Customer Service

Business Process Simulation (BPS) is a rapidly emerging application area of discrete-event simulation that has gained considerable recognition in recent years as an enabler in enterprise engineering efforts. This paper reports on a case study where discrete-event simulation models of business processes were elaborated and executed to assist the management decision making of the initiation of a call centre application and furthermore decide on parameters affecting its operation and customer service level. To achieve this goal, the ARIS Collaborative Suite of tools was deployed. In the Enterprise Modelling level, ARIS offered a structured architecture and a variety of methods (models) for process mapping and simulation model elaboration. Down to the process planning and control level, it was ARIS simulation that provided the project team with the necessary simulation (dynamical execution of extended event driven process chains and organisational charts) and reporting capabilities that supported the final management decision.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to determine the dimensions of service quality in Indian hospitals, from the perspectives of patients and their family members/friends (referred to as "attendants"). Design/methodology/approach -Based on the existing models and the literature on healthcare services, a framework is proposed to conceptualize and measure hospital service quality. Findings -Two instruments for measuring the dimensions of hospital service quality, one each from the perspective of patients and attendants, are proposed. Practical implications -This framework enables hospital managers to understand how patients and their attendants evaluate the quality of healthcare provided in respect of every dimension. A comparison of perceptions between patients and attendants would aid them to allocate resources to various aspects of healthcare, with respect to these two customer groups. Hospital administrators can use the instruments proposed to obtain feedback on their performance on service quality parameters so that they can benchmark themselves with their competitors. Originality/value -This paper contributes to research on healthcare services by the development of a comprehensive framework for customer (both patient and attendant)-perceived healthcare quality.

Supply chain collaboration enables firms to achieve better performance. It requires close arrangements of collaborative practices among the participating members. Searching for better practices and ideas that lead to superior performance means that the chain members also need to benchmark their current collaborative practices to other collaborative supply chains. Benchmarking enables them to identify the highest standards of excellence in customer services and processes and implement necessary improvements to match or exceed these standards. This article reports a benchmarking study on supply chain collaboration between retailers and suppliers, which incorporates collaborative practices in information sharing, decision synchronisation, and incentive alignment. An empirical study was carried out to benchmark the profile of collaborative practices and operational performance. The study also compared differences in the use of collaborative practices from retailer and supplier perspectives.

Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy is the ninth edition of the globally leading textbook for Services Marketing by Jochen Wirtz and Christopher Lovelock, extensively updated to feature the latest academic research, industry trends, and technology, social media and case examples.

This book takes on a strong managerial approach presented through a
coherent and progressive pedagogical framework rooted in solid academic research. It features cases and examples from all over the world and is suitable for students who want to gain a wider managerial view.

ABSTRACT Interest in third-party logistics has been steadily increasing over the last two decades. Recently, increased focus by researchers has produced a solid literature base of academic research. In this article, a meta-analytic approach is employed to provide a quantitative review of the empirical literature and examine relevant constructs. Fifty-four samples across 69 peer-reviewed journal articles, yielding a total of 9,386 observations, were obtained and analyzed. We used transaction cost economics and the resource-based view as lenses to hypothesize a structural model of the relationships among relational governance structure, logistics customer service, and firm performance. Additional relationships were also found and analyzed, helping to clarify the mixed existing findings in the literature. The paper concludes by mapping out future directions for 3PL research, based on the study's findings. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

One central goal of the AMITIÉS multilingual humancomputer dialogue project is to create a dialogue management system capable of engaging the user in human-like conversation in a specific domain. To that end, we have developed new methods for the manual annotation of spoken dialogue transcriptions from European financial call centers. We have modified the DAMSL dialogic schema to create a dialogue act taxonomy appropriate for customer services. To capture the semantics, we use a domain-independent framework populated with domain-specific lists. We have designed a new flexible, platform-independent annotation tool, XDMLTool, and annotated several hundred dialogues in French and English. Inter-annotator agreement was moderate. We are using these data to design our dialogue system, and we hope that they will help us to derive appropriate dialogue strategies for novel situations.

