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Customer satisfaction assessment is now widely recognized as a vital input to any strategy for customer focused business performance improvement. The need to improve responsiveness and reduce overheads is focusing management attention on the major internal business functions such as IT. Argues that these functions, threatened with major cost reductions or outsourcing, are increasingly feeling the need to understand better their customers business needs and to assess how successful they are in satisfying them. Any customer satisfaction assessment tool must recognize the varying needs of individual “customers” within the “customer” organizations. Data collection must lead to prompt action: “event‐driven” assessments owned by “empowered” teams of service providers can help achieve this. Such a “fast cycle” satisfaction assessment/improvement process will not happen spontaneously: “selling”, training, culture change and management leadership are needed to embed action‐oriented customer‐satisfaction assessment in internal service providers.

Civic engagement involves working to make a difference in one’s community. Experiential learning enhances civic knowledge and promotes the process of reflection that students can take beyond their educational experiences. The purpose of this paper is to identify whether civic engagement may be increased through domestic experiential learning experiences and to inform future educators about how a domestic immersion experience can be used to increase civic engagement among students.

Twenty-five students who participated in a domestic immersion experience in January 2022 were sampled. Reflection and changes in civic engagement were measured with student responses to questions before, during and after the immersion.

During the preimmersion, students showed a desire to learn about the Afghan refugee population and considered preimmersion anxiety mitigation strategies. Using the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Civic engagement VALUE rubric, the four main themes were diversity of communities and cultures, civic identity and commitment, civic communication and civic action and reflection. The main themes yielded post immersion were increased civic engagement and aptitude to apply knowledge and skills. The subcategories of continued civic engagement were career planning, volunteering and educating others.

The findings provide guidelines to future work in civic engagement. This case study provides insights into the impacts of domestic immersion experiences and how it allows the opportunity for experiential learning.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel approach to inform heritage conservation based on the effective integration of documentation-based research with advanced survey methods for the creation of a sharable historic building information modelling (HBIM) objects database, specifically oriented to the study of Carnegie libraries whose designs in the USA and the UK were somewhat systematised by early principles of standardisation. The aim is to generate an exemplar developing new methodologies for the salvage, re-use and re-invigoration of shared inherited public buildings which have many common and standardized features.

This project will also involve the collaboration of conservation practice and digital recording together with library history. Digital laser scanning and structure from motion will be used together with archival documents to accurately build an information-rich framework for CAD and building information modelling applications.

By providing the base elements for the semi-automatic generation of a wide variety of morphological typologies and construction elements, this work ultimately promotes a shift towards the implementation of HBIM to support the conservation, maintenance and management of a high number of insufficiently protected public buildings from the turn of the last century.

The intention is that the resulting multidimensional parametric object library will provide suitable support for the faster generation of enriched 3D historic models and ultimately support the preservation of a large proportion of the huge but threatened public library building heritage in the UK and USA.

With the emergence of the concepts of lean, agile and leagile paradigms for supply chains, organizations have little idea as to which model suits them based on the their supply chain's ability to counter risks and take on the challenges of the fast changing customer preferences. This paper aims to map supply chains on these two dimensions.

A model is proposed by which suitable supply chain strategy can be selected based on customer sensitivity and risk alleviation competency dimension. Graph theoretic approach is applied to quantify these dimensions for three case supply chains.

The proposed model was tested for three Indian SMEs clusters and suitable supply chain strategy was suggested.

It is recommended that the model be tested for those supply chains which have established themselves as lean, agile or leagile entities.

Suggested model would help organizations to select suitable supply chain strategy based on customer sensitivity and risk alleviation competency and the transition required in tune with the market requirements in which they operate. Also the areas which need improvements from the perspective of risk alleviation competency or customer sensitivity can be easily delineated.

Mapping supply chains based on quantification of customer sensitivity and risk alleviation competency dimension is a novel effort in the area of supply chain management.

This paper aims to investigate supply chain (SC) strategies, analyzing the adoption of lean, agile, leagile and traditional SC strategies with respect to product characteristics, environmental uncertainty, business performance and innovation performance.

The paper presents an empirical analysis carried out on a sample of 329 companies. Cluster analysis was applied, based on lean and agile SC characteristics, to identify patterns among different SC strategies. One-way analysis of variance of different constructs by types of SC clusters was conducted to test the research hypotheses.

Cluster analysis indicates that the companies studied adopt four types of SC strategies – lean, agile, leagile and traditional. The differences between the clusters are identified and discussed, highlighting that companies adopting a leagile SC strategy present the highest performance, while those that adopt a traditional SC present the lowest; companies adopting an agile SC compete in the most complex and dynamic environments, while companies with a lean SC present a clear predominance of functional rather than innovative products.

This paper provides empirical evidence of the antecedents and consequences of the adoption of different SC strategies. As a limitation, the results are based on a survey research with a limited sample size.

