Trajectories for Driving the Diffusion of e-Negotiation Service Providers in Supply Chains: An Action Research Approach

ABSTRACT

The recent proliferation of online-based trade makes negotiations with service providers for global supply networks evermore challenging. The Internet is believed to be a viable means for enabling and facilitating these supply chain interactions. As such, commercial web-based services that support negotiation processes have emerged (i.e., e-negotiation services). Even though these services have promising benefits for supply chain participants, they have not been accepted by most business users. Current e-negotiation studies fail to capture the substantive reasons of this low acceptance as they typically ignore real-world aspects of commercial negotiations. As such, this study argues that an action research approach is a plausible means to study this issue, and to drive changes in the e-negotiations services market. Accordingly, a research plan is outlined with guidelines and recommendations for future action research projects.     

Traders’ Subjective Appraisals: Comparison of Negotiations and Auctions

ABSTRACT

The assessments of business trade often involve economic and relational concerns. They may become more challenging when our understanding of the impacts of trading mechanisms is still limited. The current experimental study compares two generic trading mechanisms, namely, multibilateral multi-issue negotiations and multicriteria auctions. By examining economic measures and subjective appraisals in controlled exchange episodes, the study shows some subtle relationships between mechanism use, substantive outcomes, and subjective appraisals. While use of negotiations versus auctions did not reveal significant differences on economic measures, traders are strongly influenced by the gain-or-loss contingency. When they win a contract, their subjective appraisals are heavily influenced by their achieved substantive outcomes. When they do not win a contract, they feel auctions are better than negotiations. The results confirm the assessments of business trade that rely solely on substantive measures are not sufficient.     

A Comparison of Buyers and Nonbuyers of Extended Service Contracts

ABSTRACT

Only a few empirical research studies about extended service contracts have appeared in the services marketing literature. This study used Chi Square analysis as a methodology to distinguish between buyers and non-buyers of extended service contracts. The findings suggest that while buyers and non-buyers were very similar demographically and psychographically, there were considerable differences in motivation for purchasing or not buying. Of the ten motivation variables, eight were significant at or beyond p < 0.05. Moreover, some ethical implications for professional salespeople marketing these service contracts were discussed.     

Examination of Credence and Noncredence Service Advertisement Strategies in the United States and India

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the differences in advertising strategies of services marketers in two culturally distinct markets by classifying services on the basis of search, experience, and credence attributes. A content analysis of 221 service print ads revealed that the type of service serves an important role for using appeal and service quality cues in service ads. In the case of credence services, ads in India are more likely to contain a reliability dimension of the service quality, and ads in the United States are more likely to utilize responsiveness cues.     

Service Quality Perceptions of Foreign Direct Investors

ABSTRACT

In this article, the potential disparity between foreign direct investment (FDI) clients' service quality expectations and the actual service experienced (Gap 5) and how these impacts FDI inflows are investigated. Methodological triangulation encompassing quan-titative and qualitative methods is used. Contrary to the quantitative findings, the qualitative findings indicate that Gap 5 exists among the FDI clients. This is the first time the service quality model (performance-based construct) has been used to study FDI issues. Rather than applying the predominant “inside-out” mindset, the model adopts an “outside-in” mindset that uses perceived (actual) service as a reference point for clients' evaluation of service quality.     

A Multi-Agent Model for Overlapping Negotiations

In the last few years, research on multi-agent systems has addressed different aspects of intelligent negotiations using methods developed in different domains including game theory, decision theory, and economic models. The research proposed in Andersson and Sandholm (1999), Sandholm (1993), Sandholm and Lesser (1995) and Aknine et?al. (2004), Aknine (2002) are significant examples. However, only some of this work focuses on problems related to complex negotiations, particularly those concerning new generation applications. This new research raises fundamental difficulties we have encountered, especially in overlapping negotiations and combined negotiations. This article is interested essentially in overlapping negotiations, which include several agent roles in a same negotiation. One or more agents may play each of these roles. This work shows that the high-level negotiation models are necessary in order to control the execution of overlapping negotiation processes, since, in these negotiations we are facing both classical problems of multi-agent negotiations based on two agents’ roles and the problems concerned with the interdependence of these negotiations. Synchronization of these different processes is thus necessary because of the multiplicity of the roles. Thus, this paper presents a formalized negotiation model, which deals with this problem. It gives a theoretical analysis of the suggested model and discusses the results of the experimental evaluation. To perform this evaluation, we use the application of intelligent service agencies on the Internet.     