All students in the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies at Kansai University are required to study abroad for approximately ten months during their second year. One daunting aspect for students abroad may be how to deal with financial problems. This paper analyses the stressful but ultimately successful email negotiation by Mariko Tanaka (pseudonym) to get her funds returned by John Solo at Inhabil Bank (both pseudonyms). After using a schematic Move analysis, this paper discusses the strategies used by the client and the bank, and highlights the essential Moves that led to the successful conclusion of negotiation. The implications are then discussed from two perspectives. First, I suggest ways that the bank can improve customer service through improved communication and a proactive problem-solving approach. Second, I look at the perspective of the clients (in particular, students from Japan) by discussing how knowledge of cultural differences, the banking system and email communication can help them to deal with this type of problem.

This paper examines a situation whereby a process change in one division of an organization, through a cause and effect chain, resulted in the organization overbilling a customer. The paper examines the mechanism by which the overbilling occurred and discusses the organization's response when overbilling was brought to its attention. The paper uses an in-depth case study approach and is written in the form of an investigative report. The paper demonstrates clearly that due to the complexity of the modern organization over-billing can occur unbeknownst to a company. The paper also shows that the boundary-spanning processes of the organization failed: the customer service process failed to deal with the over-billing situation. The paper concludes that misbilling was not intentional but was the result of an innovation in one business process (meter reading) whose consequence for another business process (billing) was not fully understood or explored.

This study examines differences between independent ventures (IVs), which are established by individual entrepreneurs, and corporate ventures (CVs), which are controlled by larger companies. It focuses on differences between these ventures related to the resources, strategies, and performance of firms in the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries. Thus, the findings increase the understanding of the different challenges faced by each venture type and provide insight into how each venture type should be managed.The study finds that managers of CVs and IVs emphasized different resources and strategies. Specifically, CVs emphasized the following resources: internal capital sources, proprietary knowledge, and marketing expertise. IVs emphasized external capital sources, technical expertise, and development of brand identification. They also differed in their strategies; IVs pursued greater strategic breadth, more customer service, and focused more on specialty products. The findings that CVs had less strategic breadth was surprising in that CVs emphasized resources, such as internal capital sources, which could make pursuing broad strategies more feasible for CVs. It is possible that some CVs do not pursue broad strategies because they may be “infringing upon someone else's turf” within the corporation and thus may be discouraged.In spite of finding significant strategy and resource differences, the study found that IVs and CVs did not differ in performance and that resources were not directly related to performance. Based on the concept of equifinality, it follows that both venture types can be equally successful, even if they follow different roads to success. Success may be less a function of the different resources IVs and CVs have and more a function of what strategies the firms choose based upon their resources.Strategy variables did relate to performance: a low cost strategy lowered performance regardless of venture type and the influence of an aggressive strategy (i.e., wide strategic breadth) on performance depended upon venture origin. Managers pursuing a low cost strategy may have had lower performance if they became penny wise and pound foolish, missing opportunities in their efforts to lower costs. This suggests that regardless of venture type, managers of new ventures in these industries and perhaps in other volatile industries may need to be opportunistic.This study indicates that pursuing broad strategies increased the performance of IVs and decreased the performance of CVs. This finding was surprising in that CVs had greater resources, which one might think would lead to successful implementation of aggressive strategies. In securing enough resources to pursue aggressive strategies from their parents, CVs may lose the freedom of action they need to cope with the dynamism of high technology industries. This suggests that managers of CVs within the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries should either not pursue broad strategies, or if pursuing broad strategy, they should maintain their flexibility. In contrast, IVs that pursued broad strategies achieved higher performance, indicating that perhaps IVs, unencumbered by the bureaucracy that characterizes CVs, may be able to pursue aggressive strategies while simultaneously maintaining flexibility.Thus, this study offers IV and CV managers several valuable insights. First, it argues that managers of each type of venture may need to pursue different strategies to increase venture performance and make optimal use of their unique resources. Furthermore, it suggests that CV managers encounter difficulties in applying resources to strategies and not in accessing resources. Whereas political obstacles may occur, CV managers may primarily encounter these difficulties when trying to implement strategies rather than when accumulating resources from the parent, suggesting a pitfall that managers of CVs and their parents need to avoid. Although this study has indicated that both venture types can be equally successful, it suggests that they may face different obstacles and follow different roads to success.