Based on the analysis of the relationship between constructs that have not been addressed previously, the paper adds to the knowledge regarding the role of SC strategies, as well as the antecedents and consequences of their adoption. The results may support managers in the difficult task of choosing the “right” SC strategy.

Recounts Christchurch City Council’s attempt to develop a comprehensive strategy through which all employees could focus on improving performance in the varied areas of service to its internal and external customers. Customer satisfaction and value for money were key objectives, though the Council’s intention was to achieve them through identifying “best practice” in the customer‐focused business performance improvement in a local government context. Offers an analysis of several features of the Christchurch improvement strategy considered to be of particular interest to people working in or with local government.

The concept of responsiveness has been widely discussed, yet so far most of this discussion has remained qualitative in nature. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model identifying the key factors that determine the responsiveness of a supply chain system, which – once quantified – provide a unique profile of each supply chain setting towards the appropriate supply chain strategy.

The paper reviews existing contributions and synthesises these into a conceptual model of responsiveness. The model is applied using three case studies from the automotive and electronics industry. The case research is based on value stream mapping, semi‐structured interviews, and site visits.

Three key findings could be established: first, the concept of responsiveness has a simple logic that aligns itself to a wide range of manufacturing strategies. However, underlying this remit is a complex interaction of an array of key variables, and it was found that previous contributions largely have only addressed a subset of these. Second, these key variables can be grouped into three categories or dimensions of responsiveness – product, process and volume – to provide a holistic understanding of responsiveness and its key determinants. Third, due to the large involved, there cannot be one single “holy grail” concept of how responsiveness can be achieved, neither does one single approach apply to entire sectors.

A great variety of variables needs to be considered in order to provide a balanced view of all three dimensions of responsiveness, thus the case analyses remain at a necessarily high level.

The paper provides guidelines for management on how to align their supply chain strategy to volume, product and process contingency factors in order to balance responsiveness to customer demand and supply chain efficiency.

The paper aims to elevate a discussion that previously has been held mostly at a conceptual level beyond the qualitative description, and thus addresses a key shortcoming in the current debate.

Gulf Bank’s service excellence “scorecard” was developed to support the Bank’s delivery of superior service in its market sector. The “scorecard” provides focus for a “service excellence” program, setting standards and measuring performance against customer focused objectives. The approach identified the “drivers” of customer satisfaction, related these to the Bank’s service delivery channels, set performance standards, and implemented measurement and reporting systems embracing external customer feedback and internal process measurements. Performance was measured against 16 key “drivers” of customer satisfaction identified independently by the local industry institute and related to the Bank’s delivery channels (branches, ATMs, telephone, Internet). Key measures were: customer satisfaction, complaints, comments and attrition, plus internal process delivery performance for critical products (consumer loans and credit card services). Reports were produced weekly and monthly with “drill downs” from bank to individual branch and/or employee levels. Reports are reviewed by management from chairman down to branch manager level. Results are incorporated in business KPIs and have become factors in employee incentive schemes. The approach adopted by the bank demonstrated that a practical, comprehensive service quality management system could be implemented and used to drive service improvement. The approach can be adopted by other banks and financial institutions and adapted to the needs of other service industries. The process implemented by Gulf Bank is believed to be unique in the Kuwait banking community and has scope for application in many similar environments outside the local area.

Reducing inequity in accessing healthcare among rural and remote populations remains a problem. Internationally, eHealth is now touted as a potential solution, with a range of diverse approaches and impacts. Yet, the equity gains of implementing eHealth are often not realized due to a lack of effective strategies for citizen participation. The purpose of this paper is to present the background to, and results of, a multidisciplinary eHealth assistance project in a remote region of the Brazilian Amazon, highlighting the importance of citizen participation within planning processes.

The project was conducted in three phases – pre‐mission, mission, and post‐mission. Discussions were held between health teams and local community leaders, and were coordinated by government health organizations in partnership with the Amazon State University. A multidisciplinary team visited five remote communities in the Brazilian Amazon, where participants underwent clinical assessment using eHealth technologies within pharmacy, cardiology, dermatology, and/or odontology. Analysis and second opinion were provided by relevant specialists and the results were delivered electronically to local healthcare teams.

A total of 111 patients were evaluated with an average age of 54 years. There were several important findings following specialist second opinion, which improved the quality of care they received. These comprise identifying drug interactions and patients requiring further investigation for cardiological and dermatological complaints, including suspected malignancy.

Due to a breakdown in communication, data from the post‐mission phase are lacking, particularly regarding treatment outcomes. Furthermore, the authors did not perform an analysis of cost‐effectiveness. If eHealth technologies are to become part of routine clinical practice it is important that the financial implications are acceptable.

This project demonstrates how equity can be designed for with a multidisciplinary approach to eHealth activities in rural and remote environments within Brazil. Such activities typically focus on one particular area, yet primary healthcare facilities see patients with a variety of problems.