Search results

The purpose of this study is to examine households’ behavior towards dirty cooking energy utilisation in an environment where relatively higher accessibility to clean energy is noted. Although the low utilisation rate of clean energy can partly be attributed to utility gains anticipated in dirty energy mixes (DEMs) arising out of accessibility constraints, affordances and enablers, it is still unclear on the extend at which each of these contributes towards DEMs manifestation among the seemingly well-to-do households with higher levels of clean energy mixes (CEM) access. This study, therefore, hinges on scrutinising on this lower utilisation patterns despite a seemingly higher accessibility of CEMs, specifically liquified petroleum gases (LPG).

The study is based on a household’s survey that was carried out in 2018, reaching a sample of 393 households using questionnaires in four wards of the Kigamboni district in Tanzania. Subsequent analyses were descriptive as well as inferential based on binary logistic regression analysis where utilisation of DEMs was predicted for both the high and low social economic status (SES) households by incorporating accessibility constraints, affordances and enablers.

The results show, first, if one assumes energy stacking is not an issue, as households become more constrained towards CEMs utilisation, they shift towards DEMs suggesting that the overall effect is a substitution, and second, the complementarity effect ultimately outweighs the substitution effect as households do not shift from DEMs to CEMs rather stack multiple energy. DEMs flourish in this case study area because those with high income are among those in the lowest SES, and some of those with the highest SES are from among the lowest income category, and all of them end up with more DEMs because shifting towards CEMs require income to complement SES.

Policy-wise, removing hurdles in accessing CEMs such as LPG subsidy programme, gas stove provision to the poor, and enhanced LPG awareness will most likely benefits only those who do not stack energy in cooking while strategies targeting those at the lowest SES such as higher education attainment, empower women as a family decision maker, encourage co-occupancy to enlarge the household size and contain urban growth within certain perimeter will have a significant impact only if they raise both incomes and SES.

Despite of the dominance of DEMs for cooking such as charcoal and firewood in Tanzania, CEMs such as LPG, have emerged as complements or alternatives in the household energy basket. The utilisation of such CEMs is, however, still very low despite the accessibility, cost, environmental and health advantages they offer. Accessibility is not the only factor fuelling CEMs; a complementarity must exist between SES and income for the positive transition towards CEMs to be realised.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how essential dimensions of customer experience management (CEM) drive business performance in Danish companies.

An empirical study is conducted to investigate the relationships between seven CEM dimensions, differentiation, market performance and financial performance. The conceptual model is operationalized by a structural equation model, and the model is estimated and tested by using the partial least squares method. A survey among 484 companies in Denmark forms the empirical basis for the study.

The findings provide evidence that the seven CEM dimensions influence differentiation, market performance and financial performance. High-performing companies differ significantly from low-performing companies with regard to how they master the CEM, meaning that those companies which incorporate superior customer experience into their products and service enjoy measurable financial success.

This study is limited to the seven identified CEM dimensions in Danish companies.

This study has clear implications in terms of identifying and measuring the importance of essential CEM dimensions which influence business performance. The results can help companies to understand CEM and develop CEM strategies.

The paper provides a deeper insight into CEM and how CEM works.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of research on customer experience management (CEM). The objectives are as follows. The paper first introduces the concepts involved in CEM by identifying definitions and dimensions of the customer experience. Second, the paper describes the evolution of CEM research from a theoretical perspective in generic businesses and then in the hospitality and tourism (H&T) sector. Third, the paper investigates the methodological approaches used in CEM research and addresses the challenges in measuring the customer experience. Fourth, this study addresses cultural issues in CEM research. The identification of gaps in CEM research in the general business and H&T sectors leads the authors to consider directions for future research. Managerial implications are also provided.

The paper takes the form of a review of the extant literature in the general businesses and the H&T industry.

Despite the emergence of CEM as a vital research area, a large portion of its studies remain conceptual, which indicates that further empirical investigations are necessary. Importantly, the uniquely experiential nature of H&T products/services calls for systematic, theory-driven research. The paper identifies future research topics, which include total customer experience, transcendent experience, transformational experience, authentic experience and the co-creation of experience. This study delineates potential methods and measurement scales that can be used in CEM research and some challenges in the development of future measurement scales of customer experience. Recognizing a lack of CEM research from a cultural perspective, this paper calls for future studies that consider cultural factors in the identification of the underlying reasons for various perceptions of experiences.

Companies need to take a holistically integrated approach to creating a memorable experience in which multidimensional value can be delivered through multiple, sequential stages of experience. The co-creation of experience can lead to a sustainable experience that can be life transforming or perspective transforming.

Acknowledging the importance of excellent CEM in the contemporary H&T industry, this paper provides a compilation of literature on CEM and offers a foundation for advancing future CEM research in the H&T industry.

