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1 – 10 of over 8000Jin Cai, Zhongfu Li, Yudan Dou, Yue Teng and Mengqi Yuan
Contractor selection is critical in green buildings (GBs) since the preferred contractor has the responsibility to achieve construction sustainability as well as relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
Contractor selection is critical in green buildings (GBs) since the preferred contractor has the responsibility to achieve construction sustainability as well as relationship sustainability. The developer satisfaction reflecting requirements can boost the cooperative relationship among stakeholders and act as an evaluation scale for the success of GB projects, which needs to be emphasized in the selection process but little involved in the existing research. This study explores improving GB contractor (GBC) selection by integrating developer satisfaction into selection procedures.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic framework of GBC selection including twenty-five criteria from literature review and experts survey is firstly constructed. Both tactical and strategic criteria are further classified into Kano categories (must-be, one-dimensional, and attractive categories) using the fuzzy Kano model (FKM), and weighted by the developer satisfaction index. The model proposed by this study combining FKM and TOPSIS divides the selection process into the filtration phase and selection phase by Kano categories. The proposed model is finally verified through performance comparison among multiple methods in a case.
Findings
Selection criteria are measured linearly and nonlinearly, showing criteria having nonlinear satisfaction change accounts for two-thirds of all. Criteria at tactical level tend to be must-be or one-dimensional categories for the developer, and most strategic criteria are classed as the attractive category, indicating that adding strategic criteria is necessary for long-term cooperation. The proposed model, using developer satisfaction to improve the selection process, ensures the selected GBC to be the most satisfactory with requirements of the developer and makes the performance of GBCs easily distinguishable.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge for promoting relationship sustainability by supplementing an integrated model with emphasis on developer satisfaction in GBC selection, so as to establish a good initial foundation due to the match between performances of GBCs and needs of developers. It not only helps maximize developer satisfaction in GBC selection by applying satisfaction to pre-construction management, but also instructs GBCs to prioritize performance improvements. The framework is also conducive for developers to classify selection criteria and select other participants (like green suppliers) from the satisfaction perspective in GBs.
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Funmilayo Ebun Rotimi, John Edward Tookey and James Olabode Bamidele Rotimi
The cordiality of the relationship between home owners and house developers is significant in the house building sector. This plays a key role in meeting needs, expectations and…
Abstract
Purpose
The cordiality of the relationship between home owners and house developers is significant in the house building sector. This plays a key role in meeting needs, expectations and overall satisfaction. Home owners’ satisfactions are very often dependent on their encounters and experiences with the building organisations they deal with. The purpose of this paper is to explore home owners’ satisfaction to the quality of their new homes by investigating the relationships between them and their house developers when they take possession of their properties.
Design/methodology/approach
Two distinct lines of investigation were conducted, with the first utilising mail questionnaires administered to new home owners. The second involved interviews with house building developers. Both investigations cover five main regions in New Zealand. However, this study reports the mail questionnaire survey. The data analysis is based on 216 new home owners, and the results presented using descriptive and correlation analysis.
Findings
This research found that the higher the home owner’s satisfaction with the services provided by the developers, the better the relationship that could exist between them. In addition, the longer it takes for developers to rectify defects that are reported by home owners, the lesser the cordiality of their relationship with their developers. It is also evident from this study that home owners’ relationships with their house developers could be sensitive to the extent of defects in their homes. While it is apparent from this research that new home owners satisfaction level is high, some improvement opportunities exist, which the study highlights for continuous performance improvement. This will enable the residential construction sector to establish more aggressive and pro-active measures of monitoring to the satisfaction of home owners.
Practical implications
This research provides insight into significant factors that could influence the relationship between home owners and their house developers. The study provides information on changes required in the quality culture that could enable house developers do it once and do it right.
Originality/value
The originality of this research lies in the provision of a wealth of information on cordiality as a key determinant of home owners and house developers’ relationships. This will enable house developers to set realistic performance standards and focus efforts where they are most needed so that home owners derive satisfaction from the quality of service offered by them.
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Rejikumar G. and Aswathy Asokan A.
Customer satisfaction in a service encounter mainly depends on quality of the service provided. However, technological advancements and higher internet usage rates led to an over…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer satisfaction in a service encounter mainly depends on quality of the service provided. However, technological advancements and higher internet usage rates led to an over dependence of customers to social media. A research to identify the role played by information in the formation of satisfaction in service encounters is warranted. Thus, this study aims to examine the importance given by customers to various types of information in evaluating a service encounter and attempts to conceptualize the hierarchical process of formation, retention and modification of customer satisfaction under perceived information importance.
Design/methodology/approach
Perceptions of 385 bank customers were collected on their information-seeking behavior (ISB), importance of information on satisfaction, satisfaction modification intentions (SMI) and loyalty using a structured questionnaire. A variance-based structural equation modeling helped to identify significant linkages among variables such as satisfaction developers, satisfaction retainers, satisfaction modifiers, ISB, SMI and information allied loyalty.