Telecare can help health and social care agencies address the challenges they face from an ageing society and deliver services improving the clients' quality of life. The end users of telecare systems are unlikely to have a deep understanding of technology, therefore good human factors and ergonomics are important for the system's acceptance, usability and safety. This paper reports preliminary results from a project initiated by the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI) to develop a set of guidelines for human factors in telecare systems, thereby maximizing user experience and promoting the usage of telecare, and directed towards all stakeholders in the telecare delivery chain. The guidelines are first structured along the dimension of human factors, consisting of: confidentiality and privacy; ethics; legal aspects; availability and reliability; integrity; safety; installation, setup and configuration; user interaction; localization and customization; service and system aspects; organizational aspects; user education; interoperability; development process and testing. For each of these, guidelines are enumerated and grouped as being either generic or pertaining to one of the different product lifecycles: research and development; design and manufacture; equipment delivery; and final service deployment. In all, a considerable number of generic and specific guidelines will be provided. The work is in progress (Sep. 2006), and the authors encourage input and comments. For more information, see

The purpose of this study is to find the critical success factors of customer relationship management implementation in automobile industry. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect the needed data. The interviews were written or recorded then transcribed and analyzed by implying content analysis method.  The  results  have  reflected  that  all  the  investigated  companies  are  implementing  CRM furthermore some success factors such as training employees, top management support and the desired organizational culture have been determined that impacts the project significantly and intensely toward obtaining the desired results.

This paper examines the relationships among the psychological contract, fairness, OCB, and customer service. We report on two exploratory studies that provide insight into psychological contract violations and subsequent perceptions of fairness, as well as OCB activity. A linkage is made between psychological contracts and behavior directed internally and those directed externally (i.e., customer service). We extend the current theory to suggest implications for effectively managing customer service employee OCB. Finally, suggestions are made for both practice and future research to be conducted in a multidisciplinary design.

Utilizing cases with real or believable scenarios can be very useful for capturing student attention for instructing the concepts and models of inventory management. We have developed four integrated cases for such instruction. The cases are connected by employing the same company and management cast throughout. The topics progress from introductory inventory concepts, costs, and ordering policies to trend, seasonality, and forecasting issues and conclude with differentiated customer service level policies. Extensive teaching notes, graphs, and tables are available from the authors. Excel files for the forecasting methodologies are also available upon request.

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model of extrarole customer service (ERCS). We propose that organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) promotes well-being at work (low burnout and high engagement). Well-being at work, in turn, engenders more effective ERCS. Thus, well-being at work is considered a mediator of the relationships from organizational justice to ERCS. This fully mediated model was compared to an alternative fully direct model. The sample consisted of 317 contact employees who were working in the Spanish service sector. The results of structural equation modelling supported the importance of the mediating role of the positive side of well-being at work (engagement) in the relationship between organizational justice and ERCS. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications.

Recent changes in employment conditions have resulted in the increased exposure of workers to unfavorable job characteristics and to consequential increases in adverse individual and organizational health outcomes. In this article the authors evaluate the steps undertaken by one proactive employer to reduce these adverse outcomes. Three organization-wide surveys (n ϭ 350, 316, and 405) were conducted over a 3-year period within the New Zealand Customs Service to determine the influence of perceived job conditions on individual and organizational health outcomes. Staff retention and employee satisfaction significantly improved over time and these increases were attributable to workplace improvements. Stable predictors of job satisfaction included minor daily stressors, positive work experiences, job control, and perceived supervisor support.

ClimateQUAL™ is the latest assessment tool in the assessment toolkit development by ARL and accessible through the StatsQUAL® gateway to li- brary assessment tools. The tools available through StatsQUAL® are combining the power of both quan- titative and qualitative methods and are integrated into a platform that allows easy data collection, analy- sis and presentation of the results. The goal

With the advent of Just-In-Time manufacturing strategies, reduction of inventory costs have once again become the focus of all attention. However, efforts to reduce inventory while continuing to live with poor forecasts and unduly high service level requirements, is likely to be futile.

