Conceptualising online banking service value

A conceptual framework for perceived value of online banking services is developed. The nature of four value dimensions is explored in the context of online banking services. In two empirical studies the relative importance of each value dimension is measured and the findings indicate that the temporal and spatial dimensions are perceived as more important than traditional dimensions based on outcome and process elements. Sub-dimensions of technical, functional, temporal, and spatial service value are also identified. It is suggested that temporal and spatial flexibility is only one aspect of temporal and spatial value. The paper extends prior research on e-services by conceptualising online banking service value as a multidimensional and hierarchical construct and separating each value dimension into sub-dimensions. It suggests a holistic perspective of service value and a dynamic nature of value dimensions: although the separate value dimensions involve different aspects of the service value, as a whole they fulfil the same need. The paper contributes to marketing research and practice with its approach to how value can be conceptualised for bank services. Explanations for the dynamics of the value dimensions are proposed.     

Governance of flexible mobile service platforms

Development of advanced mobile Internet services requires flexible service platforms. Every service offering needs generic functionalities like security, billing and customer data management. Such functionalities used to be integrated in the mobile network infrastructure but are now offered by competing service platforms. Future service platforms might be offered by operators but can also be embedded in the mobile phone or at the systems of the service providers. Studying flexibility of service platforms requires technological as well as strategic analysis, and should take into account the perspective of multiple stakeholders. Where to locate service platforms is not just a technological matter as it greatly influences flexibility of both service providers and end-users. This paper analyzes how various service platform technologies that are located at operators, mobile phone and service providers influence flexibility. We find that no single service platform offers superior flexibility to both service providers and end-users.     

The decision to outsource risk management services

We apply transaction cost economics to identify factors influencing companies’ decision to internally generate or outsource risk management services. A unique sample is used which combines publicly available data with private information supplied by 281 Australian listed companies. We find that expenditure on research and development, greater technological uncertainty, more competitive environments, more overseas sales and transaction frequency are associated with less outsourcing of risk management services. Uncertainty due to environmental diversity is associated with more outsourcing of risk management services. Companies that outsource risk management services also have lower staff turnover and provide more specialised training and longer contracts for risk management suppliers.     

ENERGY EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MANUFACTURING THROUGH AN ONTOLOGY‐REPRESENTED KNOWLEDGE BASE

Improving energy efficiency in a manufacturing company through an energy management system requires active participation of different stakeholders and involvement of different organizational entities and technical processes. Interoperability of stakeholders and entities is the key factor to achieve a successful implementation of an energy management system. Researchers have been developing approaches in applying ontologies to address interoperability issues among humans as well as machines. Ontologies have also been used for knowledge representation in different domains, such as energy management and manufacturing. In recent years, researchers have developed knowledge‐based intelligent energy management systems in buildings, especially households, which use ontologies for knowledge representation. In the manufacturing domain, ontologies have been used for knowledge management in order to provide a common formal understanding between the stakeholders, who have different background knowledge. This paper proposes an approach to apply ontology to allow knowledge‐based energy efficiency evaluation in manufacturing companies. The ontology provides a formal knowledge representation that addresses the interoperability issues due to different human stakeholders as well as machines involved in the energy management system of the company. This paper also describes the methods used to construct and to process the ontology. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring customer’s mobile banking experiences and expectations among generations X,Y and Z

Customer’s adoption of mobile banking portrays tremendous growth in developing countries. However, it seems that there is a lack of studies about customer’s experiences and expectations on mobile banking services, and more research is needed considering generational differences between mobile banking customers in Iran. The purpose of this study is to explore the customer’s mobile banking experiences and expectations among generations X, Y, and Z in a developing country context, Iran. Twenty-seven in-depth interviews were conducted from active users of mobile banking services with a generational split in Iran. A qualitative content analysis was employed to understand customer’s mobile banking experiences and expectations. This study identified specific features of different generations regarding their experiences and expectations of mobile banking services. Each generation displayed distinct characteristics of mobile banking. Generation X customers perceive mobile banking as complicated; generation Y customers prefer to use mobile banking for quick payments, while generation Z customers want to have more customized services and ranked mobile banking as a spontaneous solution. Every generation expects different features to focus on: generation X expects to have more user-friendly functions; generation Y prefers to have an online transaction tracker while generation Z appeals to have enhanced the user interface. This study offers a detailed strategic starting point for management to tailor dynamic customer expectations among different generations.     