Climate engineering management (CEM) as an emerging and cross-disciplinary subject gradually draws the attention to researchers. This paper aims to focus on economic and social impacts on the technologies of climate engineering themselves. However, very few research concentrates on the management of climate engineering. Furthermore, scientific knowledge and a unified system of CEM are limited.

In this paper, the concept of CEM and its characteristics are proposed and elaborated. In addition, the framework of CEM is established based on management objectives, management processes and supporting theory and technology of management. Moreover, a multi-agent synergistic theory of CEM is put forward to guide efficient management of climate engineering, which is composed of time synergy, space synergy, and factor synergy. This theory is suitable for solving all problems encountered in the management of various climate engineering rather than a specific climate engineering. Specifically, the proposed CEM system aims to mitigate the impact of climate change via refining and summarizing the interrelationship of each component.

Overall, the six research frontiers and hotspots in the field of CEM are explored based on the current status of research.

In terms of the objectives listed above, this paper seeks to provide a reference for formulating the standards and norms in the management of various climate engineering, as well as contribute to policy implementation and efficient management.

As social media applications have turned into popular platforms for interacting with customers, creation of a consistent customer experience in social commerce has attracted the attention of many practitioners and academics. The migration to create and manage customer experience in social commerce has become an essential issue that will bring new challenges for companies. Despite the increasing investment in this area, few studies have been conducted on the challenges of managing customer experience in social commerce. To fill this theoretical gap, the current study aims at comprehensively exploring the main challenges of customer experience management (CEM) in social commerce and investigating their importance and possible effects in relation to each other.

Using the mixed method, first, the main challenges regarding CEM in social commerce were identified by reviewing the related literature. Then the challenges were enriched and categorized by expert opinions. Next, the challenges and the categorizations were confirmed by conducting a survey analysis applying the t-test and the factor analysis method. Afterwards, the main challenges were identified and weighted. Finally, the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach was applied to investigate the causal relationship network among the challenges.

The results indicated that the main challenges of CEM in social commerce can be categorized into eight groups. Their weights and causal effects were calculated to identify the high priority challenges. By calculating the main SNA metrics such as degree and betweenness centralities, the high priority challenges of CEM in social commerce were identified. It was revealed that challenges with high out-degree centrality can create many other challenges and those with high betweenness centrality act as intermediary points, through which cause challenges may create effect challenges.

The research results can help marketers to get a big picture of the challenges to successfully implement CEM in social commerce and select the appropriate migration strategies more effectively. They are further recommended to pay due attention to customers' issues as well as the organizational challenges of CEM in social commerce.

Social media has become a priority for businesses to create and improve the customer experience; yet there is no tool to identify the challenges of CEM in this context. This study addresses the overlooked but critically important area of social commerce. The most important contribution of this research is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and integrated framework of the challenges in implementing CEM in social commerce and explore the causal effects they may have on creation of other challenges using SNA.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the latest research of BIM adoption in construction engineering and management (CEM) and propose research directions for future scholarly work. During the recent decade, building information modeling (BIM) has gained increasing applications and research interest in the construction industry. Although there have been review-based studies that summarized BIM-based research in the overall architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) area, there is limited review that evaluates the current stage of BIM-based research specifically in the CEM sub-area.

CEM falls into the scope of AEC. It involves construction-related tasks, activities and processes (e.g. scheduling and cost estimates), issues (e.g. constructability), as well as human factors (e.g. collaboration). This study adopted a holistic literature review approach that incorporates bibliometric search and scientometric analysis. A total of 276 articles related to BIM applied in CEM were selected from Scopus as the literature sample for the scientometric analysis.

Some key CEM research areas (e.g. CEM pedagogy, integrated project delivery, lean and off-site construction) were identified and evaluated. Research trends in these areas were identified, and analyses were carried out with regard to how they could be integrated with BIM. For example, BIM, as a data repository for ACE facilities, has substantial potential to be integrated with a variety of other digital technologies, project delivery methods and innovative construction techniques throughout the whole process of CEM.

As BIM is one of the key technologies and digital platforms to improve the construction productivity and collaboration, it is important for industry practitioners to be updated of the latest movement and progress of the academic research. The industry, academics and governmental authorities should work with joint effort to fill the gap by first recognizing the current needs, limitations and trends of applying BIM in the construction industry. For example, it needs more understanding about how to address technical interoperability issues and how to introduce the integrated design and construction delivery approach for BIM implementation under the UK BIM Level 2/3 framework.

This study contributed to the body of knowledge in BIM by proposing a framework leading to research directions including the differences of BIM effects between design-bid-build and other fast-track project delivery methods; the integration of BIM with off-site construction; and BIM pedagogy in CEM. It also addressed the need to investigate the similarities and differences between academia and industry toward perceiving the movement of BIM in construction field work.

