Applying fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) to identify solutions of service delivery system for port of Kaohsiung

The main purpose of this paper is to apply fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) model to identify solutions of service delivery system (SDS) for port of Kaohsiung from the viewpoints of customers. At first, to facilitate the main issue of the QFD problem, however, the ‘what’ question of customer needs and ‘how’ problem of the services have to be made, which are two major components and be emphasized on the house of quality (HOQ) matrices. In conjunction with fuzzy sets theory, hence, the systematic procedures using fuzzy QFD were proposed in this paper. Subsequently, a case study for port of Kaohsiung demonstrated the systematic appraisal process for identifying solutions of SDS. The results of empirical study show that (1) 10 key factors are deemed as to have priority to improve the quality of SDS for Kaohsiung port; and (2) eight feasible solutions for improving service quality performance are identified. Moreover, it is suggested that port Authority of Kaohsiung should listen attentively the voice of customers and emphasize on exploiting these customer requirements effectively. And then develop the ‘how’ issues of profiles of solutions, which should continuously strengthen the perspectives of customer, internal business process, and learning and growth, respectively.     

A Resource-Centred Interpretation of Export Performance

Consistent with Mahoney and Pandian's (1992) vision of the resource-based view as the emergent language for conversations within strategic management, this paper has employed a resource-based framework in integrating and interpreting identified influences on export performance. Aggregate evidence suggests the critical importance of several resource-related factors, including having top management staff with relevant experiential, orientational and attitudinal resources; ‘co-locating’ within resource-supporting clusters; possessing organisational-wide capabilities in export-related knowledge development and planning, product innovation, and quality service delivery; and leveraging strategically-relevant resources embodied in external partners. The theoretical, managerial, policy, and future research implications of these findings are discussed.     

珠海市住宅小区物业管理服务质量调查研究

文章基于SERVQUAL模型建立住宅物业管理服务质量评价指标体系,并依此设计问卷来对珠海市物业管理服务质量进行调查。研究发现,业主总体较满意,但在某些方面还有待提高,并在此基础上提出一些有针对性的提高服务质量的措施与建议。     

Fuzzy Decision Making for Market Positioning and Developing Strategy for Improving Service Quality in Department Stores

Conventionally designed questionnaires frequently use the Likert Scale to gauge the feeling of respondents. The dichotomy and the same interval integer are clear-cut. Owing to the fuzziness of human thinking, this approach is inadequate and too simple to rule subject’s way and measure complex human thinking and cognition. Consequently, this investigation integrated the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and adopted a Fuzzy set theory based approach. The five criteria of SERVQUAL were tested for four department stores using Fuzzy set theory to clarify the positioning of service quality in the department store market and propose implementation priorities for different service strategies. This result permits managers to collate the service strategy of the benchmarking department store and its local competitors, and also enables department store decision-makers to consider the weights of the five dimensions when modifying the service strategy. The analytical results can be used to improve strategy development, and to devise superior and more effective management methods.     

Public service quality evaluation with SERVQUAL and AHP-TOPSIS: A case of Philippine government agencies

This paper proposes an integrated SERVQUAL model, analytic hierarchy process, and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (AHP-TOPSIS) method to evaluate service quality among employment-related government agencies. A case study was conducted in the Philippines to establish critical dimensions attributed to the modified SERVQUAL model investigated covering five government agencies. It is found out that responsiveness dimension needs the most improvement in terms of carrying out quality service while promptness of services is considered as the most important sub-dimension. Furthermore, the proposed approach can enable government administrators to lead its efforts and resources in improving service quality to critical dimensions and sub-dimensions.     