The four things a service business must get right

Many of the management tools and techniques used in service businesses were designed to tackle the challenges of product companies. Although they are valuable to service managers, they aren't sufficient for success. In this article, Harvard Business School's Frei explains why and urges companies to add some new ones to the mix. After years of extensive research and analysis, she offers an approach for crafting a profitable service business based on four critical elements: the design of the offering, employee management, customer management, and the funding mechanism. Just like a product that's going to market, a service needs to be compellingly designed, and management must field a workforce capable of producing it at an attractive price. Additionally, however, service firms must manage their customers, who do not simply use the service but also can be integral to its production: Because customers' involvement as producers can wreak havoc on costs, companies must also develop creative ways to fund their distinctive offerings, by providing a self-service alternative, for example, or by offsetting expenses with operational savings. A close look at successful service businesses--Wal-Mart, Commerce Bank, the Cleveland Clinic, and others--reveals that effective integration of the four elements is key. There is no "right" way to combine them; the appropriate design of one depends upon the other three. If managers don't get all four pulling together, they risk pulling the enterprise apart. Incumbents can fend off attacks from highly focused upstarts by becoming multifocused--that is, by pursuing multiple niches through optimized service models rather than trying to cover the entire waterfront with one model. Shared services within a firm (functions such as HR and finance) can help, since they will enable it to generate economies of scale and experience across models.     

Does austerity drive public service innovation? Evidence from shared senior management teams in local government

Shared senior management teams are a recent and radical response to financial austerity. They aim to improve the efficiency of public services without the disruption, controversy and transaction costs associated with full-blown organizational mergers. This paper assesses the adoption of this management innovation by English district councils, identifies enablers and barriers to its effective implementation, offers a preliminary assessment of its impacts, and draws out practical lessons for policy-makers.     

E-banking in transition economies: The case of Romania

Internet banking is one of the newest Internet technology applications, which promises multiple benefits both for the financial institutions and for clients. In the last five years a large number of banks have launched websites, offering online banking services. While the implementation and functioning of these digital systems seem to be relatively smooth in the developed economies, the situation may be different in countries with economies in transition. The present paper investigates and analyses the specific conditions of an economy in transition (Romania), and the appropriate strategies for the implementation and use of e-banking services.     

On governance structures for the cloud computing services and assessing their effectiveness

This research suggests information technology (IT) governance structures to manage the cloud computing services. The interest in acquiring IT resources as a utility from the cloud computing environment is gaining momentum. The cloud computing services present organizations with opportunities to manage their IT expenditure on an ongoing basis, and access to modern IT resources to innovate and manage their continuity. However, the cloud computing services are no silver bullet. Organizations would need to have appropriate governance structures and policies in place to manage the cloud computing services. The subsequent decisions from these governance structures will ensure the effective management of the cloud computing services. This management will facilitate a better fit of the cloud computing services into organizations' existing processes to achieve the business (process-level) and the financial (firm-level) objectives. Using a triangulation approach, we suggest four governance structures for managing the cloud computing services. These structures are a chief cloud officer, a cloud management committee, a cloud service facilitation centre, and a cloud relationship centre. We also propose that these governance structures would relate directly to organizations' cloud computing services-related business objectives, and indirectly to cloud computing services-related financial objectives. Perceptive field survey data from actual and prospective cloud computing service adopters suggest that the suggested governance structures would contribute directly to cloud computing-related business objectives and indirectly to cloud computing-related financial objectives.     

Customer readiness to co-production of mobile banking services: a customer-only co-production perspective

This paper aimed to identify the antecedents and corollary of customer readiness for co-production in customer-only co-production services using mobile banking services as a context. Using a structured questionnaire, data were gathered from a sample of mobile banking customers in Ghana and the UK and the data analysis was facilitated by structural equation modelling. From the findings, the antecedents were customer socialisation, customer self-efficacy and customer motivation and the corollary was service productivity. The findings provide managers of customer-only co-production or technology-based services particularly mobile banking services with the specific factors that can be managed strategically and tactically to enhance customer readiness for co-production and service productivity. This study is one of a kind to conceptualise and empirically identify the antecedents and corollary of customer readiness for co-production within the customer-only co-production context. However, as the study was limited to mobile banking services, future studies might test the research model in other customer-only technology-based services.

     

An exploratory study of divided pricing effects on financial service quality expectations

Financial services are often provided to consumers over an extended period of time. In pricing these services, financial services marketers have the ability to charge lump-sum amounts in advance, of the time period during which the service will be provided, or to divide their prices into a sequence of payments extended over the length of the service agreement. Consumer perceptions of the offer and their subsequent expectations regarding service quality may be affected by the marketer's choice of divided or lump-sum pricing. Service quality expectations may be further affected by the reputation of the financial services provider and the risk associated with the financial transaction. The goal of this article is to explore the perceptual effects of divided versus lump-sum pricing, and potential interactions that may exist with company reputation and financial service risk. Using an experimental design, the results indicate that divided pricing has varying effects on consumer expectations of service quality, depending on firm reputation and the underlying risk associated with the financial service. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and implications for practitioners and researchers.     