This study examines the performance implications of an integrated supply chain strategy, with customer service performance followed by financial performance as performance constructs. Two major components of an integrated supply chain strategy are identified and defined: (1) integrative information technologies, which is modeled antecedent to (2) supply chain integration. The research model was tested using data from a sample (n = 57) of the top 150 independent first tier automotive suppliers to the Big 3 in North America. The results showed positive direct relationships between (1) integrated information technologies and supply chain integration, (2) supply chain integration and customer service, and (3) customer service and firm performance. The relationship of supply chain integration to financial performance was indirect, through customer service; i.e., customer service was found to fully (as opposed to partially) mediate the relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance for first tier suppliers in the automotive industry.

Purpose – This paper aims to: analyze the challenge of health services fragmentation; present the attributes of integrated health service delivery networks (IHSDNs); review lessons learned on integration; examine recent developments in selected countries; and discuss policy implications of implementing IHSDNs.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review, expert meetings, and country consultations (national, subregional, and regional) in the Americas resulted in a set of consensus‐based essential attributes for implementing IHSDNs. The analysis of 11 country case studies on integration allowed for the identification of lessons learned.Findings – Studies suggest that IHSDNs could improve health systems performance. Principal findings include: integration processes are difficult, complex, and long term; integration requires extensive systemic changes and a commitment by health workers, health service managers and policymakers; and, multiple modalities and degrees of integration ca...

In a two-part study, the amount and types of information available in television-shopping segments selling apparel were examined. In Phase 1, a content analysis of 60 segments selling apparel was conducted. In Phase 2, using an experimental format, a convenience sample of 128 middle-aged women (M = 46 years) viewed a 6-minute television-shopping segment selling apparel and assessed perceived risk, perceived amount of information available in the segment, and purchase intentions, and they answered some open-ended questions about their information-searching activities. Taken together, results of Phases 1 and 2 revealed that when making apparel purchases, participants needed product and customer service information; however, in some segments, that information was never available or was available in less than half the segments coded. Results also revealed that the amount of information perceived from a television-shopping segment selling apparel was negatively related to perceived risk and positively related to purchase intent.

In an ever-globalizing world, it behooves one to ask whether, and if so to what extent, the theoretical constructs developed primarily in Western democracies are applicable elsewhere. This study used the Situational theory of publics to assess the communication behaviors of a sample of Singaporeans vis-à-vis the level of customer service in the retail sector. The study surveyed 242 retail

Marketing managers in financial institutions should be aware that customers are likely to embody electronic banking provided that such technology contributes to existing relationships. Based on a survey of bank corporate clients in Singapore, the impact of satisfaction, trust and the use of electronic banking on commitment towards current banks was investigated. It was found that trust was the key factor influencing the adoption of electronic banking. Perceived customer satisfaction with the bank only impacted indirectly on the adoption of electronic banking. The cumulative effects of customer satisfaction were found to have a positive impact on trust directed towards the bank, and this greatly impacted on the propensity to use electronic banking. Customer satisfaction, trust, and the use of electronic banking were found to have a positive impact on the corporate clients' commitment towards their bank.

Purpose -Consumers increasingly experience multi-channel service and a significant challenge for the service organization is to ensure that the design of the multi-channel interface contributes to the service experience and helps to build bonds with customers. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate four features (i.e. problem-handling, record accuracy, usability, and scalability) used by customers to evaluate multi-channel service and investigates their impact on customer relationship and loyalty intentions. Design/methodology/approach -The study involves an online survey with customers selected randomly in two service industries. Empirical data are analyzed using structural equation models. Findings -Customer evaluations of the multi-channel service interface have a strong influence on customer trust in the organization but a negligible impact on customer commitment. Trust, however, has a positive effect on commitment, thus enhancing customer loyalty.

