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This case study has been written to illustrate the basic difference between goods and services, the difficulties of customer education in a developing county and the transition from goods to goods-cum-services for a company.

This is an ideal case to be taught in the second class of service marketing at the BBA level and will highlight the differences between goods and services in the same company.

Haseen Habib is a company selling a combination of products and services in Pakistan. It is involved in the supply of fire protection equipment together with the provision of training and other facilities to enable organizations to take a proactive approach to disasters caused by fire and the appropriate response in case of a fire related disaster. This dimension of business is still in the infancy stage in Pakistan, and few people actually realize the need for fire protection services. Safety, risk management and risk prevention are often matters which take a backseat in the corporate, industrial, residential and commercial spheres. The emphasis is on dealing with the aftermath of events rather than to prepare them in advance. The company has a very clear vision and mindset which aims at taking a proactive approach toward managing and preventing risk. They are the pioneers of the safety industry in Pakistan and hold a strong work ethic. The company imports its equipment from the USA, China and Europe. Their target market mainly includes high risk sectors including oil and gas, chemicals, textiles, paint, nuclear and defense. The product portfolio included firefighting equipment like fire extinguishers, safety items which included head-to-toe safety attire for industrial workers and fire alarm systems including smoke detectors. The company also provides different levels and kinds of training and has experienced staff trained abroad in state-of-the-art techniques. However, in Pakistan, investment in risk management is often considered unnecessary, and in such a situation, imparting knowledge is a considerable challenge. The case can be used to study a number of topics. It can be used in a services marketing class to highlight the ways in which services marketing differs from conventional marketing of goods. It can also be used in disaster management courses or to reflect the status and position of developing countries, such as Pakistan, in dealing with unexpected disasters and catastrophes.

Following are the expected learning outcomes: to appreciate the difference between goods and services; to understand the issues in moving from a goods-oriented to a service-oriented company; to understand the challenges facing Haseen Habib in the context of customer education, keeping in mind it is functioning in an emerging marketing with a particular socio-cultural context; and to propose a way forward for Haseen Habib.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this research is to review literature about the performance assessment (PA) in urban fire departments (FDs) to gain state-of-the-art of the fire departments' performance assessment (FDPA) and identify its most applied methods and indicators.

A five-stage structured literature review (SLR) is conducted to review the FDPA-related studies; then, the statistical analysis is applied to reveal more information from the extracted data and design a general framework for FDPA.

The systematic literature review resulted in 336 independent variables for FDPA and finding the data envelopment analysis (DEA) as the most applied FDPA method among the mathematical and statistical models in the reviewed papers. By using analysis outcomes, a general conceptual framework for FDPA is proposed.

The reviewed studies were limited to assessments at the strategic level and urban fire protection services.

The results of this research can support fire protection service managers, decision-makers, PA researchers and academicians to have a better understanding of FDPA and state-of-the-art in this field.

A considerable number of studies have been done about the FDPA to provide methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of FDs. Although there are reviews about PA in fire service areas, to the best of our knowledge, no study has been done about FDPA.

The law of catastrophic wildfire prevention and response in the Mediterranean member states of the European Union stands in stark contrast to that of common law nation states such as Australia and the United States. This is due primarily to the higher levels of reciprocal moral and legal obligations between governments and citizens established in various sources of European law. Focusing on the relationship between the EU, Spain, and the Autonomous Community of Catalonia within Spain, this chapter describes these three legal frameworks as they are nested within each other, followed by some case law examples of these laws in action. We compare and contrast the philosophical assumptions underlying the utilitarian cost–benefit approach to regulatory justification used in the United States with the precautionary principle model emblematic of the European Union, the member state of Spain, and its Autonomous Community of Catalonia. Regardless of approach, protection of the public health, safety, and welfare will only be as robust and effective as the government agencies that have that responsibility, and the degree of cooperation with those agencies of the citizens they serve.

Fire protection has several components: prevention, containment, detection, and suppression. While building codes and inspectors generally do not require special construction techniques or fire protection systems for computer rooms, economic and service factors may dictate that special protection be given such facilities. This article discusses emergency planning, the various types of fire detection and suppression systems, and future options, with particular attention given to halon and possiblehalon‐replacements.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether residents' satisfaction with seven general purpose public services are capitalized in single‐family house prices. The public services investigated are: fire protection, paramedic services, police protection, trash removal, snow removal, street maintenance, and neighborhood parks.

The seven service satisfaction measures, derived from a public opinion survey, are grouped into three variables based on the city department responsible for providing the service and included in a hedonic regression of single‐family house transactions that occurred in Dayton, Ohio.

All three satisfaction variables are positively related to house price, providing evidence that intra‐jurisdictional differences in the nature of public services are capitalized through market processes.

The strength of the satisfaction measures in the regression model suggests that efforts to improve citizen satisfaction may be an important component of local efforts to stabilize urban neighborhoods and improve property values.

The present study is the first to use transaction prices rather than assessed values to analysis multiple general public services simultaneously. Because almost all previous studies investigate multiple jurisdictions the present study is also fairly unique as it focuses on different locations within a single jurisdiction. The use of survey responses regarding resident satisfaction with public services represents an advance on previous measures of public service provision because it potentially reflects underlying motivations of buyers and sellers very directly.

