Interlocking Lives: Employment Mobility and Family Fixity in Three Gentrifying Neighbourhoods of Montreal

This article explores the relationship between employment mobility, family fixity, and gentrification in the lives of 36 residents in and extended commuters to Montreal's southwest borough. Once described as the birthplace of industry in Canada, the neighbourhoods of Saint-Henri, Little Burgundy and Point Saint-Charles have undergone sweeping changes in recent decades. Inner-city areas are not necessarily where one expects to find mobile workers, but this is changing due to shifting gender roles, the rise of dual-income households and gentrification. Michael Savage's concept of ‘elective belonging’ proved particularly useful in understanding this connection. With its proximity to childcare, schools, stores and workplaces, the central city permits a more equitable division of labour within the household. Our place-based approach to mobile work enables us to capture a wide spectrum of experience, ranging from people with extended daily commutes to those whose work takes them away from home for days, weeks or months at a time. Our interviews reveal a connection between employment mobility and family gentrification, as upwardly mobile families find ways to localize other aspects of their lives. The simultaneity of mobility and immobility are often essential, especially in dual-income households. One parent's mobility often leads to the relative immobility of other family members.     

Employment Dynamics and Linkages in the Rural Economy: Insights from Senegal

Evidence on rural wage employment is thin and lacks nuance for different employment sources, insights on dynamic effects, and an understanding of the channels of effects. We assess conceptually and empirically the direct and indirect welfare effects of entry and continuation in different types of wage employment in rural Senegal. Using panel data, fixed effects and first-difference estimation, we show substantial positive welfare and linkage effects. We find that participation in wage employment increases per capita income by 143%, and reduces poverty, poverty gap and food insecurity by, respectively, 63%, 89% and 48%. While the direct effect on income is larger for non-agricultural and contractual wage employment, the indirect income effects through self-employment are more pronounced for agricultural and casual wage employment. Our results imply that job creation is important for rural development, that wage employment in agriculture can lead to considerable growth multiplier effects, and that synergies exist between large-scale and small-scale agriculture.     

社会心理服务驱动下信访“分类治理”的理路——以河南省西平县为例

学界对于信访分类治理的研究大多基于因“人”分类或因“事”分类展开,形成了信访分类治理研究的基本范式。然而,社会心理服务嵌入信访治理体系,为信访分类治理提供了新的视野:因“心”分类,即按照信访人“心理诉求——利益诉求”的两分原则,将信访人分为利益型、心理型、耦合型和无意识型四种。本文以西平县信访治理实践为个案,提炼出由“心”而治的信访分类治理模型,并对该模型的治理理路进行了分析。研究发现:地方政府对信访频次、情绪和事件的三维叠加形成了信访分类治理的参照维度,而地方政府对治理技术的灵活性运用则构成了信访分类治理的动态实践。本文为信访分类治理过程中信访人的心理诉求与利益诉求间的关系提供经验事实,并为社会心理服务驱动下的信访分类治理理路提供分析框架。然而,受限于研究区域和案例数量,本文提炼出来的由“心”而治的信访分类治理模式还有待进一步验证和完善。     

Work motivation and public service motivation: disentangling varieties of motivation and job satisfaction

Research on motivation in the public sector has used public service motivation (PSM) and self-determination theory (SDT) interchangeably. This paper compares both theories, develops hypotheses pertaining to their assumptions, and empirically tests them in two public offices in Switzerland. We then explore their relationship with job satisfaction as an indicator of predictive validity. We find that SDT and PSM display conceptual differentiation and SDT has a strongest relationship to job satisfaction. However, moderation analysis suggests that employees with high levels of PSM have more stable job satisfaction compared to their low-PSM counterparts.     

