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1 – 10 of over 8000The internal customer concept is used with different definitions and purposes in research and in practice – an ambiguity with implications for both scholars and practitioners. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The internal customer concept is used with different definitions and purposes in research and in practice – an ambiguity with implications for both scholars and practitioners. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to explore the representation of the internal customer concept in quality management literature and reflect on how the user may affect collaboration in health-care processes, in particular between a service function and health-care staff.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the internal customer concept in the literature, followed by a conceptual discussion based on previous studies and theories of organizational discourse.
Findings
Three predominant types of relationships related to the internal customer concept were found. The study shows that the ambiguity in the use of the concept may have consequences for the interpretation and application of research results. Potential undesirable consequences with regard to collaboration in processes are discussed.
Originality/value
This study contributes to a new understanding of the internal customer concept in research and practice. As collaboration within and between organizations is increasingly required in many parts of health care, careful considerations become necessary regarding concepts used for relationships to avoid sub-optimization and “us-versus-them” thinking and to strengthen trust-based relationships.
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Letso Audrey Jacob, Jerekias Gandure and Venkata Parasuram Kommula
This study aims to investigate causes of sustainability failures of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems in Botswana.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate causes of sustainability failures of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems in Botswana.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employed qualitative and quantitative methods, including literature review and secondary data analysis to understand trends relating to Botswana, and a survey to identify gaps leading to certification sustainability failures, focusing on; motives for certification, causes of decertification and issues in the certification process.
Findings
ISO 9001 adoption in Botswana is slow, with low acceptance rate in the public sector at 13% compared to the private sector at 87%. Termination rates have been high at 55% over two decades. Manufacturing dominates certification with 45% of total certification. While micro and small companies struggle to sustain certification, often failing within 2 years, medium-sized companies demonstrate better sustainability, lasting beyond 6 years. Product/service quality and process improvement drive certification while decertification is influenced by management factors, financial constraints, and process management. The study recommends a model for effective integration of ISO 9001.
Originality/value
Integrated systems are crucial for consistent process performance and continual improvement in all sectors for sustainable organizational success. Although the ISO 9001 Quality Management System has shown positive impacts globally, the impact of its adoption in Botswana remains questionable with high failure rates post implementation. There appears to exist a significant gap in development, implementation, and maintenance of the QMS. The public domain has no evidence of any past investigation on causes of sustainability failures of ISO 9001 post certification. The current study sought to close that knowledge gap.
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Gianluca Ginesti, Rosalinda Santonastaso and Riccardo Macchioni
This paper aims to investigate the impact of family involvement in ownership and governance on the quality of internal auditing.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of family involvement in ownership and governance on the quality of internal auditing.
Design/methodology/approach
Leveraging a hand-collected data set of listed family firms from 2014 to 2020, this study uses regression analyses to investigate the impact of family ownership, family involvement on the board, family CEO and the generational stage of the family business on the quality of internal auditing.
Findings
The results provide evidence that family ownership is positively associated with the quality of internal auditing, while later generational stages of family businesses have the opposite effect. Additional analyses reveal that the presence of a sustainability board sub-committee moderates the relationship between generational stages of family businesses and the quality of internal auditing function.
Research limitations/implications
This paper does not consider country-institutional factors and other potentially family-related antecedents or governance factors that may affect the quality of internal auditing.
Practical implications
The results are informative for investors and non-family stakeholders interested in understanding under which conditions family-related factors influence the quality of internal auditing functions.
Originality/value
This study offers fresh evidence regarding the relationship between family-related factors and the quality of internal auditing and board sub-committees that moderate such a relationship in family businesses.
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Maricela Salgado, María Valeria De Castro Martínez, Esperanza Marcos Martínez, Marcos López-Sanz and María Luz Martín-Peña
The purpose of the paper is to present a service design (SD)-based methodology developed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) undertake organisational change.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to present a service design (SD)-based methodology developed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) undertake organisational change.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used the design science research methodology, which enabled the creation of the Service Design for Organisational Change (SD4OCh) methodology. A real case study of a small service company specialised in neuropsychological disorders was used for the definition and validation of SD4OCh.
Findings
The main outcome of this study is the SD4OCh methodology, which is based on three key stages: diagnosis (knowing where to begin by detecting the organisation's strengths and weaknesses), innovation (improving the structure/processes and designing/redesigning services by employing a customer-centric approach), and implementation (enabling the definition of the route towards organisational change). There is also a transversal evaluation stage, which quantifies the organisational changes.
Research limitations/implications
This study adds valuable knowledge to the service science research field and contributes to the awareness of the usefulness of SD theory within companies, especially those which are small and medium-sized, since those companies lack the tools and methods required to tackle organisational change, signifying that the challenges the companies confront are different to those of larger companies.
Originality/value
Although this is a SD-based research, the SD4OCh methodology was developed in order to enable companies to make holistic changes, namely, to innovate their services, structure, and processes, thus supporting and guiding organisational change.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate how various relationships an employee builds within the organization affect their willingness to stay with the company. Specific…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how various relationships an employee builds within the organization affect their willingness to stay with the company. Specific research objective was to examine impact of social exchange on organizational commitment in the hospitality industry.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey using Qualtrics' panel database was used to collect data. The target was full-time employees in the hospitality industry. A total of 245 surveys were collected and used for data analysis. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results of hypotheses testing showed that internal service quality and perceived organizational support have positive relationships with organizational commitment.