Private provision of public services has always been a factor in local government. In 1736 Benjamin Franklin and a group of civic leaders founded a fire company in Philadelphia because such a service was needed and the city could not provide it. Local municipalities often cannot provide the labor, equipment, and expertise to build roads, to do data processing, or to run hospitals but rather arrange with someone else who has the expertise to perform these tasks. However, during the 1970s rapid inflation, shrinking tax bases, and “no growth” budgets made the public provision of even what is popularly perceived as essential government services seem more like a tight‐rope walk than responsible government.

The water mist fire suppression system (WMFSS) is an environmentally friendly fire protection system, replacing the total flooding halon system. It is starting to be popular in Hong Kong with five systems approved. However, such systems were tested under some scenarios very different from real fires. Performance under practical scenarios should be evaluated thoroughly. Full‐scale burning tests should be carried out to support that the systems would work in real fire scenarios as expected. This paper aims to briefly discuss whether the water mist system is suitable for use in Hong Kong.

Five water mist systems were approved in Hong Kong based on the fire test certificate provided by the manufacturers. Four systems were selected in this paper for discussion. Conditions of the fire scenarios in which the approved systems would work are described. The test scenario encountered should match with real fires. Such systems would work satisfactorily in the application area proposed. They are good for enclosed rooms such as machinery spaces and plant rooms. But applying such systems for use in retail areas or libraries should be watched carefully, particularly those with high ventilation rates.

It is observed that the four approved systems were only evaluated on machinery plant rooms with volume less than 500 m³. They are demonstrated to be effective in extinguishing a wide range of bigger Class B fires with very little residual water in a short time. However, the loss of water vapor under mechanical ventilation conditions might reduce the extinguishing capability of mist. The water mist nozzle should not be installed near to the exhaust and supply positions of the mechanical ventilation system. Note that WMFSS is not effective in handling shielded fires due to the lower mist concentration.

Full‐scale burning tests on pool fires of different shapes under water mist were carried out. It was demonstrated that WMFSS might not work under some fire scenarios. Different scenarios on the amount and arrangement of combustibles, room geometry and sizes would affect the system performance. Further, shop fires were burnt with performance of the water mist system evaluated. Heat release rate curves on the shop fire with and without discharging water mist are measured. Reignition occurred once water supply was shut down, burning up all combustibles.

Effectiveness of WMFSS is determined by other factors, including the spray characteristics, fire size, ceiling height and ventilation rate in the compartment. Their performance in mechanical ventilation rooms should be watched. As a result, the total flooding system might not be so good. Localized water mist systems directed to the hazard might be more reliable to suppress fire. Water nozzle design is a key area as raised by the principal author. Anyway, the possible fire scenarios must be identified in designing workable WMFSS. Full‐scale burning tests should be conducted to demonstrate the system performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore leadership strategies of fire officers used by fire office leaders to manage costs associated with hazardous operations.

The methodology employed in this study was a qualitative method using a case study design. The participants in this research study comprised 13 randomly selected fire officers from fire stations within a major metropolitan area located in the USA who had five or more years hazardous operations experience. In addition to interviews, workplace practices, policies and procedures related to hazardous operations and cost management were analyzed. Limitations of this study include both the sample size, and the geographic area, which impacts the ability to generalize the results of the study.

Four central themes emerged from the study, namely, servant leadership, partnership, accountability and creative staffing, which are crucial strategies to manage costs associated with hazardous operations. The findings of this study further indicate fire officers must distinguish between the most appropriate action for any given situation to achieve the fire department goals and objectives.

Managing cost effective hazardous operations through sound leadership strategies reduced injuries and saved lives, which results in cost savings in fire departmental budgets, labor costs and health care costs, which can further support the redirection of funds to critical areas of fire operations.

The value of identifying leadership strategies related to hazardous operations cost management may reduce injuries, save lives and ensure adequate budget allocations for fire departments. Social implications include innovative leadership strategies, which may enable fire officers to promote positive social change through saving lives of fire fighters and the citizens they serve.

The increasingly important issues of transparency and citizen involvement have challenged public administrators in the budget process. This paper adopts a contingent valuation approach, surveying citizens in the city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on their preferred allocations of both a large city budgetary increase and a large city budget reduction. The results are then used to examine how citizen assessment of service quality and importance are related to their desired changes in net budget allocations. We believe that this is a major improvement in the contingent value approach, and can serve as a useful tool to public administrators for identifying the public’s budget priorities.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a prioritisation framework that can guide the provision and management of on-campus student housing facility (SHF) services of southern Ghana Universities.

The paper adopted a phenomenological research strategy. Data was collected by means of focus group discussions (FGDs); a total of ten FGDs were conducted. Observations were also done during the site visit to augment the FGDs. The data were analysed thematically.

The study found that some services are perceived as “extremely important” and “basic” while others are seen as “unimportant” and “indifferent”. Services including; electricity, water, security, internet, cleaning service, maintenance service, generator, ventilation (fan), health service, library service, electric socket, study furniture, refuse collection, pest control and fire extinguisher were perceived by students as “extremely important”. However, not all of these services were perceived as “basic” requirements.

The framework can be used as a guide by facility and hostel managers to effectively prioritise and manage the services required in a university SHF. Moreover, when designing, constructing and adapting student housing facilities, the framework can be used as a guide to ensure that all critical services are provided in the student housing facilities.

Although several studies have been conducted on student housing, studies that specifically focuses on the services required in a SHF and the prioritisation of such services is lacking. This study combines students’ requirements, importance levels of requirements, and classification of requirements to develop a prioritisation system for student housing services.