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1 – 10 of over 239000
Article
Publication date: 14 December 2021

Chi-Kuang Chen, Lidia Reyes, Jens Dahlgaard and Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park

This paper aims to review total quality management (TQM) literature in the past three decades to identify the quality related key terms, to analyse their linkage among the…

1445

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to review total quality management (TQM) literature in the past three decades to identify the quality related key terms, to analyse their linkage among the identified key terms and their developmental trends.

Design/methodology/approach

Bibliometric and statistical methods are used to analyse article titles published in the Total Quality Management and Business Excellence journal during 1990–2019. The current research is based on a search from the ProQuest academic database and the journal’s website, resulting in 2,452 articles collected. The VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel were then used for the analyses.

Findings

A total of 52 key terms were extracted from the journal’s 2,452 article titles, the top three key terms in terms of occurrences were “quality,” “total quality management” and “service quality.” Five themes were then proposed from clustering the 52 key terms: “frameworks/models,” “essentials/enablers,” “methods/techniques,” “culture/characteristics” and “effects/results.” Trend analyses were also conducted regarding the five themes in an attempt to highlight the patterns of research publications from 1990 to 2019. It is found that the research publications for “essentials/enablers,” “methods and techniques” and “effects/results” have steadily increased during the analysis period, while “frameworks/models” and “culture/characteristic” have slightly decreased. These insights provide implication for the historical evolution of quality from “quality control,” “total quality management” and “service quality,” combining with the development of “service sciences.”

Originality/value

This paper highlights the concept of quality since its meaning has changed and evolved over time from quality control, TQM to service quality. And it is emerging in the present and future development of service sciences because of both of TQM and service sciences having the same nature of multidisciplinary background and characteristics. Also the authors can conclude that quality and service sciences are in fact two sides of the same coin because both of them having the same duality of “tangible-intangible” and “physical-virtual” faces which are the important topics that TQM should focus on.

Details

International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-669X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1988

Linda G. Bills and Linda W. Helgerson

The user interface, in broad terms, is the medium through which the user and the information come together. The types of searches a public access catalog (PAC) can perform are…

Abstract

The user interface, in broad terms, is the medium through which the user and the information come together. The types of searches a public access catalog (PAC) can perform are defined by the indexing strategy and retrieval software. The way the user's interest is communicated to the retrieval software and the way the results are communicated to the user is, by a more narrow definition, the interface software. Both the kinds of searches that can be performed by a variety of CD‐ROM PACs and how their workstations are used to accomplish the searches are considered.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Article
Publication date: 3 October 2016

Lorena Perez-Garcia, Jan Broekaert and Nicole Note

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized web distance (NWD) between significant terms concerning, e.g., a case of online activism…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized web distance (NWD) between significant terms concerning, e.g., a case of online activism can be used as a meta-data technique to measure evolution over time of, e.g., progress or decline of social empowerment.

Design/methodology/approach

The NWD between two terms has been identified as a quantitative measure for semantic proximity, ascertaining a defining relation between them. A trend analysis is made by performing on the internet a time window restrained series measurement of NWD of all combinations of key-terms and classifier-terms. Case defining key-terms, positive and negative discourse polarizing classifier-terms, and neutral classifier-terms for negative control need to be determined by discourse analysis of information on a targeted case. An example of NWD evolution from 1994 until 2013 is presented to measure the empowerment effects of the Wirikuta online movement on the Huichol people in Mexico.

Findings

The application of the NWD temporal evolution method to the Wirikuta case shows a slight but significant semantic change of the key-terms with respect to some of the positive and negative classifier-terms. The neutral classifier correctly shows no significant distance variation, as required for valid application of the method. The method provides indications for a complex image of empowerment of the Huichol identity.

Research limitations/implications

The accuracy of the method is limited due to short-term and between-user variability of the search tool’s page counts. More reliable access to a web-index will be required for more accurate NWD-based trend analysis.

Practical implications

The monitoring of temporal NWD evolution provides a potential tool for more comprehensive trend description compared to classical frequency based methods.

Originality/value

Trend analysis is key to internet research, to which the temporal NWD method provides an innovative contribution.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 26 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 April 2015

Takuya Sugitani, Masumi Shirakawa, Takahiro Hara and Shojiro Nishio

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to detect local events in real time using Twitter, an online microblogging platform. The authors especially aim at detecting local…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to detect local events in real time using Twitter, an online microblogging platform. The authors especially aim at detecting local events regardless of the type and scale.

