SAP:B2B 版 Apple Store?

当客户越来越习惯打开手机登录公司ERP系统,SAP别无选择,必须寻找在移动生态系统里的生存之道,比如,建造一个针对企业级应用的Apple Store!     

Value network analysis for complex service systems: a case study on Taiwan’s mobile application services

Service Business - This paper aims to develop a service value network analysis approach based on system dynamics (SD) for analyzing the feedback structures that causes dynamic behavior of service...     

Store Brand Quality and Retailer’s Product Line Design

This study analyzes a retailer’s store brand quality decision in vertically differentiated product categories. We analyze a game theoretic model composed of one or two national brand manufacturers and a retailer, who strategically chooses the quality level(s) of its store brand(s) relative to the well-established national brand position(s) to maximize its category profit. Our analysis reveals that the nature of a retailer’s store brand quality positioning is quite different from the manufacturer’s national brand positioning decision, and that the best position for a store brand is not “as close to a national brand as possible” as previous studies suggest. Instead, the optimal quality position of each store brand is remarkably sensitive to the distribution of consumers’ willingness-to-pay. In particular, the relative proportions of quality sensitive consumers and price sensitive consumers determine the balance of three key strategic forces — the market expansion force, the retail margin force, and the consumer profitability force, leading to different optimal product line designs for store brands across different category environments. Interestingly, against multiple incumbent national brands, the retailer’s optimal product line design includes a store brand positioned at the highest quality level in the category only if most consumers are moderately quality conscious. We also analyze the implications of national brands’ brand equity for retailers’ store brand strategy.     

Plural form franchise networks: A test of Bradach’s model

This paper focuses on plural form organizations within franchise networks. Plural form can be defined as the simultaneous presence of both franchised and company-owned outlets in the same network. Bradach (1998) developed a model composed of four challenges that a franchisor should meet in order to benefit from plural form organization. The aim of the present article is to test the predictions of the Bradach’s model of plural form networks. A conceptual model regarding the determinants of the proportion of company-owned outlets (PCO) is estimated with data from French franchise networks. We show that the statutory choices are actually driven by the four challenges highlighted by Bradach, namely the challenges of expansion, concept uniformity, local responsiveness, and network-wide adaptation.     

The multichannel customer’s service experience: building satisfaction and trust

Multichannel retailers dominate today’s retail landscape. Practitioners and researchers are particularly interested in understanding how the multichannel strategy helps establishing and developing relationships with customers. Our findings, from 302 customers of multichannel financial services firms, show that frontline employees’ customer facilitation behaviors (traditional channel) have a stronger impact on satisfaction than e-psychological benefits (derived from the company’s Web site), while their positive influence on trust is not significantly different. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

“Apple: Good Business,Poor Citizen”: A Practitioner’s Response

This paper was written in response to Etzioni’s “Apple: Good Business Poor Citizen” (J Bus Ethics, 2016, doi: 10.1007/s10551-016-3233-4). It argues that Etzioni is correct in seeing the recent conflict between Apple and the FBI over cracking the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone as requiring that considerations of national security be balanced against the rights of those it might impact. There are nonetheless critical questions about one must still ask: whose rights are curbed, to what degree, and how does a society decide which side to favor? More attention needs to be paid to the privacy of other iPhone users and, importantly, the burden that hacking the phone might impose on Apple, either impairing its brand value or compromising its business potential. Finally, by asking ‘who judges the balance?’, it questions whether labeling Apple a poor citizen is premature, as they had only begun challenging the FBI’s judgment through the judicial process.     

Gibrat’s law: empirical test of Portuguese service industries using dynamic estimators

Using dynamic panel estimators, this article shows rejection of Gibrat’s law for Portuguese companies in the service sector. In companies as a whole, we find that growth depends positively on growth in the previous period and on debt, and depends negatively on size. When we subdivide the sample into small- and medium-sized companies and large companies, the results are similar to those obtained when we take companies as a whole. The differences concern the relationship between ownership control and growth, which is positive in the case of small- and medium-sized companies, and the non-influence of growth in the previous period on growth in the current period in the case of large companies.     