Impact of shared history on customers’ service evaluations

This paper investigates how shared history affects customers' cultural and personal values and impacts their perception of services’ responsiveness and satisfaction in a high-contact service setting (retail banking) from two countries with a shared history (France & Lebanon). Data were collected from 171 French and 141 Lebanese bank customers. Findings reveal that both cultural and personal values moderate the relationship between responsiveness and satisfaction, and that their impact is independent of each other. Further, findings show that in countries with a shared history, existing cultural models in literature may not be detailed enough to explain cross-cultural differences and similarities.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Seizing the opportunity of demanding customers by means of frontline service behaviors

Service businesses are increasingly facing more demanding customers as a result of a shift in power from the service providers' side to the customers' side. Related literature predominantly examines the negative side of this ongoing trend, while overlooking the positive side. The major aim of this paper is to examine how frontline employees — investment account managers — deal with the ongoing increase in customer demandingness. To address this, we draw on adaptability performance theory to test the facilitating effect of frontline employees' post-transaction service behaviors (SBs) — diligence, inducements, information communication, sportsmanship, and empathy — as a means of adaptation to higher levels of customer demand. Findings indicate that frontline employees adapt most of their SBs' intensities to match customers' demands. The results show that some SBs actually increase the effectiveness and efficiency of frontline employees' service performance, leading to an increase in customer value and satisfaction. Customer value is found as a mediator in some of the relationships between SBs and customer satisfaction. Contrary to the conception of the negative outcomes of customer demandingness, service firms need to consider taking advantage of customer demandingness by stressing the role of frontline employees in adapting to customers’ demands.     

Fairness perception of ancillary fees: Industry differences and communication strategies

This study examines fairness perception of ancillary fees across different industries, and ways to communicate ancillary fees in a way that reduces customers' feeling that they are being unfairly treated. Through surveys and consumer experiments, we show that consumers’ perception of fairness decreases as the level of ancillary fees increases, with differences across industries. Also, when the customer is given a cue that the ancillary fees are necessary for low base prices, fairness perception increases, explained by the “dual entitlement” concept. Another effective communication strategy is early disclosure, as opposed to late disclosure which decreases fairness perception and willingness to recommend.     

Investigating pharmaceutical logistics service quality with refined Kano's model

This study applies the refined Kano model and importance-satisfaction model to investigate medical institutions' satisfaction with and perceptions of importance of domestic pharmaceutical logistics services. Survey data involving 104 respondents from medical institutions are analyzed with importance-satisfaction and the refined Kano model. The results demonstrate that the refined Kano model will generate different classification of quality attributes for the pharmaceutical logistics industry, and medical institutions with different characteristics really have varying responses to quality attributes of pharmaceutical logistics services. The present research contributes to the literature by demonstrating that provision of high-value-added and crucial quality attributes by service providers can give them an edge in the market. In addition, when service providers understand their customers’ attitudes toward innovative service, it can enable them to strengthen their tactics in a competitive market.     

Engaging and retaining customers with AI and employee service

Artificial intelligence (AI) permeates in service organisations as a tool to enhance operational efficiency and improve customer experience. Reports show that most consumers prefer human interactions with service employees. Drawing on this observation, the current study examines how customers' service experiences with employees and AI influence customer engagement and loyalty. Customers’ emotional intelligence is proposed as a moderator between service experience and customer engagement. The study was conducted with hotel customers in Australia. The results show that whilst both service experience with employees and AI are significantly related to customer engagement and loyalty, only certain dimensions make significant unique variances in the outcome variables. The findings indicate that customers prefer employee service. These service experiences also have significant partial mediation effects on customer loyalty. Emotional intelligence has a significant moderation effect on customer engagement. Discussion of these findings and implications derived from this study concludes this paper.     

Non-immersive virtual reality technologies in real estate: How customer experience drives attitudes toward properties and the service provider

Although previous research has highlighted that virtual reality (VR) technologies can enhance customer experience, the efficacy of VR technologies in real estate remains unclear. Therefore, this study examines the effects of offering consumers a non-immersive VR experience via a widely available technology, that allows them to view real estate products. Participants accessed the website of a real estate agency that presented apartments through either static photos or interactive 360° visits. The latter condition was associated with better “visiting” experiences and more positive attitudes toward both the products and the agency. This study highlights the advantages of such technologies in enhancing customer experience and attitudes, particularly in the highly competitive real estate industry.