Mobile banking innovators and early adopters: How they differ from other online users?

The rapid pace of technological development has created opportunities for financial service providers to offer their services via multiple electronic channels. The mobile phone is one of the most promising but so far marginally adopted channel for using financial services by consumers. Earlier literature on innovation adoption argued that those among the first to adopt new innovations possess unique characteristics compared to the majority of consumers. This paper aims to study how mobile banking innovators and early adopters differ from other users of online banking services. An internet survey was conducted among customers of a large Scandinavian bank in Finland yielding 2,675 responses. Logistic regression was used to identify variables differentiating between users of mobile banking and other online banking services. Somewhat contradictory to earlier findings the results indicate that only age (p<0.0005) and gender (p=0.010) differentiate these two groups of customers, while education (p=0.957), income (p=0.624), occupation (p=0.596) and size of the household (p=0.151) were found to be insignificant in differentiating the groups. The results offer service providers better knowledge of the typical mobile banking user thus adding value to their marketing actions in the field of electronic banking.     

公共服务战略管理中的公众参与：原因、机制与意义

公共服务战略管理是战略管理途径在公共服务领域的运用,是制定公共服务战略并实施和评价战略的过程,以此更好地满足公共需求。公众是公共服务最直接的受众,应该把公众纳入公共服务战略管理的研究框架之中。同时,适当的公众参与对公共服务的有效供给及公共服务战略绩效的提高有着十分重要的作用。     

再论经理人股票期权的会计确认

谢德仁和刘文(2002)提出了经理人股票期权会计确认的利润分配观。本文在此基础上进行进一步论证,认为经理人股票期权赠予交易的经济实质是股东为激励经理人而将部分剩余索取权(在财务会计意义上就是利润分配权)让渡给经理人,而不是经理人直接用服务来交换股票期权,经理人股票期权赠予并不以经理人服务的投入为必备前提,经理人股票期权赠予交易内含的价值运动是具有一定价值的剩余索取权(所有者权益)从现有股东那里来,流到经理人处去。因此,在经理人股票期权赠予交易的会计确认上,应将经理人股票期权的对应项目确认为企业的利润分配。     

The Politics of Transaction Costs

This article aims to develop a model for analysing the operation and outcomes of the contracting process as it applies to public services, and to explore the politics of transaction costs involved in this process using a case study of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) in the UK. For this purpose the article deals with the policy outputs from two time periods, 1991 and 1994, which are regarded as the most dynamic years in terms of CCT policy implementation. The article also demonstrates how transaction costs may be manipulated in the contracting process by the interested parties. Finally, it suggests that the politics of transaction costs should be studied systematically in the future.     

创新实施银行卡助农服务工程的实践及建议——以衢州市为例

实施银行卡助农服务工程,对于提升农村金融服务,促进社会主义新农村建设具有重要意义.衢州市以网点布局、优化服务、规范管理为抓手,创新方法、落实举措,取得了银行卡助农服务试点工作的初步成效.但是仍有一些因素影响了该服务的全面推广,建议通过政府推动、政策扶持、协调配合、完善功能等措施来进一步推进银行卡助农服务工程.     

Planning and managing primary care services: lessons from the NHS in England

High-quality primary care services are an essential part of a successful health service. However, the planning and management of such services is complex. Using evidence from a study of recent extensive changes in the English NHS, the authors highlight the need for local service oversight by managers who understand local conditions and needs. The recent English experience supports an incremental policy adjustment approach, rather than wholesale organizational change.     

Money on the move: Opportunities for financial service providers in the ‘third space’

Delivering financial services to customers on the move is an emerging imperative for the industry, as at present the services available do not meet the needs of customers. Such services could empower customers to control their own finances, at the same time as reducing costs for companies. Those in most need of such services require top line account updates at present, but also welcome the possibility of more advanced account management services. These services have the capacity greatly to improve relationships with customers; ‘guardian-services’ which monitor financial performance and respond accordingly will foster ‘good will’ and increase loyalty. While complex services requiring expert advice should remain branch based, new data-enabled mobile phones will establish new opportunities for service provision in the future.     

Developing an Assurance Standard for Carbon Emissions Disclosures

A new assurance service on carbon emissions disclosures in Australia would provide an appropriate response by the auditing profession to the challenges posed by climate change. Recognising the difficulties in developing an assurance standard on broad sustainability information, this paper focuses on the case for developing a standard on the more specific issue of corporations' carbon emissions disclosures. Credibility of disclosure of carbon emissions and any associated trading scheme would be strengthened by the implementation and enhancement of assurance standards and services.