Recognition in India’s new service professions: gym trainers and coffee baristas

ABSTRACT

How do employees in “new services”, such as coffee baristas and gym trainers in India, see their jobs? In this paper, we build on extensive fieldwork in gyms and coffee chains that cater to the emerging Indian middle classes. Our research highlights the importance of respect and recognition in making service interactions more meaningful for new service workers. Generally hailing from the lower middle classes, new service work offers important opportunities to interact with and learn from English-speaking upper middle-class customers and clients. Besides the opportunity to interact and learn, the acknowledgement they receive for their skills and (bodily) accomplishments make such professions attractive as well. Even if this holds the potential for upward socioeconomic mobility, our findings also point at the resilience of social hierarchies. Drawing on literature on service interactions and new middle-class formation in India, this paper provides important insight into how young Indians navigate and negotiate the opportunities and pitfalls that come with the country's changing socioeconomic landscape.     

“Ethical and Legal First Amendment Implications of FBI v. Apple: A Commentary on Etzioni’s ‘Apple: Good Business,Poor Citizen?’”

In this article I address the question of whether corporations should be considered as part of the basic structure of society as defined in Rawls’s Theory of Justice. To do so, it becomes necessary to understand which institutions are crucial for defining Rawls’s basic structure of society. I will argue that a social ontology aimed at understanding how human institutions influence various aspects presupposed in Rawls’s basic structure of society can help addressing this topic. To do so, I shall draw upon the social ontology elaborated by Searle, who follows an approach that is particularly suitable for showing how Rawls’s basic structure of society already contains an institutional setting that must take corporations into account in its very formulation, due to the implications of the activities of the corporation for distributive justice.     

Dimensions of service quality and satisfaction in healthcare: a patient’s satisfaction index

The assessment of patients’ satisfaction levels, and the knowledge of what factors influence satisfaction are very important for healthcare managers as it influences healthcare results and healthcare institutions financial results. The objective of this research is to analyse patients’ satisfaction levels in a set of four Portuguese primary Healthcare Centres, through the estimation of a satisfaction index, which simultaneously explains which dimensions of healthcare quality influence that satisfaction the most. For that, a conceptual model of patients’ satisfaction in primary healthcare was tested using data from a sample of 414 patients. Partial Least Squares path modelling (PLS) was the technique chosen to evaluate the proposed model. The results show that patients’ satisfaction is 60.887 in a scale from 1 to 100, revealing only a medium level of satisfaction. It is also possible to conclude that the most important positive effects on satisfaction are the ones linked to the patient/doctor relationship, the quality of facilities and the interaction with administrative staff, by this order.     

Service providers’ sustainable service innovation: service-dominant logic

This study examined the service innovation in different service providers with multiple case-study approach. From the perspective of service-dominant logic, four service innovation development models can be distinguished in Technology Development Program companies in Taiwan, including service system integrator and niche market, innovative service solution provider and niche market, innovative service solution provider and mass market, and service system integrator and mass market. Service providers develop ICT platforms, customer relationship management systems, community commerce services, and multi-channel services that are appropriate for a specific industry. On the one hand, active improvement of ICT service system integration extends company capabilities toward external cooperative partners through the provision of integrated product services and comprehensive solutions. On the other hand, innovative service solutions optimize consumer experience and customer relationship management and improve business effectiveness and reduce operations costs due to an important role assigned to services and experience in product sales.     

Employee emotional response toward healthcare organization’s service recovery efforts and its influences on service recovery performance

Previous studies on service recovery performance of frontline employees have focused primarily on the direct relationship with the organizational efforts for service recovery. However, based on the reformulation of attitude theory (appraisal-emotional response-behaviour), we believe that the emotional responses (work engagement and burnout) toward organizational efforts for service recovery of frontline employees mediate the relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how healthcare frontline employees show their emotional response toward the organizational efforts for service recovery and it influence on actual recovery performance. This study uses two conflicting emotional responses, burnout and work engagement, to examine how employees react toward organizational efforts, helping better understand employees?? evaluations of the efforts. Research model and hypothesis were tested using a sample of frontline employees who perform none-clinical activities in hospitals. The results showed that teamwork and empowerment have positive effects on work engagement. In addition, customer complaint management, empowerment, and teamwork influenced negatively on burnout. Lastly, work engagement and burnout showed statistically significant impact of service recovery performance of frontline employees. Among the organizational efforts for service recovery, teamwork was the most important factor in improving frontline employees?? work engagement and lessened their burnout, respectively. Interestingly, customer service training had a negative effect on burnout. Besides, by comparing our research model to two alternative models, we confirmed the validity of the research model.     