Originality/value
These findings can help hospitality managers develop programs and interact with employees in order to increase commitment and a sense of belonging with the company.
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Zi-Yi Gao, Okan Duru, Emrah Bulut and Shigeru Yoshida
This paper investigates the performance assessment of liner shipping industry and presents a multi-dimensional evaluation framework to ensure both financial and non-financial…
Abstract
This paper investigates the performance assessment of liner shipping industry and presents a multi-dimensional evaluation framework to ensure both financial and non-financial monitoring. The traditional performance assessment approach is based on the financial indicators such as ratio analysis, but it is limited to the fiscal perspective. The meaning of performance has dramatically changed and non-financial (and intangible) assets increased their importance in recent years. Under these circumstances, the multi-attribute performance assessment methods play a critical role to combine many aspects of the business. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is originally developed for the multi-attribute performance assessment and its philosophy on business process evaluation pioneered the importance of key performance indicators and the quality management issues including the internal customer. Service quality and the business performance assessment are some of the hot issues in the liner shipping industry and the long term competitiveness is a critical concern in the recent liner shipping business. The BSC method is utilized to ensure a cumulative analysis of the short/long and tangible/intangible indicators of performance and computes the weight of each criterion by using Fuzzy-AHP method in the liner shipping industry.
Rocio Rodriguez, Mornay Roberts-Lombard, Nils M. Høgevold and Göran Svensson
This study aims to propose a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive research design was applied and data was gathered from 389 respondents across industries and different-sized services firms in Norway using a self-administered questionnaire.
Findings
Results show that the proposed six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators can be applied to manage seller–customer relationships in a business-to-business environment.
Research limitations/implications
A six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators is tested successfully in services firms.
Practical implications
Increasingly, services firms will need to work closely with business-to-business sellers to proactively adapt to market changes through a co-creation approach to build long-term seller–customer relationships.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has focused on relationship marketing in business-to-business relationships that proposes a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers’ sales performance in services firms.
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Maryam Soleimani, Leo Paul Dana, Aidin Salamzadeh, Parisa Bouzari and Pejman Ebrahimi
This study explores the effect of internal branding on organisational financial performance and brand loyalty with the mediating role of psychological empowerment.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the effect of internal branding on organisational financial performance and brand loyalty with the mediating role of psychological empowerment.
Design/methodology/approach
The data gathered from 200 Pasargad insurance employees in Iran were analysed. Structural equation modelling and R were used to evaluate the model. Financial performance was measured by four concepts (ROI, ROE, Sales growth, ROA) based on available data from March 2010 to March 2020.
Findings
The results revealed that internal branding and psychological empowerment have no significant effect on financial performance, but both have a significant positive effect on brand loyalty. Likewise, the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the subject of the impact of internal branding on brand loyalty was confirmed. Furthermore, psychological empowerment did not play a mediating role in the impact of internal branding on financial performance.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study could be important for managers of organisations active in the insurance industry to highlight internal branding and enhance psychological empowerment and employee brand loyalty. Moreover, managers' perception of the effective role of psychological empowerment to enhance employee brand loyalty is another practical aspect of this research.
Originality/value
Considering the mediating role of psychological empowerment to the effect of internal branding on financial performance and brand loyalty is an innovative aspect of the present study. Meanwhile, the use of R software for VB-SEM was another point to surge the value of this paper.
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Ling Fang, Zhen Lu and Linyin Dong
Corporate travel represents a significant source of revenue for the tourism industry. Therefore, the quality of service is essential for maintaining and expanding corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate travel represents a significant source of revenue for the tourism industry. Therefore, the quality of service is essential for maintaining and expanding corporate cliental bases. Despite the importance, the extant literature has yet sufficiently examined corporate travel service quality (SQ) and its impact. To make up for the drawback, this study aims to differentiate the impact of SQ perceptions on customer satisfaction between the online and off-line contexts through an empirical investigation in one of the top five corporate travel agencies in North America.
Design/methodology/approach
The well-established SERVQUAL measurement is applied in differentiating the impact of SQ dimensions between the online and off-line context. To empirically test the proposed corporate travel agency (CTA) SQ conceptual model, a set of survey data of “Welcome Back Survey” from HRG (a top five CTA in North America) was examined.
Findings
The study finds that for online services, assurance, responsiveness and empathy affect perceived SQ, whereas for off-line services, assurance, empathy and tangible are the three dimensions of perceived SQ.
Research limitations/implications
By relying on the existing survey, the off-line context has one less dimension than the online context. Yet as an early effort in differentiating the differences in the impact of SQ between two service contexts, the study offers insightful findings.
Practical implications
The findings will be helpful for business managers of CTAs to identify the factors that influence SQ in both online booking and off-line booking context. In particular, assurance and empathy are two dimensions that exert a significant impact on customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to compare the differences of the SQ of online and off-line corporate travel.
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