Search results

Introduction: Digitalization has become crucial in our daily lives. The rapid rise of new technologies and high interest levels of individuals enforces companies to invest in these technologies. Nowadays, as customers are willing to try new experiences, companies dynamically start to find new ways to develop their products and services. One of the most popular technologies used by companies to improve their services is the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Education, health, transportation, retail, and energy are some of the industries in which the IoT is frequently being used. As security concerns of individuals arose and willingness to remote control increases, innovative and technological projects with IoT applications are engaged in the construction and real estate sector.

Aim: The purpose of this chapter is to explore IoT applications within the new generation smart home systems. In this framework, the effect of IoT technologies on architectural structure of the smart home and operating systems as well as IoT and mobile-supported customer-focused applications and difficulties are analyzed.

Method: The study is designed as an exploratory study. The data are obtained from face-to-face interviews with companies operating on technology-based commercial and residential projects. Descriptive analysis method is used to analyze data. Sample selection was carried out by the judicial sampling technique.

Findings: The results showed that smart home systems offer several customer-oriented experiences to their users like personalized accessibility, comfort, time control, and energy savings. Wired and wireless communication protocols are included in the architecture of the system. Linux core software-based Android and iOS operating systems are used in order to enhance personal accessibility. However, some difficulties are noticed in the sector. Lack of information and internet infrastructure of companies that install electrical set-up are mentioned. Contractors, after sales service support, and customer-oriented applications are evaluated.

The development of Internet applications for business use is expected to change the way organisations operate, and improve their customer services. However, the potential of the Internet to improve customer satisfaction has not been studied, either in countries with well‐developed electronic markets or in countries in the early stages of e‐commerce. This article reports on the results of a survey of 120 companies in Greece. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of customer‐oriented Internet applications and to investigate how the Internet and e‐commerce can offer new opportunities for businesses to improve their customers’ satisfaction.

This article reports the results of a theoretically‐based, empirical study which incorporates the paradigm of relationship marketing. Using a sample of organizational buyers, this study examines the influence of salesperson customer‐oriented behavior on the development of buyer‐seller relationships. Integral to this investigation, a measure of buyer‐seller relationship development is generated and evaluated for its reliability and validity. Findings from this study indicate a strong and significant influence between the customer‐oriented behavior of salespeople and the development of customer relationships. The results of this study and the discussion of the implications begin to provide valuable understanding into the antecedents of relationship development and relationship management. The results of this study and their implications for salespeople, managers, and researchers are discussed along with limitations and recommendations for future research.

The pharmaceutical industry is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. For example, institutional regulations that have been in place for decades are being removed and competitive pressures force pharmaceutical companies to adopt customer‐oriented strategies. Information technology (IT) is a traditional enabler in this industry for the interaction with suppliers, wholesalers and pharmacies. This paper shows that internet portals yield new opportunities in accessing key customer segments, such as physicians and patients. The central message is that shaping these customer‐oriented systematic methodologies is merely a technological undertaking. Changes are required regarding strategy, processes as well as the systems architecture. To develop an integrated customer relationship management strategy this research draws on elements from established business redesign. The emphasis is on portals that bundle services for the patient's and physician's customer processes.

The paper pursues an action research approach where researchers have been involved in project work. The overall architecture framework has been generalized from projects with nine international companies between 2000 and 2002. One of these companies, the case of Pharma Corp., one of the largest pharma companies worldwide, is detailed in this paper. It shows how the three main architecture views strategy, process and system are used for the development of a customer‐oriented portal strategy.

Portals that support business processes have implications on the technical and business architecture alike. Existing architectures have an emphasis on individual architecture views, but rarely cover the “whole picture”. This paper argues that alignment is necessary of at least three architectures: the business architecture positions, the portal regarding the target customer segments and the (electronic) intermediaries. The process architecture identifies customer processes for each segment and derives portal services, which may also be sourced from external service providers. Thus, their configuration requires the alignment of all levels which are usually specified separately.

The architecture framework presents a first step towards a systematic methodology for re‐engineering customer relationships. It may support the project work in companies and stimulate future research towards inter‐organizational business process redesign.