基于灰色模糊理论的服务质量评价

服务质量评价一直是服务质量管理的一个难题,目前大多数学者都接受的评价方法是SERVQUAL评价方法。本文以灰色模糊理论为基础,建立数学模型,结合SERVQUAL评价指标,得出一种新的服务质量评价方法。     

基于服务科学构建旅游服务质量评价模型的研究

本研究旨在为旅游业提供可靠的服务水平测量工具,帮助旅游管理者找寻服务质量的改进方向,提高服务水平。根据服务科学管理与工程(SSME)的研究方法,界定出旅游服务质量的5个维度,22项指标,在进行了信度、效度检验的基础上建立服务质量评价模型,分析评价了松潘旅游服务质量。     

Qualitative analysis of feminine morality and visible personality characteristics among young adults

This article documents the perceptions and judgments of youth about character of female as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, based on her visible personality characteristics. A qualitative study is carried out among the undergraduate students in two public sector universities. This study highlights contextual factors linked with the choice of clothing and quality of physical appearance among young girls. The judgments about a girl’s character are based on immediate, apparent personality characteristics. This study found that there are two contrasting categories of clothing and visible personality associated with positive and negative feminine morality. Certain expectations are also found to be associated with the attire of young women in Pakistani society which restricts their individual choices. Pakistani and Britain national boys judged girl’s character as immoral or bad based on cosmetics usage, fashion-ability, body exposedness, physical attractiveness, friendliness, bold temperament, and easiness while interaction with boys.     

Towards a framework for the elicitation of dilemmas

This paper covers the main findings of the doctoral research that was concerned with seeking to extend aspects of dilemma theory. In professional practice, the Trompenaars Hampden-Turner Dilemma Reconciliation Process^TM is a vehicle delivering dilemma theory in application. It informs a manager or leader on how to explore the dilemmas they face, how to reconcile the tensions that result, and how to structure the action steps for implementing the reconciled solutions. This vehicle forms the professional practice of the author who seeks to bring more rigor to consulting practice and thereby also contribute to theory development in the domain. The critical review of dilemma theory reveals that previous authors are inconsistent and variously invalid in their use of the terms ‘dilemma theory,’ ‘dilemma methodology,’ ‘dilemma process,’ ‘dilemma reconciliation,’ etc., and therefore an attempt is made to resolve these inconsistencies by considering whether ‘dilemmaism’ at the meta-level might be positioned as a new paradigm of inquiry for (management) research that embodies ontological, epistemological, and methodical premises that frame an approach to the resolution of real world business problems in (multi) disciplinary; (multi) functional and (multi) cultural business environments. This research offers contributions to knowledge, professional practice and theory development from the exploration of the SPID model as a way to make the elicitation of dilemmas more rigorous and structured and in the broader context of exploring ‘dilemmaism’ as a new paradigm of inquiry.     

Factor analysis of the Big Five Questionnaire using polychoric correlations in children

Although the Big Five Questionnaire for children (BFQ-C) (C. Barbaranelli et al., Manuale del BFQ-C. Big Five Questionnaire Children, O.S. Organizazioni, Firenze, 1998) is an ordinal scale, its dimensionality has often been studied using factor analysis with Pearson correlations. In contrast, the present study takes this ordinal metric into account and examines the dimensionality of the scale using factor analysis based on a matrix of polychoric correlations. The sample comprised 852 subjects (40.90% boys and 59.10% girls). As in previous studies the results obtained through exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor structure (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional instability and openness). However, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis were consistent with both a four and five-factor structure, the former showing a slightly better fit and adequate theoretical interpretation. These data confirm the need for further research as to whether the factor ‘Openness’ should be maintained as an independent factor (five-factor model), or whether it would be best to omit it and distribute its items among the factors ‘Extraversion’ and ‘Conscientiousness’ (four-factor model).     

基于SERVQUAL的物流园区服务质量评价研究

从服务保障、服务提供和服务质量管理三个方面对物流园区服务做出了详细的阐述,并将SERVQUAL方法应用到物流园区服务质量评价中,从有形性、保证性、响应性、移情性和可靠性五个方面建立评价指标体系对物流园区服务质量进行评估。     

Using Print Media Indicators in Management Fashion Research

Quantitative empirical research into ‘management fashions’ or ‘organization concepts’ is dominated by studies using print media indicators (PMI). Such research builds on the simple premise that the number of publications on an organization concept in the course of time reflects managerial interest in this concept. However, whilst PMI may be fruitfully used to study management fashions, this use is less straightforward than appears commonly assumed. We aim to fulfil the need for a methodological paper discussing the possibilities and limitations of using PMI. Thereby we draw on insights from bibliometrics and management fashion research, including our own ongoing research.     

