifically, policemen’s ability to be available for patrol is currently hampered by bureaucracy and other typical obligations. The tangibles criterion, which refers to buildings, offices and surveillance equipment, were characterized as inadequate by both policemen and citizens. It was also observed that police officers are not very satisfied with their amount of work may be the reason why citizens report median satisfaction levels in terms of police responsiveness.
Originality/value
This survey adds to management literature on job satisfaction and service quality, providing some additional findings regarding the police population. In addition, it combines related constructs supporting the claim that citizens can be satisfied with police services provided that police officers are satisfied with their jobs.
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Kun Zhou, Zaiwu Gong, Xiaoqing Chen and Guo Wei
In multi-criteria ranking problems, the UTA-like methods can be used to infer the value functions that restore the decision-maker’s (DM’s) indirect preference information. These…
Abstract
Purpose
In multi-criteria ranking problems, the UTA-like methods can be used to infer the value functions that restore the decision-maker’s (DM’s) indirect preference information. These value functions represent all possible preference systems for the DM. In this paper, we aim to develop a method for determining the complete ranking of alternatives based on all such value functions.
Design/methodology/approach
We extend the DM’s inductive preference for value functions in the selection of a representative value function to rankings of alternatives and construct a novel measure referred as the representativeness index to evaluate the performance of rankings relative to the inductive preference. Subsequently, by exploring all value functions that are capable of generating a ranking, two robust representativeness indices are constructed and a simulation algorithm is proposed for calculating the robust representativeness index.
Findings
Determining the ranking based on the representative value function can be seen as selecting the ranking with the largest representativeness index. Additionally, we find through a case study that the ranking determined based on robust representativeness indices has good robustness in the sense of inductive preferences.
Originality/value
The inductive preference is a manifestation of the DM’s preference system. This paper proposes a method for measuring the performance of rankings relative to inductive preferences. The performance of a ranking is defined as the performance of all value functions that can produce that ranking relative to the inductive preference. In turn, it is possible to identify the ranking that best matches the DM’s preference system.
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Yannis Politis, Apostolos Giovanis and Spyridon Binioris
The purpose of this paper is to implement a multi-criteria preference disaggregation approach to measure logistics service quality (LSQ) of manufacturing companies’ supply chains…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to implement a multi-criteria preference disaggregation approach to measure logistics service quality (LSQ) of manufacturing companies’ supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
A total 216 Greek manufacturing companies took part in a survey with the use of a dedicated questionnaire. They were asked to assess the LSQ of their primary supplier regarding a predefined set of criteria and sub-criteria. The data were analysed with the multi-criteria satisfaction analysis method, which represents an ordinal regression based approach used for customer satisfaction measurement.
Findings
Weak points of the suppliers as well as dimensions that drive satisfaction were identified. Furthermore, the competitive advantages of the suppliers as well as their priorities for improvement were spotted.
Research limitations/implications
The sampling framework, including only the manufacturing companies operating in a specific area of Greece, does not ensure the full generalisation of the results. A larger sample of manufacturing companies from all over Greece would be useful to obtain more reliable results and would enable the comparison of LSQ for different manufacturing sectors.
Practical implications
The method used to assess LSQ of manufacturing companies can be installed as a permanent customer satisfaction barometer to measure, control and improve the LSQ provided to manufacturing companies as well as to other business sectors.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a method to explore the relationships between LSQ and industrial customers’ satisfaction to prioritise strategic plans of companies in the supply chains.
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Yannis Politis, Charalambos Litos, Evangelos Grigoroudis and Vassilis S. Moustakis
The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality industry.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Two surveys using questionnaires were conducted: the first one for the development of the model's criteria and sub‐criteria and the second one for the assessment of the criteria and sub‐criteria weights. The model was tested on a number of Greek high‐class hotels.
Findings
Compared with other business excellence models the proposed model includes criteria and sub‐criteria that are more applicable to hotels. The model studies the factors that drive excellence in the hotel sector as well as the importance of these factors as they have been defined by the managers of the hotels. The implementation of the model in a number of high‐class Greek hotels shows its applicability and suitability to be used as a benchmarking system.
Research limitations/implications
Time limitations, as the project was co‐funded by the European Union, have limited the implementation of the proposed business excellence model to a small number of Greek hotels in the area of Crete.
Originality/value
The critical success factors for high‐class hotels have been identified and a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality sector has been developed.