Search results
1 – 10 of over 1000Alex J. Ruiz‐Torres, Jianmei Zhang, Edgar Zapata, Arunkumar Pennathur, Russell Rhodes, Carey McCleskey and Marcella Cowen
The focus of this paper is on reliability and availability design goals. It aims to provide top‐level estimates of the safety and maintainability of future spacecraft systems.
Abstract
Purpose
The focus of this paper is on reliability and availability design goals. It aims to provide top‐level estimates of the safety and maintainability of future spacecraft systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The developed design tool uses basic reliability principles to estimate the probability of a safe mission and the need for repairs/replacement during ground processing, before launch and start of mission, based on the characteristics of the vehicle's main systems: the number of subsystems, the mean time to repair, and the per subsystem average reliability.
Findings
A simple reliability, maintainability and safety model is developed to support the top‐level design process of future space transportation vehicles. It also describes how the developed design tool uses various sensitivity analysis functions to improve design decisions.
Originality/value
The goal of the developed tool is to provide engineers/vehicle developers during the early stages of design with a tool that demonstrates the effect on maintainability of improving component reliability and reducing the number of components.
Details
Keywords
Nhung Thi Hong Nguyen, Nguyen Kim-Duc and Teresa Lien Freiburghaus
This study aims to investigate customer experience (CE) and its relationship with intermediate variables to analyze the impact of digital banking (DB) on banks’ financial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate customer experience (CE) and its relationship with intermediate variables to analyze the impact of digital banking (DB) on banks’ financial performance (FP) before Covid-19 and during the lockdown in Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach
These research data are from a survey of Vietnamese customers. The survey was deployed to a sample of 238 and 218 customers of 20 Vietnamese commercial banks via email in 2018Q4 and 2020Q2, respectively. FP is measured using banks’ quarterly financial statements before Covid-19 and during the lockdown.
Findings
CE with DB had a significant and positive impact on FP via customer satisfaction before Covid-19, while the other two intermediate variables (word-of-mouth [WoM] and trust) had no considerable impact. During the lockdown, only WoM had a positive impact on FP. These findings indicate that before Covid-19, when customers could easily interact with their bank through many touchpoints, customer satisfaction with DB services created higher FP for the bank. However, during the lockdown, DB became the customer’s main touchpoint and WoM mediated the CE–FP relationship.
Originality/value
During the national lockdown from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020, customers in Vietnam may have had different experiences with DB when no alternate modes of payment were available. The study uses Covid-19 as a moderator variable to offer different viewpoints and findings related to CE with DB and its impact on FP.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to explore the customer experiences (CXs) of an under-researched luxury client segment, the ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) in three settings, yacht-made…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the customer experiences (CXs) of an under-researched luxury client segment, the ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) in three settings, yacht-made clothing services, chartering a yacht and art collection.
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted 13 interviews with UHNWI, enquiring about their experiences with different services. The author collected and analyzed the data using a recommended three-step approach: in-depth interviews using soft-laddering; coding and purifying data through a systematic approach and hierarchical coding; and using the emerging consensus technique to scrutinize and validate the emerging themes.
Findings
This study revealed UHNWI drivers or purchasing and repurchasing behavior as (mis)managing expectations, personal relationships with personnel and achieving convenience-driven time savings. The corresponding conceptual framework is the UHNWI luxury CX.
Practical implications
This study reveals how über luxury brand managers need to carefully manage the UHNWI clientele expectations, focusing their investment on their brand personnel and the way they can save their clients’ valuable time.
Originality/value
This study is the first to explore UHNWI perceptions of their experience with über luxury providers across multiple contexts. This study highlights that the luxury experience, not the acquisition and owning of luxury goods, drives the UHNWI decision-making and purchase behavior.
Details
Keywords
Miriam Naiman-Sessions, Megan M. Henley and Louise Marie Roth
This research examines effects on emotional burnout among “maternity support workers” (MSWs) that support women in labor (labor and delivery (L&D) nurses and doulas). The…
Abstract
This research examines effects on emotional burnout among “maternity support workers” (MSWs) that support women in labor (labor and delivery (L&D) nurses and doulas). The emotional intensity of maternity support work is likely to contribute to emotional distress, compassion fatigue, and burnout.
This study uses data from the Maternity Support Survey (MSS) to analyze emotional burnout among 807 L&D nurses and 1,226 doulas in the United States and Canada. Multivariate OLS regression models examine the effects of work–family conflict, overwork, emotional intelligence, witnessing unethical mistreatment of women in labor, and practice characteristics on emotional burnout among these MSWs. We measure emotional burnout using the Professional Quality of Life (PROQOL) Emotional Burnout subscale.
Work–family conflict, feelings of overwork, witnessing a higher frequency of unethical mistreatment, and working in a hospital with a larger percentage of cesarean deliveries are associated with higher levels of burnout among MSWs. Higher emotional intelligence is associated with lower levels of burnout, and the availability of hospital wellness programs is associated with less burnout among L&D nurses.
While the MSS obtained a large number of responses, its recruitment methods produced a nonrandom sample and made it impossible to calculate a response rate. As a result, responses may not be generalizable to all L&D nurses and doulas in the United States and Canada.
This research reveals that MSWs attitudes about medical procedures such as cesarean sections and induction are tied to their experiences of emotional burnout. It also demonstrates a link between witnessing mistreatment of laboring women and burnout, so that traumatic incidents have negative emotional consequences for MSWs. The findings have implications for secondary trauma and compassion fatigue, and for the quality of maternity care.