University training for entrepreneurial competencies: Its impact on intention of venture creation

This study tests the effect of entrepreneurship education programmes on the entrepreneurial competencies and intention of university students in order to confirm (or disconfirm) conventional wisdom that entrepreneurial education increases the intention to start a business. We address the following research question: Do entrepreneurship education programmes raise the entrepreneurial competencies and intention of students? We used a pretest-post-test quasi-experimental design. Data were collected from 864 university students of Castilla & León (Spain), from 863 students (403 taking the programme and 460 in a control group). The results showed that students in the ‘programme’ group increased their competencies and intention towards self-employment, whereas students in the control group did not. The findings contribute to the theories of planned behaviour and to the literature of entrepreneurship education itself, by revealing the effect of specific benefits for the students derived from the entrepreneurship ‘programme’.     

Political disagreement in the classroom: testing cultural theory through structured observation

The cultural theory pioneered by Dame Mary Douglas has been tested with a range of research methods, but it has not yet been made subject to a ‘structured observation’. This method has been developed in psychology and management studies, and is especially useful for testing cultural theory’s prediction that fatalistic, hierarchical, egalitarian, and individualistic ways of perceiving and justifying tend to emerge in group debates about pressing social and environmental issues. We present the results of a structured observation of this prediction. Groups of high school students (aged 17–19) were asked for their opinions concerning three to five ‘wicked’ (i.e., highly complex) problems, and to discuss how to resolve them. Each utterance was coded according to the rationalities proposed by cultural theory. The results confirm cultural theory’s hypothesis that all four specific ways of defining, perceiving and resolving a wicked problem emerge when a number of people debate such an issue. We also discuss how Douglas’ cultural theory can be further developed and tested. Finally, we use our study to outline how the method of structured observation can contribute to political culture research in general.     

The cost of Corporate Social Responsibility: the case of the Community Reinvestment Act

A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) cost minimization model is employed to estimate the cost to thrift institutions of achieving a rating of ‘outstanding’ under the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act, which is viewed as an act of voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). There is no difference in overall cost efficiency between ‘outstanding’ and minimally compliant ‘satisfactory’ thrifts. However, the sources of cost inefficiency do differ, and an ‘outstanding’ rating involves annual extra cost of $6.547 million or, 1.2% of total costs. This added cost is the shadow price of CSR since it is not an explicit output or input in the DEA cost model. Before and after-tax rates of return are the same for the ‘outstanding’ and ‘satisfactory’ thrifts, which implies a recoupment of the extra cost. The findings are consistent with CSR as a management choice based on balancing marginal cost and marginal revenue. An incidental finding is that larger thrifts are less efficient.

Measuring opinion distributions

In this study it will be argued that the perceived distribution of opinions among others is important for opinion research. Three different ways of measuring the perception of opinion distributions in survey research are compared: (a) by means of a questionwhat most people think about an issue, (b) by means of a questionhow many people are perceived to agree with an issue-statement, (c) by means of ‘line-production-boxes’, a special version ofmagnitude estimation. The results indicate that ‘line-production-boxes’ can improve data quality, but have also some drawbacks which will have to be dealt with. ‘Line-production-boxes’ give a wealth of information about individual differences in the forms of perceived opinion distributions. Although the normal distribution is used often, many other distribution forms are also used. The method of ‘line-production-boxes’ is compared with the method of estimating percentage points. Although high correlations suggest a good concurrent validity, some systematic differences do exist. New research directions are suggested.     

