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Relying on the importance-performance theory first established by Martilla and James (1977), this research paper utilizes a unique statistical analysis instrument embedded into the SmartPLS software. It explores the importance and performance of key project management constructs and indicators with a purpose to make practical and actionable recommendations for project managers to identify and improve project management practices.

The data used were derived from 3,130 system delivery projects in the facilities management industry. The data was analyzed with Partial Least Squares Modelling (PLS) software SmartPLS, using its embedded importance-performance functionality.

The findings indicate the importance and performance of the project management constructs and their respective indicator variables in an importance-performance (IPMA) map. All three project management phases (constructs); proposal, installation and commissioning, were significantly related to satisfaction. The installation phase (construct) showed the highest potential for performance improvement in project management. With regard to the specific indicator variables, the variable “Coordinating their work with other contractors (or the owner's staff)” received a strong “Do better” recommendation.

The approach and results provide an easy to use and visual tool for project managers to assess the importance and performance of the various elements of project management. The instrument provides a project management direction for the identification of strategic enhancement areas as it is essential to recognize what facets of project management contribute most to the improvement of project management performance over a longer period of time (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Palmer, 1998).

Drawing upon the relational exchange theory, the longitudinal relationship between various stages of project management customer satisfaction, value for money and repurchase intent are examined.

Using a survey questionnaire, data were gathered over four consecutive quarters (N = 2,537). The statistical methods included exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Project management was perceived as a three-dimensional construct (proposal, installation, commissioning/start-up). There was a significant longitudinal relationship between project stages and satisfaction in the complete data set. The results varied on the quarterly basis. The relationship customer satisfaction/repurchase intent was significant in the whole data set and during all quarters. This was the case for the relationships between value for money and customer satisfaction and between value for money and repurchase intent. The effect sizes were small between project management stages and customer satisfaction, small to medium for the value for money construct and large for the customer satisfaction construct.

An important implication is the significant relationship between the stages of project management and satisfaction. However, the effect sizes were small, however. The importance of the effect size in comparison to the significance of the relationships is highlighted especially when the sample size is large. The paper also confirms the linear relationship between satisfaction and repurchase intent. The nature of the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty is based on a moderate exchange relationship in the relational exchange continuum. The study contributes to the relational exchange theory in the context of project management.

Relying on importance–performance theory, this paper uses a distinctive statistical analysis instrument to investigate the importance and performance of crucial wine tasting room constructs and indicators with a purpose to make real and tangible recommendations for wine tasting room managers to improve the winery visit experience.

The surveys (N = 402) were conducted among 14 wineries in British Columbia, Canada. The data was analysed by using partial least squares structural equation modelling software SmartPLS with importance–performance functionality embedded in it.

The findings indicate the importance and performance of the service quality constructs, assurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and tangibility and their respective indicator variables in importance–performance map analysis (IPMA). The responsiveness construct showed the highest need for improvement in terms of performance of exogenous service quality constructs in wine tasting rooms. Empathy, value for money and reliability constructs got “no change” recommendation and “tangibility” and “education” recommendation. The assurance construct was not significantly related to customer satisfaction and was not included in the IPMA analysis.

The approach provides an easy to use and visual tool for wineries to assess the importance and performance of the various service quality elements. The tool provides the management of wineries guidance for the identification of strategic areas of service quality improvement.

This study aims to examine how the theory of planned behaviour and technology acceptance theory can be used to understand the adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). The relationships between attitudes, behavioural intentions towards using NPIs, actual use of NPIs and word-of-mouth (WOM) were examined and compared between early and late adopters.

A survey was conducted to test the hypotheses with partial least squares structural equation modelling (n = 278).

The results indicate that relationships between attitudes, intentions and behavioural intentions were positive and significant in the whole data set – and that there were differences between the early and late adopters. WOM had no substantial relationship with actual usage and early adopters’ behavioural intentions.

This research gives a better sense of how WOM impacts attitudes, behavioural intentions and actual usage among early and late adopters of NPIs and highlights the effectiveness of WOM, especially among late adopters of NPIs. Furthermore, using the TAM allows us to make specific recommendations regarding encouraging the use of NPIs. A new three-stage communications model is introduced that uses early adopters as influencers to reduce the NPI adoption time by late adopters.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the quality of big data marketing analytics (BDMA) impact the satisfaction, perceived value for money and intentions to reinvest as perceived by marketing managers, i.e. the users of BD.

Survey data was collected with the help of a marketing research company – mainly among Canadian and US marketing professionals with experience in BDMA deployment (N = 236). The structural model was analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings indicate that the quality of technology has a significant and positive impact on perceived value for money but not on the satisfaction levels of those who use the data (marketing professionals). Furthermore, information quality is significantly and positively related to satisfaction for marketing professionals – but not the perceived value for money. Both perceived value for money and satisfaction are positively linked to intentions to reinvest in big data.

This paper examined separately the significance of the technology and information quality of BDMA in assessing its importance on user satisfaction and perceived value for money and, ultimately, on intentions to reinvest among marketing managers. It is noteworthy that the users of the BD (marketing managers) appear to be much more critical of BD than the data generators (BD analysts).

This study assesses the impact of marital status towards customer-centric measures in a Canadian ski resort using the importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) as the analytical framework. For the purpose of this paper, the three groups that were assessed included singles, partnership without children and partnership with children as marital status indicators. From the theoretical and especially managerial point of view, knowing the importance and the performance of the relevant ski resort-related customer-centric perceptions is of key importance.

A survey was completed to assess customer-centric measures including customer satisfaction, repurchase intent, value for money, willingness to recommend, overall performance in terms of meeting expectations, relationship quality and skiing service quality. An IPMA was conducted with partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to assess the importance-performance perceptions of the three marital status groups.

The results indicated that for five of the seven customer-centric measures, there were significant differences between the marital status groups. Overall, singles appeared to have the lowest values in customer-centric measures, whereas respondents living in partnership with children had the highest. This was also the case with the value for money perceptions, although the cost for the ski resort visit was likely to be the highest for the respondents living in partnership with children. There were also differences between the marital status groups in terms of the importance-performance evaluations.

Results of this research have implications for ski resort management as the three marital status groups appear to perceive the customer-centric measures quite differently in the IPMA framework.