This study aims to discern and refine the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in the development of customer orientation among banking employees in Morocco. This analysis seeks to enhance understanding about the significance of this emotional skill within the Moroccan banking sector.

The research embraces an interpretivist philosophical perspective to gain insight into the subjective meanings and experiences of study participants. The methodology employed is qualitative, involving data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with 21 front-office bank employees. The analysis of the data was conducted through employing thematic analysis.

The findings of this study conclude that emotional intelligence fosters and stimulates customer orientation for bank employees. The perception, understanding and effective management of emotions – both those of the contact personnel and their customers – enable employees to better comprehend customer reactions. They experience heightened empathy through the impact of accumulated professional experience, adapt their behaviors according to the emotional state of the customer, maintain a positive relationship with them and ultimately gain their confidence.

This study offers clear theoretical explanations and conceptualizations that have identified and linked pertinent literature on the topic. It focuses on a salient subject, investigating how emotional intelligence influences the customer-oriented behavior of front-office bank employees. Notably, this study represents one of the first attempts to explore this relationship within the Moroccan context. As a result, it contributes to the enhancement of managerial practices and human resource policies, thereby fostering a more productive and harmonious working environment.

Virtual medical instrumentation plays a vital role in a telemedicine system that obtains data from the medical instrument, required by doctors at remote location to diagnose a patient. In recent years, the analysis of skin quality by telemedicine system has become an emerging trend. To allow the skin to complement the beauty products and achieve better improvement results, the purpose of this study is to provide advice on a system that can objectively evaluate the condition of the skin of the face and to match appropriate beauty and cosmetic products.

A novel customer-oriented medical system is proposed for the applications of telemedicine in this study, whose aim is to improve information transfer quality and rate to further enhance the communication between medical staffs and patients in the telemedicine. More specifically, facial skin will be recorded with digital images, and skin detection will be performed using image processing technology to facilitate doctors to provide medical treatment for the patients at far end.

The roughness, freckles and acne indicators were evaluated after obtaining skin images. These three indicators were used as input to the system, and skin scores were then calculated to evaluate skin conditions to further provide more matching skin care.

This can improve the health problems that have occurred and can also record the skin condition for each test. Experimental results suggest that it is suitable for the applications of telemedicine.

Increased competition characterises the food sector worldwide, but the potential of e‐commerce (eC) to improve customer satisfaction in the food industries has not been thoroughly studied. Reports on the results of a survey of 48 information systems (IS) and marketing managers from food companies in Greece. Examines the eC management context and investigates how the Internet can offer new opportunities for improving customer satisfaction. The results show that there is potential for customer‐oriented eC applications across the value chain.

The purposes of this paper are to develop a more complete understanding both of the characteristics of innovation within retail firms and of the ways in which retailers perceive innovation and measure its effectiveness. Whilst there is a broad consensus that innovation is an application of new ideas that stimulate economic performance, the term attracts a wide range of interpretations that are largely contingent upon the context within which innovation occurs.

These aims are achieved through analysis at the level of the firm by means of qualitative research in the form of a series of in-depth interviews with more than 50 senior retail executives and other industry experts internationally.

The research results show that whilst retailers clearly recognise the important role of innovation for successful business performance, innovation in retailing nevertheless possesses a range of sector-specific meanings and measurement approaches that are distinct from more generic understandings of the phenomenon.

Whilst the paper summarises relevant literatures and presents the results of the primary research it also sets out a number of novel conceptual frameworks, which seek better to categorise the perceived meanings of retail innovation and the measurement tools most frequently employed to determine innovation effectiveness in retail firms. The proposed frameworks facilitate future scholarly exploration but are also of use to practitioners as a means of better understanding the nature of innovation within their businesses.

There are two types of interrelated downsizing; human resource downsizing, which refers to reduction in personnel, and computer downsizing, or the migration from a mainframe to distributive processing platforms. The corporate strategies underlying each vary, but technology is generally involved at some level. Top executives and corporate planners must be aware of the personnel, budget, training, outsourcing, obsolescence, and standardization issues involved in downsizing. This article will explore various applications of information technology contributing to both types of downsizing, the benefits achieved and the problems encountered.