Revolution, evolution, or status quo? Guidelines for efficiency measurement in health care

This paper discusses ways forward in terms of making efficiency measurement in the area of health care more useful. Options are discussed in terms of the potential introduction of guidelines for the undertaking of studies in this area, in order to make them more useful to policy makers and those involved in service delivery. The process of introducing such guidelines is discussed using the example of the development of guidelines in economic evaluation of health technologies. This presents two alternative ways forward—‘revolution’, the establishment of a panel to establish initial guidelines, or ‘evolution’—the more gradual development of such guidelines over time. The third alternative of ‘status quo’, representing the current state of play, is seen as the base case scenario. It is concluded that although we are quite a way on in terms of techniques and publications, perhaps revolution, followed by evolution is the way forward.     

GenD An Evolutionary System for Resampling in Survey Research

The paper is a preliminary research report and presents a method for generating new records using an evolutionary algorithm (close to but different from a genetic algorithm). This method, called Pseudo-Inverse Function (in short P-I Function), was designed and implemented at Semeion Research Centre (Rome). P-I Function is a method to generate new (virtual) data from a small set of observed data. P-I Function can be of aid when budget constraints limit the number of interviewees, or in case of a population that shows some sociologically interesting trait, but whose small size can seriously affect the reliability of estimates, or in case of secondary analysis on small samples. The applicative ground is given by research design with one or more dependent and a set of independent variables. The estimation of new cases takes place according to the maximization of a fitness function and outcomes a number as large as needed of ‘virtual’ cases, which reproduce the statistical traits of the original population. The algorithm used by P-I Function is known as Genetic Doping Algorithm (GenD), designed and implemented by Semeion Research Centre; among its features there is an innovative crossover procedure, which tends to select individuals with average fitness values, rather than those who show best values at each ‘generation’. A particularly thorough research design has been put on: (1) the observed sample is half-split to obtain a training and a testing set, which are analysed by means of a back propagation neural network; (2) testing is performed to find out how good the parameter estimates are; (3) a 10% sample is randomly extracted from the training set and used as a reduced training set; (4) on this narrow basis, GenD calculates the pseudo-inverse of the estimated parameter matrix; (5) ‘virtual’ data are tested against the testing data set (which has never been used for training). The algorithm has been proved on a particularly difficult ground, since the data set used as a basis for generating ‘virtual’ cases counts only 44 respondents, randomly sampled from a broader data set taken from the General Social Survey 2002. The major result is that networks trained on the ‘virtual’ resample show a model fit as good as the one of the observed data, though ‘virtual’ and observed data differ on some features. It can be seen that GenD ‘refills’ the joint distribution of the independent variables, conditioned by the dependent one. This paper is the result of deep collaboration among all authors. Cinzia Meraviglia wrote § 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8; Giulia Massini wrote §5; Daria Croce performed some elaborations with neural networks and linear regression; Massimo Buscema wrote §2.     

A fuzzy service quality based approach for performance evaluation of educational units

Educational unites try to make efficient use of resources to achieve higher service qualities. This paper presents a new hybrid fuzzy approach based on service quality for performance evaluation of educational units. The proposed approach includes four stages: firstly, evaluation and gap analysis of students' expectations and perceptions in the service quality of educational units are performed based on fuzzy SERVQUAL questionnaires. In the second stage, the corresponding weights of dimensions and sub-dimensions of SERVQUAL are determined via fuzzy AHP method. In the third stage, the educational units are ranked using fuzzy TOPSIS method with respect to service quality sub-dimensions. Finally, a fuzzy DEA method is applied to determine the efficiency of educational units based on their service quality ratings. The approach is used for performance evaluation of eight higher education institutes in Iran. The proposed approach increased the accuracy of performance evaluation of educational units based on service quality.     

The next Silicon Valley? On the relationship between geographical clustering and public policy

Inspired by the success of geographical clustering in California, many governments pursue cluster policy in the hope to build the next Silicon Valley. In this paper we critically assess the relationship between geographical clustering and public policy. With the help of a range of theoretical insights and case study examples we show that cluster policy in fact is a risky\ venture, especially when it is tried to copy the success of regional ‘best practices’. Therefore, we advice policy makers to move away from the Silicon Valley model and to modestly start from a place-specific approach of ‘Regional Realism’.