Design/methodology/approach

The method is based on the observation that relevant tweets (Twitter posts) are simultaneously posted from the place where a local event is happening. Specifically, the method first extracts the place where and the time when multiple tweets are posted using a hierarchical clustering technique. It next detects the co-occurrences of key terms in each spatiotemporal cluster to find local events. To determine key terms, it computes the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TFIDF) scores based on the spatiotemporal locality of tweets.

Findings

From the experimental results using geotagged tweet data between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on October 9, 2011, the method significantly improved the precision of between 50 and 100 per cent at the same recall compared to a baseline method.

Originality/value

In contrast to existing work, the method described in this paper can detect various types of small-scale local events as well as large-scale ones by incorporating the spatiotemporal feature of tweet postings and the text relevance of tweets. The findings will be useful to researchers who are interested in real-time event detection using microblogs.

Details

International Journal of Web Information Systems, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-0084

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1977

Thomas Hickey

Two types of linear on‐line search have been implemented on a data base of 100,000 INSPEC records, and compared with an inverted search program on the same file. It was found that…

Abstract

Two types of linear on‐line search have been implemented on a data base of 100,000 INSPEC records, and compared with an inverted search program on the same file. It was found that the linear search which does a character‐by‐character scan of the whole file was too slow to be useful as an on‐line search, but that the second linear search, which uses a linear file of keys to select records for full scanning, was useable on‐line. An algorithm suitable for the on‐line searching of the linear file of keys is presented with run time nearly independent of the number of terms in the search query. Neither of the linear searches can compete with an inverted search in terms of user convenience, but they do not require as complex file‐maintenance software, they use less processing time to build indexes, and they have lower storage requirements than inverted files.

Article
Publication date: 30 November 2018

Sudarsana Desul, Madurai Meenachi N., Thejas Venkatesh, Vijitha Gunta, Gowtham R. and Magapu Sai Baba

Ontology of a domain mainly consists of a set of concepts and their semantic relations. It is typically constructed and maintained by using ontology editors with substantial human…

Abstract

Purpose

Ontology of a domain mainly consists of a set of concepts and their semantic relations. It is typically constructed and maintained by using ontology editors with substantial human intervention. It is desirable to perform the task automatically, which has led to the development of ontology learning techniques. One of the main challenges of ontology learning from the text is to identify key concepts from the documents. A wide range of techniques for key concept extraction have been proposed but are having the limitations of low accuracy, poor performance, not so flexible and applicability to a specific domain. The propose of this study is to explore a new method to extract key concepts and to apply them to literature in the nuclear domain.

Design/methodology/approach

In this article, a novel method for key concept extraction is proposed and applied to the documents from the nuclear domain. A hybrid approach was used, which includes a combination of domain, syntactic name entity knowledge and statistical based methods. The performance of the developed method has been evaluated from the data obtained using two out of three voting logic from three domain experts by using 120 documents retrieved from SCOPUS database.

Findings

The work reported pertains to extracting concepts from the set of selected documents and aids the search for documents relating to given concepts. The results of a case study indicated that the method developed has demonstrated better metrics than Text2Onto and CFinder. The method described has the capability of extracting valid key concepts from a set of candidates with long phrases.

Research limitations/implications

The present study is restricted to literature coming out in the English language and applied to the documents from nuclear domain. It has the potential to extend to other domains also.

Practical implications

The work carried out in the current study has the potential of leading to updating International Nuclear Information System thesaurus for ontology in the nuclear domain. This can lead to efficient search methods.

Originality/value

This work is the first attempt to automatically extract key concepts from the nuclear documents. The proposed approach will address and fix the most of the problems that are existed in the current methods and thereby increase the performance.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1999

Catherine Pardo

Aims to analyze the process of key account management in the industrial sector by highlighting the most recurrent problems that arise linked to this process. The research is based…

3274

Abstract

Aims to analyze the process of key account management in the industrial sector by highlighting the most recurrent problems that arise linked to this process. The research is based on a period of six years, during which several major industrial groups in France either set up or developed their key account management programs. It represents both a theoretical positioning according to the process of key account management, and the discovery made early on of an emerging picture of this process and the absence of any real understanding of it. Proposes two terms that best sum up key account management research: co‐ordination and transversality.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 February 2009

Xuan Lorna Wang and David Bowie

This paper aims to explore the links between revenue management and business‐to‐business (B2B) relationships and explains how revenue management can both support and damage B2B…

7039

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the links between revenue management and business‐to‐business (B2B) relationships and explains how revenue management can both support and damage B2B relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

A single case study method was employed to conduct qualitative research into a company and its key accounts. In‐depth data were collected from three divergent sources (company revenue managers, company account managers and nine of the company's key accounts) through semi‐structured interviews, observations and document studies.