This field study examined personality traits in relation to career satisfaction and job satisfaction for a sample of 5,932 individuals in career transition. Results indicated a consistent significant relationship between personality and career satisfaction as well as job satisfaction, both in the total sample and 14 separate occupational groups. Correlations with personality traits were generally higher for career than job satisfaction. Regression analyses revealed a set of three personality traits consistently related to career satisfaction: emotional resilience, optimism and work drive in initial and holdout samples as well as in all 14 occupational groups. These three traits accounted for an average of 17% of career satisfaction variance across occupational groups. They may serve as a set of general predictors of career satisfaction because they are related to personal adaptation to a wide range of work roles and to career changes, stress and uncertainty. Consistent with earlier research, we found other personality traits correlated with career satisfaction in certain occupational groups, including some "Big Five" traits -conscientiousness, extroversion and openness -and other, narrower traits, such as assertiveness, customer service orientation and human managerial relations orientation. Results were discussed in terms of prior research on career Personality and Career Satisfaction 2 satisfaction, Holland's suggestion of a general personal competence factor for vocational behavior, Goleman's emotional intelligence, career adaptation, and the nomothetic span of personality constructs. Also discussed were study limitations, suggestions for future research and practical implications for career counseling.

During the past decade, there have been a variety of significant developments in data mining techniques. Some of these developments are implemented in customized service to develop customer relationship. Customized service is actually crucial in retail markets. Marketing managers can develop long-term and pleasant relationships with customers if they can detect and predict changes in customer behavior. In the dynamic retail market, understanding changes in customer behavior can help managers to establish effective promotion campaigns. This study integrates customer behavioral variables, demographic variables, and transaction database to establish a method of mining changes in customer behavior. For mining change patterns, two extended measures of similarity and unexpectedness are designed to analyze the degree of resemblance between patterns at different time periods. The proposed approach for mining changes in customer behavior can assist managers in developing better marketing strategies. q

The purpose of implementing this application was for users to book a slot for car servicing by using the car service app. This paper explains the detailed development of a service for cars. This offers services that are more efficient, safe, affordable, and convenient services to everyone. In this current situation, the efficient and easy way to reach the people are by using social media and by using some mobile apps, and web pages. Another advantage is the customers need not invest their extra time to get the services. The services will be provided during their office timings and providing them more convenience by saving their time. Before implementing this concept was tested with a survey, which led to further analysis and positive responses. This application mostly saves time and human work free. Users can book the services at anytime and anywhere. This type of service is now growing very rapidly, and the booking system is used very easily and is more accessible. Now everywhere all are online services and just one click away. The car service app is allowed to book the slot for car service. By using this app, customers can book the service at their flexible time. It's a user-friendly application. In this application, customer data will store very securely. This app can be run on any android compatible tablet and mobile phone. The application can be used by any car holder to get their car services.

The fractional aircraft market is the fastest growing segment of the business aircraft industry. A fractional aircraft operation is complex-essentially an unscheduled airline in a constantly changing environment. Bombardier Flexjet implemented a comprehensive three-module optimization system to simultaneously maximize its use of aircraft, crews, and facilities. AD OPT Technologies designed the modules, using the GENCOL optimizer developed at GERAD, which employs a column-generation approach to decompose large-scale mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems. Since inception, the project has generated savings in excess of $54 million with projected additional savings of $27 million annually, primarily by lowering crew levels (20 percent), aircraft inventory (40 percent), and supplemental charter aircraft usage (five percent) while increasing aircraft utilization (10 percent). The quality of customer service has remained consistently high, with significant reduction in supply.

Purpose -This study aims to investigate differences among Chinese manufacturers-cum-suppliers in their logistics services provided to different local and foreign customers and assess the management areas that they must address in order to satisfy the logistics requirements of their customers. Design/methodology/approach -A questionnaire-based survey was conducted amongst managers of manufacturing firms in four industries, automotive, telecommunication and computer, household appliance, and electronics, located in the Shanghai region of China. A five-point Likert scale (1 -least important, 5 -most important) was used to measure the importance of services provided, and assess customer satisfaction level, impact on management of manufacturers, and difficulties and challenges faced by the manufacturers. Findings -The results indicate that foreign customers place significant emphasis on different services from those of their local counterparts. Results also indicate that many challenges need to be addressed by the manufacturers with respect to HR, customer service, and IT integration. A significant difference between manufacturers' satisfaction levels with local and foreign customers is also noticeable. Practical implications -Since third-party logistics (3PL) industry in China is still in its infancy. Most of the Chinese manufacturing firms have to provide major logistics services to their customers. Hence further growth of the Chinese economy depends to a large extent on the ability of the manufacturing firms to provide efficient and effective logistics services. The findings of this study demonstrate that in order for the outsourced manufacturers in China to provide logistics services to local and foreign customers, they are required to restructure their organizations and adjust their operation strategies. Originality/value -This study is a rare attempt to discuss outsourced manufacturers in China in adjusting their logistics strategies and operations to meet the demands from both local and foreign customers after China's admission to the World Trade Organization.