Findings
The study could identify three distinct dimensions such as developers, retainers and modifiers for satisfaction construct under perceived importance to information measured using various attributes relevant to a service setting. ISB of customer emerged as an antecedent that cause paradigm changes in satisfaction as well as loyalty feel. The study could also establish that SMI significantly moderates loyalty from satisfaction dimensions even though intensities are different.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, this study examined the manner in which information intervenes in the satisfaction–loyalty link, but many predispositions of the customer about service capabilities of the service provider might have critically influenced their modification intentions.
Practical implications
Providing customers with consistent and reliable information is critical to the development of stable satisfaction judgements. Understanding the true impact of information and its role in modifying satisfaction can help marketers to fine tune their strategies for effective relationship management. Now, to remain competitive, firms must constantly analyze the implications of emerging information and the importance customers assign to such information.
Originality/value
This paper helped marketers to identify new areas to focus their attention to ensure lasting customer loyalty.
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Soroush Maghsoudi, Colin Duffield and David Wilson
This paper aims to develop a practical tool to evaluate the outcomes of innovative practices in the building and construction industry.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a practical tool to evaluate the outcomes of innovative practices in the building and construction industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A practical tool was proposed. It is an online tool programmed in a JavaScript environment. A previously developed and tested framework was the basis for this tool. Six case projects were used to test and validate the reliability of the tool. The outcomes of the building projects were categorized into six categories of economic, quality, social, environmental, satisfaction and soft and organizational impacts.
Findings
The most important finding of this research was that the evaluation of innovation in building and construction would be possible only if the subjective assessment is tolerated to include the non-monetary outcomes in the evaluation, as well as the monetary outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this research are limited to the domestic and medium density building projects; thus, the outcomes might be generalized with appropriate care. The developed tool would assist practitioners in the field of building and construction to realize the impacts of innovation introduced into their projects. The project owners and developers could be the main audience of this tool.
Practical implications
The main contribution of the current study into the literature is the consideration of tangible and intangible outcomes of innovation together. In other words, this tool not only evaluates monetary outcomes but also takes into account non-monetary outcomes. It has been stated in the literature that 80 per cent of firms choose “non-numeric” project selection models (Meredith and Mantel, 2006). To provide a full representation of the reality, this model considers both numeric and non-numeric measures by applying both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods. The project owners and developers could be the main audience of this tool. It is worth mentioning that this tool is the first attempt of its kind for building and construction projects, and it is applicable and fully practical.
Originality/value
This tool is the first attempt of its kind to evaluate practically the outcomes of innovation in the building and construction industry. The tool practicality and applicability in the real-world project is a privilege which gives more reliability and credibility to the proposed approach of innovation evaluation.
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Kanokwan Pimchan and Chonlatis Darawong
This study aims to examine the influence of condominium attributes on resident satisfaction and word of mouth from the perspectives of the elderly in Thailand.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the influence of condominium attributes on resident satisfaction and word of mouth from the perspectives of the elderly in Thailand.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 338 elderly residents through a questionnaire survey and analysed by using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling procedures.
Findings
The results showed that the strongest predictor of resident satisfaction was design functionality, followed by social environment, safety and security and service quality. In addition, the strongest predictor of word of mouth was safety and security, followed by design functionality, proximity, service quality and social environment.
Research limitations/implications
The data were drawn at the level of the overall characteristics of elderly residents. People may be different in terms of their demographic characters such as gender, age, and user experience.
Practical implications
The study suggests that condominium developers and designers should pay attention to design functionality both physically and mentally such as suitable materials, lighting and common areas. Moreover, the developers should focus on the proximity of the nearest hospitals, safety and security measures, well-trained security personnel and social activity arrangement.
Originality/value
Elderly condominium markets are increasingly growing as a result of the ageing society in Thailand. However, very few empirical studies investigate condominium attributes that affect resident satisfaction and word of mouth provided by real estate developers. The paper aims to determine driving factors that enhance the better well-being of elderly residents.
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Murat Selim Selvi, Aykut Pajo, Ceyda Çakir and Emre Demir
Because of competition, residential property developers use a variety of promotional tools to gain recognition and increase their market share and the demand for housing, and to…
Abstract
Purpose
Because of competition, residential property developers use a variety of promotional tools to gain recognition and increase their market share and the demand for housing, and to manage their customer relations. This study aims to examine what real estate developers did to detect the need for types of housing, and pricing and promoting housing. It also sought clues about how they manage customer relations in residential sales.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with real estate developers. This study has heuristic characteristics based on qualitative data. Document reviews, descriptive analysis and discourse analysis were carried out on the interview data and other sources. As purposeful sampling is generally used in qualitative studies; intensity sampling, homogeneous sampling, criterion sampling and snowball sampling were used together in this study.
Findings
The study found that real estate developers were inadequate at advertising and promoting, allocated little budget for promotion and did not use technology sufficiently. The real estate developers gave discounts at rates that did not actually desire, had to create payment plans, and as a result, they lost customers because they could not manage customer relations well.