Creating an extraordinary and memorable customer experience is the goal of every company seeking to be a market leader. This amplifies the need for customer experience management (CEM), particularly in customer-centric industries. Despite the indispensable importance of CEM, studies conducted within this area have been scattered and no agreement has been reached upon its stages. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the main stages and steps for effective and efficient CEM in the hotel industry.

Considering the variety of approaches in the literature and also the need to explain CEM stages in the hotel industry, a systematic literature review (SLR) has been picked as the first research methodology. It entailed a systematic review of 116 academic and professional studies. Then, the framework was completed by interviewing 19 experts.

With SLR and complementary interviews, this study obtains a four-stage framework for CEM in the hotel industry, each comprising necessary steps. These four stages are customer identification, customer experience design, customer experience implementation and customer experience measurement, which are all executed through organizational factors such as culture, structure, leadership, human resources and technology.

This study identifies CEM stages in the hotel industry via SLR and interviews. Due to dispersion in customer experience studies, the need for research on CEM in another service- and customer-based industries is apparent.

The suggested framework can help hotel managers enhance the management of their customers’ experience and deliver a superior and memorable experience.

The current study aims to add value to the literature by presenting a framework of CEM in the hotel industry. Through a systematic literature review and interviewing experts, a framework of CEM stages and steps was identified. The proposed framework allows for improving future CEM studies.

Customer experience has become increasingly important for service organizations that see it as a source of sustainable competitive advantage, and for service designers, who consider it fundamental to any service design project.

Integrating contributions from different fields, CEM was conceptually developed to represent the different aspects of customer experience in a holistic diagrammatic representation. CEM was further developed with an application to a multimedia service. To further develop and build CEM's models, 17 customers of a multimedia service provider were interviewed and the data were analyzed using Grounded Theory methodology.

Combining multidisciplinary contributions to represent customer experience elements enables the systematization of its complex information. The application to a multimedia service highlights how CEM can facilitate the work of multidisciplinary design teams by providing more insightful inputs to service design.

CEM supports the holistic nature of customer experience, providing a systematic portrayal of its context and shifting the focus from single experience elements to their orchestration.

The customer enquiry management (CEM) process is of strategic importance in engineer‐to‐order contexts but existing literature does not adequately describe how firms support delivery date setting and order acceptance decisions in practice. This paper seeks to explore how and why the CEM process varies between companies in the capital goods sector, thereby taking a contingency theory approach.

Multi‐case study research involving 18 Italian capital goods manufacturers in four industrial sectors. Face‐to‐face interviews with senior representatives have been conducted. Companies have been grouped into five clusters, based on similarities in their CEM decision‐making modes, to aid analysis.

Three contingency factors were found to be particularly relevant in determining CEM modes: degree of product customization, flexibility of the production system, and uncertainty of the context. These factors affect the choice of specific CEM decision‐making modes. However, a high level of cross‐functional coordination and formalization of the process were found to constitute best practices whatever the contingency factors.

The research focuses on companies belonging to the Italian capital goods sector – findings may differ in other countries and sectors.

The results indicate that all firms, including small and medium‐sized companies, should implement high levels of cross‐functional coordination and formalization in their CEM practices, in order to improve their performance. For other aspects of the CEM process, including supplier and subcontractor monitoring, the company context will indicate whether these aspects are required, according to a need of matching the approach to CEM with specific sets of contingency factors.

This paper provides a rare insight into the CEM processes found in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of changes to fundamental components of concrete; cement type, water/cementitious (w/c) ratio, aggregate size and age, on thermo-mechanical properties. Understanding the heat transfer properties of construction materials will enable a reduction in energy expenditure and associated CO₂ emissions, contributing to a more sustainable built environment.

Concrete specimens were subject to steady-state heat transfer test methods to determine thermal conductivity and specific heat values. Pore volume of specimens was determined using water displacement method.

Cement type CEM I produced the lowest thermal conductivity values by a maximum of 30 per cent, cement type group CEM I corresponded to higher pore volumes and lower densities than cement type group CEM II. Specific heat was higher in specimens containing CEM II compared to CEM I, with cement type being the dominant factor that determines the specific heat capacity. The w/c ratio 0.55 provided lowest thermal conductivity values of the w/c ratio specimens, however, w/c ratio had no impact on the specific heat of concrete. Cement type was the most dominant component of concrete of the properties tested.

The paper presents knowledge of the thermal performance of concrete with easily achieved changes to concrete mix design, which can be used alone or combined for maximum effect. Steady-state heat transfer techniques in a low moisture environment combined with pore volume testing, provides originality to the study of the behaviour of cement replacements as previous research has mainly been based on transient techniques. The use of steady-state heat transfer experimentation allows important thermal properties, thermal conductivity and specific heat to be calculated.