The research reported in this article examines the influences of the organizational context of the franchisor on the entrepreneurial strategies of franchisors, their innovation efforts, and franchisor support of entrepreneurial activities by franchisees. Specifically, this study examines how ...

Recent advances in educational and training technology are offering an increasing number of innovative and promising learning environments including three-dimensional and two-dimensional virtual worlds as well as computer simulations. These environments differ a lot as to both their technological sophistication and to the types of skills taught, varying for example from immersive 3D environments of high-fidelity to simulations of complex relational situations, for the learning of "soft skills" of growing strategic interest to enterprises such as leadership, customer service, coaching, selling etc. The learning potential of virtual training relies on the possibility for learners to make a number of significant first-person experiences and to fail in a safe and protected environment. In order to be effective, the experience should seem real and engaging to participants, as "if they were in there": they should feel (emotionally and cognitively) present in the situation. The goal of this chapter is to investigate the relationships existing among the factors that are crucial to the emergence of a sense of presence in virtual training environments. This exploration aims at outlining a possible model of presence in virtual learning environments, trying to define on the one hand the key factors conveying it in training contexts and on the other hand how the sense of presence contributes to enhance learning efficacy and to support following transfer of knowledge and skills.

This paper explores long-term partnership benefits of local strategic alliances in knowledge-intensive industries. A structural model of the value continuum is formulated and tested on small and mid-size enterprises in the software industry. Partial least squares path analysis is used to investigate the cause–effect relationships between the foundation values – efficiency and effectiveness – and the innovation value. The results show that the innovation value of localised inter-firm networks originates from costs savings and quality improvements. Conversely, alliance-induced 'speed' benefits (measured by the R&D process's acceleration), which improve flexibility and/or shorten delivery time, have no significant impact on market-based performance. An alliance's time-related benefits may be important to maintain competitive parity, but they do not significantly support competitive advantage, market development and market penetration. Instead, value is created via, for example, an exchange of tacit knowledge and a reduction in transaction costs, and particularly by a reduction in customer service costs.

In this paper the discrete and dynamic berth allocation problem is formulated as a multiobjective combinatorial optimization problem where vessel service is differentiated upon based on priority agreements. A genetic algorithms based heuristic is developed to solve the resulting problem. A number of numerical experiments showed that the heuristic performed well in solving large, real life instances. The heuristic provided a complete set of solutions that enable terminal operators to evaluate various berth scheduling policies and select the schedule that improves operations and customer satisfaction. The proposed algorithm outperformed a state of the art metaheuristic and provided improved results when compared to the weighted approach.

Service organizations are increasingly utilizing advanced information and communication technologies, such as the Internet, in hopes of improving the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and/or quality of their customer-facing operations. More of the contact a customer has with the firm is likely to be with the back-office and, therefore, mediated by technology. While previous operations management research has been important for its contributions to our understanding of customer contact in face-to-face settings, considerably less work has been done to improve our understanding of customer contact in what we refer to as technology-mediated settings (e.g., via telephone, instant messaging (IM), or email). This paper builds upon the service operations management (SOM) literature on customer contact by theoretically defining and empirically developing new multi-item measurement scales specifically designed for assessing technology-mediated customer contact. Seminal works on customer contact theory and its empirical measurement are employed to provide a foundation for extending these concepts to technology-mediated contexts. We also draw upon other important frameworks, including the Service Profit Chain, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and the concept of media/information richness, in order to identify and define our constructs. We follow a rigorous empirical scale development process to create parsimonious sets of survey items that exhibit satisfactory levels of reliability and validity to be useful in advancing SOM empirical research in the emerging Internet-enabled back-office.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Outsourcing have been widely recognised as important tools to enhance organisational performance. Each has their own key characteristics, procedures and processes, advantages and disadvantages, and has been viewed in various ways by many parties. As both are commonly implemented in separation of each other, this paper attempts to discuss the possible links between SCM and outsourcing. The views on SCM and outsourcing are respectively elaborated, followed by discussions on possible relationship and the study conducted.