Findings

The research findings reveal that from the company's perspective, managers acknowledge that revenue management has positively influenced the process of identifying and analysing key account activities and conducting contractual decision making with key accounts. However, from the key accounts' perspective, revenue management practices were found to have significant negative consequences which damage trust and undermine long‐term relationships and commitment.

Research limitations/implications

Although the research findings cannot be generalised to other service sectors because of the single‐case study research method, the implications of this study suggest that the impact of revenue management practice on B2B relationships should be further investigated in a wide range of organisational and industry settings.

Practical implications

The research findings confirm the long‐held assumption that revenue management can negatively affect B2B relationships. The benefits of revenue management primarily reward the company, whilst long‐term B2B relationship development suffers from the short‐term consequences of the company's opportunistic behaviour.

Originality/value

This paper bridges the gap in the literature between revenue management and key account management. It also explores the conceptual incompatibility between revenue management and a long‐term relational approach to B2B relationships and provides evidence to support this proposition.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 October 2021

María‐José Pinillos, Eloísa Díaz-Garrido and María-Luz Martín-Peña

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the origins and evolution of the concept of servitization by studying the definitions of servitization provided in the literature…

669

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the origins and evolution of the concept of servitization by studying the definitions of servitization provided in the literature. Servitization represents an academic field that has grown rapidly since its inception. However, the conceptualization of servitization varies greatly, in part because of the number of studies on this topic and the fact that it has been analyzed in a range of disciplines using a number of theoretical approaches. There is a need to standardize the vocabulary to create a general definition that can support the development of theory in this domain and help legitimize servitization as a research area.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducts a systematic, quantitative analysis of a broad set of definitions of servitization. Specifically, this study performs content analysis (combining co-word analysis and social network analysis) and consensus analysis. This study develops a strategic diagram to represent the morphology of the research network.

Findings

The definitions of servitization are deconstructed and analyzed in depth to create a comprehensive picture of the research on this topic. This analysis reveals the origins and evolution of this research area. The results show a low degree of consensus among scholars regarding the concept of servitization. This study proposes a definition that should be widely accepted thanks to its inclusion of the core terms from other definitions. Explicit recognition of multiple approaches to defining the term can help practitioners and researchers. Predictions about future progress in this area are discussed.

Originality/value

A universal definition of servitization is proposed based on the results of co-word and network analysis. This definition unifies a range of multidisciplinary viewpoints. From a practical perspective, the key vocabulary in servitization research is highlighted.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 37 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2016

Dario Miocevic

During their process of going international, small and medium-sized manufacturing firms seek to establish long-term relationships with key importers in order to minimize the risks…

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Abstract

Purpose

During their process of going international, small and medium-sized manufacturing firms seek to establish long-term relationships with key importers in order to minimize the risks of doing business in a foreign market. In the process of establishing long-term relationships, exporters aim to create relational capital with key importers. Yet, the body of international marketing literature that addresses the importance of relational capital in exporter-importer (E-I) relationships is still underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of relational norms on relational capital in key E-I relationships under the moderating influence of formal and informal institutional distance. The study’s conceptual framework was developed by integrating relational exchange and institutional theories.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was carried out by using a survey methodology. Data were obtained by questionnaire from a sample of 122 small and medium-sized exporters from the manufacturing industry in Croatia. In order to test the hypotheses, the ordinary least squares technique was employed.

Findings

The findings support the hypotheses, implying that the development of relational capital requires relational efforts in terms of reliance and relational bonding norms. Additionally, the empirical data suggest that the dimensions of formal and informal institutional distance significantly moderate the relationships between relational norms and relational capital.

Originality/value

The value-added of this study is embedded within the theoretical framing and empirical testing of the antecedents of relational capital in key E-I relationships in the context of the institutional distance between partners, which has been neglected by previous studies in the field.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

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