Exploring manager’s perspective of service quality strategies in Malaysian Banking Industry

In service industry, the subject of service quality remains crucial as business strive to maintain a comparative advantage in the marketplace. In aftermath of globalization, the operating environment for banking industry has become more dynamic and competitive. Banks have evolved to become diversified financial providers instead of traditional banking-only service providers. With bank placing emphasis on a mutually beneficial bank–customer relationship, customer loyalty must be pursued through repeat purchases. Central to achieving this is often the quality of services offered by the bank should satisfy the customer’s needs. This article attempts to identify any service gaps in Malaysian banking industry and to recommend effective strategies to close these service gaps from bank mangers’ and executives perspectives based on GAPs Model of Service Quality (GAPs Model). Using qualitative data collected from interviews with 30 bank managers and executives, this article provides effectives strategies to close each of the gaps in GAPs Model. It is hoped that the empirical evidences and recommendations provided in this article shed some light to management of banks to improve upon their customer service quality in order to benefit from customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and other behavioural outcomes which will lead to greater competitive advantage and profitability to the banks concerned.     

Betreuungsrecht: Hier hakt’s

Zusammenfassung  Vollmacht oder Rechtliche Betreuung — Wenn Menschen aufgrund einer psychischen Krankheit oder einer k?rperlichen, geistigen oder seelischen Behinderung nicht mehr in der Lage sind, ihre pers?nlichen Angelegenheiten zu regeln, ben?tigen sie eine Person, die diese Aufgaben für sie übernimmt. Existiert keine Vorsorgevollmacht, bestellt das Vormundschaftsgericht auf Antrag oder von Amts wegen einen Rechtlichen Betreuer.     

Burger King and McDonald’s: Where’s the Spillover?

This paper studies how spillover effects from competitors’ choices affect a firm’s decision to open a store. Using panel data from the UK’s fast food industry, I propose and estimate a game of entry under incomplete information that incorporates spillover effects between firms’ entry decisions. A positive spillover is identified for Burger King – increasing the stock of existing McDonald’s by one outlet increases Burger King’s estimated equilibrium probability of opening a new store by approximately 18 percentage points. Furthermore, the estimated model suggests that this spillover affects Burger King’s variable profit, as opposed to its fixed cost of entry. It is less clear whether this externality matters for McDonald’s.     

Let’s get real: new continental philosophy’s methodological imperative

This paper elucidates the implications of the ontological turn within continental philosophy for social researchers. In my literature review, I focus on the work of ?i?ek, Badiou, and Ferraris, and I identify three challenges which we must address. First, their work demands increasingly realist approaches to social research. Building on this, the second challenge is to find a methodology which can serve this realist approach; here, I argue that critique of the critical theory tradition is most appropriate. The third and final challenge is to identify appropriate concrete methods. I do so and then provide an example of how these methods could be applied in the study of sustainable food production. Ultimately, I argue that the most important intervention is an ethical one, as this tradition compels us to produce knowledge which benefits the comparatively disadvantaged in society. I conclude with specific implications for my own field of consumer research.     

Customers’ emotions in service failure and recovery: a meta-analysis

Marketing Letters - Customers’ emotions have emerged as a dominant dimension in the complaint-handling domain. This research provides a quantitative synthesis of the role of emotions...     

Artistic intervention,intellectual capital,and service innovation: a case study of a Taiwan’s hotel

This study adopts the perspective of artistic intervention to argue that art is a catalyst. Interdisciplinary cooperation between artists and managers prompts artists to enter the corporate world, intervening in organizational routines and operations and thereby promoting service innovation. This paper, which also adopts the perspective of intellectual capital (IC), explores the characteristics of IC management through an in-depth case study of a successful art-focused Taiwanese hotel that has adopted long-term artistic intervention. The results show the importance of analyzing IC as a stock of resources. Hotel managers must emphasize the importance of managing the physical and the intangible resources, and both embedded in employees and processes of hotels. The relationship of a hotel with its external stakeholders and customers are particularly good sources for improving IC and promoting service innovation. This paper has management implications for the artistic interventions of the studied hotel and recommends future research directions.     

The effects of product attributes and service quality of transportation card solutions on service user’s continuance and word-of-mouth intention

Service Business - Product attributes are an inherent quality considered as an essential factor for consumers’ purchasing intention for product. Despite the increase of consumer interest in...