Research limitations/implications
Interviews were conducted with 15 real estate developers who have been selling residential properties for more than 10 years in Süleymanpasa and Çorlu districts of Tekirdag. Data obtained are mostly qualitative.
Originality/value
This study aimed to determine real estate developers’ ability to implement a variety of promotional strategies and manage customer relations. Results and conclusions can offer significant clues about real estate developers with similar characteristics. Its conclusions of this study can be compared to similar studies of real estate developers in many regions of Turkey.
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Richard D. Cotton and Yan Shen
The purpose of this paper is to identify key developmental relationships for career‐spanning success and to examine relational models and support expectations associated with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify key developmental relationships for career‐spanning success and to examine relational models and support expectations associated with these relationships. The paper creates propositions associating developer‐protégé schema congruence and incongruence to relevant outcome variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 employed qualitative coding of developers identified in 77 hall of famer induction speeches and Study 2 used a cross‐industry survey of 425 respondents to assess the relational model and support expectations associated with the seven most highly‐cited developer roles from Study 1.
Findings
Study 1 identified these highly‐cited developer roles as a CEO, manager, work teammate, friend, spouse, parent, and unmet hero/idol. Study 2 described the expected relational models associated with these roles and found significant differences in the relational model and support expectations associated across roles.
Research limitations/implications
While study 1 focused on a primarily male sample using retrospective data, it generalized and extended previous research on key developer roles for extraordinary career achievement. Based on the key findings from study 1, study 2 surveyed respondents regarding developer role expectations rather than expectations of particular developer‐protégé relationships.
Practical implications
These findings identify how and with whom protégés should consider initiating and fostering key developmental relationships to enhance their networks while broadening and deepening organizations' understanding of the importance of their members having a variety of organizational and non‐organizational developers.
Originality/value
These findings challenge the notion that developer‐protégé relationships fit a “one size fits all” reciprocal exchange motif as it is the first study to explore expectations associated with key developer relationships using relational models theory.
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Steve Sawyer, Joel Farber and Robert Spillers
One key to improving team‐based software development is to support the developers’ ability to work together. Sets out one site’s response to this challenge. Developers at this…
Abstract
One key to improving team‐based software development is to support the developers’ ability to work together. Sets out one site’s response to this challenge. Developers at this site have a facility, which we will call the “team room”, allowing team members to work together. This is a computer‐supported meeting room that arose from the voluntary, and reflective, efforts of software developers to make it easier for them to work together. The team room’s popularity shows up in its extensive use for meetings and its acceptance as an integral part of software development at this site. When people use the team room, they work on a shared screen, making it easier to work together. Because they can work together, meetings become a time of work, not a pause between work sessions. Explains how these positive work outcomes have had some unexpected effects. For example, developers at this site now rely on room use to help deal with intra‐group conflict, so that the team room has become a buffer to social interaction, serving as a conduit for action.
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Kuo-Lun Hsiao and Chia-Chen Chen
Artificial intelligence (AI) customer service chatbots are a new application service, and little is known about this type of service. This study applies service quality, trust and…
Abstract
Purpose
Artificial intelligence (AI) customer service chatbots are a new application service, and little is known about this type of service. This study applies service quality, trust and satisfaction to predict users' continuance intention to use a food-ordering chatbot.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model and hypotheses are tested using online questionnaire responses to collect users' perceptions of such services. One hundred and eleven responses of actual users were received.
Findings
Empirical results show that anthropomorphism and service quality, such as problem-solving, are the antecedents of trust and satisfaction, while satisfaction has the most significant direct effect on the users' intention.
Originality/value
The results provide further useful insights for service providers and chatbot developers to improve services.
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Lee Hong Sharon Yam and W. Stanley McGreal
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been widely acknowledged by contemporary businesses in the last 20 years. The purpose of this paper is to study how CSR is…
Abstract
Purpose
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been widely acknowledged by contemporary businesses in the last 20 years. The purpose of this paper is to study how CSR is perceived by house‐buyers in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach, by way of house‐buyer focus group, was used to uncover house‐buyers' criteria for housing development, levels of satisfaction, expectations of developers' social responsibilities, and factors influencing their purchase decisions.
Findings
Research findings showed that majority of house‐buyers in Johor Bahru expected a socially responsible developer to provide more CSR features such as more green spaces, recreational parks and facilities, security features, and good infrastructure. However, less wealthy buyers were more sensitive to house price and fulfilling their basic accommodation needs. Thus, developers need to be prudent in pricing products for different purchaser groups. Although all participants indicated their readiness to pay for CSR features, it is less clear as to how much premium house‐buyers would pay for such extras. Clearly, the pricing of CSR features emerges from this study as a key issue and how this varies by property type.
Originality/value
Most CSR research has been conducted in developed countries, very little has been documented about practices in developing world. These research findings will be beneficial for developers in developing more socially responsible products to cater for the house‐buyers' increasing expectations.
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