Details
Keywords
Philipp Klaus, Bo Edvardsson, Timothy L. Keiningham and Thorsten Gruber
Despite efforts by researchers and managers to better link marketing activities with business financial outcomes, there is general agreement that by and large chief marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite efforts by researchers and managers to better link marketing activities with business financial outcomes, there is general agreement that by and large chief marketing officers (CMOs) (and marketing in general) have lost strategic decision-making influence within organizations. The purpose of this paper is to understand the causes of this decline and offer recommended solutions to counteract this trend.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews lasting between 40 and 55 minutes were conducted with 25 chief executive officers (CEOs) of service companies located in Western Europe, North America, and Australia. In total, 13 difference countries were represented. Using Emerging Consensus Technique, we identified four main themes, which cause the goals of CEOs and those of CMOs/marketing to diverge.
Findings
The primary cause of the decline of strategic influence of CMOs and marketing overall with CEOs is a function of four key issues: first, the role of the CMO (e.g. task overload, focus on tactical issues, “outdated” skill set); second, lack of financial accountability (e.g. the inability to connect marketing efforts to financial returns); third, digital and social media (e.g. a perceived obsession with new technology); and forth, lack of strategic vision and impact (e.g. lost sight of “core” job, use of irrelevant metrics).
Practical implications
The findings indicate that CMOs must address the four key issues uncovered for marketing to attain/regain a role in strategic decision making. A proposed roadmap for putting marketing back on the CEOs agenda is presented to guide CMOs.
Originality/value
This research provides marketers with a CEO eye view of their role within organizations.
Details
Keywords
– The purpose of this paper is to present a novel non-contact method of using head movement to control software without the need for wearable devices.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a novel non-contact method of using head movement to control software without the need for wearable devices.
Design/methodology/approach
A webcam and software are used to track head position. When the head is moved through a virtual target, a keystroke is simulated. The system was assessed by participants with impaired mobility using Sensory Software’s Grid 2 software as a test platform.
Findings
The target user group could effectively use this system to interact with switchable software.
Practical implications
Physical head switches could be replaced with virtual devices, reducing fatigue and dissatisfaction.
Originality/value
Using a webcam to control software using head gestures where the participant does not have to wear any specialised technology or a marker. This system is shown to be of benefit to motor impaired participants for operating switchable software.
Details
Keywords
Emerson Wagner Mainardes, Vinicius Costa Amorim Gomes, Danilo Marchiori, Luis Eugenio Correa and Vinicius Guss
The purpose of this paper is to verify the differences of the influence of customer experience quality on brand equity, brand trustworthiness, perceived quality, perceived risk…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to verify the differences of the influence of customer experience quality on brand equity, brand trustworthiness, perceived quality, perceived risk and purchase intention of franchise customers and non-franchise customers.
Design/methodology/approach
After developing two questionnaires, the authors collected 523 responses from Brazilian franchise users (Questionnaire 1) and 574 of non-franchise users (Questionnaire 2). The authors proceed to a confirmatory factor analysis, based on covariance (CB-SEM). In order to compare the results between franchises and non-franchises, the authors have performed a multi-group analysis with support of AMOS.
Findings
The results show that customer experience quality of the franchise customers tends to result in a better purchase intention, giving indications of better quality and brand trustworthiness when compared to non-franchises. This comparison shows indications of the competitive advantage of franchises over non-franchises, justifying the investments that market companies have been making in the development of the customer experience quality.
Originality/value
The research contributes to the understanding of the impact of the customer experience quality on brand equity, brand trustworthiness, perceived quality, perceived risk and purchase intention that directly affects the performance of the franchises, empirically investigating the customer experience quality in the context of franchises using the adapted EXQ scale. Complementarily, it is compared with non-franchises to observe the differences between them.
Details
Keywords
Mélina Germes, Luise Klaus and Svea Steckhan
On top of their legal, economic, social and institutional marginalization, marginalized drug users (MDUs) also experience political marginalization: drug policies shape their…
Abstract
Purpose
On top of their legal, economic, social and institutional marginalization, marginalized drug users (MDUs) also experience political marginalization: drug policies shape their lives without their political participation. From a scientific as well as a political perspective, the inclusion of their various viewpoints and situated knowledge is a major challenge, and one to which this paper aims to contribute in light of the experiences and imaginaries of MDUs urban spaces in several German cities.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a socio-geographical approach, this paper interrogates how MDUs appropriate and imagine the city, drawing on Lefebvre’s Production of Space and mixing critical cartographic with grounded theory, in the attempt to both understand and reconstruct the world from the situated perspective of MDUs based on their own words, drawings and emotions.
Findings
The narratives and drawings of participants show another cityscape, radically different from the hegemonic discourses and mappings antagonizing MDUs and making their existence a social problem. Space appears as a means of marginalization: there are barely any places that MDUs can legitimately appropriate-least of all so-called “public space.” By contrast, MDUs’ imaginaries of an ideal city would accommodate their existence and address further social justice issues.
Originality/value
The notion of “public places” appears unable to express MDU’s experiences. Instead of focusing on the problem of public spaces, policymakers should tackle the question of placemaking for MDUs beyond the level of solely drug-related places.
Details
Keywords
Die derzeitige Bedeutung des Auslandstourismus für Entwicklungsländer In einer Reihe von Staaten, die allgemein als Entwicklungsländer angesehen werden, ist der Auslandstourismus…
Abstract
Die derzeitige Bedeutung des Auslandstourismus für Entwicklungsländer In einer Reihe von Staaten, die allgemein als Entwicklungsländer angesehen werden, ist der Auslandstourismus zu einem gewichtigen Exportsektor geworden, wenn nicht sogar zu einer dominierenden Exportindustrie. Der Tourismus aus den Industriestaaten in die fernen Entwicklungsländer wirft dabei anscheinend kaum mehr ökonomische Fragen auf.