Resource integration through digitalisation: a service ecosystem perspective

ABSTRACT

As digitalisation increasingly encompasses entire service ecosystems, it modifies resource integration patterns that connect ecosystem actors through strong and weak ties. To clarify how technological development contributes to this change, and how resource integration transforms the service ecosystem, this qualitative case study explores the digitalisation strategy of a market-leading systems integrator in the maritime industry. Based on 40 depth interviews with managers, the findings show how technology increasingly serves as a key operant resource in the transformation of resource integration patterns. The study contributes to ecosystem dynamics research by identifying major differences between the pre-digitalised and digitalised states of a service ecosystem, and demonstrates the dual role of technology in both increasing pattern complexity and facilitating coordination of that complexity.     

Hero shots: involved fathers conquering new discursive territory in consumer culture

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore how visual expressions of culture offer new discursive territory within which consumer cultural ideals can be negotiated on a global scale. Through a critical visual analysis of the revelatory case Swedish Dads, we find hero shots depicting involved fathers where children’s needs and the hermetic confines of the home take center stage, as opposed to the traditional fatherhood ideals portrayed in western contemporary advertising, media, and popular culture. We demonstrate how the Swedish state’s gender ideology was encoded into a communicative event in the form of hero shots and subsequently dispersed by visual consumers as well as political and commercial stakeholders pushing this particular agenda and/or capitalizing on its tendencies. This in such a way that the event conquered new discursive territory fostering new types of consumer cultural negotiations on fatherhood ideals also in other cultural settings.     

Health of America,Optimized in Good Taste

Abstract

Eating healthy certainly seems to have proven more than a fad. it is likely to pose greater challenges in the next century to both manufacturers, and distributors of food products. Reduction of fat in individual products and/or manufacturing substitutes lacking “minimum acceptable taste” without study of such disturbances in the overall purchasing and consuming behavior is not likely to be well rewarded. In this paper I take such an overall approach. I show that changes in our shopping lists need not be draconian to meet nutritional guidelines of even the most demanding of the health authorities. I use the Recommended Daily Allowances, the energy requirements and the special requirements of the PR1TIKIN(r) longevity centers as constraints, and minimize the sum of squared differences between our solution vector and the average American Food Consumption profile revealed in the Department of Agriculture (DA) survey of food consumption 1977-78.     

Using Group Support Systems (GSS) in the Teaching of International Business

SUMMARY

It is now possible to use computerized Group Support Systems (GSS) to improve many types of group processes. Such systems can be effective in helping teach International Business (IB) classes in such areas as strategic planning, negotiations, case studies, and course evaluations. When contemplating the use of GSS in teaching IB, instructors must consider hardware, software, facilities, personnel, applications, and other issues.     

Comparative Analysis of Text Data in Successful Face-to-Face and Electronic Negotiations

Various combination of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning methods offer ample opportunities wherever texts are an important element of an application or a research area. Such methods discover patterns and regularities in the data, seek generalization and in effect learn new knowledge. We have employed such methods in learning from a large amount of textual data. Our application is electronic negotiations. The genre of texts found in electronic negotiations may seem limited. It is an important research question whether our methods and findings apply equally well to texts that come from face-to-face negotiations. In order to confirm such more general applicability, we have analyzed comparable collections of texts from electronic and face-to-face negotiations. We present our findings on the extent of similarity between these two related but distinct genres. In this study we have analyzed similarities in the text data of electronic and face-to-face negotiations. The results show that – in certain conditions – vocabulary richness, language complexity and text predictability are similar.This is an expanded version of a paper published in the Proceedings of FINEXIN 2005 (Workshop on the Analysis of Formal and Informal Information Exchange during Negotiations), 31–42, Ottawa, Canada, May 2005.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Employee Behavior/ Non-Behavior and Customer Satisfaction in Quick Service Restaurants

ABSTRACT

The major objective of this research is to explore the relationship between employee behavior/non-behavior and customer satisfaction in quick service restaurants. Four behavioral components (employee reliability, employee responsiveness, employee assurance, and employee empathy) and one non-behavioral component (the physical environment) are identified.

The survey questionnaire included the modified SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1991) in addition to questions about satisfaction. A convenience sample of 125 participants was used to collect data by frequenting selected quick service restaurants. The results identified significant positive correlations between three of the five behavior/non-behavior constructs (employee responsiveness, employee assurance, and the physical environment) with three of the four identified dimensions of customer satisfaction (satisfaction with the food, satisfaction with the task/service, satisfaction with the price, and overall satisfaction).     

Understanding Mature Customers in the Restaurant Business

Summary

The study reported here examined die differences between intangible service experiences of mature and younger customers in quick-service, casual, and fine-dining restaurants. The authors used ten unpleasant service experiences to identify the significant experiences that can impede satisfaction in three types of restaurants. No unpleasant service experiences were significant for either mature or young customers. However, in the casual dining restaurants, the (1) lack of product knowledge and (2) inattentive servers created significantly unpleasant service experiences for mature customers. In the quick service restaurant, the (1) lack of product knowledge, (2) inattentive servers, (3) rudeness, and (4) lack of cleanliness produced significantly unpleasant service experiences which in turn impeded the satisfaction for the mature customer. The reasons for these findings are discussed, and the authors suggest that the restaurant industry pay more attention to the mature population in order to increase both customer satisfaction levels and profits. A literature review precedes a discussion of the characteristics and service requirements of mature restaurant customers.     

