A Study on the application of 6-Sigma on the enhancement of service quality of fitness club

The service industry plays an essential role in economic globalization and a determining factor in strengthening industry’s competitiveness. Targeting fitness industry, this study intends to explore ways to minimize customer complaints, understand customer expectation, and enhance service quality by applying the five steps of 6-Sigma: (1) Definition; (2) Measurement; (3) Analysis; (4) Improvement; and (5) Control, to effectively solve the root causes of customer complaints, raise customer satisfaction and minimize possible future complaints.     

Opportunities and challenges created by terrorism

Besides being pushed by technical development and pulled by the demand for hi-tech products, technology is also often influenced greatly by the sudden impacts from other external environments. As shown by the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks (2001), Bali bombings (2002, 2005), Madrid bombings (2004), and London bombings (2005), some technologies have been fundamentally affected by terrorism, especially those concerning globalization, infrastructure, corporations, education, and individuals. Using system dynamics (SD) methodology, our paper first examines the causes of terrorism and why the United States was chosen as the target for the 9/11 terror attacks. The concept of SD helps analysts realize the variation of a complicated system and perceive how an internal feedback loop within a system impacts the whole system's behavior. After suffering the 9/11 attacks, the American-led coalition carefully considered how to study and develop effective methods for anti-terrorism strategies. These anti-terrorism efforts will have a major impact on technology development, and many opportunities and challenges are likely to arise from such development. Based on the qualitative analytic approach of causal loops, this article explores in detail the opportunities and challenges for technology development prompted by terrorism. The contribution of our study lies in appropriately analyzing links between terrorism and technology development in order to explain the present relevant technology situation and to initiate a discussion of future technology development trends.     

Estimating Congestion Costs and Segmenting Motivations for Recreational Festivals

This paper aims to evaluate the willingness to pay (WTP) of visitors to reduce congestion and to segment the market of visitors by motivations. A double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method and survival analysis are adopted to estimate congestion costs for tourists. Analysis of variance is used to test the satisfaction and the WTP of tourists among the segmented motivation groups. Exploratory factor analysis method is conducted to extract four major factorial dimensions, and cluster analysis was performed to identify the characteristics of visitors' motivations into three clusters. The average amount that a tourist is willing to pay to mitigate congestion is US$2.22. The most important market segmentation is the “pursuit of multiple goals”, which has the largest segment of the market. Festival managers need to mitigate overcrowding and identify the segmentation information to develop effective strategies and to refine advertising campaigns to attract more people.