The comprehensive book from Dr. Tavsan and Dr. Erdem: Customer Experience Management: How to Design, Integrate, Measure and Lead breaks down exactly what Customer Experience is, and how to manage it.
In 2017, in collaboration with Dr. Erdem, Dr. Tavşan designed a ''Customer Experience Management'' curriculum as a Bologna-accredited graduate level course and became the pioneering academician lecturer on ''Customer Experience Management'' as a standalone course.

Interest on supply chain management has consistently increased since the last quarter of 20th century when firms realized the benefits of collaborative relationships within and beyond their own organization.

This paper discusses the importance of the supply chain management and its portions. Besides, which portion of the supply chain has the great importance and is a must for the chain will be evaluated.

As a result of the research, it is understood that customer is more important portion than other portions because the chain is shaped by needs and desires of customers.

of the Ll1iversity of Colorado--Denver College 0: Business alld Adm:nistration. His research interests focus 0111 planning and control sys~ems for :;dvuoced mmmfacturing systems, information systems strategies, and total :jIJaiit), management. He has over 160 Joumal articles p:Jblished internationally 3G'ld serves as a reviewer and editorial board member for many c~ ilis field's leading journals.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively explore marketing issues for foreign industrial companies of large, small and medium size entering emerging markets (EMs), particularly transition economies in Eastern Europe. The vast majority of current studies about emerging markets focus only on defining suitable strategies related to large consumer goods corporations.

Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted a multiple case study approach. Five Italian companies belonging to different business-to-business industries that have entered emerging countries in Eastern Europe were selected for investigation.

Findings
Empirical analysis uncovered recurring issues related to: institutional factors causing market uncertainty and instability; difficulties in building a sales network; a need for product adaptation to guarantee satisfactory performance; choices related to communication, branding and trade fairs; and considerations about competition and first mover advantage. Results can be interpreted as an extension of the analysis of institutional voids by Khanna and Palepu (1997).

Research limitations/implications
The study is based on the analysis of five case studies of companies operating in specific emerging markets, namely in Eastern Europe Countries (EEc) Further research based on different samples and different emerging countries is needed before generalizing results.

Practical implications
The study shows that the main institutional void affecting business-to-business companies entering emerging markets (EEc) is the lack of locally developed sales and after-sales networks. This institutional void slows the entry process of business-to-business companies in EMs. Given these constraints, from the perspective of business-to-business SMEs, it may be fruitful to pursue niche positioning in EMs.

Originality/value
The study analyzes emerging markets opportunities and entry strategies from the business-to-business marketing perspective, uncovering the most critical issues.

Using social information processing theory, we examined the congruence between employee and customer assessments of organizations' service quality. The setting was a public health care delivery system. Contrary to expectations, employee assessments of service quality were lower than those of their customers. Also unexpectedly, employees with professional training had less congruent assessments than other employees. As expected, employees with longer

Customer satisfaction and retention are key issues for organizations in today’s competitive market place. As such, much research and revenue has been invested in developing accurate ways of assessing consumer satisfaction at both the macro (national) and micro (organizational) level, facilitating comparisons in performance both within and between industries. Since the instigation of the national customer satisfaction indices (CSI), partial

The Internet can extend market reach and operational efficiency of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and enhance their contributions to the U.S. economy. This paper reports an empirical study conducted to identify the factors that impact SMEs' involvement with the Internet. Internal and external variables such as firm size, self-efficacy, prior technology use, etc. are used to predict the level of Internet involvement. This involvement is examined in terms of ownership of a web site (adoption) and use of the Internet for selling purposes (routinization). Logistic regression is used to examine the relationships between internal and external factors and SMEs' involvement with the Internet. The results suggest that specific factors contribute to the SMEs' involvement with the Internet -prior technology use and the customer service subscale of perceived competitive pressure influence both stages of Internet adoption. Moreover, the relative importance of some of these predictor variables decreases as the level of Internet involvement increases. Past media use does not explain SME behavior -in terms of adoption or routinization. These findings can be used to develop strategies to build SME involvement with the Internet.