WTO电子商务谈判与数字贸易规则博弈

2019年1月,76个WTO成员签署《电子商务联合声明》,确认启动与贸易有关的电子商务议题谈判,旨在制订电子商务/数字贸易领域的国际规则。本文在对谈判成员、提案内容和规则议题进行梳理的基础上,研究分析了数字贸易规则博弈焦点和国家间立场分歧。研究发现:从成员构成看,发达经济体是谈判的主导者,发展中经济体参与谈判和提交提案的比例偏低;从议题设计看,谈判内容远超以往电子商务谈判,更多聚焦于跨境数据流动、源代码披露等数字贸易规则议题;从博弈焦点看,谈判核心包括数据要素、市场空间、监管治理、技术发展与收益分配5个方面,发达经济体和发展中经济体的诉求差异巨大。在此形势下,中国既要加快完善国内体制机制,营造有利于数字经济和数字贸易发展的环境,又要积极参与数字贸易国际规则制订,提出中国规则主张。     

Gender Differences in Service Quality Expectations in the Fast Food Industry

Abstract

Services marketers can influence the evaluation of service quality by “managing” customer expectations. Expectations can also provide insights into market segmentation strategies. Gender is often used as a segmentation variable since it is easily identifiable, accessible, and profitable. The purpose of this study was to examine if there are any gender-based differences in the expectations of service quality in the fast food industry. Hypotheses on gender differences in expectations were tested by an ANOVA, where the composite scores of each of the five dimensions of fast food service were used as dependent variables. The expectations of women were significantly higher than men in four of the five dimensions of fast food service quality.     

Vendros in Brazil: Negotiating an international technology transfer

Vendros Technologies, an American software and equipment vendor, entered into negotiations about a technology licensing agreement with Netcom Brasil, a Brazilian telecommunications company, in March 1999. The negotiations became a swirl of conflicting points of view due to differences between Vendros and the contractor that wrote the program supporting Vendros's technology, cultural differences between the Americans and the Brazilians regarding negotiating practices, differences in the legal systems of the two countries, and problems stemming from Brazil's then‐erratic economy. Further complicating the negotiations were substantial differences of opinion on ownership of the technology, rights to source code, operational guarantees, and payment/currency risk. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Transformative service research and service design: synergistic effects in healthcare

ABSTRACT

This conceptual paper answers the question: How do we design service experiences in whole to increase the well-being of all participants in the healthcare system – patients, families, and caregivers? In order to do so, we position service design as an essential tool and even a mindset needed for transformative service research success. We discuss the transformative role service design plays in improving service and consumer entities’ well-being with a focus on how this approach can lead to improved healthcare service outcomes. We also add to the conversation surrounding service and consumer entities’ well-being by broadening the concept and application of service design to consider social, existential, psychological, and physical well-being. We particularly explore how healthcare services can benefit from further consumer engagement and collaborative patient–provider relationships, two key factors essential for redesigning the industry.     

People-Oriented Marketing Managers in Service Organizations

Abstract

This paper explores the role of people-oriented marketing managers in service organizations. In particular, the interaction variables between organizational behavior of managers and organizational design issues are analyzed. Variables addressed include the following: centralization, decentralization, bureaucracy, matrix management, open environment, individuality, people as resource, unification of people, handling people problems, democratic methods, development of people, and importance of people.     

Hotel Service Recovery and Service Quality: Influences of Corporate Image and Generational Differences in the Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

ABSTRACT

As the number of tourists continues to grow globally, the hospitality industry players inevitably face more challenges. High competition among the competitors and the emergence of new technologies such as online booking platforms make the competition more intense among players in the hospitality sector. The quality of services provided is undoubtedly crucial to the success of the hotel. Hence, any service failure has to be addressed appropriately in order to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and to keep the image of the hotel intact. It is therefore vital that service recovery programs are carefully planned to meet various types of service failures which may inevitably occur. In this study, questionnaires were distributed to customers who had experienced service failures. The aim was to investigate the influence of service quality and service recovery on satisfaction and, ultimately, the effect on customer loyalty. The research also tested the mediating effect of corporate image between the relationship of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The findings showed that both service recovery and service quality had a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Similarly, it was found that customer satisfaction induced customer loyalty towards the hotel operator. The result also showed that corporate image mediated partially between the relationship of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.